Installed SSD now Folder with '?' appears on boot

[fortytwoeleven]

Hi, just replaced the HDD on my Mac Mini Mid 2011 with a Crucial BSX100 SSD.
Now when I boot I get a folder with ? icon on it.

I have attempted to hold down option on boot, option+R, etc

Is this a hardware or software issue?

I have a version of OSX on a usb that I am trying to boot into.

Thanks.

 

[pdafan]

Hi, just replaced the HDD on my Mac Mini Mid 2011 with a Crucial BSX100 SSD.
Now when I boot I get a folder with ? icon on it.

I have attempted to hold down option on boot, option+R, etc

Is this a hardware or software issue?

I have a version of OSX on a usb that I am trying to boot into.

Thanks.

It simply means the mac mini cannot find any bootable OSX to boot up.

Power up your mac mini and press Option button immediately. See if the OSX installation USB disk shows up.

From your description, it seems your USB thumb drive is not holding up as a bootable OSX installation drive.
Otherwise your mac mini will boot into that USB image and allow you to partition/format (using disk utility) and install a new OSX on your SSD.

 

[fortytwoeleven]

It simply means the mac mini cannot find any bootable OSX to boot up.

Power up your mac mini and press Option button immediately. See if the OSX installation USB disk shows up.

From your description, it seems your USB thumb drive is not holding up as a bootable OSX installation drive.
Otherwise your mac mini will boot into that USB image and allow you to partition/format (using disk utility) and install a new OSX on your SSD.

Managed to find the USB was faulty and fixed that problem with a new USB.

However when I look in system information / Disk Utility the SSD is not there.
I'm not sure if this means the SATA cable is busted. or the SSD is faulty..

Or was I meant to do something in the terminal to make the mini see it? etc?

 

[Fishrrman]

What version of OS X is on the original hard drive (in the Mini)?

What version of OS X do you have installed on the SSD?

 

[Weaselboy]

Managed to find the USB was faulty and fixed that problem with a new USB.

However when I look in system information / Disk Utility the SSD is not there.
I'm not sure if this means the SATA cable is busted. or the SSD is faulty..

Or was I meant to do something in the terminal to make the mini see it? etc?

There is nothing special you need to do to see the SSD in Disk Util. If you can't even see it, you have either a bad drive or bad drive cable like you mentioned. Do you happen to have a USB external enclosure you could put the drive in to check if you can see it there?

 

[MacUser2525]

Managed to find the USB was faulty and fixed that problem with a new USB.

However when I look in system information / Disk Utility the SSD is not there.
I'm not sure if this means the SATA cable is busted. or the SSD is faulty..

Or was I meant to do something in the terminal to make the mini see it? etc?

One or the other plus add in the power connector not properly seated in the ssd to power it on only things that can be wrong really. Should be nothing special to be done to make the mini see it it should be backward compatible if you have really old mini. Unfortunately I am thinking you have another tear apart on your hands making sure you get all the cables connected properly with a perhaps startup before you put everything back in the case to make sure it fires up seeing the new ssd. Now the way I would have done this was attach new ssd to external enclosure when it first arrived powered it on to format/partition for a mac computer then cloned old install to new ssd then booted with external to make sure it worked then take apart mini and put ssd inside once everything was confirmed but that ship has sailed in your case.

 

[fortytwoeleven]

Thanks for everyones input. It turns out it was a busted SATA cable in the end