MacBook Pro circle slash before booting

[adelejjeh]

Hey all. I have a late 2011 13" MacBook Pro. I decided to change its magnetic HDD with an SSD, so I bought a new SSD and created a Mavericks install USB and installed OS X 10.9 on the new SSD (after formatting it as MacOSXExtended(Journaled)). The installation went fine, but now whenever I boot the mac, I get a circle slash symbol for a brief period of time before it switches to the regular apple logo and the mac boots. I read online that this symbol is usually associated with failed boot attempts, and that it might suggest a faulty hard drive. What does it mean in my situation? Could it be that the SSD I bought is faulty? What should I do, keep on using it, or should I replace my old HDD and return the SSD before something worse happens?

 

[Weaselboy]

If you put the old HDD back in and this goes away, then I would say you drew a badd SSD and should exchange it. That is definitely not normal.

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

MacBook Pro circle slash before booting

Reset the PRAM, then select the new startup disk in the system preferences and reboot your Mac!

 

[T5BRICK]

If you put the old HDD back in and this goes away, then I would say you drew a badd SSD and should exchange it. That is definitely not normal.

It sounds like the Mac just doesn't have a default boot drive set. I don't think anything is wrong with the SSD.

 

[Weaselboy]

It sounds like the Mac just doesn't have a default boot drive set. I don't think anything is wrong with the SSD.

I was thinking that too. But all that does is cause a slow boot while it searches for the boot drive. It should not cause that symbol to come up.