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mac pro middle 2012 not finding harddrive

Have just bought a second hand mac pro middle 2012 ,and when switching on shows the characteristic flashing hard drive meaning it cannot find a boot up system .exspected as sold with damaged hdd. but find it will take no extrnal hard drive to boot off of ,or even when a new formated drive was replaced in the machine .still the flashing hard drive


Have got the password from seller as when pressing alt on boot up it came up with a internet repair symbol managed to get it to a standard ox utilities page where at the moment it will not take any commands or register any key strokes but have noticed a small item at top right that is slowly counting up in %

Thought it might be the prom but unable to get it to take "Control Alt P R"on start up, again only this repair by wireless page

Any ideas ?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Sep 24, 2020 2:55 PM

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Posted on Sep 26, 2020 2:01 PM

Thanks have disabled firmware login which has made thing easier .Mm now using a external hdd while i wait for a new cable to come through running a bit slow but I expect its because in using usb 2. Hopefully when new cable comes through will be able to pass over to wife to save her pinching mine

8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Sep 26, 2020 2:01 PM in response to HWTech

Thanks have disabled firmware login which has made thing easier .Mm now using a external hdd while i wait for a new cable to come through running a bit slow but I expect its because in using usb 2. Hopefully when new cable comes through will be able to pass over to wife to save her pinching mine

Sep 25, 2020 5:48 PM in response to peter354

Make sure to turn off the EFI Firmware Password as that will make it easier to work on the laptop.


If you have issues navigating Recovery Mode using the built-in keyboard and trackpad, then try using an external USB keyboard & mouse.


If you have issues with the internal drive, then you may need to replace the hard drive SATA cable. On the 13" non-Retina model this cable has an extremely high rate of failure.


Does the laptop have the original Apple memory or does it have a third party memory upgrade? Maybe there is a memory issue as well.


Try running the Apple Diagnostics.


Sep 26, 2020 11:14 AM in response to peter354

peter354 wrote:

hi thanks for your help
have ben plodding through rebuilding the computor ,and have come to the same conclusion that there is more than just a hard drive problem.so have ordered a new hard drive cable ,Have manage to revive the old hard drive by using another external hdd
now trying to up date it to a more modern OS something like high seraria as a lot of the software will not run on the the 10.7 that's is installed

If you are using used drives, then perhaps they are also bad or worn out (a worn out drive can be just as problematic as a drive with bad blocks). You can run DriveDx to check the health of a hard drive. Feel free to post the report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper.


If you have access to another compatible Mac, then you can create a bootable macOS USB drive (start with macOS 10.11 as it may be needed before being able to install a later OS):

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372


Not sure how to turn off the EFI Firmware Password to make it easier to work on the laptop. as it still occosanaly still default to the rebuild by wireless screen , and still trying to find how to update the SO as it insistes on rebuilding on rescue screen to down loading the existing 10.7

Here is how you disable the firmware password:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204455#turnoff

Sep 26, 2020 5:53 AM in response to HWTech

hi thanks for your help

have ben plodding through rebuilding the computor ,and have come to the same conclusion that there is more than just a hard drive problem.so have ordered a new hard drive cable ,Have manage to revive the old hard drive by using another external hdd

now trying to up date it to a more modern OS something like high seraria as a lot of the software will not run on the the 10.7 that's is installed


Not sure how to turn off the EFI Firmware Password to make it easier to work on the laptop. as it still occosanaly still default to the rebuild by wireless screen , and still trying to find how to update the SO as it insistes on rebuilding on rescue screen to down loading the existing 10.7


peter

Sep 27, 2020 10:09 AM in response to HWTech

Hi thanks for your comment

still plodding away ,having to use the original hdd till the new sdd comes through, but seems to be ok have run several checks and is holding up . As for some reason the hard drives I have will not take a update to sierra , comes up with the error (firmware doesn't have a suitable partition) ,but the original seems to, as eventually managed to update that one. Hopefully the new ssd will solve that .all i have to do is work out how to replace the hdd cable as the small separate end seems to be stuck to the casing

peter

Sep 27, 2020 2:18 PM in response to peter354

peter354 wrote:

As for some reason the hard drives I have will not take a update to sierra , comes up with the error (firmware doesn't have a suitable partition)

macOS requires a properly partitioned and formatted internal drive in order to install macOS 10.13+ as the installer performs a system firmware update which requires the use of the internal drive. The internal drive can be empty, but the internal drive needs to have a GUID partition and MacOS Extended (Journaled) file system.


.all i have to do is work out how to replace the hdd cable as the small separate end seems to be stuck to the casing
peter

The cable is stuck to the case with some adhesive. Just gently pull the cable maybe even using the flat edge of a nylon stick (spudger) to help lift the cable.

Sep 28, 2020 2:07 PM in response to HWTech

hi the new cable can through supprise only ordered late fri got thismorning (mon ) thank god my wild youth was spent repairing watches ,the ribbion cable on computers is always a delicate part item and now in my late 70 s my eyesight isn't what it used to be. Lucky my youngest daughter eyes are still good at 15, so was able to connect it for me

So tested outand ran ok .now just waiting for the sdd and can bottle up for my wife and kids to break

thanks again for your help

peter

mac pro middle 2012 not finding harddrive

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