Skip to main content

Released April 2010 / 2.4, 2.53 GHz Core i5 or 2.66 GHz Core i7 Processors

591 Questions View all

Help! Unable to boot from any disk after Sierra installation

Hi all,

So, I finally upgraded to Sierra and everything was fine the first couple of hours. I closed the lid only to realise 3 hours later that the mac never went to sleep but was instead running the fan full throttle. I had to do a hard reboot and to my horror saw that the computer stalled at the white start up screen (with the apple logo).

Additional info that might be relevant: A couple of years ago, I replaced the CD-drive with a SSD drive for applications and OS. I still have the original internal HD installed as well (but without OS of course). I have installed new 8GB RAM as well.

So far I've tried:

- Disk Utility in recovery mode (claims all disks are fine)

- Safe boot (still stuck at white screen)

- Reset NVRAM

- Reset SMC

- Single user file consistency check (fsck -fy) – showed some errors first time, but after running again it claims that everything's fine.

- Sierra reinstall three times (but of course the download itself might be corrupted)

- Booted from an external drive with a backup partition. Guess what? Stuck at white screen.

When I boot the computer in safe + verbose mode, there are a couple of errors that might interest people who know more than I do: the picture of the screen is attached below. The "master-entitled process" that was cropped off the image is named 'launchd' (1).Verbose photo

I have no idea whether this is physical damage, boot sector confusion or something else? Please help.

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Score 0
Add a comment

4 Answers

Chosen Solution

Thank you for the suggestion! I did try that a couple of times early on, but to no avail.

I just now fixed it by creating a bootable disk with Terminal on another mac. I could then boot and wipe my faulty boot drive using Disk Utility and do a clean install of Sierra.

Terminal command for creating a bootable drive is (make sure the installer is in /Applications):

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment
Most Helpful Answer

The white screen would indicate to me a hard drive or hard drive/IR cable failure. Try booting to your repair partition by holding down the option key on start up and see if you can select the repair partition select it and see if you can boot and run Disk Utilities.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 3
Add a comment

Have you tried reinstalling OS X using Internet Recovery?

While the computer is off, hold Command+Option+R while turning it on.

It should boot into Internet recovery if you have an active connection.

Was this answer helpful?

Score 2
Add a comment

I finally got in after a recovery boot and reloaded Sierra, so far so good. Thanks for all the responses

Was this answer helpful?

Score 0
Add a comment

Add your answer

Gaspard Winckler will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 1

Past 7 Days: 1

Past 30 Days: 1

All Time: 716