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can't boot in safety mode

I have a macbook pro running maverick and I have a split drive with windows. Windows still runs the osx side will not run only shows spinning gear. I have tried shift at startup and it does not go into safety mode. I don't know what to do at this point.

Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9), split drive

Posted on Mar 19, 2015 10:32 AM

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4 replies

Mar 19, 2015 10:33 AM in response to innerchi247

Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive


Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


Reinstalling OS X Without Erasing the Drive


Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the main menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.


When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility and press the Continue button. After Disk Utility loads select the Macintosh HD entry from the the left side list. Click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If Disk Utility reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit Disk Utility and return to the main menu.


Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Continue button.


Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.


Alternatively, see:


Reinstall OS X Without Erasing the Drive


Choose the version you have installed now:


OS X Yosemite- Reinstall OS X

OS X Mavericks- Reinstall OS X

OS X Mountain Lion- Reinstall OS X

OS X Lion- Reinstall Mac OS X


Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet

if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Mar 19, 2015 10:52 AM in response to innerchi247

Then you have no Recovery HD or a damaged one. If your model supports Internet Recovery: Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery - then use it to reinstall OS X. If your model does not support it and cannot be updated to do so, then reinstall the original OS X that came with the computer. You will need to erase the drive first, so be sure you make a backup.


Install OS X Using Internet Recovery


Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.


Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:


Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.


  1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
  2. Select your OS X volume (indented entry) from the left side list.
  3. Click on the First Aid tab in the main Disk Utility window.
  4. Click on the Repair Disk button. If all is OK, then quit Disk Utility and return to the Main Menu.


Reinstall OS X: Select Reinstall OS X and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.


Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

can't boot in safety mode

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