Updated MacBook Pro and now it won't boot at all

Akass_

Commendable
Nov 6, 2016
2
0
1,510
I have a 13" 2013 MacBook Pro that has El Capitan and Linux mint. I decided to update my MacBook and when it finished updating I restarted it. It ended up booting up Linux. I held alt to go into the boot menu and it only showed one disk and every time I booted it it was Linux mint. I went into recovery mode and tried the first aid on the disk but there was an error. I went on some forums to resolve the issue and one of the suggestions was to do cmd + alt + p + r. I tried it and now every time I turn on my mac it comes up with a blinking folder with a question mark on it. I can't even go into recovery mode; it's just a white screen. Please help
 
Solution
Blinking folder means it can't find a bootable partition. Sounds like you are dual booting and updates will often break that.
What do you get now when you boot with Option key held?
Do you have access to another Mac? If so, pull the hard drive out of the MacBook and put it into an external USB enclosure and plug it into a working Mac to see if you can see what is on the disk. I am assuming you have files, etc. you want to get to? Hopefully you can navigate the drive and see your stuff.

The Command Option P + R is a PRAM reset which will reset settings including the disk the Mac starts from. So that is why you are now getting the icon instead of it booting to Linux. This may have also reset what is needed for the Mac to see the Linux...

BadAsAl

Distinguished
Blinking folder means it can't find a bootable partition. Sounds like you are dual booting and updates will often break that.
What do you get now when you boot with Option key held?
Do you have access to another Mac? If so, pull the hard drive out of the MacBook and put it into an external USB enclosure and plug it into a working Mac to see if you can see what is on the disk. I am assuming you have files, etc. you want to get to? Hopefully you can navigate the drive and see your stuff.

The Command Option P + R is a PRAM reset which will reset settings including the disk the Mac starts from. So that is why you are now getting the icon instead of it booting to Linux. This may have also reset what is needed for the Mac to see the Linux partition but I am not an expert on that so can't say for sure.
 
Solution

Akass_

Commendable
Nov 6, 2016
2
0
1,510


Appreciate the reply man, turns out it was an issue with the hard drive cable. I just ended up buying a new one and replacing it.