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Can not see the boot options

I have changed my hard drive to SSD in my macbook 2008 aluminum edition, but while rebooting the keys command-P and its all other combinations do not work. I still get the ? blinking folder.

I did the NRam Pram reset, still no succces.

I created a bootable macos USB drive, but when I press option key at the start, I only see the mouse, but no boot options. blank screen and nothing.


Any advice? Thanks!!!

MacBook, OS X 10.11

Posted on Jul 11, 2020 10:00 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 11, 2020 5:41 PM

What version of the macOS installer did you put on the USB drive?


How did you create the bootable macOS USB drive?


Macs can be very picky about the USB sticks used for booting so try using another brand of USB stick.


Also the latest supported version of macOS for a 2009 Mac is macOS 10.11 El Capitan.


Edit: You can also boot from a retail copy of OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard if you cannot install macOS using other methods.


If you still have the original hard drive and it can boot, then reinstall the original hard drive and connect the new SSD externally using a USB to SATA Adapter, drive dock, or enclosure. You can then either use Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to clone the hard drive to the SSD or you can now access the hidden recovery partition on the hard drive by booting with Command + R (or possibly by Option Booting).


You will need to first erase the SSD as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled) before you can install macOS or clone the drive using CCC.



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2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 11, 2020 5:41 PM in response to vitalbits

What version of the macOS installer did you put on the USB drive?


How did you create the bootable macOS USB drive?


Macs can be very picky about the USB sticks used for booting so try using another brand of USB stick.


Also the latest supported version of macOS for a 2009 Mac is macOS 10.11 El Capitan.


Edit: You can also boot from a retail copy of OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard if you cannot install macOS using other methods.


If you still have the original hard drive and it can boot, then reinstall the original hard drive and connect the new SSD externally using a USB to SATA Adapter, drive dock, or enclosure. You can then either use Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to clone the hard drive to the SSD or you can now access the hidden recovery partition on the hard drive by booting with Command + R (or possibly by Option Booting).


You will need to first erase the SSD as GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled) before you can install macOS or clone the drive using CCC.



Jul 13, 2020 5:02 AM in response to HWTech

Many thanks for the response. It was the bootable USB that was not created properly, as I had created it using TransMac app in Windows. So, I reinstalled the old drive back in my macbook, downloaded osx el capitan and created the USB drive bootable disk. After rebooting, using Option key, I could see the USB drive and installed osx in the new drive. All working now.


cheers!

Can not see the boot options

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