Crashed Mac Pro

kuntakinte

kuntakinte

Registered
I have a macbook pro Core i7" 2.0 15 that has refused to work, when i switch it on all i get is a flashing folder with question mark icon, i have tried installing the El-captin OS x through a flash USB drive made bootable using TRANSMAC, POWER ISO..etc but none of them worked. please any one with a workable solution on how to do this. when i make a bootable USB, i plug it in, switch on the mac, press down option button but the USB drive doesn't show out.
 
The flashing folder means that your MBPro cannot find a partition with a bootable system.
That can mean that:
Your hard drive is failing, or has already failed.
Or, there is some corrupted boot files in your system
Or, that you have unsuccessfully tried to install another system, and that failed to complete.

Many times, using another OS, such as Windows, to create an OS X bootable partition just does not give you a usable bootable installer for OS X.
Best choice is to use a different Mac, if you have access to one.

Have you tried booting to your Internet Recovery system? Restart, while holding Option-Command-R.
You should see a spinning globe, showing that you are booting through Apple's servers.
It can take several minutes before the boot completes.
Run Disk Utility then, and select your hard drive, then click First Aid.
If that passes - Quit Disk Utility, which will return to the main menu screen.
And, choose Reinstall OS X. That will install Lion (probably), OS X 10.7.5
If that installs, then boots successfully, you can continue on to download and update to El Capitan, if you like.
Chances are good with a 5-year-old drive that the drive has failed, and you will have verified that by this time.
You can fix by replacing with a new drive - or even better, replace the hard drive with an SSD for better-than-new performance. :D
 
Thanks for your reply, i really appreciate. i have tried the internet recovery option, but the set back i am having is that it requires a WiFi connection which i don't have access to now here in Nigeria.
Access to another mac is hard.
i just need a way to fix the issue with a windows PC.
pls how can i replace the hard drive with an ssd @Deltamac
 
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Internet Recovery requires an internet connection, but that does not mean "Wifi only"
Do you have access to a router where you could plug in an ethernet cable?
I'm guessing that anything you connect will be on a relatively slow connection?
Or - tell me if your MBPro does, or does NOT have an ethernet port?

Anyway, you may be wasting your time until you try to verify that your hard drive is working.
Have you tried booting to the (hidden) recovery system partition that should be on your hard drive?
Restart, holding Command-R.
Run Disk Utility, choose your hard drive from the list, and run First Aid.
Does your hard drive test OK then?
If not, or your hard drive partition is not showing in Disk Utility, then you probably can't proceed until you replace the drive.

Replacing the hard drive with an SSD is relatively simple. You can find instructions for that on the internet. iFixit has good repair guides.
I'm guessing that you have a 2011 15-inch MBPro, so this repair guide is a good place to start...
As I am not sure which MBPro you really have, there is also a 2013 2.0 GHz 15-inch MBPro, but is a retina display. The SSD is not easy to find, and very expensive - proprietary to Apple.
but, here's the repair guide for that one, too.
Ignore it if you have the 2011 instead. Much cheaper to repair, too!
 
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