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Kernel Panic boot loop

Hi! All of the sudden my Macbook pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013) wont boot up correctly. It loads up and then the following screen comes up over and over again. What can I do?

I am stupid enough to not keep a backup of my files, or does MacOS keep one automatically?

I'm willing to turn it in for repairs but thing is that I have hundreds of hours invested in Logic projects that I would be devastated to lose.. Any tips and help are welcome!

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Jan 18, 2021 2:44 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 18, 2021 5:44 PM

You have several options to attempt to access your data on the SSD.


You can try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to access the online macOS installer so that you can attempt to install macOS to an external USB drive. Just make sure to properly erase the external drive which usually has an orange icon (although not always). If you accidentally erase your internal drive, then you will lose any chance of accessing the data on the internal SSD.


If you have access to another Mac, then you can put the non-booting Mac into Target Disk Mode so you can appear as an external SSD when connected to your other Mac. You can also use this other Mac to create a bootable macOS USB installer.


If you are familiar with the command line, then you can boot into Internet Recovery Mode to manually transfer your files to external media using the command line.


Apple assumes you have a backup of your data. Apple will not hesitate to perform a clean install of macOS by first erasing the SSD which will permanently destroy the data on the SSD. Some Apple Authorized Service Providers may assist you with attempting to recover the data from your SSD for an extra fee. If the SSD is failing, then the only option may be to have a professional data recovery service attempt to recover the data from the SSD. Since the system is getting a kernel panic I think there is a good chance you will be able to recover the data one way or another.


In the future please have frequent & regular backups. FYI, it is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD plus an SSD can fail at any time without any warning signs.


4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 18, 2021 5:44 PM in response to JimZ92

You have several options to attempt to access your data on the SSD.


You can try booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R to access the online macOS installer so that you can attempt to install macOS to an external USB drive. Just make sure to properly erase the external drive which usually has an orange icon (although not always). If you accidentally erase your internal drive, then you will lose any chance of accessing the data on the internal SSD.


If you have access to another Mac, then you can put the non-booting Mac into Target Disk Mode so you can appear as an external SSD when connected to your other Mac. You can also use this other Mac to create a bootable macOS USB installer.


If you are familiar with the command line, then you can boot into Internet Recovery Mode to manually transfer your files to external media using the command line.


Apple assumes you have a backup of your data. Apple will not hesitate to perform a clean install of macOS by first erasing the SSD which will permanently destroy the data on the SSD. Some Apple Authorized Service Providers may assist you with attempting to recover the data from your SSD for an extra fee. If the SSD is failing, then the only option may be to have a professional data recovery service attempt to recover the data from the SSD. Since the system is getting a kernel panic I think there is a good chance you will be able to recover the data one way or another.


In the future please have frequent & regular backups. FYI, it is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD plus an SSD can fail at any time without any warning signs.


Jan 21, 2021 7:16 AM in response to JimZ92

It may just be that your USB drive is very slow. If you used a USB stick then they are extremely slow for booting a full install of macOS as USB sticks have extremely slow write speeds (their read speeds are that great either, but are usually acceptable).


It may indicate a problem with the file system on the internal SSD or a failing SSD.

Kernel Panic boot loop

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