Don't Go to Apple Store if Your Mac Failed to Boot

Don’t Go to Apple Store if Your Mac Failed to Boot

After you hit the power button on your Mac computer, the computer will boot and is ready for your use. Macs are reliable computers in terms of both hardware quality and operating system stability. However, virus infection, unsuccessful system upgrade, or other reasons can result in a corrupted boot volume and then an unbootable computer. As a result, you can’t access the data on the Mac and you don’t have a computer to access the data on external disks either. 

Your Mac might be stuck on the loading bar or show black screen and refuses to boot into the desktop. You probably think your data is permanently gone and your Mac might be dead. Before you go to Apple store for help, read this post to save your day. 

Restore the Mac from Time Machine Backup  

Never heard of Time Machine? Well, Time Machine is a built-in backup application on Mac. You can attach an external disk to the Mac and set up the Time Machine to automatically back up all your files including system files and the files you created. Once the files are deleted, damaged or lost, you can restore them from Time Machine backups. 

If you have Time Machine backups before your Mac breaks down, things will be a lot easier.

  1. Restart your Mac and hold down Command + R immediately.
  2. Release the keys after you watch the Apple logo appearing.
  3. Connect Time Machine disk to the Mac.
  4. Select “Restore From Time Machine Backup” from macOS Utilities menu.
  5. Select a file that you want to restore the computer to. 
  6. Click on “Restore”.

Then the computer will restore to the state from the Time Machine backup. You are all good to go.

What if you don’t have any Time Machine backups? Professional data recovery software like iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac can help you out easily.

iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is one of the best data recovery software for Mac users to deal with unbootable Mac problem or perform Mac data recovery from unbootable Mac. This software can recover data from an unbootable MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, iMac, Mac Pro or Mac mini. It is fully compatible with macOS 11, macOS10.15, macOS10.14, macOS 10.13, macOS 10.12 and OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8/10.7. It offers two methods to recover data from an unbootable Mac to meet different needs.

Method 1: Run iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac through iBoysoft’s Server

This method is very easy and efficient when you just have the unbootable Mac in hand.

  1. Restart the Mac and hold down Command + Option + R immediately.
  2. Release the keys when you see a spinning globe appearing.
  3. Make sure your Mac has Internet connection.
  4. Click “Utilities” at the top menu bar and select “Terminal” from drop-down list.
  5. Run the following command to launch iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac through iBoysoft’s Server.

sh <(curl http://boot.iboysoft.com/boot.sh)

  1. Select the disk and click “Scan” button to scan for data.
  2. Preview the files to find the wanted ones.
  3. Select files and click “Recover” button to save the files to another location.

Method 2: Create a bootable drive with iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac

If you can find another healthy Mac and a blank disk, this method will be helpful for you to recover data when Mac won’t boot.

  1. Download and launch the software on the bootable Mac.
  2. Connect a blank USB flash drive to the healthy Mac.
  3. Click “iBoysoft Data Recovery” on menu bar and then select “Create Boot Drive” from drop-down interface.
  4. Select the USB flash drive to create a bootable drive and click “OK”.
  5. Click the “Make bootable” button.
  1. Click “Close” when the process completes.
  1. Connect the USB flash drive to the unbootable Mac.
  2. Restart the unbootable Mac and hold down the Option key immediately.
  3. Select iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac from the boot options to launch the software.
  4. Recover data as instructed in method 1.

Note: If your Mac is running macOS 10.15, you need to open Terminal from Utilities after the Mac reboots and run the following command to launch the software: ‘Volumes/Image Volume/boot.sh’.

Besides unbootable Mac data recovery capability, iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac is also capable of recovering data from any removable disks such as SD cards, USB flash drives, memory sticks and external hard drives. Photos, videos, documents and other files are all recoverable with this software.

Reinstall macOS to Make the Mac Bootable Again

After you have recovered all important data (or you don’t have any important data on the computer), we also provide you with a fast fix to solve the Mac not turning on issue  to reinstall the macOS. It is very easy.

  1. Restart the Mac and hold down Command + R keys to boot into Recovery Mode.
  2. Select “Reinstall macOS” in the macOS Utilities window and follow the instructions.

In most cases, your Mac will work properly again. 

A Final Note

It seems to be a serious situation when your Mac cannot boot into operating system. In fact, there is a great chance that you can recover data and make it bootable again without the help from Apple store. When you are following the steps above, make sure your Mac is connected with power, in case it shuts itself down during the data recovery or the reinstallation of macOS.