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User profile for user: cosmiconion
cosmiconion Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Trouble booting up (Macbook 2009, SSD, El Capitain or Sierra)

Hi, my wife's Macbook (think 2009 or 2010) failing to boot.


She does not have a back up.


It has a Samsung 128 SSD


Normal boot us fails after Apple logo and load bar just starts, then posts warning "computer restarted because of a problem"



In target mode cmd T : I just get a flashing file



I can boot in recovery and use disk utility to perform repair, but this is not solving the problem (results attached image).





I took the SSD out and attached it via an adapter to another mac, I can see my wife's volume and files, but cannot access as they are locked.


In fact my wife has a new computer (2014 macbook pro) and is logged in to her icloud. Will that unlock her previous SSD?


I tried booting from the 2014 Macbook pro from 2009 macbook SSD but got the same error "there was a problem"


So I think the issue is in the boot sector.

Is there a way to recover my wife's document folder? NB I could see the files when I attached Macbook 2009 SSD to 2014 macbook pro, I just could not access as they were locked.


Obviously once I recover my wife's documents I will re-install OS on MacBook and sell on.


Many thanks for your help


Posted on Oct 29, 2020 6:44 AM

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
59,948 points

Posted on Oct 29, 2020 6:05 PM

If you can see the files, then just copy them to another drive. If there is a permissions issue, then the Finder should prompt you for an admin password when attempting to copy the folder containing the data (at least macOS used to allow it).


You can also use the third party app Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to copy the files into a read-only compressed image (.dmg). CCC will prompt you for an admin password so all data on the other drive can be accessed. Just make sure to try opening the resulting .dmg file to make sure it is accessible and you can see the contents and open the files.


FYI, your second First Aid screenshot shows an unfixed error so this might very well be causing the problem. I don't know why First Aid reports everything is good when it clearly shows an error that was not fixed. I've seen this multiple times.

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
59,948 points

Oct 29, 2020 6:05 PM in response to cosmiconion

If you can see the files, then just copy them to another drive. If there is a permissions issue, then the Finder should prompt you for an admin password when attempting to copy the folder containing the data (at least macOS used to allow it).


You can also use the third party app Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to copy the files into a read-only compressed image (.dmg). CCC will prompt you for an admin password so all data on the other drive can be accessed. Just make sure to try opening the resulting .dmg file to make sure it is accessible and you can see the contents and open the files.


FYI, your second First Aid screenshot shows an unfixed error so this might very well be causing the problem. I don't know why First Aid reports everything is good when it clearly shows an error that was not fixed. I've seen this multiple times.

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User profile for user: cosmiconion
cosmiconion Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Oct 30, 2020 11:08 AM in response to HWTech

So I plugged the SSD into my mac mini (Catalina, under my log in) and I had full access to my wife's files, everything has now been transferred. Interestingly I could not repair the SSD with disk utility. I also re-tried plugging the SSD into my wife's replacement laptop 2014 (mojave) and here I could not access the files they were locked. Very strange. I guess Catalina has bypassed this lock. Thanks for your help.

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Trouble booting up (Macbook 2009, SSD, El Capitain or Sierra)

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