Mac OS won’t boot; boot camp will.

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Mac OS won’t boot; boot camp will.

When I start the iMac there’s a crossed out symbol for the Mac OS system and then it automatically switches to boot camp which works fine.

the crossed out symbol only started to appear after I force restarted it after the iMac was acting strange; it was getting slow and the OS wouldn’t even load and then one night it was awake all night even though it should have went to sleep like it would when it’s unused.

i initially tried to resinstall macOS on standard recovery mode and it would get up to a quarter but then fail (no logs)

i have tried using internet recovery and used disk utility I get The following error:

I have also tried cmd + s and it doesn’t work I get an error message (2nd pic)

i have tried reinstalling Mac OS on the internet recovery mode but it’s the same it would go to a quarter and then say it takes 7+ hours, 11 hours+ (I have logs for this).

Both Mac OS and boot camp are installed on same drive in different volumes/partition.

Posted on Oct 19, 2019 8:43 AM

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Answer 1

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Oct 19, 2019 8:05 PM in response to mjayyyyy20

Be very careful if you are trying to repair APFS using Mojave, if the disk is on Catalina. Under normal circumstances, you should use the same version of macOS, that you have on the internal disk to repair it.

If Command+R is providing Mojave, your Recovery volume was not updated correctly, if you upgraded to Catalina.

See How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Support for reference.

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Answer 2

mjayyyyy20 Author

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5 points

Oct 19, 2019 9:24 AM in response to mjayyyyy20

Can someone help fix this?!

currently running:

diskutil mount /dev/disk2s1

Volume Macintosh HD on /dev/disk2s1 mounted.

diskutil verify volume /dev/disk2s1

[started file system verification on disk2s1 Macintosh HD]

Verifying file system

[Volume could not be unmounted]

Using live mode

Performing fsck_apfs -n -l -x /dev/rdisk2s1

[\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \]

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Answer 3

mjayyyyy20 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 19, 2019 10:02 AM in response to Loner T

iMac 2013

It was on the latest version of Mojave (I don’t not recall exact version number as it is set to automatically update..)

the only difference to standard recovery mode was that it was reinstalling Mojave’s OS and the internet recovery mode was attempting to ‘reinstall’ Catalina (I never had it to my knowledge - only Mojave) but it was the same as normal recovery it would work normally until about a quarter and it would stop at 4 hours 50 mins...then increase...and just keep increasing. I even left it overnight it was still not finished. I believe this isn’t normal.

and when I boot to Windows boot camp. Everything is fine! I have 1 TB HDD with a 200Gb bootcamp partition and a 800gb (500gb used,300gb) Macintosh HD partition.

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Answer 4

mjayyyyy20 Author

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5 points

Oct 19, 2019 10:28 AM in response to mjayyyyy20

After trying to repair the volume in terminal from internet recovery:

volume could not be unmounted.

restoring the original state found as mounted.

error: -69565: This file system does not support repair of a mounted volume under any mount option.

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Answer 5

mjayyyyy20 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 20, 2019 10:35 PM in response to Loner T

I can confirm I had 10.14.6, this is just from CMD + R....internet recovery is using Catalina, I believe this is because it’s getting the latest version from the server than normal standard recovery (CDM+R)

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Answer 6

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Oct 21, 2019 4:59 AM in response to mjayyyyy20

You should use Command+R and instal macOS 10.14.6 on an external disk, boot from it. We can then repair the internal disk Mojave.6 from the external Mojave.6 disk. macOS Catalina should also allow repairing Mojave APFS.

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Answer 7

mjayyyyy20 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 26, 2019 7:49 AM in response to Loner T

I have tried installing Mac Mojave on a external drive and I get a grey screen when the OS has booted up. It’s the apple OS but I need something to trigger finder or system preferences, applications to open etc.

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Answer 8

mjayyyyy20 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 26, 2019 7:57 AM in response to Loner T

Can you extract an ISO from the OS installer so I can make a bootable USB drive?

preferably Mojave or Catalina and put this on google drive?

i have backed up my drive...I just can’t erase the Macintosh volume...

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Answer 9

mjayyyyy20 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 27, 2019 12:03 AM in response to Loner T

Good news I found using a High Sierra bootable usb installer allowed me to erase the partition (this didn’t allow with the macs native recovery or bootable Mojave’s etc..), I first tried first aid that didn’t work too.

i have already backed up my files by loading windows boot camp and using an APFS file system viewer with read and write access, to access my drive and I copy and pasted my files onto a separate drive.

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Answer 10

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Oct 26, 2019 8:05 AM in response to mjayyyyy20

See How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support for reference.

If Mojave installed correctly on the external disk, what is the issue you run into with booting from this disk?

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Answer 11

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Oct 19, 2019 9:45 AM in response to mjayyyyy20

What year is your iMac (do not post the serial number)?
What is the current macOS version?

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Answer 12

mjayyyyy20 Author

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5 points

Oct 19, 2019 10:09 AM in response to mjayyyyy20

apparently this is a common issue on Mac Mojave OS: http://iosbrain.com/blog/2018/08/25/fix-for-prohibitory-symbol-do-not-enter-stop-sign-when-booting-into-or-updating-macos-mojave-10-14-beta/

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Answer 13

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Oct 19, 2019 10:15 AM in response to mjayyyyy20

Can you boot into Internet Recovery?

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Answer 14

mjayyyyy20 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 19, 2019 10:22 AM in response to Loner T

Yes.

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Answer 15

Loner T

Level 9

59,513 points

Oct 19, 2019 12:52 PM in response to mjayyyyy20

Your Recovery OS version does not seem to match the macOS version on the internal disk. What is the macOS version that you are offered if you try to Re-install macOS? Do not install it.

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Mac OS won’t boot; boot camp will.

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