Fixing Macbook Pro 2009

[Hippocrates1985]

Hello my friends,

So I have this old Macbook Pro 2009 which got a broken internal hard drive and decided to not use it any more. Today I decided to go back and use this old Macbook Pro as another monitor to my iMac. The problem now that I need this old macbook pro to work from an external hard. I tried to make a bootable El Capitan flash drive but every time I restart this Macbook Pro and press on Command + R or Option (alt), it only shows me the folder with a question mark. I tried different commands but I could go pass that to choose the bootable flash drive on even the internet.

Could someone please help me to get this macbook pro back to work and use it again ?

Thank you

 

[Audit13]

You need a working Mac to create the usb installer.

Booting into recovery doesn't work without a working drive.

 

[treekram]

Also, Internet Recovery (Command-Option-R), which I think is what you're saying you tried, won't work on the MBP 2009 according to an Apple document (no longer updated).
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202313

 

[Hippocrates1985]

You need a working Mac to create the usb installer.

Booting into recovery doesn't work without a working drive.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. As I said I already used my iMac to create a bootable USB Flash Drive with El Capitan on it but still when I hit the "option" key when I power on the macbook Pro, I only see the mouse pointer without any choices of the external drive to choose from :-/

I hope there is a way to fix this.

Thank you
[doublepost=1559606137][/doublepost]

Also, Internet Recovery (Command-Option-R), which I think is what you're saying you tried, won't work on the MBP 2009 according to an Apple document (no longer updated).
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202313

Yeah I just read that but still, I do not know why I can not see the the Installer from the Flash Drive as I mentioned above :-/

 

[Audit13]

Thank you for taking the time to respond. As I said I already used my iMac to create a bootable USB Flash Drive with El Capitan on it but still when I hit the "option" key when I power on the macbook Pro, I only see the mouse pointer without any choices of the external drive to choose from :-/

I hope there is a way to fix this.

Thank you

Did you try using the installer to boot your iMac?

 

[Hippocrates1985]

Did you try using the installer to boot your iMac?

I never thought about that haha. Thank you so much my friend

 

[Hippocrates1985]

Did you try using the installer to boot your iMac?

I'm really happy to report to you that this 2009 Macbook Pro is back to life again and thanks for your help.

I need just small help from you if you do not mind and I'm sure that you could help me with this.

As I said from the beginning that the main point from fixing this 2009 Macbook Pro is to turn it to a monitor by connecting to Mid 2011 iMac. I really do not know if this is gonna work or not because I know nothing about that.

Here is the list of ports on the 2009 Macbook Pro:

• MagSafe power port
• Gigabit Ethernet port
• One FireWire 800 port (up to 800 Mbps)
• Mini DisplayPort
• Two USB 2.0 ports (up to 480 Mbps)
• SD card slot
• Audio line in
• Audio line out
• Kensington lock slot

Here is the list of ports on the Mid 2011 iMac:

• One Thunderbolt port
• Mini DisplayPort output with support for DVI, VGA, and dual-link DVI (adapters sold separately)
• One FireWire 800 port; 7 watts
• Four USB 2.0 ports
• SDXC card slot
• Slot-loading 8x SuperDrive with 4x double-layer burning (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
• Audio in/out
• 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)
• IR receiver

Could you please advise me with what I need of cables and connections to make this happen?

Thank you so much for your help

 

[Audit13]

The MacBook can only output video signals. The MacBook display can't accept an incoming video signal to act as an external or second monitor to a Mac mini MacBook Pro, Mac Pro, or iMac.