Install (MBP mid 09') New HardDrive...No Luck HELP

[jhawkin1]

Sorry I was short on my last post. I meant to ask what the warning was?
Was that warning from your system, or from your AV software?

I believe it was a Mac alert?

 

[DeltaMac]

Hard to say, might have been a suggestion, and did not actually prevent use of the app. (I've not seen that app cause a warning, but without seeing your message, all I can do is guess.)

 

[jhawkin1]

I finally got El Capitan onto a bootable USB. Now I cannot load it onto any hard drive. I have successfully partitioned the new SSD hard drive as well as the jump drive with the OS X. I have the old hard drive but it won't recognize my USB Installer OR my New SSD that's also plugged into another USB port.

Any suggestions??

 

[DeltaMac]

If you have the installer on that PNY flash drive, leave that inserted, then reboot, holding the Option key. Does the "OS X Install" appear as a choice in that boot-picker screen?
Give it some time to appear. Unplug that flash drive, wait a few seconds, then plug back in. Does it appear then?
If not, then you either have a faulty flash drive, or you have not used the correct method to make the installer bootable.
What process (or which app) did you use to make that bootable installer?

 

[jhawkin1]

If you have the installer on that PNY flash drive, leave that inserted, then reboot, holding the Option key. Does the "OS X Install" appear as a choice in that boot-picker screen?
Give it some time to appear. Unplug that flash drive, wait a few seconds, then plug back in. Does it appear then?
If not, then you either have a faulty flash drive, or you have not used the correct method to make the installer bootable.
What process (or which app) did you use to make that bootable installer?

I tried it using a windows computer. Just checked and it was OS X extended but not journaled. Could this be the issue?

Neither apps you provided would work for me unfortunately using my Apple MacBook Air.

 

[DeltaMac]

Even if your OS X installer is correctly made, it won't boot a non-Apple PC, not from a default (un-modified) OS X bootable installer.
Journaled (or not) is not an issue, and does not affect booting in any way.
If your flash drive does not show up as a bootable device, then either your flash drive is faulty, or the software on your flash drive is not installed properly (and is NOT set up as a bootable device). THAT'S your goal, reachable through a proper setup of the terminal commands.

Best way to do this, is using the terminal -- using the commands that Apple provides. The terminal method will work; I make bootable installers often, several times per week (really!)
I have already posted the method that I use (and is a method that results in a bootable installer), in fact, I think I have posted it with two different explanations for the steps that I used. (refer to posts #27, and #36). I made a new bootable installer, just as a quick test to make sure the steps actually work. Try it one more time (!)

 

[jhawkin1]

It worked . I think the problem is I need to set the date back to before 2016 since El Cap expired in 2016, correct.

So terminal: date 0101101015

date month/day/time/year in two digits

This may solve the issue of the installer not working half way through the install process?



My 2nd big issue: the new SSD does not show up as a device to boot up- is this because it not only has nothing on it, but that I need to internally install it, or should it still show as a start up? I am using the Sabrent device.

 

[DeltaMac]

The SSD cannot be a boot device, unless it has a bootable operating system.
After you install a system, it should show up as a boot choice (assuming that the install is complete, and that the SSD is working

 

[jhawkin1]

The SSD cannot be a boot device, unless it has a bootable operating system.
After you install a system, it should show up as a boot choice (assuming that the install is complete, and that the SSD is working

Can I load the USB into the blank SSD drive using Sabrent or should I install it internally into the MacBook then try to load the bootable USB to the SSD internally?

 

[DeltaMac]

No difference in the install, either internal, or external. You just have to select that SSD as the destination for the system install. The external install will be slower, of course, because of the USB 2.0 speed, but won't make any difference after installing the SSD internally.

 

[jhawkin1]

No difference in the install, either internal, or external. You just have to select that SSD as the destination for the system install. The external install will be slower, of course, because of the USB 2.0 speed, but won't make any difference after installing the SSD internally.

I was able to get my old HD to work. I will now install the new hard drive and follow the same process.

Question: I ran an initial update on El Cap but some of the updates were not able to process. Do I need to go to terminal and turn the clock and date back again to 2015 in order to get key security updates?

I also made a mistake...my MacBook Pro is a mid-2009...does this make a considerable difference compared to mid-2008 to which I originally thought to be true?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I was able to get my old HD to work"

What does this mean?
It means nothing useful to those of us trying to help you.

Can you boot from the old drive now?
What do you mean?

If you are able to boot from the USB installer, and if you understand how to overcome "the date problem", the next step IS to "get booted" to the USB installer.

Then... it's time to go to work on the drives you have, both internal and external.

You will probably need to:
1. Erase the target drive using disk utility (for El Cap, erase to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format")
2. Open the installer and install onto the newly-erased drive.

 

[jhawkin1]

mean?
It means nothing useful to those of us trying to help you.

OP wrote:
"I was able to get my old HD to work"

What does this mean?
It means nothing useful to those of us trying to help you.

Can you boot from the old drive now?
What do you mean?

If you are able to boot from the USB installer, and if you understand how to overcome "the date problem", the next step IS to "get booted" to the USB installer.

Then... it's time to go to work on the drives you have, both internal and external.

You will probably need to:
1. Erase the target drive using disk utility (for El Cap, erase to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format")
2. Open the installer and install onto the newly-erased drive.

HD- hard drive.

I was able to upload a bootable usb to it. I am now going to attempt to do the same process with my new SSD. I wanted to make sure the bootable OS X would work. It did, BUT I was not able to install key security issues with it. How can I fix this so it can update successfully?

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[Fishrrman]

"I was able to upload a bootable usb to it."

Again... this means NOTHING to us.
What do you mean?

Are you telling us you just "copied the installer file" to the drive?

Or... are you telling us that you installed a copy of the OS onto the drive, and that you can boot from it and get to the finder?

You also wrote:
"BUT I was not able to install key security issues with it."

Again, have no idea what you're talking about, because you have not explained what you've done in terms most folks trying to help can understand.

 

[jhawkin1]

What I was able to do:
1. Upload OS X El Capitan to a Bootable USB
2. Use the USB to install El Capitan on my OLD hard drive (which was wiped and completely erased with no OS X system- standard apple hard drive that came with it (Macbook Pro mid-2009)
3. I am currently running OS X on my old hard drive, but, when prompted to update software, was unable to
3a. Question: What do I need to do in order to update software (Mac security)? I keep trying to install the software updates by restarting my computer which was recommended but it won't update software?


Once I figure step 3a then I can go ahead and copy all above steps with the installation of my new SSD Hard drive to my MacBook Pro Mid 2009

 

[Fishrrman]

"2. Use the USB to install El Capitan on my OLD hard drive (which was wiped and completely erased with no OS X system- standard apple hard drive that came with it (Macbook Pro mid-2009)"

OK, this is good. You now have a way to boot the computer. Even though it's an old platter-based drive, ANY drive that is bootable is better than not having a boot drive at all.

"3. I am currently running OS X on my old hard drive, but, when prompted to update software, was unable to"

Can you tell us WHAT software you were trying to update?
There aren't many updates for El Cap any more. I'm running El Cap right now on this 2015 MacBook Pro.
Actually, I wouldn't worry about this issue much at all right now.

"Once I figure step 3a then I can go ahead and copy all above steps with the installation of my new SSD Hard drive to my MacBook Pro Mid 2009"

You don't have to go through all this again.
There's a better way.
You need to download CarbonCopyCloner, which is free to download and use for 30 days -- this will cost you no money.

Then, you need to "clone" the contents of the old drive to the new SSD.
This can be done with a few clicks of the mouse.
The hardest part is waiting for the clone to be done.
Then, you do a "test boot" to be sure the SSD is bootable.
Then, you install it into the MacBook Pro.

 

[Black Baron]

I just installed a new SSD Crucial MX500 to no avail. I am getting the same error message(s): the question mark flashing within a file. This happens with my old hard drive as well as with the new drive. I've tried a variety of different things: Hold the Alt= password and blank screen.

I'm at a loss and am getting ready to throw the thing out . I've messed up every step of the way and it's far from running smoothly. Sucks to put $ at it and seemingly not know what I am doing .

Any simple help would be greatly appreciated.

"Simple" is in puter and software terms a difficult wording. And ... yes, there are days where I could throw
it out of the "Windows".

I installed a Samsung Evo SSD which works fine. I can recommend you the following procedure even though I know
it's getting hard to get these "old" OS X installers from Apple in case they might no longer work properly
or might be damaged. But once you have a functional installer file. Keep it as a backup.

- - - > Make a TimeMachine Backup of your current system on an external HDD

1. Go to diskmakerX dot com
2. Download the installer version for the OS X system you want to use
(I tried the DiskmakerX Pro v.1.0 the other day. It failed entirely)
3. Make sure you have the installer OS X file and that it works properly
4. Follow the instruction to create a bootable USB sick with the desired OS X system installer file
5. Restart your puter
6. PRAM reset (alt+cmd+p+r)
7. Insert the USB stick after puter restarted
8. Select the USB drive as your startup disk under System Prefs
9. Restart puter and wait for the OS X bootable USB stick to appear on your screen
10. Launch Disk Utility
11. Format the SSD with Extended journaled (older OS X versions) or APFS (newer OS X versions, High Sierra & higher)
12. Quit Disk Utility
13. Launch the OS X installer on the bootable USB stick
14. Wait for the installation to finish

Done. I know, it's not easy as 1,2,3 ... but at least you have a clean system and a bootable OS X on an external
USB stick which is never bad at all.

When your clean install OS X succeeded. Drag your files manually from a TimeMachine backup drive.
When everything is set up and ready again, create a new fresh and clean backup using TimeMachine.

Regards,

BLACK BARON
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