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My new Mac Mini froze during the Migration process and I had to perform a hard restart. Now it won't boot. It hangs after I type in my password. Any ideas?

I suspect the freeze was because my OLD Mini that I was transferring from is flaky. But regardless, I can't get the NEW one to do anything.

Posted on Aug 2, 2023 5:54 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 3, 2023 2:33 PM

Thank you so much, christopherfrommontreal west, both for your thoughtful replies, and for sharing your experience here with us. It's great to know you worked through to a solution, and your replies may help those who come looking for answers.

Cheers :-)

8 replies

Aug 2, 2023 6:16 PM in response to christopherfrommontreal west

christopherfrommontreal west Said:

"My new Mac Mini froze during the Migration process and I had to perform a hard restart. Now it won't boot. It hangs after I type in my password. Any ideas?: My new Mac Mini froze during the Migration process and I had to perform a hard restart. Now it won't boot. It hangs after I type in my password. Any ideas?"

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Getting Instal a macOS After Migration:

A. Reinstall the macOS:

It seems your macOS is now corrupt. So, try reinstalling the macOS, seeing if all completes. Go Here: How to Reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery - Apple Supprot


B. Restore form a Backup:

Be sure you back up your Mac with Time Machine, prior to performing any major change, such as this. That way you will have something to restore your Mac from, should anything go wrong afterwards. So, if you have a backup, then you can restore from it. But, items would be lost if you restore to a backup that does not have the currently-installed items on it.

Aug 2, 2023 6:17 PM in response to christopherfrommontreal west

Hi christopherfrommontreal west

welcome to the Apple (user-to-user) Community!


Re: "new Mac Mini froze : hard restart : Now it won't boot. It hangs after I type in my password. Any ideas?"


Congratulations on the new Mac Mini.

Seems with such a new device, it may be best to consult directly with the experts:


One stop for technical support, Apple hardware service, and software support.

Call Apple Support at 1-800-APLCARE (or use the app)

AppleCare Products - Apple


or

See a list of Apple phone numbers around the world

Contact Apple for support and service - Apple Support

____

Else:

If you decide to visit an Apple Store:

 a Genius Bar reservation is recommended:

Genius Bar Reservation and Apple Support Options - Apple


All the best :-)

Aug 2, 2023 7:21 PM in response to brbo

Thanks to you both. I did indeed call the Apple Care number and the dude helped me out. He was able to get me to perform the CORRECT procedure to boot in recovery mode (recently changed!) and reinstall the OS. I'm not out of the woods yet, but he mentioned to perform a NEW Time Machine backup, as TheLittles recommended, in case of a foulup.


Thanks again, and I am now again optimistic. I'll write back when I've succeeded!

Aug 2, 2023 7:36 PM in response to christopherfrommontreal west

christopherfrommontreal west Said:

"Thanks to you both. I did indeed call the Apple Care number and the dude helped me out. He was able to get me to perform the CORRECT procedure to boot in recovery mode (recently changed!) and reinstall the OS. I'm not out of the woods yet, but he mentioned to perform a NEW Time Machine backup, as TheLittles recommended, in case of a foulup. Thanks again, and I am now again optimistic. I'll write back when I've succeeded!"

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You are welcome!


Excellent job troubleshooting!

Aug 3, 2023 5:24 AM in response to TheLittles

I promised to write back, so here I am.


Everything is up and running. The known problem that my support dude (very knowledgeable guy, too!) mentioned to me was that Migration can APPEAR to freeze and get out of synch (the two computers showing different times and amounts of data, while one is not moving) when the computers are connected via Ethernet! Wild, right? However, mine was glitching and having trouble recovering because my cable had a flaw. I didn't even bother replacing the cable (though it was estimated as being more than twice as fast as wireless) but upon support dude's advice I performed my Migration over wireless, and it was completed by the time I woke up this morning.


I hope this can help others with a similar problem. One thing that had been recommended to me before I even started was making sure my old computer was on the newest OS. I had been stuck on Catalina because newer drivers were not available for some of my music equipment, but since I was abandoning my old Mac Mini I didn't care any more and upgraded to Ventura. This apparently went a long way to enabling the remaining problem to be solved easily.


Again, thanks to you two, who were right on the money.

My new Mac Mini froze during the Migration process and I had to perform a hard restart. Now it won't boot. It hangs after I type in my password. Any ideas?

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