Installation of OSX Mavericks on a blank SSD failed

Question

Installation of OSX Mavericks on a blank SSD failed

After my Mac wouldn't boot up, and kept flashing a folder with a question mark in the middle on the start up screen, I googled a bit and came to the conclusion that my hard drive was bad. Anyways, I decided it be nice to upgrade to an SSD since I was getting a new hard drive. I got the drive, took out my old one, put the new one in, then made a bootable Install OSX Mavericks USB drive. I booted up the flash drive and everything seemed fine as it took my to OS X Utitlities screen. I clicked Install OS X Mavericks, but my hard drive didn't show up. Went to Disk Utilities and tried to partition my new hard drive, but I get the error "Wiping volume data to prevent future accidental probing failed", and also "Unable to write to the last block of the device" (*Right now it's giving me the first error).

Any ideas on what's causing the issue, because I don't think it would be the hard drive as it's brand new. I'm also ordering a new SATA cable just incase that is the problem.

Specs:

MacBook Pro mid-2010

Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz

4 GB of RAM

Solid State Drive: Crucial M550 256GB 6GB/s

Thanks in advance.

Posted on Jul 3, 2014 10:05 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Melophage

Level 5

7,213 points

Jul 3, 2014 10:25 PM in response to TheXFactor117

TheXFactor117,

have you tried putting the SSD into an external disk enclosure, or connecting it to a SATA-to-USB or SATA-to-FireWire adapter, and connecting it to your MacBook Pro externally, to see if you can format it using Disk Utility that way? If it works well externally, but doesn’t work well internally, then it could well be a problem with your MacBook Pro’s internal SATA cable.

Reply

Answer 2

Jul 3, 2014 10:43 PM in response to Melophage

I would try that if I had either of those but I don't. I also don't live close to any stores whatsoever, like it be a couple hours to go pick something's up or take it to an apple store. I think the problem is a bad SATA cable, and hopefully is. I don't mind spending a few bucks on a new cable anyways.

I might be able to put the disk into an enclosure, but I'm not sure if I have the required equipment.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Reply

Answer 3

Jul 4, 2014 6:55 PM in response to TheXFactor117

Any other suggestions? I haven't bought a SATA cable yet, so would it be wise to just replace anyways?

Also, I forgot to mention that my previous hard drive failed from what I can tell, if that helps anyone.

Reply

Answer 4

Melophage

Level 5

7,213 points

Jul 4, 2014 8:18 PM in response to TheXFactor117

TheXFactor117,

a SATA-to-USB adapter would probably be under $25 delivered, and it doesn’t require any additional equipment; plug the disk into the SATA side of the adapter, plug the adapter’s power supply into the wall, and connect the USB side of the adapter into one of your MacBook Pro’s USB ports. If your SSD (or your previous hard disk, for that matter) works well when connected that way, then purchasing a replacement internal SATA cable would be called for. If it doesn’t work well externally, then the problem isn’t with the internal SATA cable, and buying a replacement would only be of use to have a spare readily available if needed.

Reply

Answer 5

Jul 10, 2014 7:06 PM in response to Melophage

I just decided to run it to a shop to fix it up for me. I will tell anyone who has this problem what the solution is.

I will say I talked with some techs at crucial, and there suggestions was putting it inot a different computer and formatting it that way. The problem with that is a I have 3 other computers in my family, MacBook Pro with retina, and two airs - at least I can upgrade my hard drive.

Reply