Help installing OS X on new SSD

Mr_Toad

You shouldn't need to do any of the above.

Connect the macbook to the network via ethernet if possible, if not it will connect to your wireless network.

Power on the Macbook and hold down cmd + Option + R

You should see a globe and your mac will connect to an Apple server and you can install the OS this way. I believe it defaults to the latest compatible version for your hardware. As you were on El Capitan it should install that.

At some point you'll be asked for your Apple App Store login details.

Dandytf

wba31 wrote: »

Cant get anything other than a flashing folder with a question mark in it, or the one time i got the disc image for the DVD.

Is it a Samsung ssd?

Anyway format the ssd as earlier advised, if you can use time machine or carbon copy cloner to copy when your hdd is re installed.

Roland_Sausage

Mr_Toad wrote: »

You shouldn't need to do any of the above.

Connect the macbook to the network via ethernet if possible, if not it will connect to your wireless network.

Power on the Macbook and hold down cmd + Option + R

You should see a globe and your mac will connect to an Apple server and you can install the OS this way. I believe it defaults to the latest compatible version for your hardware. As you were on El Capitan it should install that.

At some point you'll be asked for your Apple App Store login details.

This won't work on a 2008 model.

Mr_Toad

Roland_Sausage wrote: »

This won't work on a 2008 model.

Didn't know that.

I thought that if you'd upgraded to Lion or later versions they came with Internet recovery.

I've certainly used it on older Macbooks when upgrading to SSD and doing a clean install although I can't, hand on heart, say exactly how old they were.

Roland_Sausage

Mr_Toad wrote: »

Didn't know that.

I thought that if you'd upgraded to Lion or later versions they came with Internet recovery.

I've certainly used it on older Macbooks when upgrading to SSD and doing a clean install although I can't, hand on heart, say exactly how old they were.

I would assume your MacBook was 2010 or newer.

See https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202313

prowla

Mr_Toad wrote: »

Didn't know that.

I thought that if you'd upgraded to Lion or later versions they came with Internet recovery.

I've certainly used it on older Macbooks when upgrading to SSD and doing a clean install although I can't, hand on heart, say exactly how old they were.

I think it's in the BIOS, not the OS.

Mr_Toad

prowla wrote: »

I think it's in the BIOS, not the OS.

Yes it is but I thought the firmware update covered more models/years that it actually did.

Some of the Macbooks I have upgraded/rebuilt for people looked a lot older but in reality must have just been well used and tatty

Every day is a school day :rotfl:

prowla

Mr_Toad wrote: »

Yes it is but I thought the firmware update covered more models/years that it actually did.

Some of the Macbooks I have upgraded/rebuilt for people looked a lot older but in reality must have just been well used and tatty

Every day is a school day :rotfl:

Yep - always learning...

wba31

Thanks to everyone for your help so far.

I have been out and picked up a 16GB USB pen. I used Disk Maker X to format this as a bootable drive for the MacBook.

I have used this to use Disk Utility to format the SSD, an have twice attempted an install of OS X on the MacBook, but there has been an issue extracting a certain folder.

So currently reformatting the USB drive to check it isnt the issue. In the morning will reformat the SSD again and then try installation again.

zagubov

dauphin wrote: »

OK but that shouldn't be necessary. As I indicated, Disk Utility is provided on the installation disk for this specific purpose.
The absence of a formatted drive should not prevent you booting from the DVD to the Installer stage.
Could the DVD be faulty? Why not use your iMac to download OS X 10.11 (El Capitan) from the App Store, then create a new installation DVD. (Assuming your MacBook is compatible with El Capitan)

Whoah! Steady on!

Never upgrade a MacOS beyond a version that works with your current software AND your printers/other hardware. El Capitain loses the use of loads of printers (and gutenprint can't save everything).

MacOS is great but upgrades bring serious losses. All upgraders need to do their homework!