Losing my hair quickly, this MacBook has it in for me!
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.
Is this a good question?
2 Comments
Thanks guys for all the help. I am getting past the blinking folder now with a usb flash drive with OSX El Capitan. I go to install the OS, and it stops. It says “copy of el capitan can’t be verified”. I ordered software from Apple to download, but they have yet to provide me with a redemption key that downloads the El Cap software to my Catalina mac for me to install to flash drive (they took my $20, though). I’m at the highest level of frustration, and so close to getting this macbook pro operating. I can’t seem to get it to rebuild via the wifi, although it does connect, once it’s booted.
I’ve tried option/cmd/R, option R, option alone. Nothing seems to work but a boot drive.
I’m not sure what to do from here, I just really would like to get it working.
by Thom Hemler
I actually found a download link for El Capitan from apple:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886
But, I still get the same message about the file being corrupt or tampered with. I'm really, really stumped. I sure could use a break. I could use a slight moment of your time to get past this, if there's a way?
by Thom Hemler