Help! How do I get Mavericks back?

[zsazsa]

First things first, let's get it out of the way: I'm an idiot. I installed the Yosemite beta on my main MacBook Pro, it's not booting, and now I want out.

When I start my computer, it gives me the option to do an update or restart in safe mode. Either way, I get a loading bar for a bit before a grey screen of death.

I've tried resetting the PRAM and Internet Recovery. I could previously get into single-user and verbose mode but after trying to fix the problem by enabling Trim (using these steps), but now when I boot I get a screen with a line through it. If I try to get back into single user or verbose mode, I get this plus a small error message that saying something like "Cannot find root user."

I've also tried making a bootable Mavericks USB but trying to boot that (by holding C or the option key on startup), I get a dark blue screen.

Question 1: is there any way I can get Mavericks back?

Question 2: failing that, how would I wipe my HD and reinstall Mavericks?

 

[jedisky]

Sounds like you have a lot that could be going on. Did you try running from the recovery partition by holding option down? If that works, you could wipe hard drive. You could also repartition the drive, to completely wipe and try internet recovery after that.

If no luck on recovery drive, could boot up in target disk mode, and if you have another computer wipe the drive and start over.

For the record, I've been running the gm and it's been solid for me on my main macbook pro.

Just some ideas, good luck...

 

[Delmar]

Subscribing to see how this turns out.

 

[brand]

Subscribing to see how this turns out.

Its pointless telling everyone that you are subscribing to a thread to see how this turns out. You might want to post the same thing on your FaceBook and Twitter. Then again I am sure that they don't care either.

I guess that you got to get that post count up somehow.

 

[YanniDepp]

Reinstall Yosemite from the recovery partition, download OS X Mavericks from the App Store (it's possible to download an older OS X than you're running, but it's not easy), then follow this guide to create an installable USB stick, and reboot while holding down Alt.

 

[Weaselboy]

Question 2: failing that, how would I wipe my HD and reinstall Mavericks?

I'll assume here your Mac is on this list or newer and supports Internet Recovery.

Try holding command-option-r at boot and select your wifi, then you should see a spinning globe while the recovery utility downloads and starts.

Then you should see the recovery screen. Now start Disk Utility and go to the erase tab and select the drive itself at the very top of the left column above any volumes shown there. Now select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in the drop down and apply that change.

Then quit Disk Util and click reinstall OS X from the menu.

This will get you back to the OS version that came from the factory. You update back to Mavericks from there if needed.

----------

Its pointless telling everyone that you are subscribing to a thread to see how this turns out. You might want to post the same thing on your FaceBook and Twitter. Then again I am sure that they don't care either.

I guess that you got to get that post count up somehow.

Evere notice how some users here are almost never helpful and only make rude and smart alek comments.

 

[Mike Boreham]

Subscribing to see how this turns out.

Just checking that you know you can subscribe to a thread without posting on it....via thread tools

 

[thedeejay]

Not an expert on this topic but perhaps you can make a bootable USB and then use that to boot from and reinstall Mavericks. That's one way I can think of. Maybe someone here with prior experience can chime in.

 

[Alimar]

First things first, let's get it out of the way: I'm an idiot. I installed the Yosemite beta on my main MacBook Pro, it's not booting, and now I want out.

When I start my computer, it gives me the option to do an update or restart in safe mode. Either way, I get a loading bar for a bit before a grey screen of death.

I've tried resetting the PRAM and Internet Recovery. I could previously get into single-user and verbose mode but after trying to fix the problem by enabling Trim (using these steps), but now when I boot I get a screen with a line through it. If I try to get back into single user or verbose mode, I get this plus a small error message that saying something like "Cannot find root user."

I've also tried making a bootable Mavericks USB but trying to boot that (by holding C or the option key on startup), I get a dark blue screen.

Question 1: is there any way I can get Mavericks back?

Question 2: failing that, how would I wipe my HD and reinstall Mavericks?

If you can connect to another computer (FireWire/target mode) you can see your MBPro as a hard drive and reinstall Mavericks back on it. Just a thought.