MacBook stuck at apple logo boot screen after Time Machine backup

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Hello!

Yesterday I decided to install the Yosemite beta. I did a backup of my full Mavericks system before carrying out the update (on an external HDD).

However, after installing the Yosemite beta my Wi-Fi connection went very unstable so I decided to install my Mavericks OS backed-up version again (booted my MacBook with cmd + r, chose "restore from take machine backup"). The installation seemed to have gone fine but when my MacBook wanted to restart after the installation, the gray background screen with the apple logo and the loading circle underneath stayed. It has gotten stuck on this boot screen. I thought my backup might have been corrupted so I tried another one to be sure, but agai, when booting, the MacBook gets stuck at the loading screen.

It is a end 2011 MacBook Pro that came installed with OS X Lion (I even tried installing Lion again because I didn't know what to do but at the installation screen I couldn't select my HD because it can't downgrade since a newer version had been installed, so it said).

I really don't know what to do, I am basically a complete noob when it comes to these things. Can someone help me?
 

chscag

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I really don't know what to do, I am basically a complete noob when it comes to these things. Can someone help me?

You can't restore your MacBook Pro that way back to Mavericks using a Time Machine backup because a Time Machine backup is not bootable. What you needed to do was re-install Mavericks from the App Store and then use your Time Machine backup to recover your data.

Next time don't use Time Machine as a recovery backup when installing a new version of OS X, instead use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. Both of those apps create a bootable backup or clone.

Also, I hate to say this... but admitting your lack of knowledge should have been a clear warning not to mess around with installing a beta version of OS X. ;)

Anyway, too late to shut the barn door. Go ahead and do the recovery as I indicated above.
 
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Oh you are definitely right, but I was convinced it would be safe to give it a try since I did a Time Machine backup... seems I was wrong!

Anyway, at least I learned form it. Re-installing Mavericks luckily did the trick, thank you!
 
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Today I tried upgrading to El Capitan and it wouldn't complete.

I spoke to Apple Support and they told me to use Time Machine to restore previous version. However I now can't boot up, it gets half way on the progress bar and stops.

I also can't access the recovery panel so can't even run my recovery USB stick.

Has anyone got any advice what I could do. ?
 

IWT


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Kevb8ll

Welcome to the Forums. Hope you'll enjoy your time here.

You are probably aware that you are posting to a thread that was last updated at the beginning of August 2014.

However, as you are now part of the thread, have a read at #2 by chscag. This should answer your question.

You don't actually mention the OS from which you attempted the upgrade, but I am assuming that it has a recovery partition. You can use this to recover back to the last OS you had and then use Time Machine to recover your data, settings etc. The explanations for this approach are covered in the exchanges above.

Ian
 

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