I used to be restarting my Mac after doing one of these habitual updates. Then I realized that the gadget become stuck in the startup display screen. I attempted to restart it numerous times and waited, however not anything’s modified. What to do? The earliest appointment with technician would be Monday, and I favored no longer to wait that long to repair the hassle. A short Googling later found out that there are numerous restart options for Mac that you could do to troubleshoot problems.

The Preparations

I keep in mind myself fortunate that I had my device backed up earlier than the tragedy, so I ought to get my Mac up and walking smoothly once more right away – well if you recollect the four++ hours of restoring as “no time”. but take into account how long it’d take if I didn’t have that backup. I had my years of dropping my information to educate me that you mayn’t get an excessive amount of backups.

So, the first step of troubleshooting computer troubles is doing normal backups earlier than the troubles pay you a visit. Mac OS X comes with backup options. you may get admission to it through machine preferences – Time system.

There might be a quicker way to solve my problem: to reinstall the system. I could install the OS over the previous install, or I could do clean re-install if no other option is possible. Either way, I could do it if I had the Install Disk/USB. So you should also have the OS Installation Disk/USB ready. 

And one more thing, have the numbers of Mac technicians ready. Just in case when everything else fails.

Now that we are prepared, let’s look at some of the booting options.

Friendlier Options

The following options are categorized as friendlier because you will still deal with GUI (Graphical User Interface) and you still can do most of the tasks using point and click device(s).

1.Quickly Boot into Different Installed OSes with QuickBoot

This one is not precisely a manner to troubleshoot troubles, however due to the fact we’re talking approximately booting options, it’s well worth mentioning. if you need as well into one of the drives or home windows installations for your Mac, QuickBoot will prevent the problem of doing the boot workouts: looking ahead to the boot display screen, intercept it, and choose another force as well.

Open QuickBoot, pick out the power which you want to begin your Mac with, and restart. Your system will mechanically boot into the selected drive for that one time. the subsequent time you boot your device, it will go returned the use of the default pressure.

2. Use Recovery Mode for the First Aid

I think recuperation Mode is the first aspect which you should attempt to troubleshoot troubles similar to mine. The choice is to be had if your OS X is Lion (version 10.7) or later. you may get entry to it after rebooting your Mac by way of pressing Command + R keys simultaneously as quickly as you hear the startup chime, and preserve them until the Apple logo seems.

This mode gives you get entry to system backups at the outside power, an option to deploy or reinstall OS X from the restoration partition, option to verify and restore your pressure using Disk utility, and get help online if your pc is attached to the net.

3. Use Startup Manager to Choose a Boot Drive

Startup supervisor is a way to get right of entry to exclusive drive besides your machine. It’s useful in several conditions, such as your gadget has more than one drives, and also you want to boot into one of them, you need in addition into home windows the usage of Boot Camp, you need as well from an outside force, otherwise you need to put in/reinstall OS X using installation Disk.

To get admission to Startup supervisor, restart your Mac and keep down the option key while you listen the startup chime. Then use the mouse or arrow keys and input to pick one of the drives.

4. Load the Bare Essential with Safe Mode

By booting into Safe Mode, your system will load only the bare minimum drivers and software’s to keep it running. You can use this mode to narrow down potential cause of software issues and conflicts.

To go into Safe Mode, restart your Mac and hold Shift as soon as you hear the startup chime, keep holding the button until the gray progress bar appears under the Apple logo. To know whether you are in the safe mode or not, open System Information and look next to System Software Overview – Boot Mode.

More Advanced Options

Now let’s move on to the world where command lines rule. There won’t be the familiar point and click and GUI. If you are not prepared to cross the line, stop right here and just call one of the Mac technician’s numbers for help.

5. Do the Apple Diagnostics/Hardware Test

If you suspect that the problem is hardware related – something like logic board, memory, or wireless components; you can do Apple Diagnostics (for Mac from 2013 or later) or Hardware Test (for Mac 2012 or earlier).

To access the diagnostic tools, disconnect all external devices except for the keyboard, mouse, and display. Restart your Mac and hold the D button, and Apple Diagnostics will start automatically. After it finishes the process, it will show the results and all the necessary steps to take.

6. Observe the Boot Process in Verbose Mode

For most typical Mac users, the booting process is identical with almost empty screen with Apple logo and loading bar. The non-threatening display might be the result of Apple thinking that most users don’t need and don’t want to know what goes behind the curtain.

But if you need to observe the booting process to narrow down the possible source(s) of your Mac problems, you can do so by going into Verbose Mode.

To go to Verbose Mode, press and hold Command + V keys during the restart process after you hear the startup chime. Then you’ll see lines of texts appear one after another.  It’s similar to BIOS loading screen that you get when you start Windows or Linux PCs.

7. Boot into Root Shell with Single-User Mode

Warning: Please use this mode only if you are familiar with UNIX commands. Otherwise, don’t even think about trying it. Consider yourself warned.

To go into Single-User Mode, press and hold Command + S keys during the reboot. This mode is similar to Verbose Mode, but it won’t load into the normal OS X GUI. At the end of the process, you will get a text Terminal where you can run UNIX commands. You can start after you see root# on the screen.

To go back to standard OS X screen, type reboot and hit Return.

With a Little Help From Another Mac

You can only use this option if you have access to another Mac with FireWire or Thunderbolt port. If you do, let’s continue.

8. Turn Your Mac into Simple External Drive with Target Disk Mode

Go into Target Disk Mode by holding down the T key during reboot after you hear the startup chime. You can also do it before restarting your system by going to System Preferences – Startup Disk – Target Disk Mode.

In this mode, your Mac will be seen as another external drive, and you treat it as so. You can also use the main Mac to boot to the connected Mac to diagnose and fix problems. After you have finished the process, don’t forget to eject the connected Mac.