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Can't install Yosemite from SD card

crucius

crucius

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 4, 2010
156
0
Portugal
Hi everyone,

I ordered the new MacBook yesterday and I want to sell my MacBook Pro. However, the HDD stopped working so I swapped it with a new SSD. However, I couldn't make a restore via Internet Recovery because the only option I have is to reinstall Yosemite and when I try to do it it gives me an error and won't install and I don't have the original DVDs.

I downloaded Yosemite again on a spare Windows PC and created a bootable SD card (Samsung SDHC 32 Gb) using TransMac (can't remember if this is the right one). After several hours of waiting, I tried booting from the card but when normally I would choose which partition to boot with, there is none and the only thing that appears on the screen is to choose a network. However, if I ignore all of that and go back to the Internet recovery menu and then disk utility, both SSD and SD card appear as mounted.

There's a guy interested in buying the MBP and I would like to have this sorted out right away. Thanks!


Technical details

MacBook Pro mid-2010 base model
Previous OSX installation: Yosemite
Desired OSX version: Yosemite
Installing from: SD card/Internet recovery
 
The software you used likely failed to make the SD card bootable.
Normally, there should be no issues using SD cards (I used one myself a few years ago), but try a USB flash drive instead. Perhaps your application will have more success with that.
 
crucius said:
Hi everyone,

I ordered the new MacBook yesterday and I want to sell my MacBook Pro. However, the HDD stopped working so I swapped it with a new SSD. However, I couldn't make a restore via Internet Recovery because the only option I have is to reinstall Yosemite and when I try to do it it gives me an error and won't install and I don't have the original DVDs.

I downloaded Yosemite again on a spare Windows PC and created a bootable SD card (Samsung SDHC 32 Gb) using TransMac (can't remember if this is the right one). After several hours of waiting, I tried booting from the card but when normally I would choose which partition to boot with, there is none and the only thing that appears on the screen is to choose a network. However, if I ignore all of that and go back to the Internet recovery menu and then disk utility, both SSD and SD card appear as mounted.

There's a guy interested in buying the MBP and I would like to have this sorted out right away. Thanks!


Technical details

MacBook Pro mid-2010 base model
Previous OSX installation: Yosemite
Desired OSX version: Yosemite
Installing from: SD card/Internet recovery
Click to expand...

It's impossible to create a bootable external OS X device other than using a secondary Mac to do it, via DiskMaker X, as far as I know.
 
yjchua95 said:
It's impossible to create a bootable external OS X device other than using a secondary Mac to do it, via DiskMaker X, as far as I know.
Click to expand...
You are wrong, though, as I have done it in the past (not on mine, however). At any rate I don't have another Mac until I receive my new MacBook and that may take a long while apparently. I need to do this today to sell it. I will try using another media, and perhaps another application as well. If some of you have other tips be my guest!
 
crucius said:
You are wrong, though, as I have done it in the past (not on mine, however). At any rate I don't have another Mac until I receive my new MacBook and that may take a long while apparently. I need to do this today to sell it. I will try using another media, and perhaps another application as well. If some of you have other tips be my guest!
Click to expand...

Older versions of OS X like Lion and Mountain Lion could be done, because it just involved re-imaging the InstallESD.dmg onto a USB device.

It's no longer the case in Mavericks and Yosemite.
 
yjchua95 said:
Older versions of OS X like Lion and Mountain Lion could be done, because it just involved re-imaging the InstallESD.dmg onto a USB device.

It's no longer the case in Mavericks and Yosemite.
Click to expand...
Ah, right! So if I can get a copy of mountain lion I'm good to go? There are loads of tutorials using Yosemite, so I just assumed it would work the same. Sorry.
 
crucius said:
Ah, right! So if I can get a copy of mountain lion I'm good to go? There are loads of tutorials using Yosemite, so I just assumed it would work the same. Sorry.
Click to expand...

- If you've previously downloaded it from the Mac App Store, it will be available for download under "Purchases".
 
I do have an ML image, and I will update to Mavericks and then Yosemite after having something running on my Mac.
 
Still doesn't work. I'm starting to get a bit desperate, the computer is right now a glorified paperweight...
 
Anyways, eventually I got hold of the original dvds and was able to install snow leopard and from the onwards was just a question of updating.
 
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