Mac Mini reverts to previous state after reboot/shutdown

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Level 1

12 points

Mac Mini reverts to previous state after reboot/shutdown

Hello, I came across a very weird situation that is literally preventing me from using my Mac mini (old 2012 model, running macOS 10.13.6.

I had Malware bytes installed on it and tried to remove it after the system was slowing to a crawl, and found a few articles about these symptoms being related.

However, I was unable to remove it, as the system requested for my admin password, after after providing it, the system stalled for a few minutes (10-15 minutes) then claimed the password is incorrect.

I rebooted a few times (needed to force shutdown by the button a few times), using the same password.

Tested the password and its fine. not caps or anything. even typed it afew times in textedit just to make sure.

but there is a more curious issue. After each reboot, the system returns to the same state, claiming I had to reboot after an error.

Previous programs are re- opened regardless of what I select (reopen apps/cancel)
Deleted files are returned. even tried removing folders and clearing trash bin. after reboot they simply reappear.
Cannot uninstall Malwarebytes at all.
After a few (short) minutes of work, cpu is at 100%, fan is at max and system is halted and need to reboot again to do anything.
clears SMC and NVRAM -> Same issue.
Tried to use activity monitor to check the issue, but could not locate anything
Created new admin account, but after restart it is gone.

I do not wish to lose my data and I need the information there. Does anyone have any idea about this?

Mac mini, macOS 10.13

Posted on Jan 3, 2020 9:50 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Jan 3, 2020 11:43 AM in response to tygger

Hopefully you have arecent backup or two!

Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?

Safe mode attempts to repair Disks & clears lots of caches, so if Safe Mode works try again in regular boot.

EtreCheck is a simple little app to display the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to help people help you with your Mac.

http://www.etresoft.com/etrecheck

Pastebin is a good place to paste the whole report...

https://pastebin.com/

Workable but harder for me to work with...the Note tool on the bottom of this editor's toolbar, as shown in the image, to copy and paste the output from EtreCheck.

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Answer 2

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Mar 17, 2020 4:13 PM in response to tygger

Are you doing this from the Restore Partition?

Do you have another drive to boot from, or at least try Safe Mode?

Safe Boot from the HD, (holding Shift key down at startup), does the problem occur in Safe Mode?

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Answer 3

BDAqua

Level 10

250,253 points

Feb 18, 2020 3:44 PM in response to tygger

I think you're not formating the whole Drive, in Recovery Mode>DiskUtility>View> Show all devices... any other choices there?

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Answer 4

tygger Author

Level 1

12 points

Feb 7, 2020 12:43 PM in response to BDAqua

Hi,

Sorry, had a nasty full family circle with the flu and another bug the kids caught.

Ill update shortly as I'm trying a few of the suggestions.

And about the backups...

Well, do you know Murphy?

Cause me and him are BFF...

Both HD backups are dead and unreadable.

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Answer 5

tygger Author

Level 1

12 points

Feb 18, 2020 12:26 PM in response to BDAqua

Well, I am scratching my head here totally confused.

I got to recovery mode and copied my files in safe mode to an external disk.

ready to give up on all my settings and everything.

I started to try to reinstall the system:

Deleted all files in the recovery mode → Reboot → Everything came back same as before.
Reinstallation of MacOs from recovery menu (command+Option+R) → connected to wifi → Reinstall took 4 hours, then got stuck on the last 2 minutes till the next morning => Failed to install. Claims issue with disk cannot be written.
Rebooted the machine → My old MacOS came right back.
Tried to format the disk in the recovery menu (after restart)
All options failed to format the disk. Erase partitions, clear everything, change to Fat, EXfat, everything.
When the disk is formatting successfully under various options, it claims still to have 420GB (out of 500GB) still occupied
Reboot the system → Right into the old MacOS.
Took the MacMini apart and got the SSD out.
Connected to Windows machine, → Mounted → Tried to format, delete partitions anything → Failed. → Either disk need to be unmounted, or some other unexplained errors.
Bring out the big guns → Gpart → Acronis partition manager etc → FAIL!
Connected finally with Linux recovery disk → Ran Dalvik zero to the disk → 5 days it took
Finished 40 minutes ago, I couldn't wait!
Connected the MacMini with the disk → Booted → MY F*CKING MACOS IS STILL THERE WITH THE SAME ISSUES !!!!!???!!!

I'm totally lost here.

Can someone please let me know if they have ANY thoughts on this?

My last issue was that I tried to do a MacOS upgrade and also had slowdown because of MalwareBytes.

All options to remove it failed.

After asking the system password, all fans to go 100%, system slows to a crawl and then finally it pops up again that the password is not correct and does not let me us my password (checked it 20 times)

H E L P !

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