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kge420

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 16, 2008
127
18
As title states my MBP has recently started giving me this symbol on start. It was running fine prior with High Sierra. I tried a fresh install and had no luck. A search returned something about the os is incompatibl.
Any help would be appreciated.
 

BanditoB

macrumors 6502
Feb 24, 2009
482
258
Chicago, IL
That symbol indicates that the startup disk is unreadable, so you have a pretty serious storage issue. When you reinstalled the OS, did you reformat the drive? How did you reinstall the OS?
 

CoastalOR

macrumors 68040
Jan 19, 2015
3,032
1,151
Oregon, USA
As title states my MBP has recently started giving me this symbol on start. It was running fine prior with High Sierra. I tried a fresh install and had no luck. A search returned something about the os is incompatibl.
Any help would be appreciated.
You did not provide the year or model of the MBP (MacBook Pro) which is important to determine the maximum macOS that will be supported by Apple.

Your Sig lists a MacBook 6,1 using High Sierra. A MacBook6,1 is a 13 inch Late 2009 that Apple supports a maximum macOS of High Sierra.

If the "MBP" is a a MacBook Pro6,1 then it is MacBook Pro 17 inch Mid-2010 that Apple supports a maximum macOS of High Sierra.

Anything newer than High Sierra would not be supported.


EDIT: Thank you justashooter for pointing out that it is a MBP 9,2 as shown in the thread title. I missed that information.
 
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justashooter

macrumors 6502
Apr 8, 2020
335
194
You did not provide the year or model of the MBP (MacBook Pro) which is important to determine the maximum macOS that will be supported by Apple.

Your Sig lists a MacBook 6,1 using High Sierra. A MacBook6,1 is a 13 inch Late 2009 that Apple supports a maximum macOS of High Sierra.

If the "MBP" is a a MacBook Pro6,1 then it is MacBook Pro 17 inch Mid-2010 that Apple supports a maximum macOS of High Sierra.

Anything newer than High Sierra would not be supported.
Actually, they did, in the title of the post MBP 9,2. Which is a mid-2012 13 inch MBP.

Anyhow, these MBP have a known problem, which is the SATA cable can go bad which can cause no access, or slow access, to the hard drive or SSD if one is installed. My test for this is to remove the drive, install it in a external USB3 enclosure and boot from that. If that works, then replace the SATA cable in the machine. They run about $14, can be bought at Other World Computing or ifixit and removing the drive and installing a new cable is a pretty easy process. Video instructions for the repair can also be found at these two places and probably youtube.

I have 2 of these MBP's and have done this with both of them. On one the hard drive worked but when I installed an SSD it would not. Replaced the SATA cable and all was well.
 

Fishrrman

macrumors Penryn
Feb 20, 2009
29,256
13,339
OP:

The answer is in justashooter's reply#4.

Replace the internal drive ribbon cable, and I'll predict that you'll be fine again.

While you have the back open, might be a good time to put an SSD in there, too (if you haven't done that already).

To open the back, you'll need a Phillips #00 driver (cheap and easy to find).
To change the drive, you'll need a TORX T-6 (or, you can remove the drive bosses by using a set of needle-nose pliers and a VERY gentle touch).

Go to ifixit.com to see what's involved (it's easy -- ANYONE can do this. Even I could).
 
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kge420

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 16, 2008
127
18
I'll order up a SATA cable and hopefully this issue is cleared.
Thanks for the quick replies. Cheers
 
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