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Macbook Pro installation CD hangs at apple logo

C

carlospots76

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 2, 2015
10
0
I have erased the hard drive of my sons mac book pro externally because I could not get any of the methods like Option Key, Hold down C at Boot, Command R, or re-install from the OS disk to work from working OS. Really tried everything I can find on-line, but nothing seems to work. I bought a snowleopard CD from apple to use to do the re-install but can't get it to work, I usually live in a windows world as a techy so quit able, I thought. Rebuilt a few macs now, repaired and reinstalled, owned a G5 PowerMac but need some help with this. The mac was working before I re-formatted the drive with MacDrive 10 I know this seems drastic but it had lots issues, so figured a reload and start again would be best. I put the Snow leopard CD in the drive hold down Option Key, it checks the CD offers me the OS Disk I hit enter the CD spins up then nothing and it is the same no matter what I do. The recovery partition did not work either when it was working, what next. I have a copy of the files on an external drive but it is not bootable, only copied user folder. The battery inside has popped so will only work on power and the track pad has seen better days.

Any Advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks C
 
What MacBook Pro version? If it shipped with OSX later than 10.6, you probably can't install 10.6 on it.
 
Hello and welcome to MacRumors Forums

Mind telling us what is the computer model (MacBook Pro 6,1 for example), what year it came out? It will greatly help us get info in order to help you install the OS.

If your computer was released 2010 and earlier-ish, then it should boot fine. If your computer was released in Mid 2011 or later, then it won't boot but you can hold Command+R to boot into Internet Recovery and go from there.
 
The serial number is W80127DTAGV one articular I found says "The 4th and 5th digits of your serial number is the week it was made, the third digit is the year" so week 12, year 0 so maybe 0 means 2010? Model number is A1286. Already tried the Command+R as I said, does not work.
 
Yeah, I checked the number and it says Early 2010. Is the optical drive fine? Can you try either plugging in an external drive or use another Mac's optical drive through a FireWire cable and Target Disk Mode? (hold T on startup I believe) If the disc is brand new, it does seem like it.
 
The drive I think is fine because when I had a working OS it could read the disk and I was able to select different types of install options and it did run. Have already tried an external drive using Magic Bridge II http://www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-Bridge-eSATA-SATA-Adapter/dp/B004HTIHKA and added an internal CD read from my tower, this is what I used to backup the Mac to an external HDD.
 
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OP: Have you tried starting the computer holding the c key down instead of using the option key?
It can take quite awhile to load the OS and start from the install disc. Did you give it enough time?
 
Tried this, gave it 10 to 15 mins and the apple logo never changed also the cd drive had stopped, so I can imagine it was loading the OS, how long should it take?
 
carlospots76 said:
Tried this, gave it 10 to 15 mins and the apple logo never changed also the cd drive had stopped, so I can imagine it was loading the OS, how long should it take?
Click to expand...
It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes, 10 minutes in the worst conditions. It probably gave up for some reason. I suggest testing the disc itself. Do you have a Mac where you can put it to see if it mounts properly?
 
It worked before I formatted, I put it in it span up and opened on the desktop and gave me several options for installation or add features.
 
Tried holding the C key down CD started ran for a few minutes and the apple logo is just sat on the screen. been there since 23:32 its 23:55 no sound from CD it's new direct from Apple.
 
carlospots76 said:
Tried holding the C key down CD started ran for a few minutes and the apple logo is just sat on the screen. been there since 23:32 its 23:55 no sound from CD it's new direct from Apple.
Click to expand...
Sometimes discs can arrive DOA (dead-on-arrival) or near-DOA and just stop working randomly. Do as I told, and try mounting the drive into another Mac, assuming you have one, and see if it works. You could also try booting it into another Mac, or you can just contact Apple and get a replacement copy.
 
I Have had both the screen below while trying to use the CD. So is it not working? Don't have another Mac If I could get a working mac anad stripped out its HDD and put in mine and then tried to install the OS on that one would it cause any issue then putting the drive back in mine.
 

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Maybe the disc is recognized but certain files are corrupted or there are bad disc sectors (although unlikely). How did you boot into the Mac OS X Lion recovery utility?
 
These are screen shots from the net because I did not capture them at the time, but they looked the same, except I have a Snow Leopard CD
 
Oh okay. If you pulled the drive out of a working Mac, putting it back in won't do anything bad, assuming you don't break the hard drive yourself. You could try using that in order to check if the CD mounts on the computer, but keep in mind that the system needs to be running 10.6 or later in order for it to boot of your computer (maybe 10.5 as well, but I'm not sure).
 
Will see if I can find another mac of right type, will update this when I know something.
 
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