Late 2008 MBP - No boot

[BenJeffrey]

Evening all!

I've bought myself the above MBP, the user selling it advised that it needed a new battery, and when doing so removed the HDD.

I've replaced this with a Crucial SSD, but when trying to boot the laptop into Internet Recovery Mode, I get the chime, followed by the (?) folder. I've been trying this over a Anker USB to Ethernet adapter.

Any help is massively appreciated, trying to get a Mac Mini (other issues) and this up and running for my home lab, but running into some real issues

Cheers,
Ben

 

[CoastalOR]

Your 2008 MBP is too old to support Internet Recovery. See the supported Macs in the link:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202313

There are many options. Here are a few:
Use the Install DVD that shipped with the 2008 MBP to boot and install a OS on the new SSD.
or
Create a USB installer on another Mac and use the installer to boot and install the OS on the new SSD.
or
Use the old HDD in a external enclosure to boot the MBP and install the OS on the new SSD.
or
Use the old HDD in a external enclosure to boot the MBP and clone the old system and files to the new SSD.

I'm sure there a more options I did not think of immediately.
BTW, do not forget to use Disk Utility to format (Erase) the new SSD for Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

 

[BenJeffrey]

Your 2008 MBP is too old to support Internet Recovery. See the supported Macs in the link:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202313

There are many options. Here are a few:
Use the Install DVD that shipped with the 2008 MBP to boot and install a OS on the new SSD.
or
Create a USB installer on another Mac and use the installer to boot and install the OS on the new SSD.
or
Use the old HDD in a external enclosure to boot the MBP and install the OS on the new SSD.
or
Use the old HDD in a external enclosure to boot the MBP and clone the old system and files to the new SSD.

I'm sure there a more options I did not think of immediately.
BTW, do not forget to use Disk Utility to format (Erase) the new SSD for Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

CoastalOR - Thanks for the response, I managed to get an El Capitan boot image onto a USB from my main Macbook, but now during the install it, it freezes out around 60% of the way through! (Screenshot attached) Could this purely be related to the image i've downloaded?

Appreciate the guidance,
Ben

 

[CoastalOR]

I managed to get an El Capitan boot image onto a USB from my main Macbook, but now during the install it, it freezes out around 60% of the way through! (Screenshot attached) Could this purely be related to the image i've downloaded?

Tell me more on how you created the USB installer. Normally the installer is created using the "Install OS X El Capitan" app using createinstallmedia in Terminal or the DiskMaker X app. I'm not familiar with using a "boot image". I suspect a problem with the creation of the USB installer or the downloaded "image".

Here are some links on how to create a El Capitan installer:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
http://www.macworld.com/article/298...le-os-x-10-11-el-capitan-installer-drive.html
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/0...able-os-x-10-11-el-capitan-usb-install-drive/

 

[MacInTO]

I previously ran into this problem with certain SSDs in 2008-2010 MacBooks. It seems the SSD controller is incompatible with the nVidia Nforce chipsets in the 2008-2010 MacBooks. The 2011 and later have Intel chipsets.

If you have access to a different SSD or later machine, you can probably pinpoint the issue.

Here's a post I started, there are some good links from other members about the issue,

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/corsair-force-le-ssd-incompatible-in-some-mbp-models.1988942/

 

[JTToft]

And you should source El Capitan from the App Store, not anyplace else.

 

[BenJeffrey]

Tell me more on how you created the USB installer. Normally the installer is created using the "Install OS X El Capitan" app using createinstallmedia in Terminal or the DiskMaker X app. I'm not familiar with using a "boot image". I suspect a problem with the creation of the USB installer or the downloaded "image".

Here are some links on how to create a El Capitan installer:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
http://www.macworld.com/article/298...le-os-x-10-11-el-capitan-installer-drive.html
http://arstechnica.com/apple/2015/0...able-os-x-10-11-el-capitan-usb-install-drive/

Sorry, purely meant the OS by boot image, work wordage. To create the image I used the DiskMaker X app, although I couldn't find this in the App Store, only Mac OS Sierra?

I previously ran into this problem with certain SSDs in 2008-2010 MacBooks. It seems the SSD controller is incompatible with the nVidia Nforce chipsets in the 2008-2010 MacBooks. The 2011 and later have Intel chipsets.

If you have access to a different SSD or later machine, you can probably pinpoint the issue.

Here's a post I started, there are some good links from other members about the issue,

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/corsair-force-le-ssd-incompatible-in-some-mbp-models.1988942/

Cheers for this, i'm trying to use a Crucial SSD which they did state was compatible, but will do some digging.

And you should source El Capitan from the App Store, not anyplace else.

Tried that, only Mac OS Sierra available. Even when searching El Capitan that's the only result that is pulled.

 

[JTToft]

Tried that, only Mac OS Sierra available. Even when searching El Capitan that's the only result that is pulled.

- Yes, only the newest version is broadly available on the App Store. To download older versions you need to either have it in your purchased history or buy a separate voucher from Apple.
My point was that downloads from other places should not be trusted.

 

[BenJeffrey]

Another quick update, managed to get hold of El Capitan from my Purchased items, tried installing this but again stalled at the same point. Left overnight and was still stuck in the same spot. I've got a keyboard coming for my Mac Mini early next week, so i'm going to try the same installer and see what results I get to help determine the issue.

FYI - This time I created it using createinstallmedia