[SOLVED] Need urgent help -- MacOS drive is no longer bootable ?

[hidekelip]

Hi, all.

I'm trying to help my friend clone her late 2011 macbook pro's hard drive to an SSD because the computer is super slow and laggy. RAM has been ruled out after buying the max allowable RAM for this model. I'm using EaseUS Todo Backup for Mac to do the cloning. I had both the original drive and the new SSD connected via external enclosures to my own macbook pro where I was going to do the whole process.

I started the cloning process just fine, and the app showed that the new cloned drive would be bootable before I initiated the cloning process. However, a little bit after it started, the enclosure that housed the original drive suddenly shut off (it's an enclosure that had that problem, and I wasn't sure if it was that one that I was using, and unfortunately it was). I re-connected the drive with another enclosure and went back to start the process again, but this time, the app says that the cloned drive will not be bootable, because the original HDD is not bootable. In disk utility, it shows that drive as a "corestorage logical volume" under type. From what I understand, it no longer seems to be a bootable drive, even though the os is still installed. I put the original HDD into the macbook pro and tried to boot up, but about 75% through the progress bar during boot, the macbook shuts off.

Is there any way to fix this? A way to repair the drive to make it bootable again? Or is all hope lost to make the drive bootable? I'm mostly concerned about my friend's data. She's not worried about the drive or the OS not working right now as much as her not losing her personal files. Even making a backup was not viable because the computer was a slow laggy mess. Is there another alternative to "fixing" the booting issue, like perhaps cloning the drive to the SSD anyway, and then trying to figure out how to fix the booting issue, since the original drive is so slow? Or would installing a fresh version of macos onto the SSD and then copying over her data be a better option? The thing is I don't know which version of macos the original drive has installed. Booting into recovery mode is painfully slow. It's been loading disk utility for the last 15-20 minutes (I was going to try to repair the drive but I don't think it'll ever finish loading disks).

What can be done? Please help. Thank you so much. Is there a way to check the macos version installed on a drive without booting into the os to check?? Also, where could I find the macos itself to install it via DVD or USB?

HP

 

[velocityg4]

Perform a clean install of the OS on the SSD and reinstall applications. Then copy the files from the user folders on the old drive and skip the cloning. If it has issues and puts up an error during the copy. Use freefilesync to copy the user folder into some temporary folder you setup with the option to ignore errors enabled. As the drive will be mounted externally. Be sure to set the drive to ignore permissions.

 

[cotayo4388]

Such a situation usually requires repairing of Mac start-up disk with Disk Utility application. When the MacOS drive is not booting, it might sometimes get stuck at a white screen before starting up. This is usually a warning sign depicting an underlying problem with the system. Here are a few DIY fixes you can try to resolve the issue:

1. Boot in Recovery mode
2. Boot in the Safe mode
3. Restore from Time Machine backup
4. Disconnect peripherals and reboot
5. Reset PRAM/SMC

Further, for more details you can also check the below link:
https://medium.com/@kepler.donald/mac-ssd-not-booting-try-5-fixes-to-boot-up-your-mac-710d02aec288

Hope it helps!