Any computer experts able to give me some advice?

[Kiwi cop]

Last night I was watching news clips on my 2011 17” MacBook Pro when the operating system started to “stick”, with the “wheel of death” slowing down activity. Then the laptop just died.

It took several attempts pushing the power button to get it to start up, but when loading the indicator bar would get half way along and then the device would just “die” and shut down again.

I can start it in Revovery mode but cannot reload the O/S. All attempts end in an “unauthorised action” message.

I managed to start it once in Safe Mode but did not take it any further when the box asking to change the password came up, trying recovery mode again. Further attempts at loading Safe Mode simply go right to normal startup mode.

I suspect that my hard drive has died

It has been some time since my last Time Machine backup so if I am in for a new hard drive I will have least a considerable amount of lost and importante-mails. Documents etc will have been stored on my iCloud backup (I hope).

Any suggestions of other than a fried hard drive?

 

[Cardboard_killer]

Fried hard drive is the most reasonable explanation, but I'm not an apple guy. If it were a windoz box, I'd remove the hard drive and hook it up to another computer as a data drive and scan it for errors (if it even was accessible).

I'd expect only five years of life from any hard drive I depend on. I've gotten far longer, but five years is when I expect them to be more a danger than a help. They're cheap and easily replaced.

 

[Kiwi cop]

Fried hard drive is the most reasonable explanation, but I'm not an apple guy. If it were a windoz box, I'd remove the hard drive and hook it up to another computer as a data drive and scan it for errors (if it even was accessible).

I'd expect only fivhe years of life from any hard drive I depend on. I've gotten far longer, but five years is when I expect them to be more a danger than a help. They're cheap and easily replaced.

I have identified a replacement SSD for the device. The only uncertainties for me are what else will I need? Mount? Interface?

And getting a Mac OS boot drive so that the OS can be loaded.

 

[Cardboard_killer]

I'm not a mac guy so I am not sure. I would assume that a proper size SSD will fit in the same bay as the original (mine does on my PC). The closest thing I've worked on that's OS X (or whatever flavor apple is using now) is UNIX from back in the 90s. I'd assume you need a boot DVD or a bootable flash drive, and a copy of the OS. You will end up spending more getting those things than the computer is worth. It is eight years old now. How about a new PC box?

 

[Kiwi cop]

I'm not a mac guy so I am not sure. I would assume that a proper size SSD will fit in the same bay as the original (mine does on my PC). The closest thing I've worked on that's OS X (or whatever flavor apple is using now) is UNIX from back in the 90s. I'd assume you need a boot DVD or a bootable flash drive, and a copy of the OS. You will end up spending more getting those things than the computer is worth. It is eight years old now. How about a new PC box?

It’s a laptop. It still does everything I need it to much better than any Windows device and they no longer make the 17” screen.

The OS I an download. The thumb drive boot disk will be the biggest issue.

 

[Onomea]

Kiwi, I don’t know how to do it, but there are tutorials on YouTube. Here is an example: YouTube

Well, that one is how to install an SSD. But if you root around I bet you can find something on your issue.

 

[chief38]

While I am not classifying myself as a "Computer Expert", I'd definitely recommend a Mac! I've got 3 in the house now and the oldest is 10 years old, the newest is 4 years old. They all still work fine and I've not had any problems with any of them.

I gave up on PC's 10 years ago after having major problems with Dell, Toshiba, etc. Not only are the Macs far superior IMHO, but their Customer Service is far superior as well.

While the Macs are more expensive to purchase initially, they perform so much better than PC's (in my experience) and are so much less problematic, they justify the extra coin.

I also like the fact that my iphone talks to my Mac and the photos, & data is automatically transferred. Macs work for me!

 

[bigwheelzip]

After my first OEM MAC hard drive died, I replaced it with two new drives. They were a pair of identical drives that were an upgrade to the original. One went in the laptop, and the other was a cloned backup drive that lived in a dock and backed up the laptop.
If the laptop drive died, I'd switch drives.
This Thermaltake dock is a version of the one I've used for years. It might be useful in pulling data off your old drive.

Good Luck

 

[kmyers]

With the age of from 2011 a failed hard drive is always a possibility. We both have Macs here and a while ago something happened to her 2014 MacBook Pro HD where it only detected a 500 MB(instead of GB) storage on her internal SSD. I did the research and found the information on creating a bootable Mac OSX USB Mojave flash drive installer. Once I did that I was able to boot into the flash drive and use the Disk Utility feature, then repartition her internal SSD and install the OS from the flash drive. After that it was just a matter to restore all documents, programs and such to the repartitioned and reloaded OS internal drive from backups. With that happening it made me think it might be smart to have a decent external HD that can be used for repairs and if need be to be a true replacement for the internal drives for both of our Macs so I set up Installer flash drives for both as well as bootable HDs for both along the lines of what Bigwheelzip created for himself where you can change startup disk to use the external drive or just press the Option key when the machine boots and you can select the boot to/boot from drive.

One of the best Mac resources online that I have found is this one.

OS X Daily - News and Tips for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Everything Apple

It has all types of tips and things to try for your machine. Just looking at the Mojave installer flash drive requirements it does not list 2011 but mid 2012, BUT creating a OSX High Sierra installer is possible and lists 2010 and later.

Create the installer.

How to Create a Bootable Install Drive for macOS High Sierra

How to Download a Full macOS High Sierra Installer App

Compatible Macs.

MacOS High Sierra Compatible Macs List

 

[ditrina]

After my first OEM MAC hard drive died, I replaced it with two new drives. They were a pair of identical drives that were an upgrade to the original. One went in the laptop, and the other was a cloned backup drive that lived in a dock and backed up the laptop.
If the laptop drive died, I'd switch drives.
This Thermaltake dock is a version of the one I've used for years. It might be useful in pulling data off your old drive.

Good Luck

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

THE PERFECT SOLUTION

 

[bigwheelzip]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

THE PERFECT SOLUTION

If only I could let it go at that. But I'm a belt and suspenders gal, so I also Velcroed this Bus-powered drive to the MAC's lid, with another boot drive installed.
Browsed the net off the external drive and saved the internal for serious work.

 

[johngalt]

If only I could let it go at that. But I'm a belt and suspenders gal, so I also Velcroed this Bus-powered drive to the MAC's lid, with another boot drive installed.
Browsed the net off the external drive and saved the internal for serious work.

I have several of those. I've upgraded to bigger drives and put the original in the external cases several times.

Kiwicop - if you have a 2nd computer, you can put your Mac in target disk mode (hold down the T key and reboot). Connect to the 2nd computer with a Thunderbolt or Firewire cable. The Mac will mount on the other machine as if it was an external hard disk. You might be able to recover stuff that way.

Sounds like the drive may be toast though.

 

[kmyers]

I have read a lot of fine things about the OWC drives. When it looked like I might have to replace a internal drive for one of the MacBook Pro here I researched the company and products and it looked and sounded like it would be simple to switch them out and set up everything for the new drive.

 

[johngalt]

I have read a lot of fine things about the OWC drives. When it looked like I might have to replace a internal drive for one of the MacBook Pro here I researched the company and products and it looked and sounded like it would be simple to switch them out and set up everything for the new drive.

I've bought a couple OWC Mercury Pro 6G SSDs, they work well. They are not the highest performing drives out there but they are reliable. I think they still use MLC (2 bits per cell) while most companies have moved on to TLC (3 bits per cell). MLC is more reliable/higher endurance than TLC.

My personal favorite SSD is the Samsung 850 Pro (has since been replaced with the 860 Pro), but it is also expensive.

In general, any SATA drive can be replaced with a 2.5" form factor SATA SSD. The only issue I know of is TRIM doesn't work with Linux and Samsung SSDs previous to the 860.

 

[Golddollar]

Darn. I can't understand a word of this thread!

 

[Walkingwolf]

Could be a hard drive could be the controller.