straycat23

Q: Can't get into recovery mode on Mac Pro

My OS got corrupted today during a power outage. I think I am doing something wrong to get into my Time Machine. I've used control Key+R to get into it on other devices. Is it different on the Mac Pro 2009? I'm not having any luck using control option+R either.

Mac Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), Mac Pro 4.1

Posted on Aug 13, 2016 5:54 PM

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Q: Can't get into recovery mode on Mac Pro

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  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel Aug 13, 2016 6:06 PM in response to straycat23
    Level 10 (311,951 points)
    Aug 13, 2016 6:06 PM in response to straycat23

    If the recovery partition still exists, it’s Command and R. If not, you need to use a disk to start up the computer.

     

    (144012)

  • by straycat23,

    straycat23 straycat23 Aug 13, 2016 6:49 PM in response to Niel
    Level 1 (9 points)
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    Aug 13, 2016 6:49 PM in response to Niel

    The partition still exist, but control+R won't work. I have a copy of Mavericks on disk. I wonder, if I erased my corrupted partition and took out my good El capitan drive, which, by the way also has the Time Capsule for my corrupted disk, I can boot into Mavericks, update to El Capitan, replace my good drive with the Time Capsule and restore my data.

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Aug 13, 2016 7:31 PM in response to straycat23
    Level 9 (60,714 points)
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    Aug 13, 2016 7:31 PM in response to straycat23

    Try holding the Alt/Option key at Startup. Be patient, and within few minutes, an Icon for each potentially-bootable Volume will appear. Your missing Recovery may be among them. If it is, choose it and tell it to proceed.

  • by straycat23,

    straycat23 straycat23 Aug 13, 2016 7:58 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder
    Level 1 (9 points)
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    Aug 13, 2016 7:58 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

    Alt/Option won't work either. Can't boot from a disk. I erased my corrupted disk. I think the data's gone, which is actually okay. I'm just wondering why I can't boot into recovery.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Aug 14, 2016 12:41 AM in response to straycat23
    Level 10 (188,022 points)
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    Aug 14, 2016 12:41 AM in response to straycat23

    Only the trash can Mac Pro has internet Recovery. It seems that the power outage also corrupted the Recovery partition.

    What exactly happens when you tried to boot with Option/Alt depressed?

     

    You said "Can't boot from a disk. I erased my corrupted disk."

    How did you erase the disk?

  • by straycat23,

    straycat23 straycat23 Aug 14, 2016 9:25 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (9 points)
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    Aug 14, 2016 9:25 AM in response to lllaass

    I'll try to explain what I have. I have 2 hard disk in my 2009 Mac Pro. Both had OS 10.11 on them. I erased the drive with the corrupted EL Capitan OS. I have Time Machine for the corrupted drive on my second drive. This was at the recommendation of Apple in case the primary drive failed. That happened. The one that was corrupted was powered on when the power failure happened. I tried to run first aid on the corrupted OS from my other hard drive with OS 10.11. First Aid failed, which told me my primary drive was irretrievable. I also ran First Aid on my Time Machine partition which worked. That told me it was okay. I am writing this from my secondary drive so it obviously works.

     

    When I try to boot from a DVD, I cannot do it. I think the newer Mac Pros, unlike the older Mac Pros, will not allow writing an older OS onto a erased drive as long as there is a newer OS in the Mac Pro. My DVD is Mavericks. I've booted into it before. My Mac Pro will not allow booting into the DVD now, because I have a drive with El Capitan on it.

     

    What I plan to do today is remove my drive with the functioning El Capitan OS on it and try to boot with Mavericks and write Mavericks onto my blank drive. I will updated that to El Capitan, if the protocols will allow me to do that. If I remember correctly the old protocols wanted the user to update through all the subsequent generations of OS X. In other words, I am hoping I will not have to go through Yosemite and then El Capitan.

     

    What I cannot understand is why I'm unable to use the alt/option key to see my available disk drives. I may be because I only erased my OS partition on my Primary Drive instead of reformatting the hard drive as a whole. I'm going to reformat today and try again.

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Aug 14, 2016 9:52 AM in response to straycat23
    Level 10 (188,022 points)
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    Aug 14, 2016 9:52 AM in response to straycat23

    You said:

    When I try to boot from a DVD, I cannot do it. I think the newer Mac Pros, unlike the older Mac Pros, will not allow writing an older OS onto a erased drive as long as there is a newer OS in the Mac Pro. My DVD is Mavericks. I've booted into it before. My Mac Pro will not allow booting into the DVD now, because I have a drive with El Capitan on it.

     

    That is not true for the Mac Pro silver towers. It seems to be true for Macs whose EFI firmware was upded to add Internet Recovery like the 2010 Mac Mini.

    I can boot from retail Snow Leopard DVD on my 20199 Mac Pro which has EL Capitan on one disk and an earlier version on another disk.

     

    What DVI did you try to boot from and exactly what happened?

     

    You said

    "What I cannot understand is why I'm unable to use the alt/option key to see my available disk drives. I may be because I only erased my OS partition on my Primary Drive instead of reformatting the hard drive as a whole. I'm going to reformat today and try again."

     

    What exactly happens when you try?

    Yes, you should have erased the base drive, that the partition that has OSX. A Mac startup disk with Lion or later has three partitions: the MAC OSX partition whose default name is Macintosh HD, the EFI partition and the Recovery partition. The latter two do not show in Disk Utility.  System Profiler

    OS X: About System Information and System Profiler - Apple Support

    does show all partitions under SATA/SATA Express.

  • by straycat23,

    straycat23 straycat23 Aug 14, 2016 11:04 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (9 points)
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    Aug 14, 2016 11:04 AM in response to lllaass

    I Finally figured out what I was doing wrong. I had my keyboard plugged into a hub usb Instead of one of the primary ports. What a dummy I am. Only took me a day to figure that one out. Found my my Time Capsule with alt/option key. I am restoring data now....hopefully. Thanks everyone.

     

    By the way, I agree with the characterization of 'trash can" Mac Pro. Thanks again. always grateful.