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Alpal0301

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 15, 2018
45
2
Cornwall
Hi all,

Even though I have had an apple iPhone for an age I have never succumbed to buying an apple MacBook, probably because I couldn't / wouldn't justify the cost. Therefore I have been using a windows laptop for years. I have always kept a watch on costs of apple MBPs especially the discontinued 17" models. I love the look of those, I'm used to big screens so going smaller wasn't something I would have considered.
Anyway I gave myself a budget and promised that I would stick to that budget and I have. I bought myself a 17" mid 2010 Apple MacBook Pro. It has 8gb Ram and that's ample although I would have preferred 16GB but got my wires crossed in something I read, thinking I could upgrade the current Ram to 16Gb. Apparently it can't be done. Then I read that if I change the 1TB HDD to an SSD that would speed up my system as well. So I sourced a 500GB SK Hynix SATA III SSD. As I had no files on the new MBP so decided to erase and format the old HDD to either keep as a back up or sell when I had installed the SSD. I read somewhere that in order for the MBP to recognise the SSD I needed to erase and journalise it. Then do an internet restore onto the SSD. I got as far as the section where you erase the SSD and this message appeared :

" Unmounting disk
Mediakit reports not enough space on device for requested operation.
Operation failed... "

I haven't got an external HDD / SDD. I really want to do this as simple and straight forward as possible. I read that you can use terminal to change a few things and get the SSD ready for mac os and do an internet restore.

Can anyone help with this. Preferably a step by step guide.

Kind Regards and thanks in advance.

Alan.
 

casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,383
5,419
Horsens, Denmark
You can't have my brain, I need it. But I'll gladly help you out. First off though, you do realise you bought an 8 year old computer, right? That'd be like buying an iPhone 4 today. A lot has happened since then. You can only go so far with upgrading the hardware yourself, and whilst not as bad as the 2011's, the 2010's didn't have super reliable graphics chips.

Not that that's out of the way
It simply sounds like you tried doing the erase operation on a tiny pre-made disk volume. Instead of doing the operation on the volume, do it on the device. I.e. select the device in the left hand pane in Disk Utility, click erase, select macOS Extended Journaled, or whatever it says in your version as well as GUID, and go. That ought to work. If not you may need the Terminal, but I think based on the error, it's just that you're operating on a volume not the drive.

PS. What version of OS X does your Internet Recovery give you?
 

Alpal0301

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 15, 2018
45
2
Cornwall
You can't have my brain, I need it. But I'll gladly help you out. First off though, you do realise you bought an 8 year old computer, right? That'd be like buying an iPhone 4 today. A lot has happened since then. You can only go so far with upgrading the hardware yourself, and whilst not as bad as the 2011's, the 2010's didn't have super reliable graphics chips.

Not that that's out of the way
It simply sounds like you tried doing the erase operation on a tiny pre-made disk volume. Instead of doing the operation on the volume, do it on the device. I.e. select the device in the left hand pane in Disk Utility, click erase, select macOS Extended Journaled, or whatever it says in your version as well as GUID, and go. That ought to work. If not you may need the Terminal, but I think based on the error, it's just that you're operating on a volume not the drive.

PS. What version of OS X does your Internet Recovery give you?


Hi Casperes, thanks for your reply and when you put it like that it does sound old lol ! Its a start for me - I'll test drive it and go from there. I hopefully will understand what you're explaining and will give it a try. Would really make my day.
The OS is OS High Sierra.
[doublepost=1518738599][/doublepost]Hi Casper, the last bit on your reply re selecting the device in the left hand pane - that's what I had done before and I have just tried it again to get the same " Unmounting disk
Mediakit reports not enough space on device for requested operation.
Operation failed... "

The terminal approach makes me nervous but I'm willing to give it a go as long as it doesn't brick the laptop lol
 
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casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,383
5,419
Horsens, Denmark
The terminal approach makes me nervous but I'm willing to give it a go as long as it doesn't brick the laptop lol


You can't brick it like that :)

You say it's High Sierra - That doesn't sound right. Internet Recovery should not give you HS on that laptop.

If you write "diskutil list" in Terminal, what does it output? Could you paste it in here?
 
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Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
28,198
12,362
OP:

You have no bootable drive now, at all?
You're not going to get far until you have one.

What I'd suggest:
- Get a bootable USB flashdrive with a copy of El Capitan (10.11) on it.
- Boot up that way
- Install an OS onto your internal drive (HDD or SSD)
- Get the Mac bootable again
- Go on from there.

Important:
You need ANOTHER MAC to create the bootable USB flashdrive.
This CANNOT be done on a PC.
If you don't have access to another Mac, you can go on ebay and look for a seller that will sell you a USB flashdrive with a copy of the OS installer already on it. Just "plug it in and go". Will cost you about $15 (US).
 
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Alpal0301

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 15, 2018
45
2
Cornwall
You can't brick it like that :)

You say it's High Sierra - That doesn't sound right. Internet Recovery should not give you HS on that laptop.

If you write "diskutil list" in Terminal, what does it output? Could you paste it in here?
You can't brick it like that :)

You say it's High Sierra - That doesn't sound right. Internet Recovery should not give you HS on that laptop.

If you write "diskutil list" in Terminal, what does it output? Could you paste it in here?

imageA.jpeg imageB.jpeg
 

Unami

macrumors 65816
Jul 27, 2010
1,329
1,521
Austria
how did you erase the old hdd? afaik, you can‘t just format your system disk from that disk (but you can probably out of the recovery partition). if there‘s still osx on it, reconnect that hd and do create a bootable usb-stick containing an osx intaller from there. el capitan sounds good. or use a osx-disc to install and then update from there. that computer should have come with snow leopard - which is an excellent start, probably one of the best osx releases ever.

if you didn‘t get an osx disc with your purchase, maybe you can find a disc image online. you should be able to burn this to a disc even on a windows machine.
[doublepost=1518813223][/doublepost]your photos are not really legible, but it kind of looks like you created a lot of tiny partitions there.
 
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Alpal0301

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 15, 2018
45
2
Cornwall
how did you erase the old hdd? afaik, you can‘t just format your system disk from that disk (but you can probably out of the recovery partition). if there‘s still osx on it, reconnect that hd and do create a bootable usb-stick containing an osx intaller from there. el capitan sounds good. or use a osx-disc to install and then update from there. that computer should have come with snow leopard - which is an excellent start, probably one of the best osx releases ever.

if you didn‘t get an osx disc with your purchase, maybe you can find a disc image online. you should be able to burn this to a disc even on a windows machine.
[doublepost=1518813223][/doublepost]your photos are not really legible, but it kind of looks like you created a lot of tiny partitions there.

Hi Unami, Thanks for your reply. I have erased the old HDD so there won't be any osx on there. Yeah I noticed that myself, all the partitions that is. I could do all the above but to be honest it seems like a lot of work and apparently it takes ages from USB. I know there is definitely a way via Terminal to erase the new SDD but I'm not too confident, the problem is I'm suppose to select a partition, which has to have more than 200mb apparently windows only uses 100mb thus making it too small. However, as there are so many partitions I'm unsure which one to use or whether I can use any of them.
 

Unami

macrumors 65816
Jul 27, 2010
1,329
1,521
Austria
edited: o.k., i just reread your post - so, internet recovery is working, the problem seems to be the ssd or osx not being able to format the ssd correctly, maybe due to previous formatting. yeah, i know, you didn’t need me for that insight. :-] i googled it and others seemed to have found a bunch of different solutions to your problem, you‘ll probably have to try them all until one works.

again, don‘t be afraid to use the terminal, you won‘t make matters worse. i read about someone formatting the disk to something else on windows (fat 32, exfat, even ntfs) before disc utility was able to re-format it it, so if you can connect the ssd to a windowos machine that might be worth a try.
if that doesn‘t work, i‘d probably try that:
https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/...utility_fails_to_eraseformat_an_external_hdd/
it erases the boot sector of the disk, so disk utility can‘t be fooled by anything that was was written on the disk before.
 
Last edited:

Alpal0301

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 15, 2018
45
2
Cornwall
edited: o.k., i just reread your post - so, internet recovery is working, the problem seems to be the ssd or osx not being able to format the ssd correctly, maybe due to previous formatting. yeah, i know, you didn’t need me for that insight. :-] i googled it and others seemed to have found a bunch of different solutions to your problem, you‘ll probably have to try them all until one works.

again, don‘t be afraid to use the terminal, you won‘t make matters worse. i read about someone formatting the disk to something else on windows (fat 32, exfat, even ntfs) before disc utility was able to re-format it it, so if you can connect the ssd to a windowos machine that might be worth a try.
if that doesn‘t work, i‘d probably try that:
https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/...utility_fails_to_eraseformat_an_external_hdd/
it erases the boot sector of the disk, so disk utility can‘t be fooled by anything that was was written on the disk before.

Unami, you are very kind ! Thanks. I have since found a 32gb USB and formatted it funny enough to exFAT. I am unable to connect the SSD to my windows laptop as I have not connector cable. I think you are right regarding the previous partitioning of the SSD. Like you say though not to be afraid of Terminal, I will take that advice and see how I get on.
I will keep you posted, that is, in the mean time you find another easier way lol. Thanks again :)
 

Alpal0301

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 15, 2018
45
2
Cornwall
Please don't laugh .......................

I have sorted the SSD out. I was at the end of my tether and running out of things to try. I couldn't even format the 2 USBs I had found. By chance I discovered that I could change the ' view ' of the disks in the left panel. Once I found that, I chose the SDD and erased it,j ournalised and it was all plain sailing from there and YES I done an internet restore to Hi Sierra :). Thanks for everyone's output. I've read on here too that its actually possible to upgrade RAM to 16GB ?? I wonder at what sacrifice that would be though ?
 
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Unami

macrumors 65816
Jul 27, 2010
1,329
1,521
Austria
haha... glad you got it sorted out. not sure about the 16gb of ram - it’s not officially supported but might still work in your model.
 
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organicCPU

macrumors 6502a
Aug 8, 2016
814
280
According to Mactracker and everymac.com all Mid 2010 17" MBP models are limited to 8 GB of RAM. Usually they're right with their specifications. Take a look at Apple Menu () -> About This Mac -> System Report -> Hardware -> Model Identifier. If it's a MacBookPro6,1 I wouldn't try to install 16 GB. With an Early 2011 17" MacBookPro8,3 it's possible.
https://everymac.com/actual-maximum-mac-ram/actual-maximum-macbook-pro-ram-capacity.html
 
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Alpal0301

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 15, 2018
45
2
Cornwall
According to Mactracker and everymac.com all Mid 2010 17" MBP models are limited to 8 GB of RAM. Usually they're right with their specifications. Take a look at Apple Menu () -> About This Mac -> System Report -> Hardware -> Model Identifier. If it's a MacBookPro6,1 I wouldn't try to install 16 GB. With an Early 2011 17" MacBookPro8,3 it's possible.
https://everymac.com/actual-maximum-mac-ram/actual-maximum-macbook-pro-ram-capacity.html

I hear what you're saying and I will take your advice but their certainly have been those models running with 16GB RAM. One of the threads on here even had a photo showing it.
 

organicCPU

macrumors 6502a
Aug 8, 2016
814
280
I hear what you're saying and I will take your advice but their certainly have been those models running with 16GB RAM. One of the threads on here even had a photo showing it.
Well, trying is obviously the only way to find out. It might be that 16 GB would show up, but not working like expected. I'd at least make a memory check with a tool like memtest or Rember (includes an older version of memtest).
 

shaunp

Cancelled
Nov 5, 2010
1,811
1,395
Regarding the RAM it absolutely CAN be done. I bought a 15" MBP in 2010 and a friend of mine bought a 17" at the same time. We both upgraded them to 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD from Crucial. Apple say they only support 8GB, but the chipset for that particular CPU does support 16GB. Get the RAM from someone reputable like Crucial and they will have the kit for your machine to take it to 16GB.
 
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casperes1996

macrumors 604
Jan 26, 2014
7,383
5,419
Horsens, Denmark
I have sorted the SSD out. I was at the end of my tether and running out of things to try. I couldn't even format the 2 USBs I had found. By chance I discovered that I could change the ' view ' of the disks in the left panel. Once I found that, I chose the SDD and erased it,j ournalised and it was all plain sailing from there and YES I done an internet restore to Hi Sierra :). Thanks for everyone's output. I've read on here too that its actually possible to upgrade RAM to 16GB ?? I wonder at what sacrifice that would be though ?


I fear sounding like a prick when i say this, because obviously I didn't explain myself well enough, but this was what I tried suggesting in my original reply :)

Regarding RAM, as already stated, it works just fine - it's just that Apple didn't offer it with the computer
 
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