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Clean install on Macbook Pro fails, as does a time machine restore

Hi all,


I am helping out my neighbour and have been at this since Wednesday in the hope that I have missed something. I have scoured the Internet in the hope that I have missed something. I am now reaching out to the community since it cannot be this difficult, especially on a Mac.


The scenario is as follows:


The Macbook Pro main hard drive intermittently makes a clicking sound on startup which is never a good sign on mechanical drives; after which the Mac displays the flashing folder with the question mark. So, as I have regularly suggested, obtain and install a new SSD. Since the owner presented a drive with a time machine backup, this should be easy; especially since the startup hardware tests complete without issue.


Not so fast...


  1. I have attempted Time machine restores both by creating multiple different versions (El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra and Mojave) of USB boot disks, as well as using Recovery mode (which attempts to use Lion) and Internet recovery mode (which attempts the action with Catalina). In all cases the recovery completes, but the machine will not reboot and attempting First Aid produces a failure with code -8.
  2. So, failing that, I reasoned a brand new install would be OK, especially since the owner indicated that all relevant data is backed up somewhere. Again attempted new installs with boot disks of the multiple different versions as mentioned above, as well as an Internet Recovery with Catalina; the end result is the same; the installations all fail. These attempts were done both disconnected and connected to the Internet before starting the reinstall.
  3. In some cases, the install got to "less than a second remaining" and then just sat there, for 12 hours!
  4. Lastly, since the original drive only intermittently failed on startup I attempted to restore the old drive to the new drive. After a couple of attempts, the old drive responded and the restore process got to the "restore complete, restarting" part and then just sat there.


What am I missing?


MacBook

Posted on Feb 20, 2021 1:47 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Feb 22, 2021 9:07 PM

What is the exact model of the laptop? You can get this information by clicking on the Apple menu and selecting "About This Mac" or by entering your serial number here or here.


What is the make & model of the SSD?


Have you tried connecting the new SSD externally using a USB to SATA Adapter, drive dock, or enclosure? Perhaps the internal hard drive SATA Cable is bad (very common on the MBPro 13" (mid-2012) non-Retina model). This also can help if the SSD is not compatible with this Mac (unfortunately not all SSDs are compatible with all computers).

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8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Feb 22, 2021 9:07 PM in response to Peritum_et_amicus

What is the exact model of the laptop? You can get this information by clicking on the Apple menu and selecting "About This Mac" or by entering your serial number here or here.


What is the make & model of the SSD?


Have you tried connecting the new SSD externally using a USB to SATA Adapter, drive dock, or enclosure? Perhaps the internal hard drive SATA Cable is bad (very common on the MBPro 13" (mid-2012) non-Retina model). This also can help if the SSD is not compatible with this Mac (unfortunately not all SSDs are compatible with all computers).

Feb 22, 2021 10:11 PM in response to HWTech

It is a MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) model MD101LL/A according to the Serial number.


The SSD is a Crucial MX 500 500GB


I am confident the drive and cable are both OK since diskutility interacts with it. Erase, and partition all work correctly.


In case this is the cable? Is this the correct part: MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable – iFixit Australia?

Feb 23, 2021 8:20 AM in response to Peritum_et_amicus

That is the cable you linked.


The hard drive SATA Cable can fail in multiple ways so the only way to be sure is to remove the SSD and boot it externally using a USB to SATA Adapter, drive dock, or enclosure (assuming the OS is Ok). I was able to install macOS to a laptop, but was unable to boot from it and it was due to a bad cable. The two way communication while booting directly to the SSD was too much for the cable to handle. Apple even had a free repair program for this cable at one time where Apple actually proactively replaced it even if there were no apparent issues with the cable. That is how bad this cable failure is and it is the only time I've ever known Apple to proactively replace a part without any symptoms. While the cable failure can affect the original hard drive the cable failure is most often noticed when using an SSD.



Clean install on Macbook Pro fails, as does a time machine restore

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