Mac Mini 2012 stuck on bootscreen

[Lowe Lilliehorn]

Hi there!

I recently discovered that my Mac Mini was working pretty slow.
It took over 12 hours to copy and paste a 30 GB file.
So I tried to reboot it, and now, I’m stuck with the boot screen. It goes all the way to the end, but nothing is happening.
This is what I tried to do:
Cmd + R —> Reinstall OS High Sierra —> Didn’t help
Cmd + R —> First aid on my primary disk —> Didn’t help either
Alt + Cmd + P + R = No result
Disconnect the powercord = Didn’t help

I updated it last week without a problem.

Please help! I don’t know what to do
Big thanks to all the help!!

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Can you tell if your CPU fan is working? There should be a gentle airflow coming from the back. If the fan isn't working, the CPU would be throttling severely and causing the very slow behavior.

Another suggestion would be to try to install MacOS on an external drive. That would help determine if your internal drive is failing.

What model Mini is it? The older ones are easier to open and service/clean out, but the 2014 model requires a special screwdriver to get inside.

 

[Lowe Lilliehorn]

Can you tell if your CPU fan is working? There should be a gentle airflow coming from the back. If the fan isn't working, the CPU would be throttling severely and causing the very slow behavior.

Another suggestion would be to try to install MacOS on an external drive. That would help determine if your internal drive is failing.

What model Mini is it? The older ones are easier to open and service/clean out, but the 2014 model requires a special screwdriver to get inside.

Its a late 2012 model.

Is there an option to wipe the whole disk and start over? I don’t actually know what to do...
[doublepost=1515535309][/doublepost]

Can you tell if your CPU fan is working? There should be a gentle airflow coming from the back. If the fan isn't working, the CPU would be throttling severely and causing the very slow behavior.

Another suggestion would be to try to install MacOS on an external drive. That would help determine if your internal drive is failing.

What model Mini is it? The older ones are easier to open and service/clean out, but the 2014 model requires a special screwdriver to get inside.

The fan is working perfectly

 

[DeltaMac]

Will the boot complete if you boot into Safe mode? (Restart, holding the shift key. You will get a login window, even if you have set to automatically log in.) If it finishes booting to safe mode, the graphics won't look right - maybe some flashing, and tearing on the edge of windows, etc. That is completely normal for safe boot mode. If that does finish booting, you should then restart, letting it boot normally.

 

[Lowe Lilliehorn]

Will the boot complete if you boot into Safe mode? (Restart, holding the shift key. You will get a login window, even if you have set to automatically log in.) If it finishes booting to safe mode, the graphics won't look right - maybe some flashing, and tearing on the edge of windows, etc. That is completely normal for safe boot mode. If that does finish booting, you should then restart, letting it boot normally.

No, unfortunately. It will stuck at 100 % and nothing is happening

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

To wipe everything and reinstall, you'll need an 8GB flash drive and the High Sierra installer app. From there, you copy and paste a few Terminal commands or use a free app from a working Mac to create a bootable USB installer. Boot to that flash drive, and you'll be able to format your disk using disk utility. That does wipe all that you have on the drive. After that, you can reinstall High Sierra.

 

[Lowe Lilliehorn]

To wipe everything and reinstall, you'll need an 8GB flash drive and the High Sierra installer app. From there, you copy and paste a few Terminal commands or use a free app from a working Mac to create a bootable USB installer. Boot to that flash drive, and you'll be able to format your disk using disk utility. That does wipe all that you have on the drive. After that, you can reinstall High Sierra.

Okay.
To go in the recovery and erase the stuff from the hard drive, then go to Reinstall OSX, is that an option too or am I wrong?
Thx
[doublepost=1515536205][/doublepost]

To wipe everything and reinstall, you'll need an 8GB flash drive and the High Sierra installer app. From there, you copy and paste a few Terminal commands or use a free app from a working Mac to create a bootable USB installer. Boot to that flash drive, and you'll be able to format your disk using disk utility. That does wipe all that you have on the drive. After that, you can reinstall High Sierra.

Or is that an option?

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Okay.
To go in the recovery and erase the stuff from the hard drive, then go to Reinstall OSX, is that an option too or am I wrong?
Thx

It's good to have the High Sierra flash drive first, just to be safe. I believe the Mac can download the installer from recovery mode, but if you're already having issues, I wouldn't chance it. The instructions below are for Sierra, but it's the same song and dance for High Sierra.

https://www.howtogeek.com/186860/HO...YOUR-DRIVE-AND-CREATE-USB-INSTALLATION-MEDIA/

 

[DeltaMac]

How long did you wait for the boot to possibly complete?
I would give it a minimum of 20 minutes - even as much as an hour. That may be a possible answer for you. That first boot (if it finally finishes) may be all you need, then next boot might be relatively normal.

BTW, Going from your first post, with a really long time to make a simple file copy - your hard drive is possibly failing - a wipe and reinstall is also unlikely to help. You simply may need to replace the hard drive.

 

[Lowe Lilliehorn]

It's good to have the High Sierra flash drive first, just to be safe. I believe the Mac can download the installer from recovery mode, but if you're already having issues, I wouldn't chance it. The instructions below are for Sierra, but it's the same song and dance for High Sierra.

https://www.howtogeek.com/186860/HO...YOUR-DRIVE-AND-CREATE-USB-INSTALLATION-MEDIA/

Ok thx so much!
I will look into it
[doublepost=1515536601][/doublepost]

How long did you wait for the boot to possibly complete?
I would give it a minimum of 20 minutes - even as much as an hour. That may be a possible answer for you. That first boot (if it finally finishes) may be all you need, then next boot might be relatively normal.

Right now, I’ve waited for up to 3-4 hours..
I will leave it overnight and see tomorrow what’s going on.

 

[Fishrrman]

Situations like this demonstrate what "having a bootable cloned backup" is for.
If you had one, you'd be back up-and-running in a couple of minutes.

I'd suggest that if you choose to go the "erase and re-install" route, that you consider installing Low Sierra instead of High Sierra.

I sense many of the problems folks are having with High Sierra is due to the APFS file system.
Too new, as yet too-untested.
Stick with HFS+ -- proven and reliable.

I have a "test SSD" set up with High Sierra (under HFS+). It actually boots and runs quickly without problems. Again, I'm sure that the fact that I did not do an "APFS install" makes a difference.

One other suggestion to the OP:
In the future, I suggest that you DO NOT USE "COPY/PASTE" on super-large (i.e., "30gb") files.
What were you trying to do with it?