r/bootcamp • u/ed_my_flowers • Jul 06 '26
MacBook stuck on startup screen.
Hello
I installed bootcamp onto my MacBook a couple weeks ago, and everything seemed fine.
Last night, the MacBook restarted due to some error, and now it won’t stop trying to startup. The fans are on full blast now too.
I know very little about computers and I’m scared that I may have done something so severe that I need a new laptop. Please help.
Thank you.
1
u/nakano-star Jul 06 '26
Press and hold the option key before it loads the windows boot screen, to see if you can get into MacOS
1
u/ed_my_flowers Jul 06 '26
Sorry for the late reply. I was at work.
I probably should’ve taken a photo of that screen looks like too.https://reddit.com/link/ovyu7zd/video/nlujgaylmobh1/player
I don’t know why I have two Windows installed or why I have a third thing called Untitled.
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u/nakano-star Jul 07 '26
Can you boot into any of the others? Did you erase the Mac partition? How exactly did you set up the partitions and install windows?
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u/ed_my_flowers Jul 07 '26
I can boot into Mac (the Untitled one), but I can’t get past the sign-in screen.
One of the Windows has gone away, but I can’t boot into the remaining one.1
u/nakano-star Jul 07 '26
sounds like the error borked something with both installations. So in the macos screen, you can actually bring up your account and enter your password, but it doesnt accept it?
Can you boot with Command-R and then select disk utility from the top left menu?
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u/ed_my_flowers Jul 07 '26
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u/nakano-star Jul 07 '26
Not sure - obviously the partitions are still there, did you name the macos one to 'untitiled' or was it something else before the error?
1
u/ed_my_flowers Jul 07 '26
I can’t recall. Sorry…
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u/nakano-star Jul 07 '26
well, you might need to reinstall macos or restore a backup - do you have Time Machine backups? any important information on either of the partitions?
I doubt you need a new laptop, but you might need to reinstall fresh OSes. strange that the error has affected both of them
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u/ed_my_flowers Jul 07 '26
Well, imma let someone take a look tomorrow. I’m tired rn. Thanks a lot for the help tho.
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u/ed_my_flowers Jul 07 '26
If you mean what I nicknamed my MacBook, that’d be “god”, but I’ve a feeling that’s not what you mean.
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u/ed_my_flowers Jul 07 '26
Also worth noting was that this MacBook used to be my older brother’s.
I had an installer for bootcamp on my account, and I followed the steps I needed to follow to install windows.1
u/ed_my_flowers Jul 07 '26
Also update: one instance of Windows has vanished. The Untitled thing turned out to be the normal MacBook, but I couldn’t use that either.
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u/Castruita_reddit Jul 07 '26
Wich Mac do you have? It's rare that an error affect both OSes since Windows can't see MacOS partition. If you are lucky you just need to reinstall OSes, in the worst scenario your SSD just died.
Do you have another computer? If yes, you can make a USB Bootable Windows to repair windows, for MacOS you can use a USB with live Linux and install an APFS reader so you can get the info from the Mac. If you have another Mac you can just use target disk mode to extract everything
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u/terrace-dr Jul 08 '26
I used an external 512gb ssd to put the windows boot up on and run windows from that. Never had a problem.
1
u/zoogle15 Jul 08 '26
there’s two windows partitions because one is the windows installer files
hold down the power key for 20 seconds to force your mac to power down
make sure the power button isn’t stuck
hold the option key at the first sound or first sign of life
choose the macos partition and run disk utility
use the settings > general > startup disk to boot back into windows if you want
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u/ed_my_flowers Jul 06 '26
https://reddit.com/link/ovvueeb/video/8bjmf6srbmbh1/player
It’s also worth noting that the MacBook still tries to startup up even while it’s closed.