Mid 2011 Upgrade to SSD Need Help

[AmyK]

So I decided to jump on SSD bandwagon, thinking it would help give MBP some new life. I'm in upgrade HELL!

I bought a Crucial MX 100 256 gb SSD (and upgraded the memory but that was easy peasy)

I watched so many videos and tutorials, I have tried to boot from USB, Clone the HD, Install new, Nothing works. Oh I even went to the box and tried the CD (which I didn't think I had).

In my last effort I upgraded the HD (now back in the MBP for the 4th time) to Yosemite. I backed up my HD to time machine and tried to reinstall from Time machine, that didn't work so I tried a fresh install and this is the error I get. (see pic)

This was supposed to be a walk in the damn park... I'm ready to throw the SSD across the room and stomp on it in a fit of rage.

Could I have a bad SSD? or am I doing something wrong? All help is appreciated.

 

[teezy]

It's possible that you have a corrupted installer. Are you performing the install from your Time Machine backup or from your old drive (which would be in an external USB enclosure)? Or did you create an install media on a separate partition on your backup drive or another drive? The resolution to this could be simply redownloading the installer from the App Store onto any running copy of OSX (like your Time Machine backup, which you can boot from) or making a proper install media from the Time Machine backup using the steps in Option 2 here.

 

[Weaselboy]

How are you trying to install from the Time Machine backup? You should be able to option key boot to the TM disk and that takes you to a recovery screen. From there use Disk Util to format the new drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then quit DU and click restore and that should do it. Where along these steps is it failing?

 

[AmyK]

For this latest try... I did the time machine back up to an external I had so yes. My old drive is just hanging out waiting to be called back into service at this point.

But when the time machine restore didn't work I tried doing a fresh install via web, that's when I got this message.

 

[AmyK]

How are you trying to install from the Time Machine backup? You should be able to option key boot to the TM disk and that takes you to a recovery screen. From there use Disk Util to format the new drive to Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Then quit DU and click restore and that should do it. Where along these steps is it failing?

I did all that, it would then take me back to the recovery screen and want to start all over. That is when instead of recovering from TM I went with fresh install from the web and it would do everything and then give me the error and go back to the recovery screen.

 

[Weaselboy]

For this latest try... I did the time machine back up to an external I had so yes. My old drive is just hanging out waiting to be called back into service at this point.

But when the time machine restore didn't work I tried doing a fresh install via web, that's when I got this message.

Okay... so you can use the TM backup to restore to an external, so that proves the TM backup is good. So at this point, I'd say you have either a bad SSD or a bad drive cable.

Can you put the SSD in a USB enclosure and try to the TM restore that way. If that works, that pretty much proves it is the internal drive cable that is bad.

 

[AmyK]

Okay... so you can use the TM backup to restore to an external, so that proves the TM backup is good. So at this point, I'd say you have either a bad SSD or a bad drive cable.

Can you put the SSD in a USB enclosure and try to the TM restore that way. If that works, that pretty much proves it is the internal drive cable that is bad.

I will give it a shot... I read about the bad drive cables but if the cable was bad then my old HD shouldn't work when I put it back in right?

But it does so I figured it wasn't the cable.

 

[Weaselboy]

I will give it a shot... I read about the bad drive cables but if the cable was bad then my old HD shouldn't work when I put it back in right?

But it does so I figured it wasn't the cable.

I have seen a lot of these where the cable starts acting up only with the SSD. My theory is the SSD moves a lot more data, so it can make a borderline cable act up when it works fine with a HDDs lower transfer rates.

 

[teezy]

Okay... so you can use the TM backup to restore to an external, so that proves the TM backup is good. So at this point, I'd say you have either a bad SSD or a bad drive cable.

Can you put the SSD in a USB enclosure and try to the TM restore that way. If that works, that pretty much proves it is the internal drive cable that is bad.

Definitely try this. I had a bunch of crap going on when I installed my SSD (actually a Crucial drive as well), check out this thread. Since I created a Mavericks install media on a separate partition on my external drive, I booted to that and installed it that way. And it worked fine... all after I replaced the SATA cable, which apparently went kaput somehow. Clarification: My SATA cable started going bad before the SSD came into play.
It still sounds like your method of installing Yosemite is a bit sketchy though. I believe that restoring from the web won't work on an empty drive (your SSD), which would explain why that "missing or corrupt" message comes up. I suggest booting to your Time Machine backup and redownloading the Yosemite installer, allthewhile prepping (formatting) the new drive for the install, and then you can restore to the Time Machine backup.

 

[Weaselboy]

I suggest booting to your Time Machine backup and redownloading the Yosemite installer, allthewhile prepping (formatting) the new drive for the install, and then you can restore to the Time Machine backup.

It sounds like she has a working copy of Yosemite on the TM drive, so a simple restore of the TM drive would be all that is needed. I don't see a need to redownload the OS.

 

[AmyK]

Well I have Yosemite downloaded on two machines already so that's not a big deal, (the original HD has it and my husbands MacBook has a fresh DL on it too.) I will try your suggestions tonight and see if I can't finally get this working.

 

[teezy]

It sounds like she has a working copy of Yosemite on the TM drive, so a simple restore of the TM drive would be all that is needed. I don't see a need to redownload the OS.

I only say that as another option to get the new drive up and running. Silly question, would the recovery partition be on the TM disk? Because if it isn't, there's no way for her to actually get to that... at all. Unless she pops in the old drive (either in an enclosure or the internal bay) and boots to the recovery partition from there and then perform the restore. And in this case, TM wouldn't be necessary because she'd be restoring from an active copy of the OS... all assuming that her old drive actually has the recovery partition on it (which it should).

Well I have Yosemite downloaded on two machines already so that's not a big deal, (the original HD has it and my husbands MacBook has a fresh DL on it too.) I will try your suggestions tonight and see if I can't finally get this working.

Great, looking forward to see how it turns out. Good luck!

 

[Weaselboy]

I only say that as another option to get the new drive up and running. Silly question, would the recovery partition be on the TM disk? Because if it isn't, there's no way for her to actually get to that... at all. Unless she pops in the old drive (either in an enclosure or the internal bay) and boots to the recovery partition from there and then perform the restore. And in this case, TM wouldn't be necessary because she'd be restoring from an active copy of the OS... all assuming that her old drive actually has the recovery partition on it (which it should).

Yes, there is a recovery utility that is part of the TM backup disk. You just option key boot to it like you would recovery. Any TM backup made to an external disk since Lion 10.7.2 will do this.

 

[teezy]

Yes, there is a recovery utility that is part of the TM backup disk. You just option key boot to it like you would recovery. Any TM backup made to an external disk since Lion 10.7.2 will do this.

Obviously. That's not what I was referring to though, I was referring to cmd+R, booting to the actual recovery partition ON the TM disk (provided that it exists). Not... booting TO the TM backup. I've already indirectly mentioned that that was possible, numerous times. I'm not at my machine so I can't verify this possibility at the moment.

 

[Weaselboy]

Obviously. That's not what I was referring to though, I was referring to cmd+R, booting to the actual recovery partition ON the TM disk (provided that it exists). Not... booting TO the TM backup. I've already indirectly mentioned that that was possible, numerous times. I'm not at my machine so I can't verify this possibility at the moment.

If you option key boot to the TM disk you are on the recovery partition from that disk, and you are not actually booted to the OS on the TM backup drive. Command-r will only get you to the default internal drive's recovery volume.

See the info in the green box here.

 

[teezy]

Gotcha. I stand corrected. Thanks.

 

[AmyK]

So before I tear it apart again to take the SSD out. I tried to boot from the time machine and I got the same error. So does that mean my back up is bad? (I used to think I knew what I was doing but damn this has me doubting I have a clue)

 

[teezy]

Are you positive that you properly formatted the SSD?

 

[AmyK]

Yes. I've made sure it's correct every time

 

[teezy]

Hmm. Do you have an external enclosure handy? What could help is having the SSD inside that and your old HDD inside the laptop and try the whole process from there. I think that's how I managed to get mine to work. Had nothing but problems with the SSD in the internal bay at first.

 

[AmyK]

I sure do. I was just hoping to not have to swap it out again. But I'll do it.

 

[teezy]

Haha yeah I understand. Hopefully this does it. Good luck!

 

[Weaselboy]

So before I tear it apart again to take the SSD out. I tried to boot from the time machine and I got the same error. So does that mean my back up is bad? (I used to think I knew what I was doing but damn this has me doubting I have a clue)

Do you only et the error when you try to restore the TM backup to the new SSD?

Earlier you said you were able to restore the TM backup to another external drive, so that would seem to indicate the TM backup is good.

 

[AmyK]

Ok so I decided to put the original hard drive into the external enclosure and boot from it and try to install Yosemite onto the SSD (can you tell I don't want to give in and pull the SSD out?) this screen is all I get, so I'm pulling it out and putting the HD back in the MBP and the SSD in the housing and I'll try it that way again. I'm just so frustrated with this.

 

[ThisOldMacHead]

Ok so I decided to put the original hard drive into the external enclosure and boot from it and try to install Yosemite onto the SSD (can you tell I don't want to give in and pull the SSD out?) this screen is all I get, so I'm pulling it out and putting the HD back in the MBP and the SSD in the housing and I'll try it that way again. I'm just so frustrated with this.

While I'm by no means an expert on SSDs... If I were in this position, I'd have to conclude it's either a problem with the cable or the drive itself.

The only way you can determine if it's the cable is by putting the SSD in the external enclosure and try to install from scratch. I saw someone else suggest it... Unless I missed something, it doesn't appear you've tried that yet. If it installs, then you need a new cable. If not, it's the drive.

I've only recently jumped into the SSD world and it was as straightforward as installing on a HD. I put in the new drive, installed fresh from a Yosemite thumb drive, and the transferred my info from an external enclosure.

I didn't personally have any problems with my cable... But I'm extremely pedantic when taking my machines apart.

Open it back up and throw the SSD in the enclosure... It seems to be your most direct option at this point.