Trying to add a SSD to a Mac Book Pro 13

Stoner

Was working on my nephews Mac for him, never opened one up before, but his main drive failed and he has no back up of it. Also the optical drive is not working.

I picked up a Samsung 840 pro ssd, its listed as compatible. I've downloaded OS X 10.9 base system.dmg

I've discovered some youtube videos that showed how to install the OS from the internet etc.

But I cant get the drive to initialize. I've tried erasing it and adding a new GUID partition but it keeps failing. Some forums say to take the drive out and initialize via a sata caddy over usb, I don't have one (I've ordered one) .

I've restarted the process a number of times. Ideally I wanted to create a boot disk from a thumb drive and install it to the machine for him but I just can get the new SSD to settle in. It's recognized and sees is as a Samsung 128GB drive but that's about it. The errors like "DISK ERASE FAILED WITH THE ERROR WIPING VOLUME DATA TO PREVENT FUTURE ACCIDENTAL PROBING FAILED"

I haven't worked on a MAC before and I'd appreciate the help please. I did eventually take the drive out of the mac and popped into my PC where it did initialize, I set it up as a single GUID partition but did not run a format. I just popped it back into the MAC.

Zcott

Are you booting from a USB stick or DVD and going through disk utility?

Stoner

thank for the reply, i used disk utility to format the USB stick, and I've saved OS X 10.9 base system.dmg to the USB. The HD is knackered and he has no restore. I tried installing from the internet but the new HD I added wont format so i don't think the internet setup is running as it cant save to the drive.

So I've tried both, I also looked at moving the .dmg file from the usb drive to the new HD using disk utility but the new HD is not recognised.

I'm expecting the sata caddy on Friday I plan to use it to house the new HD so i can use USB connection on the mac to set the new drive then, maybe copy the dmg file to it from the usb thumb drive using disk utility and then shut down the system pop the new hd back as the primary disk and see where i go from there ?

does that sound like it might work?

Zcott

I think I'm following you. Although if the drive won't format it sounds odd - could maybe be a faulty drive?

Stoner

might be, i stuck it in my pc in place of the dvd burner and it was recognised and initialised, i didnt format it though.

i read on some forums about others having similar issues, and some suggested letting a new drive kick off by putting it in a caddy and letting the mac spot it over usb, so thats my next plan.

i never opened or really used a mac before, very well built unit imho. while looking up how to fix this there are loads of videos about people cloning the drives, it seems so easy, its a pity he never made one, instead he waited until the optical drive died and then the hard drive died etc.

anyway it should fly when it gets going again with an ssd.

Zcott

Keep us updated anyway.