panic error at boot, not sure which part is error

Joined
Nov 14, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Friend's Mac (MacBook Pro Core i5 mid-2012) suddenly gets a panic error after successfully entering their password at the login screen. Frantic that they're going to lose their important documents, I put the computer in target disk mode and copied their user folder. While their hard drive was mounted I noticed the root folders Applications, Library, System and private were located inside the root folder, Recovered Items. I figured that was the culprit (they/someone accidentally moved those folders inside Recovered Items), so I moved those 4 folders back to root (I actually copied private back to root as moving it threw too many errors). Now when the Mac in question boots, it throws a panic error during loading bar screen - it doesn't even get to the user selection screen anymore. It appears I mad it worst (screenshot attached)... how do I get this Mac booting successfully again?

P.S. - Unfortunately, I don't know the version of macOS/OSX that's on here - my friend doesn't know either.

20171113_232733.jpg
 
M

MacInWin

Guest
Welcome to the forum.

Good job saving their documents.

Moving the folders back from Recovered probably isn't going to work well, as you discovered. There isn't even any guarantee that all the files you need got recovered, much less that they are in a healthy state even as recovered. I think you need to reinstall the OS, as Bob suggested.
 

pigoo3

Well-known member
Staff member
Admin
Joined
May 20, 2008
Messages
44,210
Reaction score
1,418
Points
113
Location
U.S.
Your Mac's Specs
2017 15" MBP, 16gig ram, 1TB SSD, OS 10.15
As a troubleshooting step you could boot the computer from a secondary drive (such as an external HD with the OS installed on it). This will tell you if you have a software/OS issue...or hardware. If the computer runs fine from an external drive...then from what you mentioned...most likely a messed up OS issue.

If booting from an external drive works...then you will also have very easy access to all files on the internal drive.

Mid-2012 MacBook Pro's shipped with OS 10.7. So anything 10.7 & newer will work.

- Nick
 
OP
D
Joined
Nov 14, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I'll re-format and re-install as a last resort, but I'd really like to troubleshoot this thing. Any common culprits to panic errors that are not hardware related?
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
To troubleshoopt, we need the full Console Log, not the panic advise. You will find this in Applications > Utilities >Console.
 
OP
D
Joined
Nov 14, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
To troubleshoopt, we need the full Console Log, not the panic advise. You will find this in Applications > Utilities >Console.

It doesn't boot into the desktop/GUI, it does a restart loop and gets no further than the loading screen. It does boot off a USB or I can put it in target disk mode. Is there a way to access the console log through these methods?
 
Joined
Nov 28, 2007
Messages
25,564
Reaction score
486
Points
83
Location
Blue Mountains NSW Australia
Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
If you are going to work on Macs, a late model with Firewire 800 may help accessing files etc. Does the owner have an external hard drive with backups? Has there ever been any liquid spills on the machine?
 
OP
D
Joined
Nov 14, 2017
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Points
1
I ended up just imaging (CCC) then formatting the drive and installing macOS 10.13.1 (High Sierra). Turns out they only used one app on there, so fighting to restore that installation wouldn't have been worth.

As for the culprit it may have been a failed upgrade from macOS Sierra (10.12.6) to High Sierra (10.13.1) as I noticed a couple of macOS installation folders (one was High Sierra) in a couple of places on the drive before formatting the drive (root folder and user's Downloads folder).

Thanks everyone for the help.

P.S. - Yes, I ran diagnostic tests on the computer and everything passed.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top