Chosen Solution
Hi all, Well, I got a macbook pro 15” mid 2009 from an auction nearby. I was told that the hdd was removed, and that it worked. Uhhemm, ok. Opened it to fund the hdd cable had been severed. I bought a new cable (2 actually) and have had no luck getting it to boot. I did the following: Replace cable, twice. Flashing folder resulted Cleared nvram about 25 times Cleared smc Made a boot disk Connected a hot network cable to it Usb start up disks External ssd drives Regular sata drives Holding option, and about every key option Removed hdd copletely, i did get an “install catalina” but when I clicked it went back to flashing folder [no hard drive being recognized to install] I cannot get it to go into recovery mode, no matter what i push, push and hold, dual pushes? It all just comes back to blinking folder. Even tried a hot network cable, bupkis! I am begging for any help, guidance, please. Running short on options, and can’t take it much longer. Thanks guys!! Screen comes right up, keys work, batt seems good, dvd drive spins, it chimes.. Thom Update (03/09/2020) How do i make a boot drive of el capitan from my working catalina machine? Every time I try, disk utility stops me with errors. Update (03/10/2020)
Hi again, I’ve purchased Apple OS X El Capitan so I can get my personal Macbook Pro to somehow boot. My work Macbook Pro is a 2015 running Catalina. I’d love to know the steps to install El Capitan to a SSD connected to the 2015 Catalina Macbook? I can mount my SSD, erase it, and so forth. But, it won’t let me recover the El Capitan image to it, so I can use it on the older Macbook Pro. Does the SSD need to be formatted/partitioned a certain way for it to write the old OS to the SSD? Much thanks, in advance for any help.
I fixed it on my own.
First thing - your machine will not boot from anything higher than El Captain natively. Pre-Installed MacOS:X 10.5.7 (9J3050)Maximum MacOS:X 10.11.x* https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbo…
Actually scratch that . If you’ve just replaced the HDD with a new one your computer basically doesn’t have a primary OS to boot from . You will more than likely have to install a fresh OS on to your new HDD then try again . If that fails don’t worry like all state stands … your in good hands ! Lol Update (03/09/2020) Yea after rereading im almost 98% certain that the computer is doing that because it cannot find a HDD with a fresh OS to reinstall to your Mac . Disk utility , partition drive !? Open Finder from your dock. Select Applications. Scroll down and open the Utilities folder. Double-click to open Disk Utility. Select your hard drive in the Disk Utility window. It will be the first drive on the list. It might be named “Fusion,” or “Macintosh HD.” Click on the Partition tab. You will be prompted to either add an APFS volume or a Partition. Click Partition. Click the Add partition button it looks like a plus (+) symbol. Change the size of the partition you wish to use by dragging the resize controls. The used space is represented in blue. Name the new partition. Specify which file system format you want to use. If you’re running macOS 10.13 or higher, you’ll want APFS. If you are running macOS 10.12 or older, you’ll want Mac OS Extended. Click apply.
