mac mini wont boot after upgrading to ssd :(

[gntavelis]

Hello all,


Today i tried to follow the ifixit guide on how to replace your hdd with an ssd.

Here is the guide:http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+Mini+Late+2012+Hard+Drive+Replacement/11716

I followed exactly the guide and i didnt do nothing wrong, the problem is that after the installation of the ssd drive my mac mini doesnt want to boot up. I know that there is no operating system inside and i have to re-install it via internet recovery BUT there is no signal to my monitor (hdmi) and there is no sound at all (you know the boing thing)...

:/

the power led is working perfectly, the fan also...

i am pretty sad today really.

Could you please someone help me?

 

[Jambalaya]

Have you tried a reboot holding down CMD and R (recovery mode) - tht would prove that the machine "still works"

I assume you have the original hard drive, do you have an enclosure or a way to connect it to the mini using usb cable. If so do that and boot to it, start machine holding down the CMD and Option and select the external drive.

When I replaced my HDD (with another HDD) it didn't work first time, the physical install went fine but the cloning of the OSX needed to be done again. I had an enclosure so I rebooted from the external original HDD

 

[dan1eln1el5en]

You made a mistake somewhere...

the best thing would be to clone your drive over while the original drive is still inside the Mac and cloning to the SSD while it's outside, test that it boots (over USB or similar) THEN do the operation, will also save you a ton of time...recovering over the net is sloooooow

 

[Jambalaya]

You made a mistake somewhere...

the best thing would be to clone your drive over while the original drive is still inside the Mac and cloning to the SSD while it's outside, test that it boots (over USB or similar) THEN do the operation, will also save you a ton of time...recovering over the net is sloooooow

This is true but he's already put the new SSD in.

 

[LaunchpadBS]

So you put a clean unformatted hard drive in and it's not working...

Should have partitioned it before and installed OSX with a functioning OS drive.

 

[gntavelis]

Have you tried a reboot holding down CMD and R (recovery mode) - tht would prove that the machine "still works"

I assume you have the original hard drive, do you have an enclosure or a way to connect it to the mini using usb cable. If so do that and boot to it, start machine holding down the CMD and Option and select the external drive.

When I replaced my HDD (with another HDD) it didn't work first time, the physical install went fine but the cloning of the OSX needed to be done again. I had an enclosure so I rebooted from the external original HDD

I am at work right now and i have a windows keyboard :/ I tried to do that... by holding down WinKEY+R and also ALT+R but nothing... NO VIDEO SIGNAL AT ALL! NOT EVEN THE FAMILIAR SOUND of MAC when starting up...

I tried also to put the hdd that it came with but no luck :/ NO VIDEO SIGNAL AT ALL, NO SOUND, the drive spining inside i can listen to that.

 

[barkmonster]

You have an empty drive in there. No recovery partition to boot from because the drive is literally unformatted. This also means there's no EFI boot partition on the drive either. To your mac, it has no system drive.

You need to connect your original drive to your mac via a USB enclosure or adapter and boot from that externally, then clone your system over.

I have a universal drive adapter that works perfectly with any ATA/SATA drive of any capacity and it was £8 from Novatech in the UK. Just get either an enclosure or something similar and hold down [Option] when you start up your mac with it attached.

Boot into the Recovery HD on your old drive, then use disk utility to clone Macintosh HD from your old drive to your new one.

You forgot to clone your OS. Your system is still fine. It just doesn't have a system drive till you clone your old one to the SSD.

 

[Jambalaya]

As per @barkmonster I think you haven't put the OS onto the SSD (usually via a clone from you original HDD).

From what you've said you put the original HDD back inside (yes/no) ? It still doesn't work ?

 

[Fishrrman]

The OP wrote:
[[ i am pretty sad today really.
Could you please someone help me? ]]

Did you take the old drive out?
Do have it, as a "bare" drive?

If nothing else seems to be working, I will offer a procedure that has a very high chance of success:

First, be aware that the Mini probably isn't going to be bootable in any way UNTIL you do something like the following:

1. Get something like this:
http://www.amazon.com/Optimized-Inateck-Including-Comaptible-Tool-Free/dp/B00ITDSN5Y

2. Once you have it, put the OLD HDD into it and connect it to the Mini.

3. Boot the Mini. As soon as you hear the startup sound, hold down the option key and keep holding it down until the startup manager appears.

4. You should be able to see the OLD HDD in the Startup Manager. Click on it with the pointer, and hit return.

5. The Mini should now boot from the OLD HDD in the dock.

6. When you get to the Finder, open Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder) and initialize the internal SSD. Use HFS+, Journaling enabled.

7. Now, the SSD should mount on the desktop in the finder.

8. Next, you have to transfer your stuff over to it.

9. Download CarbonCopyCloner from here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
CCC is FREE to download and FREE to use for 30 days.

10. Launch CCC. On the left, select your OLD HDD as the "Source" drive. On the right, select the new SSD as the "Target" drive. You want to clone everything. CCC will even replicate the recovery partition on the new internal SSD.

11. Let CCC do its thing, It may take a while.

12. When done, restart again, and invoke the Startup Manager as you did above in Step 4. This time, you should see -2- drives. Click on the SSD and see if it boots.

13. If it does, success! Now go to the Startup Disk in System Preferences and set the NEW SSD to be your startup drive.

14. Reboot one more time, to be sure everything is working as intended.

 

[niteflyr]

The black screen indicates there is something else going on here. My guess is it won't boot from an external drive either. Internet Recovery should work on a blank, unformatted drive. I would try an SMC and NVRAM reset and hope that allows the screen and Internet Recovery to work. Otherwise, it's off to the Genius bar.

Resetting the SMC for Mac Pro, Intel-based iMac, Intel-based Mac mini, or Intel-based Xserve

Shut down the computer.
Unplug the computer's power cord.
Wait fifteen seconds.
Attach the computer's power cord.
Wait five seconds, then press the power button to turn on the computer.

Resetting NVRAM / PRAM
Shut down your Mac.
Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command (⌘), Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
Turn on the computer.
Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys before the gray screen appears.
Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
Release the keys.

Just noticed original drive not working either. Good Luck!

 

[El Hikaru]

Hello all,


Today i tried to follow the ifixit guide on how to replace your hdd with an ssd.

Here is the guide:http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+Mini+Late+2012+Hard+Drive+Replacement/11716

I followed exactly the guide and i didnt do nothing wrong, the problem is that after the installation of the ssd drive my mac mini doesnt want to boot up. I know that there is no operating system inside and i have to re-install it via internet recovery BUT there is no signal to my monitor (hdmi) and there is no sound at all (you know the boing thing)...

:/

the power led is working perfectly, the fan also...

i am pretty sad today really.

Could you please someone help me?

Dear fellow DIY,

Unless you torn, cut, broke a piece or a cable, I think the chance of recovery is very high.
I would put the HDD back and make a bootable USB and try again.

 

[dangerfish]

I've not swapped a drive on a mini but I have on an iMac and a Macbook. I believe you have a loose cable. Those instructions have you moving the I/O board I would not be surprised at all if the connection to the HDMI port has come loose or has been broken. I would start there and make sure all of your connections are intact.
What year is the mini? I believe you must have a mid 2010 or later in order to use Internet Recovery. If you do, then you really don't need to format or install OS X onto the drive before insertion. Once you get the video working, restart computer while holding down CMD + R (windows key?). Use Disk Utility to format your drive and then you can reinstall OS X from the web.
But I definitely think your issue is with a loose or broken connector. If its broken, you may be screwed.

 

[Yahooligan]

Yes, definitely a disconnected or loose connection somewhere. Even with the blank SSD you would get the chime and a drive with a question mark on the display. Since it's not even giving you the chime then it's unable to even initialize the hardware to get to that point, so something is up. You need to open it back up and figure out where the problem is.

 

[Ryndom]

The Boot

Your not getting a boot chime, you are not getting anything on the screen.
Are you hearing fans?
If so the problem is more likely the RAM is not seated correctly. Reseat the RAM and retest it. A computer will still go through boot process without a hard drive.
Good luck - if it still failing, and you didn't find any obvious connection problems, put the old HDD back in, test. If still failing I like the suggestion of visiting the Genius Bar, leave the original drive in for your visit.

 

[h9826790]

Yes, definitely a disconnected or loose connection somewhere. Even with the blank SSD you would get the chime and a drive with a question mark on the display. Since it's not even giving you the chime then it's unable to even initialize the hardware to get to that point, so something is up. You need to open it back up and figure out where the problem is.

100% agree. No boot chime means something very wrong, but not about the format or content of the new SSD.