New SSD in place, what to do now? HELP, PLEASE!!!

[Andemacj]

Hello guys,

I have replaced my HD for a SSD 840 pro, but I didn't prepare myself for this. I mean, I don't have an Operational System in my new SSD. What to do?
What are the steps I need to follow to start working with my mac mini again? Could you please help me with this?
Is that possible to install the OS from a pen drive?
Sorry guys, but I don't understand very much about this and I am hopeless.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon
Thanks a lot
Anderson

 

[jdblas69]

Are you doing a fresh install of OSX? Or wanting to install from a backup?

 

[Andemacj]

Yes, it is a fresh install. I have nothing in the new SSD already in place in my Mac mini

 

[jdblas69]

First off you should boot up holding Ctrl R and select disk utility. On the left hand side you should see a description of the new hard drive you installed. You will want to format the new drive first.

After that (assume the mac mini is newer) you should be able to re-install via internet recovery. Note this will install the version of OSX that was installed on the machine when launched. If you want Mavericks you will have to install it after you have the factory version installed. You can install from a USB stick but you will need to make that from another Mac and you can make a boot stick of Mavericks.

 

[Andemacj]

I will try and let you know, but my keyboard is wireless, it might influence the Ctrl+R pressing... lets see

----------

Mate, doesn't work. The only thing that appears is a shining folder with a question mark. Do you suggest another thing?

 

[jdblas69]

Sorry I meant to say Command R not control!! I assume you are using apple wireless keyboard. I think it still should work even though it is wireless

 

[Andemacj]

Hei mate!
Didn't work.
I was able to make a disk recovery and then I went to the OS X utilities in which I can choose the disk utility. Then I erased the SSD and I started reinstalling the system, but at the end there is an error.
What should I do?
I can't believe it

 

[nollimac]

It's really sad that you didn't properly prepare yourself...now the urgency for help. You should have known you needed an enclosure to put the drive that came with the machine so you could boot from it to format the new drive, then download Mavericks and install.

 

[Chancha]

You would have many more options to solve this if you have a spare external drive / enclosure lying around that you can use (temporarily).

Prepare such a drive (it can even be a USB thumb drive or SD card but it will be slow), plug it in the Mini, boot Mini from recovery, use Disk Utility to format the external drive to GUID / HFS+, back out and install OS X on this partition.

After installing, boot from it once to verify it works, once you see the fresh boot message asking to choose system language it is already good. You can proceed to create OS X account, once running OS X you can then clone this system to the internal SSD. This way you have more freedom and more chances to make changes to the SSD install, such as modifying kernel extensions or TRIM enabling or SSD drivers issues, which is sometimes the reason why you could not install OS X directly on the SSD.

 

[Fishrrman]

[[ What should I do?
I can't believe it ]]

I can't believe that you didn't think this through before you started the job.

Here's what you need to do.
I suggest you print this out and keep it as a checklist as you work.

Go to amazon.com and enter "usb3 sata dock" into the search box.
What you'll get are many USB3/SATA docking stations, some of which can be had for as little as $20.

A couple of samples:
http://www.amazon.com/Syba-Docking-...395239302&sr=8-2&keywords=syba+usb3+sata+dock
another:
http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Dock...4&sr=8-1&keywords=plugable.com+usb3+sata+dock

When you get this, plug the OLD drive (the one you took out of the Mini) into the dock, and connect it to the Mini.

Power up the Mini and do this:
- As soon as you hear the startup sound, hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN
- In a few moments, the startup manager should appear.
- Use the mouse or arrow keys to select the external drive and hit return
- The Mini should boot from the old "docked drive"

When you get to the finder, open Disk Utility (in the Utilities folder).
Select the internal drive, and initialize it.
Choose "HFS+, journaling enabled".
Choose GUID as your partition scheme
Initialization should take only a few moments.

Next, go on the net and download CarbonCopyCloner here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
It's free to download, and free to use for 30 days.

Launch CCC and do this:
- On the left (source drive), select the docked (old) drive
- On the right, select the internal drive.
- Now let CCC do its thing
- CCC will "clone" the contents of the old drive to the new drive

When done, do this:
- Shut down
- Disconnect the docked drive
- Reboot
- Does the Mini boot right up from the newly-installed drive?
- If yes, you're done
- If no, reboot again using the startup manager (as you did above), DON'T connect the extenral drive yet. Do you see the internal drive in the startup manager?
- If so, select it and try again.

 

[Andemacj]

Hei mate, thanks for your help!
When I saw your message I was going through the option that I am able to install everything by my backup in "time capsule". When finished, few hours ago it was done. Everything as before the replacement, but rather faster.
So, I didn't have to do everything you suggested, but I am very glad that here we can find people willing to help.
Thanks a lot
Anderson