Blank Screen with a cursor.

yennn1234 wrote:

Thank you for the response.

I tried booting in safe mode but I could not.

Tried resetting nvram and also going into single user mode and using the /sudo mount command but with no luck.

Trying to reinstall BigSur now and checking if the same problem still persists.

Sadly, I do not have a backup. Now I realise how important are time machines.

will the target mode work with an old MacBook Air?

going to repair shops are not an option due to lockdown.

I guess if all fails I will have to wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall a fresh one.

How to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904

Try rebooting again.

Try rebooting but this time holding down Shift key (Safe Boot).

If these fail, then, if you have a backup, you can boot into Recovery and erase/format the drive and then install a fresh system and restore from the backup. If you don't have a backup, you may need to try to boot into target mode and try to copy files off using another Mac. Or if your backup is a bootable clone, you can boot into that clone and recover the files from the internal drive.

If all this fails, it is time to visit an Apple Authorized Service Center. I prefer going to third party Apple repair shops for this because they are smaller, less busy, and you can talk directly with the technicians. These places can place your internal drive in an enclosure and connect it to another Mac and use special tools to read and copy the files off. Most users don't have access to those special tools.

yennn1234 said:

Tried resetting nvram and also going into single user mode and using the /sudo mount command but with no luck.

macOS Catalina had increased the security so Single User Mode became ususable.

Does that bring no blank screen again? If yes, next time don't mess up with System Files. I had this experience also.