Hi all! I am more so wanting thoughts on a diagnosis than I am suggestions (though, if you have any of those too I would appreciate it).
A friend brought me their 2011 MacBook Pro saying that it was acting weird and they were advised to create a backup. They started said backup but the computer "crashed" before it could finish. We are left with an in-progress backup file. When it is turned on it displays a folder with a question mark.
I took the drive out and connected it externally to my personal computer and was able to copy all of his files to another drive they provided. In case it was the beginnings of a hard drive failure I was going to replace the drive with a new one and install the OS on it rather than redoing the original. I made sure the format and partitions were appropriate and I named it, put the new drive in the computer and boot it up to the Internet Recovery. I check the Disk Utility to make sure it's there then I go to install the OS. The installer does not offer the drive as a destination.
So I took it out put another in (also formatted and partitioned properly) and I also connected the first new drive externally to the computer. Go to Disk Utility, I see them. Go to Installer, it offers only the external drive. I put the second new drive in the external, it now appears in the Installer as well.
I should also mention that when the drives were connected internally, they appeared with a name of "disk0" and one partition that was named something along the lines of "Mac OS Storage". I don't quite remember at this time.
I've also put the original drive in an external case and it boots from the drive externally just fine. I am making a backup of the computer now.
My thoughts are: The drive is fine (from what I can tell, Disk Utility finds nothing wrong with it either) and the issue lies somewhere between the logic board and the drive. Possibly the SATA cable itself or one of the connection points. Any thoughts on this? Do the symptoms point to something else I don't see?
Thanks for your input!!
A friend brought me their 2011 MacBook Pro saying that it was acting weird and they were advised to create a backup. They started said backup but the computer "crashed" before it could finish. We are left with an in-progress backup file. When it is turned on it displays a folder with a question mark.
I took the drive out and connected it externally to my personal computer and was able to copy all of his files to another drive they provided. In case it was the beginnings of a hard drive failure I was going to replace the drive with a new one and install the OS on it rather than redoing the original. I made sure the format and partitions were appropriate and I named it, put the new drive in the computer and boot it up to the Internet Recovery. I check the Disk Utility to make sure it's there then I go to install the OS. The installer does not offer the drive as a destination.
So I took it out put another in (also formatted and partitioned properly) and I also connected the first new drive externally to the computer. Go to Disk Utility, I see them. Go to Installer, it offers only the external drive. I put the second new drive in the external, it now appears in the Installer as well.
I should also mention that when the drives were connected internally, they appeared with a name of "disk0" and one partition that was named something along the lines of "Mac OS Storage". I don't quite remember at this time.
I've also put the original drive in an external case and it boots from the drive externally just fine. I am making a backup of the computer now.
My thoughts are: The drive is fine (from what I can tell, Disk Utility finds nothing wrong with it either) and the issue lies somewhere between the logic board and the drive. Possibly the SATA cable itself or one of the connection points. Any thoughts on this? Do the symptoms point to something else I don't see?
Thanks for your input!!
