Macbook won't reinstall MacOS

[Pleek]

Hey there,

Two weeks ago my Macbook started freezing for 2 minutes, then worked without any problems for 10-30 seconds, then started from the beginning and so on. I restarted a couple times, after that I got the grey, crossed out circle, but then it continued to the log in screen. I was able to log in but still had the same problems.

After doing that a few times, I couldn't even log in anymore, it just showed the screen with the crossed out circle. I tried resetting the PRAM, didn't help. I tried starting in Recovery Mode, didn't work.

I am able to get into Internet Recovery Mode. I repaired my SSD a couple of times, it always ended with "Operation succesfull", didn't fix the problem though. Then i tried reinstalling macOS. The first time it took about 30 hours, then rebooted but then it again only booted to the grey circle (I don't think it actually reinstalled anything).

Then I erased the hard drave using disk utilities and started reinstalling again. That was 4 days ago, it's still at "6 minutes remaining" as it was when I started reinstalling. Internet connection is fine and reliably at 5MB/s. It's not frozen, I can cancel the process and move the window around, it just doesn't do anything.

I'm assuming the SSD is the culprit here. Can anyone confirm that? In that case I'd just order a new one and replace it. Or any other suggestions for what I can try?

Thanks a lot!

Macbook Pro Early 2011

 

[Bart Kela]

There is no way for anyone here to confirm that your SSD is going bad. We could guess or provide anecdotal bedtime fairy tales about our own SSD problems, but that's all they would be, not a validated diagnosis about your particular piece of hardware.

One fairly simple course of action would be for you to install a fresh copy of the OS onto another drive, maybe an old unused spinner you have lying around. If it works, then you have a fairly good evidence that your SSD is the problem.

Good luck.

 

[Intell]

Before you replace the SSD, replace the hard drive cable. That model has had problems with the hard drive cable failing and what you're describing sounds like it's failing. They are very inexpensive and easy to replace.

 

[Audit13]

I replaced a failing drive cable in a 2010 13" MBP and a 2009 15" MBP.

Both machines would detect the drive but would encounter problems when trying to boot, erase, or partition.

I used cheap replacement cables from Amazon and both now work perfectly.