Macbook Pro won't boot. Post includes full history

It could be that the drive is corrupted or there's something missing from the OS and First Aid just won't fix it. It would be drastic, but it should be possible to simply reformat and reinstall the operating system, but at the cost of any data on the drive. Or alternately you could buy a new drive (possibly an SSD) and reinstall with that. The old drive might be useful to recover data. I tend to recommend saving the old drive given how cheap new hard drives (and even SSDs) are today.

BearsInNeed wrote:

I'm in the UK.

The most important thing to me right now is not losing the data on the drive.

- Is my problem definitely a faulty hardrive?

- If I get a new drive, how do I recover the data on the current drive?

- Is there no way I can use the extrernal harddrive to help fix the internal one (Something like installing the OS on it and then booting from it and then transfering the data from the internal drive to the external drive?)

I don't mind buying a new drive but as I said above the most important thing to me is recovering the data on the current hardrive.

Also I have a time machine backup from May last year.

OK. You should be able to find a suitable hard drive in the UK. There are basically only 3 hard drive manufacturers left in the world and they're all available in the UK.

I suggested starting over with a new hard drive because that would allow you to have use of your computer without giving up on the data. No guarantees, but from what you've indicated there does appear to be a good chance that you can easily copy over the data on your old hard drive using what's known as a drive enclosure that would connect it to USB. That would essentially turn your old hard drive into an external drive. If it's saying there aren't any correctable errors on your old drive, then you might be able to recovery a good deal of the data. I would also depend on how you arranged your data. For instance, I keep specific types (like video) of files sorted in my directory structure and could copy them over to another drive.

BearsInNeed wrote:

A very nice lady from Apple support called me this morning and after going through a few things told me I should try and install the OS to an external Hard Drive and try and copy my files across. Now I'm torn as to what to do 😟

Are there any drawback with this?

It will be painfully slow, but it should work.

I've booted from an external hard drive before, and everything seemed to take about twice as long to load.

However, you could try that first using an internal hard drive in a USB enclosure. Then when you can boot that, transfer the hard drive to the computer and see if it boots. You could attempt to transfer the data before or after installing it in your computer.

BearsInNeed wrote:

Hi, So I orderd an internal Hard drive and an enclosure so that I could try and boot from the new hard drive externally and later install the hard drive in the mac.

The package arrived today. I've put the hard drive in the enclosure and connected it to my mac but I can't install the OS to this drive. Does it need to be formatted? If so how can I do that given the state of my Mac?

Again, I appreciate all help (this is all pretty stressfull 😟)

Recovery (holding down command-R at power on) was mentioned, but that would depend on whether it's still intact on your original hard drive. You can also see if you can run Internet Recovery. That requires holding down option-command-R at power on. You will need an internet connection that doesn't require a "splash screen" such as public WiFi at a cafe where you might need to access a web page to agree to the terms of use.

About macOS Recovery - Apple Support

Start Disk Utility to format your external drive as "Mac OS Extended Journaled" with GUID Partition Map, then Install MacOS/OS X from the main page.

You can boot into recovery, and try Disk Utility>First Aid>Macintosh HD and see if it brings it back to life.

Also from there you can use the Disk Utility to format your new drive in the external enclosure or internally.

GUID extended journeled. You can from the same recovery to reinstall the macOS.

BearsInNeed wrote:

where I want to isntall it I only have a greyed out HDD. If I connect the external HDD I seem to be able to install the OS there.

Try booting into Recovery. From the Utilities menu>DiskUtility>FirstAid>Macintosh HD. If First Aid says it made repairs, run it again until it reports no errors.

from this same recovery try reinstalling the macOS on top of your existing macOS.

Recovery http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718

BearsInNeed wrote:

Oh my gosh, I'm now terrified I'll lose all the data on my Harddrive.

To be clear this is the internal Hardrive that was installed in my mac when I purchased it. What are my options?

I have an external Hardrive I can use with 50GB of space.

Is there anyway I can get my mac up and running from another drive then somehow transfer the data on the internal drive?

What is my best course of action so that I don't lose data?

Thanks for your help

Getting a new hard drive, restarting from that, and then transferring over the data is what I was suggesting. Also - after maybe 8 years it might be a good idea to get a new drive proactively anyways.

It's pretty easy to do if your machine has Internet Recovery enabled. Other than that you could restart using the original recovery discs that came with your machine, although those might be Snow Leopard. Internet Recovery works on your machine if it received regular updates. It's in the firmware on your computer, and should be updated automatically with certain operating system updates.

The process for removing the original drive and replacing is pretty easy, but not without risks of damage. I find it pretty simple, but but you may or may not.

I don't know where you're located, but I use Amazon.com for examples because they're well known. This is not an endorsement of Amazon or any particular brand. Also - an SSD might be a good option. I got one for my mid-2012 MBP and I'm wondering why I waited this long.

This is the hard drive I really like. I have one and would have gotten a second if it was in stock when I needed one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B4QESVQ/

If you're more budget conscious, this one isn't too bad:

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-BarraCuda-2-5-Inch-Internal-ST1000LM048/dp/B01LYN QXCP/

BearsInNeed wrote:

Oh my gosh, I'm now terrified I'll lose all the data on my Harddrive.

What is my best course of action so that I don't lose data?

Your best course of action is always have a current backup plan.

How to create a boot clone

A professional data recovery company maybe able to help you retrieve your data.