Macbook A1278 refusing to boot

[slippyjim]

Hi,

My mum has an old Macbook A1278 that she still loves but it suddenly started showing the folder with a ? in on boot.
I started from internet recovery and went into disk utility

The first time I tried this verify disk was greyed out for all the different drives in the left column, then on the second boot into recovery I could verify and repair one of them ( cant remember which exactly now) but it still didnt boot

Went back into internet recovery and went to install OSX, I click through and eventually see this screen

It doesnt find the SSD.

I have taken the SSD out and connected it to my M1 Air and I can see all her files ok

I have ran Apple diagnostics and that says everything ok

What do I try from here?

I am goign to create a USB drive with Mountain Lion on and see if that can see the SSD.
If I reinstall Mountain Lion will it wipe all her files and programs or does it do a "repair" installation?

Thanks

 

[DeltaMac]

I suspect that your mum's SSD was using OSX 10.15.7 (Catalina), therefore formatted as APFS. That would explain why it could see the files on that drive when connected to your M1 Air (running a newer version of macOS) and why it would NOT see the SSD when on a system booted to Mountain Lion (which can't see any kind of APFS volume, just an un-recognized device. Mountain Lion doesn't understand what APFS is. If you try to install Mountain Lion anyway, and the SSD works at all, it will likely throw out an error immediately, something like "unknown error" or similar. And, you can then erase the drive to change to a known format for Mountain Lion, which will leave you with nothing except a system, all existing files erased.

 

[slippyjim]

Arrhhh ok, so if I understand correctly it originally came with Mountain Lion installed but that is too old to read the SSD in its current state?

So if I create a Catalina USB drive I might have more luck, I'll give that a go and report back

Thanks

 

[DeltaMac]

Do you know which version of OS X was installed before the boot problem started?
THAT system would be a good one to use for an erase/reinstall...

The A1278 (13-inch MacBook Pro), shipping from early 2009 to late 2016, probably never shipped with Mountain Lion, although individual MacBook Pros may have been updated at time of sale. If you see Mountain Lion when booting to Internet Recovery, then that just means that Mountain Lion is the oldest compatible system that is still available to that MacBook Pro.
And, yes, Mountain Lion cannot read a drive that is formatted APFS

(note: There was also a MacBook A1278 (called a Late 2008 Aluminum), and I thought that was what this thread was asking. But, I see in OP's first picture that is a MacBook Pro, not a MacBook. So, 1 of 5 MacBook Pro A1278 models, with the 2012 model being the last Mac sold new with a built-in optical drive.

 

[slippyjim]

not sure what OS was installed before the issue, but she thinks it was Catalina and that does sound a bit familiar to me as I did reinstall it a few years back.

I booted from Catalina USB and it shows the Apple logo with the bar going across and then it goes to a no entry sign and thats it

I tried the ignore ownership fix but that didnt work

I think I'm getting somewhere now, I did Command, Alt R on startup and it did internet recovery with Catalina and then from Disk utility I ran First Aid but it said "File system verify or repair failed: (-69845)" and it Unmounted the disk, then when I tried to Mount it again it failed

Going to backup the disk and check for errors

 

[Jonnod III]

Use your machine to make a copy of the files on her drive before you do anything else. Preferably onto a clean drive of some kind.

 

[slippyjim]

I backed up her files
Tried to do a fresh install from USB but always got the no entry sign
Booted from internet recovery with Command Option R and that downloaded and installed Catalina
All was good, it installed an update and restarted
On the next restart it froze at the logon screen
Had to force power off
Hasnt booted since, it's gone back to the original issue

So going to get her a new Mac