Can't boot into Ventura volume

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Level 10

152,008 points

Can't boot into Ventura volume

I'm on a 2019 MacBook Pro. It has two internal volumes, one with the current version of Sonoma and the other with the current version of Ventura. I can suddenly no longer boot into the Ventura volume. It was working a few days ago. Ventura is set as the boot drive. When I start to boot it, the goes through the process, the white bar gets to the end and stalls but the system never opens. I went into Sonoma and ran Disk Utility First Aid on the volume and its two components. It said it was OK. I can even boot into Monterey on an external drive, though start up does seem unusually slow.

Does anyone have any suggestion how how I can get the Ventura volume going again?

Thanks very much.

Posted on Nov 21, 2023 9:31 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Matti Haveri

Level 6

16,655 points

Nov 25, 2023 12:25 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Try this: Backup. Download the latest Ventura installer, make a bootable USB flash drive from it, option-boot to it, install Ventura on top of the old Ventura volume.

Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

210,597 points

Nov 21, 2023 10:34 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Set Ventura as the boot drive and try booting into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac. If successful reboot normally.

If unsuccessful with Ventura still set as the boot volume boot into the Recovery volume (boot with the Command + R keys held down - Intel Macs) or (How to Boot an M1 Mac into Recovery Mode) and reinstall the system.

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Answer 3

Old Toad

Level 10

210,597 points

Nov 21, 2023 4:06 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

You might have to totally erase that volume and reinstall Ventura with a bootable flash stick installer.

Is it a separate volume or container. On the beta site ran across a conversation where it was recommended to create an additional container instead of volume to install another system.

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Answer 4

Tom Wolsky Author

Level 10

152,008 points

Nov 21, 2023 4:19 PM in response to Old Toad

I haven't tried it from a stick. I did try from an external Monterey volume. I tried to download the Ventura installer from the App Store. The download seemed to complete, 11.94 GB out of 11.94 GB, but the bar hadn't closed, never closed, and the installer wasn't there.

It is a volume in the same container. Having separate containers doesn't seem right, and defeats the purpose of volumes. I've been doing this for a while on a number of systems, having two separate boot volumes.This is the first time I've come across a problem.

Thanks again for taking the time to answer.

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Answer 5

Old Toad

Level 10

210,597 points

Nov 22, 2023 8:48 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

If and when I can afford a new Silicon iMac I plan on getting a 2 TB drive and installing beta systems for testing on the second 1 TB. My experience with volumes and containers is limited so will be investigating that much more closely if I get a new iMac.

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Answer 6

Tom Wolsky Author

Level 10

152,008 points

Nov 22, 2023 8:52 AM in response to Old Toad

I would like to get a 2 TB Mac, but Apple charges ridiculous too much for storage.

Containers are basically partitions. Volumes are undefined spaces in the container. They're as flexible in size as they need to be until the container is full.

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Answer 7

HWTech

Level 9

60,506 points

Nov 24, 2023 9:46 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

When running First Aid, make sure to run First Aid on the hidden Container. Even if First Aid says everything is "Ok", click "Show Details" and scroll back through the report to see if there are any unfixed errors listed. Unfortunately I have discovered that the First Aid summary lies.

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