MacBook Pro boot issues

[Benjamin Phillips]

Hello follow SMUG members,

I hope you can advise me.

I have a mid2012 MacBook Pro which today has given me the flashing folder with questionmark symbol and refuses to boot into Mac OS. Historically when this has happened it has been the HDD cable which once swapped out fixes the issue.

I have booted into internet recovery, opened disk utility and I can see the SSD. Therefore it cannot be the HDD cable at fault on this occasion. I can not verify or repair the drive.

Remaining in internet recovery I go to start up disks and this does not show the SSD as a boot option. I have also tried selecting reinstall OS X with a view of repairing the OS files but again there is no valid install location.

It is also important to note that the SSD has been protected using FileVault.

My questions are:
What affect will FileVault have on getting my Mac to boot again?
Can this be fixed and if not what is likely to be the component at fault?
Does anyone have any recommendations on what the problem is and steps to fix this?

Ideally I’d like to get this Mac working again as it is such a great computer. I have looked at the new MacBook Air but the only thing that stops me swapping is the lack of ports and I prefer the old keyboards which have travel on the keys. But if you have experience of this Mac I’d love to hear your experiences as if this Mac is beyond ecenomical repair then the Air is my first choice for replacements.

Thank you for all contributions in advance.

Ben

[Sam - MacAmbulance]

When was your last backup? I’d just wipe/restore/re-enabled FileVault

Sam

MacAmbulance Ltd. Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development Sam Mullen +44 (0)7747778022 in...@macambulance.co.uk www.macambulance.co.uk

MacAmbulance Ltd. is a registered company in England & Wales, registration number 8466597 This email is intended solely for the addressed recipients and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.

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[Benjamin Phillips]

Thanks for your suggestion Sam.

My last backup was just under a week prior to the computer not booting. Fortunately the majority of my work is on cloud-based systems so only a few files have gone missing. I tried as you suggested about after 2 hours the drive was still trying to erase itself and the progress bar had not appeared to move. I have now switched the SSD out for the original HDD and been able to install a fresh operating system onto it and the computer appears to be working perfectly. I am therefore guessing the SSD may be dying. Does this sound a correct conclusion?

Thank you for your input.

Benjamin Phillips

benjamin...@gmail.com

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[Sam - MacAmbulance]

The finger is pointing toward the SSD yes. Were you able to erase the SSD independently in Disk Utility when booted up from internet recovery?

Regards

Sam

MacAmbulance Ltd. Providing Affordable Mac/PC Support and Web Development Sam Mullen +44 (0)7747778022 in...@macambulance.co.uk www.macambulance.co.uk

MacAmbulance Ltd. is a registered company in England & Wales, registration number 8466597 This email is intended solely for the addressed recipients and may contain privileged or confidential information. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and delete the email immediately.

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[benjamin...@gmail.com]

Hi Sam,

No I wasn’t. After leaving the computer for several hours trying to erase the SSD it still had not progressed and continued to say partitioning. I therefore turned it off on the assumption it was stuck.

Benjamin Phillips

Sent from my iPad Mini

[Jason Davies]

I may have missed something but is this a crucial SSD? Sometimes they need to be allowed to sit in neutral (but powered) for the firmware to tidy up blocks. If you can leave it attached via an enclosure but unmounted for some time (eg overnight) it's possible it will sort itself out. I've had spectacular results with crucial disks in this way.

If not crucial, then have a look for garbage collection processes for your disk. The OS doesn't, I believe, handle them all very well (happy to be corrected as I'm a bit out of date on this).

cheers
J

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[Benjamin Phillips]

Thank you for your input Jason.

It is a SanDisk SSD. I’ll do some research into garbage collection processes.

Thank you.

Benjamin

Sent from my iPhone

[Benjamin Phillips]

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for all your help.

For update more than anything. The issue was the SSD was dying and this is being replaced under SanDisk warranty. Thank you to all who contributed their opinions into resolving this issue.

Benjamin.