Reformatting mac pro

Discussion in 'Mac Pro' started by shortpballer, Mar 17, 2015.

Most Liked Posts
  1. shortpballer, Mar 17, 2015

    shortpballer macrumors member

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2015
    #1
    Been trying to do a clean install on my mac pro because its been years.

    My SSD broke down around 6 months ago, so I moved everything over to a 2TB backup hard drive and have been running off that for 6 moths.

    Finally I purchased an SSD, and it arrived today along with a brand new snow leopard cd.

    I put the SSD in and the snow leopard and it wouldn't boot. So I figured it was the SSD. I put back in the 2TB to see if it was recognizing the disk, and it said it needed to be formatted. So I partitioned it for mac. All good, now the disk is recognized.

    I tried taking out the other hard drive, leaving just the new SSD, and the snow leopard disk in. Still won't boot.

    Put back in the 2TB and asked the computer to restart using the CD as the startup disk.

    Now nothing. Now I can't get the computer past a simple apple logo at startup.

    Need Help!

    Mac 4.1
    6-core 3.33
    48gb ram
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  2. sarthak, Mar 17, 2015

    sarthak macrumors 6502

    Joined:
    Nov 19, 2012
    Location:
    Canada
    #2
    Have you tried a newer version of OS X? Perhaps boot of a USB image of Mavericks or Yosemite and installing that on the SSD instead.

    I can't recall if it works on the '09 Nehalems but, if you had a newer version of OS X installed before you should be able to hold CMD+R to boot into recovery mode to download and install a new version of OS X.


    Also try a PRAM reset (CMD+P+R) and try holding option and selecting Snow Leopard again to boot off the Install DVD to install it to the SSD.

    If you've already installed it to the SSD and it's not booting it could be a bad disc or an older version of Snow Leopard that is incompatible with the SSD (and its firmware).
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  3. lowendlinux, Mar 18, 2015

    lowendlinux Contributor

    lowendlinux

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2014
    Location:
    North Country (way upstate NY)
    #3
    Why not just download 10.9/10.10 from your back up drive and install it on the new SSD?
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  4. dor, Mar 18, 2015

    dor macrumors member

    dor

    Joined:
    Mar 14, 2015
    #4
    I would suggest that fresh install of a newer OS X version is the best option for you.
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  5. OS6-OSX, Mar 18, 2015

    OS6-OSX macrumors 6502a

    OS6-OSX

    Joined:
    Jun 13, 2004
    Location:
    California
    #5
    I have had an issue like this on my 3,1. Would not boot from the SL DVD, Drive Genius or Techtool Pro 5. Ended up being the video card. The Quadro 4000 needs an OS newer than any on the disks listed. All these disks were fine when the old 8800 gt was in there!
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  6. thefredelement, Mar 18, 2015

    thefredelement macrumors 65816

    thefredelement

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2012
    Location:
    New York
    #6
    IIRC someone on this forum had a similar issue once upon a time and it was that the Superdrive had become a little loose.

    What happens if you put the CD in and just press the Option button after you hear the chime?
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  7. shortpballer, Mar 19, 2015

    shortpballer thread starter macrumors member

    Joined:
    Mar 12, 2015
    #7
    Thank You all for your help. Figured it out and mac pro is running good again on a fresh install!
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)

Share This Page