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My MacBook 2011 will not completely boot up. It gets halfway done then shuts down. I am not able to get it to boot up in safe mode. When I hold down the option key a Macintosh HD + choose network screen comes up. Any advice?
MacBook Air 11″, macOS 10.14
I suggest starting with this support article: If your Mac doesn't start up all the way - Apple Support
As I'm sure you are aware, holding down the <option> key at boot up will attempt to load up the Startup Manager. This would provide you the option to select a drive, including the Recovery Partition, to boot into.
Based on what you provided, I would think that you would want to choose the "Macintosh HD" option. The other option assumes that you have a network startup volume. If making this choice still does not allow your notebook to boot up properly, at least, two things may be possible:
I suggest starting with this support article: If your Mac doesn't start up all the way - Apple Support
As I'm sure you are aware, holding down the <option> key at boot up will attempt to load up the Startup Manager. This would provide you the option to select a drive, including the Recovery Partition, to boot into.
Based on what you provided, I would think that you would want to choose the "Macintosh HD" option. The other option assumes that you have a network startup volume. If making this choice still does not allow your notebook to boot up properly, at least, two things may be possible:
s72 Said:
"MBA 2011 boot up problems: My MacBook 2011 will not completely boot up. It gets halfway done then shuts down. I am not able to get it to boot up in safe mode. When I hold down the option key a Macintosh HD + choose network screen comes up. Any advice?"
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Getting into Disk Utility:
Boot into Recovery Mode. (Intel Clip): Then, using Disk Utility, see if the Hard Drive is seen. If it is, then see if you need to click the “Mount’ button for it. Try rebooting once more. If of no success, then click unmount button, and then the mount button. Try rebooting once more.
Thank you so much. I am working my way through the article you suggested. Is there a way for me to backup my files with Timemachine before I do anything else? I want to do this because when I try to run “First Aid” on my hard drive it fails and tells me to back up the data on that volume. Can I reinstall macOS without losing data?
s72 wrote:
... Is there a way for me to backup my files with Timemachine before I do anything else? I want to do this because when I try to run “First Aid” on my hard drive it fails and tells me to back up the data on that volume.
Only if you can boot up to the Mac Desktop to run Time Machine. Doesn't sound like this will be possible in your case. Hopefully, you have been making TM backups all along before now. This also confirms an issue with the drive itself.
Can I reinstall macOS without losing data?
If the drive hadn't failed, then yes, most likely you could. However, it appears that you will need to replace this drive. Install macOS on it, and then, restore your data from a previous backup.
Thank you!
MBA 2011 boot up problems
