Cannot install El Capitan. Or any other OS X.

[Bartes]

Hello,

I'm having a problem with installation of any OS X on my MacBook Pro mid-2010. I have switched from HDD to SSD and performed clean install of OS X 10.11. Few days later i switched to bigger SSD and was planing to repeat the installation. But the Mac is stuck after 2 minutes at booting to installer itself. I have tried with El Capitan (USB) and with original DVD with Snow Leopard. I have also tried with different SDD and previous HDD. No luck. Hardware failure? I'm attaching the photos describing the situation. What should i do?

PS I hope this post is in the right section of the forum - it's my first thread here.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Hello,

I'm having a problem with installation of any OS X on my MacBook Pro mid-2010. I have switched from HDD to SSD and performed clean install of OS X 10.11. Few days later i switched to bigger SSD and was planing to repeat the installation. But the Mac is stuck after 2 minutes at booting to installer itself. I have tried with El Capitan (USB) and with original DVD with Snow Leopard. I have also tried with different SDD and previous HDD. No luck. Hardware failure? I'm attaching the photos describing the situation. What should i do?

PS I hope this post is in the right section of the forum - it's my first thread here.


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If you put the old HDD back in, will it boot?

If it does, hold CMD+R on startup to boot into OS X Utilities. Plug in your SSD via SATA dock/USB. Format SSD through Disk Utility and select 'Reinstall OS X', then point it to the SSD. Once OS X is installed on that, swap the two drives back over, and it'll be up and running.

If the system will not boot with the old HDD in (assuming the old HDD was working before, and you haven't formatted it or anything), there has to be a hardware failure somewhere.

 

[Bartes]

As for the moment it does not boot from old HDD. This would clearly point to some hardware issue but...

The old HDD is pretty much broken. I changed it at its very last breath, because it kept failing to boot more and more often. Now when i connect it to other Mac via SATA-USB adapter, it is visible but hardly accessible (very slow access occasionally).

From other similar topics i am thinking that the SATA flex cable inside the MacBook may be broken. But it doesn't show any visible damage. Can it be cracked anyway?

Update:
Surprisingly Mac booted with another HDD - from even older Mac. It booted right to the OS without a problem. I will try Your CMD+R suggestion

Update2:
Ok, installation is ridiculously slow. Progress bar at 1/3, 7 hours to go and going up. Gonna leave it overnight. Anyway, it's not an internal flex cable. Macbook is booting from this one particular HDD without problem. But the fresh installation still fails.

 

[CoastalOR]

I would still suspect the SATA cable as failing therefore causing intermittent errors and performance.

 

[Nermal]

You can hold Cmd-V for "verbose" boot, which should give much more detail.

 

[Bartes]

OS installed. I have booted the mac using older HDD with OS X installed and again prepared pendrive with OS X installation. Same pendrive, same image - but prepared at my mac. This time it worked. El Capitan is installed and running, but not without problem. It crashes when i enter a game playable via web browser. It restarts without any warning. Can damaged SATA cable may be causing this? On the other hand - maybe 6 years old computer cannot handle modern SSD technology?

 

[Weaselboy]

Can damaged SATA cable may be causing this?

Your mac can handle an SSD no problem. Reading the thread, it does sound like a bad cable. The true test would be to get a cheap USB external enclosure then pop the SSD in there and see if it works okay (albeit slow). If that works it pretty much proves it is the internal cable. Fairly common problem with these.

 

[Bartes]

Your mac can handle an SSD no problem. Reading the thread, it does sound like a bad cable. The true test would be to get a cheap USB external enclosure then pop the SSD in there and see if it works okay (albeit slow). If that works it pretty much proves it is the internal cable. Fairly common problem with these.

I did what you suggested. System didn't crash for a while and then... same thing. SATA cable doesn't seems to be an problem here. I was hoping it was because it would be an easy fix. Maybe it's time for some proffesional service.