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iMac can’t start in safe mode

iMac won’t start in safe mode. Freeze on apple logo.


recovery mode disk utility photo attached. Can’t read drive or utility disk.


no mount point for Mac OS base system


no disk errors


can restore from time machine or reinstall Mac os


please help

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Nov 8, 2021 4:46 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Nov 8, 2021 4:56 PM

Safe mode (press the power button, and when you hear the startup chime hold the shift key down at startup). It can take much longer to safe boot (10 min) so be patient.

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support 


Safe mode forces the OS to clear certain caches and logs and do other miscellaneous housekeeping. It's non-destructive to user data so is safe to do. Very often certain weird software behavior is corrected by simply logging in this way as a troubleshooting method. When you're in safe boot, the machine will not be at its best performance, especially with graphics, but that's expected.

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6 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Nov 8, 2021 4:56 PM in response to thaitime

Safe mode (press the power button, and when you hear the startup chime hold the shift key down at startup). It can take much longer to safe boot (10 min) so be patient.

How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support 


Safe mode forces the OS to clear certain caches and logs and do other miscellaneous housekeeping. It's non-destructive to user data so is safe to do. Very often certain weird software behavior is corrected by simply logging in this way as a troubleshooting method. When you're in safe boot, the machine will not be at its best performance, especially with graphics, but that's expected.

Nov 9, 2021 8:33 PM in response to D.I. Johnson

iMac 2017

catalina


first aid showed no errors


when I could start in safe mode it froze for over an hour


i tried to restore from a known working time machine but it froze with 7 minutes remaing


current status is

  • safe mode start reverts to recovery’mode
  • recovery mode and internet recovery mode . Can’t reinstall macOS because internet connection required.
  • please help

Nov 8, 2021 6:26 PM in response to D.I. Johnson

Follow up -


While booted in recovery, use Disk Utility and run First Aid on the boot drive.

• Launch Disk Utility, then click View > Show All Devices.

• Select each indented volume of the top most device, and working from the lowest indented volume run First Aid on the volumes, then on containers and finally on the drive device itself. Run Disk Utility > First Aid until all volumes, containers and the drive report to be repaired and/or okay.

• When DU reports the task complete, then restart and attempt a safe boot again.

iMac can’t start in safe mode

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