Trouble Erasing SSD to download macOS Catalina

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Level 1

16 points

Trouble Erasing SSD to download macOS Catalina

I have a mid 2012 13 in MBP and recently Ive been wanting to use it for school. I used a HDD and downloaded macOS Mountain lion (the original software) and then upgraded to macOS Catalina (the latest compatible software with my laptop.

Whenever I first upgraded it was very slow and I know that is because it had a HDD. I ordered a SSD from Walmart, and when it arrived, I put it into my MacBook and booted into Internet recovery. The first thing that happened was it would start to boot into internet recovery and then display an error code that read -2001F (or something similar to that.) and then I reset the NVRAM and it still didn't work cause I thought that would fix the problem, then I restarted and I was greeted with a error code that read something like "-3001F" (or something similar that I could not find on the internet.) I restarted it numerous times and then I got into internet recovery finally. Whenever I got into it I went to disk utility to format it as APFS. Whenever I did this I was not greeted with the option for the GUID (the one that Allows you to format to APFS.) Whenever I did this It said it failed. It then would not mount. I gave up, and was gonna return the SSD. I put the old HDD in and it started up into 10.15.7 macOS Catalina.

Flash forward to two days ago, when I got to school and turned my MacBook on, it was on the login page whenever it did not log me in, it just spun and never logged in, I tried shutting it down but that did not work so I had to force shut down. After this, I booted my laptop up and I was greeted with the folder with the question mark. I was confused as to why this happened so randomly, so whenever I got home I booted into internet recovery, and there was the error again - -2001F. I tried numerous times, and then tried erasing the drive so I could reinstall Catalina. after this, I went into the reinstall process but then whenever I got to the installation part, it would say something crazy like "5 hours remaining" and then shortly after, it said, that It could not be installed that "permission denied." So for the past two days Ive been pulling hair trying to get this to reinstall macOS Catalina.

Today, I tried making a bootable installer to try and fix it. It worked, I booted into utilities, but then whenever I tried to reinstall I got the same error as before. I tried putting the SSD in to try it one more time before returning the SSD, and I tried erasing and formatting as APFS and when I do so it just says Creating partition map and it has been doing this for an hour.

If someone could help that would be awesome because I need this for school!

Earlier Mac models

Posted on Apr 17, 2024 5:55 PM

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Answer 1

John Galt

Level 10

141,186 points

Apr 18, 2024 8:12 AM in response to London-Oakes

Given everything you did, the most likely culprit is the original HDD which as you know was already on its way out. I think it's junk.

Replacing it with a SSD is certainly a good idea, but buying one from Walmart isn't. If you are serious about keeping that twelve year old Mac in service, then I strongly recommend purchasing a SSD from OWC / MacSales. They are the only vendor for SSDs I have used personally and can recommend. PC-centric vendors — and certainly Walmart — couldn't even spell Mac if you gave them the first and last letters.

Go to OWC. They know what they're doing.

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Answer 2

HWTech

Level 9

55,838 points

Apr 18, 2024 9:09 AM in response to London-Oakes

Most likely the internal hard drive SATA cable is bad which is very common on the 13" model. It could also be the problem with your HD as well, although I suspect the HD is worn out or actually failing.

As for erasing the SSD, you need to make sure to erase the whole physical drive. Within DiskUtility (macOS 10.13+) you may need to click "View" and select "Show All Devices" before the physical drives appear on the left pane of Disk Utility. Sometimes drives may come from the factory with a partition layout & file system and it is always best to overwrite that partition table.

Also, not all SSDs are compatible with all computers. If you continue to experience problems, then you can try connecting the drives externally using a USB to SATA Adapter, drive dock, or enclosure to see how the laptop & SSD work in that configuration. If this external configuration works, then it either means the internal SATA Cable is bad (or possibly the Logic Board supporting circuitry for it) or the SSD is not compatible with that laptop. If you still have problems with the SSD, then most likely the SSD is bad or you have a more major issue with the laptop (make sure the internal HD is disconnected since a failing drive can cause issues even when booting a good drive externally).

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Answer 3

London-Oakes Author

Level 1

16 points

Apr 18, 2024 2:28 PM in response to London-Oakes

Update:

Today, I used a SATA connector to connect my SSD to my MacBook and booted into internet recovery. No problems. Then, I formatted the drive to APFS, Then installed macOS mountain Lion (the original software that came with the computer.) After downloading, I upgraded to macOS Catalina, no problems, I then tried putting the SSD into the computer and when turning on, it did not recognize it. I then realized that it had been the connector, So I ordered one off of amazon. I will update whenever it arrives.

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