I reluctantly agreed to the Monterey update after getting tired of the pop-up, and now my MacBook Pro won’t even reach the main screen.
I’ve attempted the Recovery options I found online, but some selections don’t appear.
I’ve never made a Time Machine backup, so that’s not an option. I’m afraid of losing my data and can’t find clear guidance on what’s safe to try. Please help!
Since your MacBook won’t boot normally and you don’t have a Time Machine backup, the safest and most reliable way to recover data on your Mac is to use a data recovery tool.
I know that there are many data recovery tools requires creating a bootable USB installer for data recovery.
Actually, it’s redundant, as I’ve used iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac; this tool lets me recover data from an unbootable Mac in macOS Recovery Mode. I think it is easy-to-operate.
If you need, you can check its official document: How to run iBoysoft Data Recovery for Mac in macOS Recovery Mode.
Can you enter macOS Recovery Mode? If you can, you can use the Reinstall macOS to reinstall the system. This may make your Mac bootable and won’t cause you to lose your data.