Macbook Startup Disc (can't select after restoring)

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Level 1

8 points

Macbook Startup Disc (can't select after restoring)

Before taking my Mac (12" MacBook) in for repairs, I wiped the disc. After the repairs I restored it from my Time Machine. On Disc Utility I can see 400 Gb or so on Macintosh HD, so the restore "worked" in one sense. (I also see disk1, OS X Base System).

BUT...

When I boot up it goes into Disk Utility every time and I can get no further. I tried reinstalling OS X, but that will not work, as it says there is already a more up-to-date version on the disc (that will be on Macintosh HD from my restore, presumably).

I have tried resetting SMC, NVRAM, rebooted endlessly, used Command-R, Command-P-R, and all sorts of things I have read about, and nothing makes any difference. On occasion I have had a screen asking to select a startup disc, but no discs show - there is nothing I can select.

From my amateur understanding, the Mac does not seem to "know" it can boot from Macintosh HD and just get on with it. It is all very frustrating. I did wipe the whole thing again and restore again (takes 24 hours), and the same thing has happened.

If it helps, the Macintosh HD is "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)."

Any help gratefully received, because my last option seems to be to delete everything once more, reinstall OS X and then try to restore thing manually rather than using Time Machine which will be very painful for various reasons, and rather defeats the object on Time Machine.

Thanks,

Matt

MacBook, OS X 10.10

Posted on Feb 24, 2019 5:02 PM

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Answer 1

sterling r

Community Specialist

Feb 25, 2019 12:58 PM in response to mp4d

Hello mp4d,

Thank you for reaching out in Apple Support Communities. I understand you are trying to restore a Time Machine backup but your MacBook won't boot all the way up.

Have you tried erasing and setting up without restoring the backup to isolate the issue between the backup and the drive?

If not, I'd suggest doing this next. If you're able to erase and boot all the way in with no issues, without restoring the backup, then you'll know the issue lies with the backup itself. If you aren't able to boot in this way, you'll know there is an issue with the drive.

Take care.

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Answer 2

mp4d Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 25, 2019 6:28 PM in response to sterling r

Hello Sterling,

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, have tried that already. It all works fine without the backup restore being involved. I have recently found comments on the Internet suggesting that a full restore of Time Capsule straight on a disc is not actually bootable.

I also noticed that if I go to install OS X, during the setting up stages there is an option to transfer data from a Time Capsule backup. I bet that would work fine in theory. However, if I try that, it says the OS X version is too old to use the backup. If I then update the OS X installation, I get no further option to transfer data from a backup, so I can't see a way out of this. If I access Time Capsule manually from the updated OS X, no backup options show dating back to before that new installation (i.e. I can only "go back in time" an hour or two).

Incidentally, I have also tried loads of things in Terminal (a bit out of my comfort zone) such as bless --setBoot etc. but it just won't have it. --getBoot always shows /dev/disk2 no matter what I do.

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Macbook Startup Disc (can't select after restoring)

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