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Mac pro won’t enter recovery mode

after a few years on the shelf my mac pro 2010 won’t enter recovery mode. Stops at white screen

Mac Pro, macOS 10.12

Posted on Jan 7, 2022 10:12 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jan 17, 2022 6:12 AM

Internet Recovery is NOT available in your model’s ROM, so you will need to explore this list of other possibilities.


When your computer was released, the way you launched the required Utilities (including Disk Utility and Installer) was to use the ones on the Release software DVD. if you have a model-specific version for your model (unlikely) or a Full Retail 10.6 DVD, you use its Utilities, boot and install that version, then use Software update to get to 10.6.8 with all updates, which is the version that can reach out to the Mac App store and download and install a later version. 10.11 El Capitan is a recommended waypoint, even if you expect to install a later version, because it has an improved Mac App Store that makes getting later versions much easier.


The next source of Utilities is the Recovery Partition on the boot drive. If your drive spins up, even if not MacOS bootable, it may still have a usable recovery partition. To get there, try invoking recovery with Command-R or hold Alt/Option at startup and see if the recovery partition shows as a potentially bootable drive.


The next source of Utilities to consider is any MacOS 10.6 or later versions on any additional drives or clones you may (or may not) have lying about, even if they are from another Mac. You can use those Utilities to ERASE a new drive, and start the installer to place MacOS on the new drive.


The next source to consider is a Time Machine backup drive. Versions from 10.7.3 or later are said to contain a Recovery Partition that could be used to ERASE a new drive and run Installer to place MacOS on a new drive.


IF you have a different Mac, you can use it to download MacOS install image, then interrupt the process and create a BOOTABLE USB-stick Installer/Utilities stick. BOOTABLE is key, because the way you will install from this USB-Stick is to BOOT the USB-stick, and use its Utilities to ERASE your drive and start the Installer. here is the article on bootable USB-Stick Utilities/Installer:


What you need to create a bootable installer

• A USB flash drive or other secondary volume formatted as Mac OS Extended, with at least 14GB of available storage

• A downloaded installer for macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, or El Capitan.

from:

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372


NB>> if you name your incoming USB stick exactly MyVolume, you can copy and paste the very long Terminal command from the article directly into the Terminal window, without having to change anything.

7 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jan 17, 2022 6:12 AM in response to tom2323

Internet Recovery is NOT available in your model’s ROM, so you will need to explore this list of other possibilities.


When your computer was released, the way you launched the required Utilities (including Disk Utility and Installer) was to use the ones on the Release software DVD. if you have a model-specific version for your model (unlikely) or a Full Retail 10.6 DVD, you use its Utilities, boot and install that version, then use Software update to get to 10.6.8 with all updates, which is the version that can reach out to the Mac App store and download and install a later version. 10.11 El Capitan is a recommended waypoint, even if you expect to install a later version, because it has an improved Mac App Store that makes getting later versions much easier.


The next source of Utilities is the Recovery Partition on the boot drive. If your drive spins up, even if not MacOS bootable, it may still have a usable recovery partition. To get there, try invoking recovery with Command-R or hold Alt/Option at startup and see if the recovery partition shows as a potentially bootable drive.


The next source of Utilities to consider is any MacOS 10.6 or later versions on any additional drives or clones you may (or may not) have lying about, even if they are from another Mac. You can use those Utilities to ERASE a new drive, and start the installer to place MacOS on the new drive.


The next source to consider is a Time Machine backup drive. Versions from 10.7.3 or later are said to contain a Recovery Partition that could be used to ERASE a new drive and run Installer to place MacOS on a new drive.


IF you have a different Mac, you can use it to download MacOS install image, then interrupt the process and create a BOOTABLE USB-stick Installer/Utilities stick. BOOTABLE is key, because the way you will install from this USB-Stick is to BOOT the USB-stick, and use its Utilities to ERASE your drive and start the Installer. here is the article on bootable USB-Stick Utilities/Installer:


What you need to create a bootable installer

• A USB flash drive or other secondary volume formatted as Mac OS Extended, with at least 14GB of available storage

• A downloaded installer for macOS Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, High Sierra, or El Capitan.

from:

How to create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372


NB>> if you name your incoming USB stick exactly MyVolume, you can copy and paste the very long Terminal command from the article directly into the Terminal window, without having to change anything.

Jan 16, 2022 8:32 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

ok. I can’t get to a recovery partition on my disk. Any key combo + R does nothing. I’m wondering if it will boot at all. I was thinking of buying a usb flash drive with Sierra on it to see if it will accept it, but so far option key doesn’t bring me to anything, so I wonder if rven that option won’t work. I see a quarter sized battery on the MB just above the graphics card. Thought I read something that said if that battery is gone, it can cause lots of problems.

Jan 16, 2022 8:37 PM in response to kaz-k

No. Won’t enter any kind of recovery. I’m wondering if my HDDs are bad. But in that case shouldn’t option bring me to a choice & the disk utility? Option key at startup does nothing. The mac stays on, it doesn’t power down. The fans spin normally, but the monitor stats in standby, it doesn’t fire up.

Mac pro won’t enter recovery mode

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