No help from Apple support, told it was time to visit the Apple store. Can anyone help?

[Jewelzez]

I believe that my Macbook air had a virus, so I tried to restore it to it's original system. Now it only shows a black screen with a circle with a line through it. They apparently call it the Prohibitory symbol. Apple support told me to do the command-R and reinstall MacOS. After a few hours, it said that it was not successful.

Then, I did a bit of online research and tried a few different things. The first was doing the shift-option-command-R which also was not succesful and gave me the message macos a server with the specified host name could not be found.

Other attempts I tried the Option--command-R and received the following message: Could not create a preboot volume for APFS install.

I saw some recommendations to erase the ssd....drive, which I attempted, and thought it was successful, but after restarting the computer it is back.

Can anyone help? Or is a visit to the Apple store necessary?

 

[chabig]

Your MacBook didn't have a virus (no Mac viruses exist). So go to the Apple store.

 

[Rick Corbett]

Your MacBook didn't have a virus (no Mac viruses exist).

List of Mac viruses, malware and security flaws (April, 2018)

 

[SteveJUAE]

If your MBA is older than 90 days and does not have valid AC or AC+ to extend for up to 3 years then telephone support technically ends and you have to go to the store, although they may help with little things

 

[Audit13]

Tried using Internet recovery's disk utility to delete and recreate partitions before installing High Sierra?

 

[Apple_Robert]

List of Mac viruses, malware and security flaws (April, 2018)

Chabig was correct. There are no MacOS viruses. However, there is Malware that can infect a Mac.

 

[Jewelzez]

I just noticed when going to install macOS it tells me to select the disk, when I click on the (only disk shown, Macintosh HD) it shows 250.79 GB total 249.04 GB available. Could that have something to do with it not being able to successfully install? I have erased the volumn disk Macintosh HD.

 

[MBAir2010]

Did you try a older OSX Reboot from a usb Drive after erasing the hd?

 

[Jewelzez]

Did you try a older OSX Reboot from a usb Drive after erasing the hd?

No I didn't. Should I have? Could you tell me how to do that? I am very computer ignorant!

 

[MBAir2010]

No I didn't. Should I have? Could you tell me how to do that? I am very computer ignorant!

Can you use your MBAir at all? Can you get safari running?
Better yet, the App Store?
If so download a Mac cleaner, run
If not, can you see your purchases?
If not you need a fresh intalll of the OSX that came with the MBAir.
This is the easiest directions: http://osxdaily.com/2015/09/30/create-os-x-el-capitan-boot-install-drive/

 

[Glockworkorange]

Take it to the Apple store if you can.

If you can't, try re-installing the OS from the internet. http://osxdaily.com/2014/12/14/reinstall-os-x-mac-internet-recovery/

I think you deleted the operating system.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"No I didn't. Should I have? Could you tell me how to do that? I am very computer ignorant!"

Best suggestion:
Take it to the Apple Store.
They'll get it running again.

 

[MBAir2010]

Hey

Can anyone help? Or is a visit to the Apple store necessary?

Next time please let us know the particulars like the year of the MacBook Air, and how the black screen appeared, where you visiting a website, then the trouble happened? Or where you trying to partition your hard drive, we need to know exactly what went wrong.

We are here to help and avoid unessassary Apple store visits and get your MBAir running again.
Since Apple stores are not convenient for everyone, we can fix these at home.

 

[Jewelzez]

Yes I must have erased the operating system. Not sure how. And the disk needed to be cleaned. I followed the following directions and it worked. Thank you all that took the time to help me!

https://discussions.apple.com/message/33578973#message33578973

Install El Capitan or Later from Scratch



If possible backup your files.

1. Restart the computer. Immediately after the chime hold down the Command and R keys until the Apple logo appears. When the Utility Menu appears:
2. Select Disk Utility from the Utility Menu and click on Continue button.
3. When Disk Utility loads select the volume (indented entry, usually Macintosh HD) from the Device list.
4. Click on the Erase icon in Disk Utility's main window. A panel will drop down.
5. Set the Format type to APFS (SSDs only) or Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)
6. Click on the Apply button, then wait for the Done button to activate and click on it.
7. Quit Disk Utility and return to the Utility Menu.
8. Select Install OS X and click on the Continue button.

This will install the version of OS X you had installed. You must have a functioning Recovery HD.

 

[MBAir2010]

. Thank you all that took the time to help.

You are welcome, I’m glad the MBAir is working!

 

[cobracnvt]

Glad you were able to get it working again.