Trouble installing new SSD - Macbook won't boot into recovery

Chuckoir

Chuckoir

Suspended / Banned
Messages
940
Name
Steve
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all - I'm after a bit of help installing OSX on a new SSD.

I'm powering on the Mac, whilst holding down the Option Key and the boot menu comes up (where it lists the HDD and 10.9 Recovey).

I select 10.9 Recovery, the Apple logo appears and the spinny thing underneath - it does that for maybe 20 seconds then the Mac powers off.

I've also created a Recovery disk using a USB thumb drive - I select it on the recovery menu, but all the Mac does power off after 20 seconds or so. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, nor why I can't boot into Recovery in order to install OSX on my new SSD. Any ideas?

Mac specs are as follows:
Macbook Pro 13" - Late 2011
2.4GHz Intel Core i5
Running OSX 10.9.5

Another option I've considered, would be to clone the Hard Drive to the new SSD, install the SSD, then boot to that - would that work?

Many thanks in advance for any offer of advice/assistance.
 
•
The drive should be partitioned (name it what you like) in the extended
format and the GUI option.
 
neil_g said:
Is the ssd a replacement or in addition to the HD?
Click to expand...
It's a replacement.

Previously, I had partitioned the hard drive to install Windows on it. I no longer needed windows so I binned the partition it was on. I'm thinking I may have deleted the recovery partition - but then I doubt I would see it on start up. What's bothering me is that I can't even boot into the USB I made.
 
Kodiak Qc said:
•
The drive should be partitioned (name it what you like) in the extended
format and the GUI option.
Click to expand...
I don't think that explains why I can't boot into Recovery Mode though, or does it?
 
If your hard drive does not meet the Mac OS recovery required condition,
it just won't recover.
 
Chuckoir said:
I select 10.9 Recovery,
Click to expand...
Should you not select the USB recovery disk as your boot device? Then it will boot into recovery mode.


If I am wrong about the boot device (I know much more about PC's) it sounds like a problem with your USB recovery disk if the mac cannot boot from it. Try again with a new usb stick, If you cannot get a usb recovery disk to work you will have to clone the hard drive to the SSD.
 
Last edited:
If that is the reason why, how would I resolve the issue?

Would removing the old hard drive, install the ssd then boot in to the USB recovery drive which I created using Apples recovery assistant, work?
 
redsnappa said:
Sounds like a problem with your USB recovery disk if the mac cannot boot from it. Try again with a new usb stick, If you cannot get a usb recovery disk to work you will have to clone the hard drive to the SSD.
Click to expand...
Okay thanks - can you recommend a programme to clone the hard drive? Would Superduper work?
 
Doesn't let me get that far - just turns off after 20 when I select the recovery.

I'll check if the hard drive is partition correctly, then remove the hard drive and see if I can boot to the USB, if that fails I'll try cloning the hard drive.. Colour me confused.
 
I'm running Mavericks, and that guide is for Yosemite which is no longer available :(

I removed the HDD to install the SSD and try booting from the Recovery USB drive I made - that doesn't work either. Just spins the thing beneath the Apple logo and turns off.

So I bit the bullet and just purchased Superduper! and have begun the slow process of cloning my Hard Drive....at 6mb/s.

I'd still like to know why it won't launch in Recovery Mode - so if anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.
 
did you upgrade through the app store as it should be on your purchased software list.

to me it sounds like your usb recovery media isnt right. id look at recreating when youre back up and running.
 
neil_g said:
did you upgrade through the app store as it should be on your purchased software list.

to me it sounds like your usb recovery media isnt right. id look at recreating when youre back up and running.
Click to expand...
I didn't upgrade to Yosemite unfortunately, I'm stuck on 10.9.5 for now.

I even just popped out and bought a new USB drive to create a fresh one... Lord knows what's going on, once I've cloned the HDD, I'll download El Capitan and see if I can remedy it. Even though the end result will be the same, I'd still like to find out why it won't bloody boot!

Thanks for your advice, Neil, appreciate it. :)
 
Chuckoir said:
So I bit the bullet and just purchased Superduper! and have begun the slow process of cloning my Hard Drive....at 6mb/s.
I'd still like to know why it won't launch in Recovery Mode -
Click to expand...
If you cloned the hard drive correctly you should not need to boot to recovery mode to get it to work.
Once your mac is able to boot to your cloned SSD it should boot to OSX without issues.
 
Last edited:
redsnappa said:
If you cloned the hard drive correctly you should not need to boot to recovery mode to get it to work.
Once your mac is able to boot to your cloned SSD it should boot to OSX without issues.
Click to expand...
Yeah it's all good now - 2.5hrs later, I've now got a 1TB SSD in my Macbook :D

I'm going to do some more investigating, however, to figure out why it wouldn't boot in recovery mode.

Thanks all!
 
Chuckoir said:
Okay thanks - can you recommend a programme to clone the hard drive? Would Superduper work?
Click to expand...
Carbon Copy Cloner is probably one of the best
 
Chuckoir said:
going to do some more investigating, however, to figure out why it wouldn't boot in recovery mode.
Click to expand...

If your recovery partition is trashed on your original HDD it will be trashed when you clone to your SSD.
 
redsnappa said:
If your recovery partition is trashed on your original HDD it will be trashed when you clone to your SSD.
Click to expand...
Hmm, good point. I assume there's a way to create a new partition?

Doesn't explain why the USB recovery wouldn't work either, though?
 
Chuckoir said:
Doesn't explain why the USB recovery wouldn't work either, though?
Click to expand...
It would be logical to think that when you create a recovery USB the mac copies stuff from the recovery partition on the mac hard disk to the USB stick. If the recover partition on the mac hard disk is trashed then ...
 
redsnappa said:
It would be logical to think that when you create a recovery USB the mac copies stuff from the recovery partition on the mac hard disk to the USB stick. If the recover partition on the mac hard disk is trashed then ...
Click to expand...

Apple doesn't directly support USB installs, the alternatives are Internet Recovery or taking your machine to the Apple Store for a reinstall.

USB boot drives can be made by downloading the OS Installer from the Mac App store on a working Mac and then using a utility such as http://diskmakerx.com to copy the installer on to the USB drive and then making it bootable.

The OS X Installation process will create/replace the recovery partition as well as installing the OS. Cloning the drive with Carbon Copy Cloner / Supa Dupa won't preserve the recovery partition.
 
Chuckoir said:
Hmm, good point. I assume there's a way to create a new partition?

Doesn't explain why the USB recovery wouldn't work either, though?
Click to expand...

The only safe way to get the recovery partition back is to erase the drive and re-run the installer. The USB recovery drive probably has some issue that is causing the failure. I suggest you try re-making it and try again. You can test USB boot without actually having to reinstall anything.
 
That's for the pointers - I kinda got around it by just using Superduper to clone the hard drive on to the SSD.

I've just downloaded El Capitan as well, and have installed that - I wonder if that has created a new partition... Either way, it's sorted (until I need to do it again - although with a 1TB SSD, I doubt I'll need to any time soon), but I'll look into creating a USB boot drive for future use.

In the meantime - my Mac is now happily whizzing along with it's upgrade of 16GB RAM and SSD :D - would never tell it's four years old!
 
You can check if the El Capitan install has added a recovery partition by switching off then switching on holding the cmd and R keys to boot to recovery. If it works, then you have a recovery partition, if you get Internet Recovery, then it hasn't.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top