Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

new2mac2017

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 24, 2017
1
0
Hi All,

I'm a PC tech and just started with MAC.

The short version:
Macbook Unibody Mid 2010 - removed working HDD (El Capitan installed)
Installed SSD (Samsung 128GB) - Fresh out of the box
Booted pressing CMD (the square with the circles at the corners) + R
Get a grey folder with a question mark in it.

I've made a Sierra USB flash boot installer using Make Boot Disk (I think that's what is was called) using my other mac
USB flash drive is 128GB - Build went ok no errors

Connected the USB stick.
Held down CMD + R - Get grey folder with flashing question mark

Also tried booting holding ATL + CMD = grey folder with question mark
also tried booting holding only ATL = I get a white screen with a mouse point
also tried the PRAM reset (CMD + ALT + P + R). It cycles a couple of times then re-tried the above = Still no result.

Do I need to get a OSX install DVD and boot from that.

I appreciate the CMD + R is probably not working as that runs from the recovery partition on the HDD, which I removed.

Also I don't think this model (due to it's age) has the Internet Recovery Option.

Only other thing I can think of is to clone the HDD to the SSD (I have a dedicated hardware unit to do that) then once up upgrade to Sierra.

I'm not hung up on Sierra, I just want a fresh OSX install to the SSD, even if it's El Capitan.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Leigh.
 

svendobbelaere

macrumors regular
Jul 27, 2012
114
55
Belgium
Do you have an external case for the original HD? Try putting the HD in that and connecting it to the Mac, and then booting from that through CMD + R.

The recovery should allow you to specify you want to install in the SSD.
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,489
16,217
California
also tried booting holding only ATL = I get a white screen with a mouse point

Sounds like you did not properly create the USB installer if an option key boot won't see it.

Only other thing I can think of is to clone the HDD to the SSD (I have a dedicated hardware unit to do that) then once up upgrade to Sierra.

At this point... that is what I would do. Option key boot to the old HDD in a USB enclosure then use that to format the new SSD and clone over the whole disk using the restore feature of Disk Utility.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.