How to install OSX onto a blank SSD

You may have a bad optical drive or a defective DVD.

Five ways to eject a stuck CD or DVD from the optical drive

Ejecting the stuck disc can usually be done in one of the following ways:

1. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the

left mouse button until the disc ejects.

2. Press the Eject button on your keyboard.

3. Click on the Eject button in the menubar.

4. Press COMMAND-E.

5. If none of the above work try this: Open the Terminal application in

your Utilities folder. At the prompt enter or paste the following:

/usr/bin/drutil eject

If this fails then try this:

Boot the computer into Single-user Mode. At the prompt enter the same command as used above. To restart the computer enter "reboot" at the prompt without quotes.

I doubt you bothered to try the rest because they can be used whether the disc is blank or not. The fifth alternative works on almose all cases, but you haven't tried that one either.

If you want to know how to install Mountain Lion or Mavericks the problem is that your computer does not support Internet Recovery. As such you must start by first installing a disc-based version of OS X. This could be Snow Leopard or it could be from the discs that came with your computer originally.

You can also use an external DVD reader.

Then you likely have a bad optical drive, and you will need to take it in for repair.

Please make a Genius Appointment and take it in for service.

You need to boot from the Snow Leopard DVD or your computer's original installer disc in order to setup the new SSD and install onto it. However, you've stated originally that you cannot boot the computer from the disc using the optical drive. So, I don't know what more I can do to help. To use a Snow Leopard installer disc, you do this:

Clean Install of Snow Leopard

Be sure to make a backup first because the following procedure will erase

the drive and everything on it.

1. Boot the computer using the Snow Leopard Installer Disc or the Disc 1 that came

with your computer. Insert the disc into the optical drive and restart the computer.

After the chime press and hold down the "C" key. Release the key when you see

a small spinning gear appear below the dark gray Apple logo.

2. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue

button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.

After DU loads select the hard drive entry from the left side list (mfgr.'s ID and drive

size.) Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Set the number of

partitions to one (1) from the Partitions drop down menu, click on Options button

and select GUID, click on OK, then set the format type to MacOS Extended

(Journaled, if supported), then click on the Apply button.

3. When the formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed

with the OS X installation and follow the directions included with the installer.

4. When the installation has completed your computer will Restart into the Setup

Assistant. Be sure you configure your initial admin account with the exact same

username and password that you used on your old drive. After you finish Setup

Assistant will complete the installation after which you will be running a fresh

install of OS X. You can now begin the update process by opening Software

Update and installing all recommended updates to bring your installation current.

Download and install Mac OS X 10.6.8 Update Combo v1.1.

Boot up from the disc. If you have another Mac and an external HD, install OS X on the extneral HD using the install disc.

See this to boot up from the disc.

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-boot-snow-leopard-from-a-dvdrom.htm l

If you have another Mac and would like to boot up from the external HD, see this:

http://www.maciverse.com/installing-snow-leopard-onto-an-external-hard-drive.htm l

Using an external HD can help you diagnose issues using OS X's built in tools.

Austin

In case you did not read the original post, the OP is trying to install on an internal SSD, not an external drive per your link. I really don't see the relevance of your post, otherwise, since the rest was discussed long before you posted.

He can run the OS installer from the external HD if he installs it using another computer, if his disc drive is in fact faulty.

Austin

If you have another Mac with a disc drive and an external HD, use it to copy the cd to the external HD and then boot from the external HD to install OS X.

Isert the disc into the other Mac.

Connect the external hard drive to the other Mac.

Wait for the disc and hard drive to mount.

Open Disk Utility, located in the Applications folder.

Select the external HD. Select the Restore tab.

Drag in the Install disc from the left into the Source box.

Drag in the external HD from the left into the Destination box.

Now, go to the Mac with the blank SSD.

Shut it down.

Power it on by pressing the power button.

Immediately hold down the Alt or Option key as soon as you hear the chime.

Select the external HD from the options.

Install OS X on your internal SSD.

Austin

He doesn't have a working disc or disc drive nor an external drive nor another computer. At least not disclosed, so I fail to see the viability of this advice.