Installing El Capitan on New SSD failing

Question

Level 1

4 points

Installing El Capitan on New SSD failing

Hello,

I'm trying to upgrade my MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012), install a new SSD and run the OS on it.

Here is what I've done:

I bought the "OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G" along with a data doubler. I've removed my optical drive; installed my old HD (currently running the OS) into the data doubler; and installed the new SSD into the main bay.

I downloaded El Capitan from the "App Store" and then used "DiskMaker X 5" to make a bootable usb.

Restarted my laptop and booted from USB, and onto the El Capitan installation. From there I formatted the new SSD (MacOS Extended (Journaled) with a single GUID partition).

After running down the installation clock (approximately 5 mins), i get the following message "An Error occurred while preparing the installation. Try running this application again".

Without restarting the mac, if I try to install the OS again, I'm not able to find the SSD.

If I restart the laptop and boot in into the OS on my old HD, I'll find the SSD there on my desktop. (Sometimes it take a couple of restarts for my Mac to see the SSD).

And then I try the whole thing again, with the same results.

Other things I've tried:

Resetting PRAM.

Manually setting the clock through the terminal from the booted installation. (Although it wasn't wrong in the first place)

I've also tried setting the clock to AST (Arabia Standard Time) as I live in Saudi Arabia.

Other than my SSD is faulty, any Ideas on what can I do to resolve this?!

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3), null

Posted on Mar 9, 2016 3:18 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Mar 9, 2016 4:07 AM in response to Blackcells

Hi Blackcells:

I assume that you have gone into "System Preferences" > "Startup Disk" and set it to your original drive in data doubler.

Try removing your new SSD and putting it in an external caseOWC external case or using a USB to SATA adapter USB to SATA adapter and connect it to your MBP via USB.

Open Disk Utility>Erase and format the SSD to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and a GUID partition.

Then use a third party application such as Carbon Copy Cloner Carbon Copy Cloner (Not free, but worth the price) or Super Duper to copy all data from the internal HDD as well as the recovery partition.

The clone will be a exact copy of your hard drive and it will be bootable.

Boot the MBP with the OPTION key and select the new SSD.

If it boots the MBP, perform the physical swap of drives.

Kim

Reply

Answer 2

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Mar 9, 2016 4:15 AM in response to Blackcells

As you said, the SSD could be bad. It could be that the SATA cable isn’t connected securely to the SSD or logic board. Also, quite a few users who have replaced their hard drive with an SSD have found that they also needed to replace the SATA cable. Apparently the cable can degrade over time/use which doesn’t affect the data flow of a relatively slow hard drive but does affect the much faster SSD.

Reply

Answer 3

Blackcells Author

Level 1

4 points

Mar 10, 2016 11:09 AM in response to Blackcells

Thanks for the input.

I contacted OWC, and the gave me the following solution and it worked...

Step 1: Press CMD+R

Turn Mac on. The second you see a grey screen, hold the CMD (⌘) and R keys down for about 15 seconds, then let go and you'll be taken to OS X Utilities recovery.

Step 2: Open Disk Utility

Double-click on Disk Utility and a menu will pop up.

Step 3: Wipe Your Hard Drive

Then proceed to highlight your computer's hard drive; select the Erase tab, make sure OS X Extended (Journaled) is selected, then hit the Erase button.

Step 4: Reinstall OS X

Click the Reinstall OS X option in the menu and proceed to follow the directions. You will need to be connected to the Internet, so make sure you're plugged in via Ethernet, or are connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Reply

Answer 4

May 14, 2016 7:23 PM in response to KimUserName

To fix the aforementioned “unspecified error”, follow the steps below:

First click “OK” on the error window.
Then click on “Utilities”, then “Terminal”.
Once opened type in “date” without the quotes and hit enter. This will give you the computer’s current time and date.
To fix the date, type in the current date/time in the following format: “date mmddHHMMyyyy”. (mm = two digit month, dd = two digit day, HH = 24 hour, MM = minute, yyyy = 4 digit year) So if it is currently 10:46am, June 19, 2015 the command would look like: “date 061910462015”.
Once you have the current date/time inserted, you will then hit enter. You can double check to see if it was set properly by using the “date” command once more, it should show the date/time you have just typed in (see image below).
Once the proper date and time is set on the computer. Exit the Terminal and run the OS X installer once more. This time it should go through without any errors! If it

Reply