Stuck on Apple Logo while trying to install Snow Leopard on MacBook Pro

Question

I purchased a used MBP (without a hard drive). See model details/specs below. I am trying to install Mac OS X Snow Leopard (Version 10.6.3). I have successfully done this using the same process on two older MacBooks (A1151, A1181).

I searched the Ask Different postings and did not find what I was looking for. Many similar ones exist. But most folks with this issue have the original, still working HD to work with. Not me.

I also confirmed that my MBP is compatible with Snow Leopard. Compatibility list on Everymac.com

Here’s mine.

Apple MacBook Pro "Core i5" 2.4 15" Mid-2010 Specs
Identifiers: Mid-2010 15" - MC371LL/A - MacBookPro6,2 - A1286 - 2353*
Model: A1286

Specs listed on everymac

I purchased a retail copy of Snow Leopard. I have it on DVD and I have imaged it to a USB stick with Disk Utility to make for easier installations. Then I installed a hard drive into the MBP, held down the Option/Alt key to boot from the USB drive. It then, as expected, shows me the only option which is to boot the Mac OS X Install DVD. As soon as I hit Enter, the screen changes to the Apple logo screen (with nothing else, no progress meter, no spinner). And there it stays.

I’ve left it untouched overnight. I’ve tried using the DVD instead of USB. I’ve reset the NVRAM/PRAM more times than I can count. I’ve tried using different hard drives. Different Memory. Swapped the sticks. Used only one slot. I tried installing Leopard (10.5 via CPU Drop-in DVD). Nothing seems to let it get past this screen. I don’t want to give up on it since it’s such a lovely machine.

Here’s a small google photos album for reference.

I’ve used the same technique to successfully install Snow Leopard on two older MacBooks (mentioned above). I’ve also booted Ubuntu Linux on USB successfully. So I know the machine is functional.

Any ideas? What else can I try?

Answer 1

So I got it working. It was ugly, not how I envisioned, and I'm still not delighted. But it works. Let me explain.

I mentioned earlier that I successfully used the same method to install Snow Leopard on two older MacBooks. Well that turned out to be the key. You gotta have access to a working installation of the OS. At least I had to in my case. My coworker suggested (as a test) transplanting the hard drive from one of the other MacBooks into the one that was giving me trouble.

This ended up working. But there are some caveats and I had to jump through a few hoops. After moving the "good" drive to the target MBP, it initially froze at the same spot. But the difference was that now I had a recovery partition. At first, I tried holding Shift and booting. That did nothing.

After that, I tried booting into Recovery Mode with Cmd + R. Instead of starting the recovery wizard (with Disk Utility), the screen immediately changed to showing a globe (not the Apple logo). And it let me connect to the internet. This was new. I was hopeful! It was the Recovery over Internet wizard!

I connected to my wi-fi and let it do its thing. It took about a half-hour. When it rebooted, I could see that it had downloaded and was booting up High Sierra (which I think is the max OS this MBP will support).

But there was a catch. The password I had setup/used on the previous laptop would not work. I guess because the system recognized that it was in a different machine. Maybe the password is paired to the older hardware set(?) No idea.

Well, I found an article that walked me through resetting the password. That worked flawlessly and it's where the story ends.

So I got it to 'work', but it's still not the clean solution I was looking for. I still don't know why I could not start from scratch with a new, empty hard drive installed. I want to test out the suggestions from Lars, Dan, and user711393. But for now, it's working and I'm happy.

I hope this helps someone else out who encounters a finicky MBP like mine.

List of helpful sites I used at various stages

• https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/boot-mode-startup-keys-mac/
• https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/restore-mac-without-recovery-3636668/
• https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?t=1217501
• https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/forgotten-mac-password-3594395/

Again, it's not perfect, but I consider this case closed for now. Thank you AskDifferent community!

Answer 2

Your screenshots show you are not connected to a network. Perhaps if you connect to WiFi or an Ethernet dongle Internet Recovery would kick in.

Also if you can connect to another Mac with a cable you could clone that Mac’s OS over to your drive. You could also remove the drive and use a dock to clone from a working machine. After you clone you could potentially be able to erase the disk and reinstall the OS using the recovery utility.

Answer 3

Have you considered doing away with Snow Leopard entirely? I had good experience using this patcher tool: http://dosdude1.com/software.html to install High Sierra on your generation Macbook (officially unsupported for that model, but performing surprisingly well).