My computer is a mid-2012 MacBook Pro and won’t reboot into safe mode. The slide bar with apple logo reaches 100% & hangs in limbo - not proceeding to login screen. Cant keep holding down SHIFT key - what to do?
MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.14
It is possible you could have a failing hard drive or a defective hard drive cable. The hard drive cable had an extremely high rate of failure in the MBPro 13" (mid-2012) model.
See if you can run the Apple Hardware Test.
If the diagnostic passes or you cannot run it and since you cannot boot into macOS to check the health of the hard drive, then I would suggest creating a bootable Knoppix Linux USB drive using Etcher (Mac/Windows/Linux). Option Boot the USB drive and select the orange icon labeled "EFI".
Once at the Knoppix desktop click on the "Start" menu in the lower left of the taskbar and navigate to "System Tools --> GSmartControl". Within the GSmartControl app, double-click on the internal drive for your laptop to open up the health information about the drive. Post a copy of the entire report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.
I would suggest using version 8.2 of Knoppix since version 8.6 tends to be a bit glitchy with the video on some systems. Also it may appear that the computer is frozen on the Apple boot picker menu, but this is normal when booting Knoppix on a Mac. The brand & quality of the USB drive can also extend the time it takes Knoppix to boot. Give it time to boot -- at least 10 or 15 minutes since a failing drive can also interfere with the boot times. Most times it should reach the desktop in less than 5 minutes.
It is possible you could have a failing hard drive or a defective hard drive cable. The hard drive cable had an extremely high rate of failure in the MBPro 13" (mid-2012) model.
See if you can run the Apple Hardware Test.
If the diagnostic passes or you cannot run it and since you cannot boot into macOS to check the health of the hard drive, then I would suggest creating a bootable Knoppix Linux USB drive using Etcher (Mac/Windows/Linux). Option Boot the USB drive and select the orange icon labeled "EFI".
Once at the Knoppix desktop click on the "Start" menu in the lower left of the taskbar and navigate to "System Tools --> GSmartControl". Within the GSmartControl app, double-click on the internal drive for your laptop to open up the health information about the drive. Post a copy of the entire report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.
I would suggest using version 8.2 of Knoppix since version 8.6 tends to be a bit glitchy with the video on some systems. Also it may appear that the computer is frozen on the Apple boot picker menu, but this is normal when booting Knoppix on a Mac. The brand & quality of the USB drive can also extend the time it takes Knoppix to boot. Give it time to boot -- at least 10 or 15 minutes since a failing drive can also interfere with the boot times. Most times it should reach the desktop in less than 5 minutes.
You can release the shift key once the boot process is on (the apple and process bar showing up)
If it doesn't come alive, shut down the hard way, reboot, make backup just to be safe, and try to boot in recovery mode (cmd-R) and run disc utility's first aid. reboot.
If this doesn't help, reinstall.
Other experts may have better advices...
hth
david
Safe mode boot freezes
