Q: Why won't my MacBook Pro start up from the grey prohibitory sign?

Kappy, greetings:  Just filling in while your away.  You may take it from here.

Best regards.

Ciao.

No, you have picked up the baton, so by all means keep going.

Best regards, too, O.

All HDDs eventually fail because they are mechanical devices.  Some die sooner than others.  Without an autopsy we cannot determine the exact cause, but since you have reported the external HDD appears, your internal HDD is probablyDEAD!  The fix is a replacement.  I suggest looking at what OWC offers, at least as a point of reference. 

There still is the posibility the the internal conecting cable is faulty.  For verification a diagnosis by a genius bar could determine that, or swapping in the external HDD.  This usually is not the case.

Ciao.

Message was edited by: OGELTHORPE

OWC is a supplier of Mac compatible products with excellent customer support.  Just enter into Google OWC (known also as Macsales) and you will find the website.

Replacing a HDD is easy.  If you have Apple do it, you will pay several times as much as opposed to doing it yourself.  If you look in your owners manual, there are directions.  You need a 00 Phillips and a #6 Torx drivers to do the swap.

Ciao.

OWC is an online store selling Mac products. It's one of the oldest and most reliable of such stores. They sell replacement HDDs for Macs and also provide online printed and video tutorials. Replacing a HDD yourself is of moderate difficulty, but if you can follow directions you can DIY. OWC even provides toolkits with the needed tools.

You can also take it to Apple for the same work, but Apple charges more for the drives and you pay the labor charges for installing it. That extra cost pays for warranty of the labor and the drive.

The choice is yours. Visit OWC and see what they have available and what it will cost.

Yes. Personally, I like certain Seagate models and HGST models.

DIY KIT: 500GB 7200RPM HD for MacBook, MacBook Pro (or PC Notebook)+OWC Express 2.5" Enclosure Kit

DIY KIT: 320GB HGST 7K500 for MacBook, MacBook Pro (or PC Notebook)+OWC On-The-Go FW800/USB 3.0

DIY KIT: 500GB Seagate Momentus XT 7200RPM/SSD Hybrid 2.5" Kit w/Express Enclosure & Tool Kit

DIY KIT: 320GB 7200RPM HD for MacBook, MacBook Pro (or PC Notebook)+OWC Express 2.5" Enclosure Kit

DIY KIT: 500GB Seagate Momentus XT 7200RPM/SSD Hybrid 2.5" Kit w/Express Enclosure & Tool Kit

DIY KIT: 500GB Western Digital Drive + OWC Express USB 3.0/2.0 Enclosure+Transfer Kit

All the above include toolkits and an enclosure. If you don't need an enclosure for the old drive then they have the same products available that just include the drive and toolkit for a little less money.

These are all 7200 RPM drives which are the fastest notebook drives. Seagate's are a Hybrid drive that includes a small SSD to improve the drive's overall performance. I've installed several of them and they work extremely well for me.

Yes.  The 2.5" SATA drives are the ones you should get.

I have several Seagate and HGST HDDs.  All are still operational. Given the choice between the two and things being equal, price probably would be the determinant.

It is difficult to have too much storage so I would suggest one of the 750 GB 7200 rpm drives.  If the price is high, select one with less capacity.

SSDs, though fast are still overpriced for what they offer (my opinion).

Ciao

I share your opinion about SSDs. They offer 3 second startup times, but thereafter I don't really notice much. Applications start faster, but once in memory there's not much I/O benefits.

Kappy, greetings;  Aside from price, the other deterrent for me is capacity.  I currently have a 1 TB HGST HDD on the late 2011 MBP.  The choice is currently limited to only one option, OWC.

I am not one who gets carried away by speed.  My 2006 Core Duo works just fine for me, but there are occasions where the graphics is pitifully slow by current standards. 

Increased speed of SSDs is certainly inherently good, but I feel that cooler operation, improved battery life and possibly improved reliabilty are just as important for me.  Until there is a 1 TB+ SSD for $200 or less, I am content to listen to disks spin.

Ciao.

I do have leoprad. My book pro 10.5.8 is failing to start up properly. After pushing turn on button gray screen with apple appears with spinning circle below. I have tried to boot in safe mode, did fsck booting in a single user mode. But, nothing helps. If to wait 15-20 minutes, desctop background appears, but none of the desctop files. Also, dock appears and even tries to load finder but then its frozen for a while and then goes back to login again. And that repeats forever until forced switch off. Could you please advise what to do? I haven't backed up anything and I do really have valuable information there. I know its my fault not backing it up, will be lesson for he future, but is there any possibility to make my laptom work properly without loosing any data? Please help!!!

You'll get no argument here.

Your topic is not the same as this topic, so my first recommendation is that you post your own new topic in this same forum or I can ask the moderators to move your post to a new, separate topic.