SUCCESSFUL ALTERNATIVE STRATEGY STORY:
So my spinning hard drive crashed in my 2011 Macbook Pro 8,1 (originally Lion) and I purchased the 1TB Samsung 850 EVO, which I was jazzed about installing thanks to the near-religious experience friends described after installing an SSD in their computers - "It's like a new computer!" Here's the long story with a happy ending, and no, the drive was not bad:
PROBLEM:
I physically installed the 850 in my Macbook and tried the internet recovery mode (boot and hold command + R) since Apple no longer gives a bootable disk and you cannot simply download Lion from the App store and then make a bootable disk using the terminal. The disk SEEMED to format OK, so I continued on with the 2+ hour download of Lion. Towards the end of the Lion install, the screen would go black and the computer would restart without installing Lion. I tried internet recovery again while opening the log window to view this 2+ hour process (my weekend was now being threatened).
***NOTE (especially the folks at APPLE!): The log file can be saved as you proceed with the install, but what you save is essentially a snapshot. I would sit there and save the log every few minutes to try and capture the progress for later review. The problem is as soon as the last "chunk" of the file downloaded, it would crash the computer. Right as the computer crashed, there would be a huge output to the log file but the crash prevented you from saving it and then the computer would restart. PLEASE APPLE, create a log that continuously writes for the entire process so we're not trying to "beat the crash" and try to quickly save the log file before a crash.
So, the log file couldn't reveal anything since I was not fast enough to save it before the crash (believe it or not, I tried this another time thinking I might be able to be fast enough to save the log, so 2+ hours lost again). I tried running disk utility on the Samsung from the internet recovery mode (yes I waited a fourth time for internet recovery) and found it had problems. I thought perhaps it was a bad disk or cable since every other post on this thread seemed to suggest that they had bad drives or bad cables. Before throwing in the towel, I thought I would try something else.
First, I tried making a boot disk of El Capitan I downloaded from another Mac (actually, I made a USB and SD boot disk through the terminal - search the internet for the commands). With a boot disk, I could simply go into the recovery mode without waiting for internet recovery to download 7 minutes worth of data before coming to the recovery environment. Ultimately, trying to install El Capitan did not work, which I believe failed due to the reason that El Capitan was not natively installed on my Macbook (it is a 2011 with Lion) and when the installer tried to verify my hardware, the folks at Apple wouldn't let it happen. I decided to try something else.
SECOND AND FINALLY, I thought perhaps the Lion installer was not set up to handle SSDs correctly from recovery mode if they were the disk having OSX installed on them (might be some sort of firmware or driver issue). I took an old spinning hard drive I had and was not using (may have been the original disk from the computer, not sure as I had replaced the original drive with a larger spinning drive, namely the one that failed), put it inside my Macbook and then did the internet recovery on it (yes, another 2+ hours - my weekend was shot).
Lion installed fine and I was able to boot without incident. I may have run updates at this point, but I don't recall. I put the 850 in a USB external housing, connected it, and then restarted and booted into recovery mode. Using the restore feature in the disk utility (restore tab), I was able to copy the contents of the spinning hard drive inside my Macbook onto the externally housed Samsung. I took the spinning drive out of my Macbook and put the Samsung inside instead. Voila! My computer booted up! The drive was indeed good.
At this point, I upgraded to El Capitan, and afterwards I migrated my data from my Time Machine backup (6+ hours - in memoriam of my weekend). There have been no issues so far, and yes, it is like I have a new computer. I even virtualize other operating systems within my computer and they fly as well. You can really tell what programs lagged due to the drive speed.
NOTE: When I made that successful install of Lion onto that old spinning hard drive, I thought about upgrading to El Capitan at that point but decided against it considering if that failed due to the Samsung not liking it, I would have to start over with another Lion download (another 2+ hours) and then try the "restore" I did. If the install of Lion would not transfer to the Samsung, I would have then simply upgraded the spinning drive to El Capitan and then tried the transfer.
IN THE END: I would give this a shot if you are having the same problem I had initially, as it seems something about the way recovery mode handles the Samsung is no good (drivers? firmware?). BUT, this also shows Apple that not having a boot disk is a real pain if you encounter problems like mine when using a new drive. The lesson is to make a bootable disk with your native operating system version just in case. Yes, I still like internet recovery, which would probably work most of the time and is SUPER handy (it even gives you a copy of Safari to connect to the internet and order parts or make appointments at the Genius Bar for help), but if it isn't working out, you will waste your time tremendously. Yes, you can buy a copy of Lion for $20 from the app store, but why can't I download it for free just like El Capitan? Why can't El Capitan just be loaded on the old computers this way as well?
Yes, this is like a new computer now!
Also, when troubleshooting, think of different angles to take on the issue - outsmart the computer!
