Macbook unibody not booting from disk

Hi, so my problem with a customers computer. It had a bad Hard Drive, i replaced it with a new Hard Drive that i partitioned with an imac. when i try to boot from a Leopard disk, the laptop just restarts and wont boot from disk. When i try to boot from Snow Leopard disk i just get a blinking folder with a question mark.
Things ive tried
1. Reset PRAM
2. Safe Mode
3. Reset SMC
4. Boot from external DVD RW drive
5. Removing Battery
6. Used different AC cord
7. Leopard disk, and Snow Leopard disk (both work in other macs)
If any one can help, the customer is going to school soon and needs the laptop back.
Macbook Unibody Model#A1278 2.0GHz 2GB RAM 250GB WD HDD

You need the install disks that came with the customers computer.
Message was edited by: macbig

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Josue,
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Cisco Support Community is also present in Spanish:
https://supportforums.cisco.com/community/spanish/data_center

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Message was edited by: Rick Lang

I have a new macbook pro 2,6 Ghz i7, 8GB 1600Mhz internal ram. He will not boot from an external disk with operating system Snow Leopard

I have a new macbook pro 2,6Ghz i7, 8GB 1600 Mhz internal ram, but he will not boot from an external disk with operating system Snow Leopard.

These Macs shipped with 10.7, and will run nothing older than that:
MacBook Pro
Date introduced
Original Mac OS X included
(see Tips 1 and 3)
Later Mac OS X included
(see Tip 1)
Mac OS X Build(s)
(see Tip 2)
MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012)
Jun 2012
10.7.4
11E2068
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012)
Jun 2012
10.7.4
11E2617
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012)
Jun 2012
10.7.4
11E2617
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2011)
Oct 2011
10.7.2
10.7.3
11C74, 11C2002, 11D2001
MacBook Pro (15-inch, Late 2011)
Oct 2011
10.7.2
10.7.3
11C74, 11C2002, 11D2001
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Late 2011)
Oct 2011
10.7.2
10.7.3
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MacBook (not unibody) will not boot from Boot Camp USB Key

Hello
I have a MacBook Pro 2007 (17", 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM and SSD) with a defect SuperDrive, and I want to install Windows using an USB key instead. But the computer will not boot from the USB Key, even though the USB key works on my MacBook Retina. Also I was able to install Mountain Lion using USB Key, on the MBP 2007.
Here is a bit more details:
I've installed Mountaion Lion from the same USB Key (so boot from USB works).
I've installed a Windows 7 Boot Camp using the SuperDrive before (when it was not defected)
I've partitioned the harddisk using the Boot Camp assistant (this requires a Windows DVD in the SuperDriver... however it worked just enught to be able to have OS X recognize the Windows DVD, and create the Boot Camp partition). So far so good. Installing from the SuperDriver howerver does not work.
I've created an Windows USB Key using my MacBook retina. Because the Retina does not have a DVD, the Boot Camp assistant offers the creation of a bootable Windows USB Key from an Windows ISO file. I've used this USB key to install Windows on my MacBook retina.
When I try to boot my MacBook 2007 with this Boot Camp USB Key, it shows an "EFI Boot" option (with a orange USB logo) in the MacBook boot menu. When I select this nothing happpens. The mouse freezes, and the computer never boots.
Questions:
Shouldn't I be able to boot from an EFI USB Key on this MacBook 2007, when I'm able to install Mountain Lion using a USB Key?
When I installed BootCamp using the SuperDrive, I had to do som "magic" to make it bootable. Like this: http://www.logicalvue.com/2009/10/installing-window-7-x64-on-a-macbook-pro-using -bootcamp. I tried doing the "oscdimg -n -m -bc:\efi-dvd\boot\etfsboot.com c:\efi-dvd c:\efi-iso\win7x64.iso" trick and create a EFI bootable ISO and created the from this USB key using http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/. Same result... the USB key shows up in the boot menu, but nothing happens when I select it (except the mouse freezes).
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: Thomas

Thanks... I just tried rEFIt... and it almost worked.
After installing rEFIt I got several different boot options:
Bootmgr.EFI - This failed quick with a "unsupported" message
Bootx64.EFI - This actually started the Windows installation with "Loading files.............". But after a few minutes when all files was loaded, the screen went black. I tried ataching an external screen, but the screen was still black.
Boot from "Bootcamp" drive... as this drive is empty nothing happend.
Boot from "USB Key"... I'm not sure how this is different from the first 2 options... but nothing happend. I belive this is what happens if I try selecting the USB key from the build in boot manager.
Ofcause, whan I saw the "Loading files......" I thought I solved the problem, but as you can tell, I'm still stucked.
Actually... I tried with both Windows 7 64 bit, Windows 8 64 bit and Windows 8 32 bit. Only Windows 8 64 bit, got me to the "Loading files.....". This was created with the Retina Boot Camp assistant.
I also tried my own home made Windows 7 and Windows 8 ISO (created with this link: http://www.logicalvue.com/2009/10/installing-window-7-x64-on-a-macbook-pro-using -bootcamp).
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Macbook Pro Will Not Boot Windows Disk

I have a late 08 (or early 09) Unibody Macbook Pro 2.53Ghz. I start the Bootcamp Assistant and successfully create my Windows partition. When I restart with the Windows 7 disk, I get a blinking cursor for 1 second then it goes to a black screen and never leaves. I have tried several different Windows 7 disks with the same result. I have even tried booting from a Windows Vista, Windows XP and even a Ubuntu disk all with the same result, stuck at a black screen.
I took the hard drive out of this mac and put it into my wife's older Macbook pro, and it booted off the Windows 7 disk and completed the install to the drive with no issues. I then put the hard drive back into my Macbook Pro and get the same black screen when trying to start the Windows partition, and still have the same problem that it will not boot from any other OS disk be it Windows or Ubuntu. It boots from OS X DVDs without a problem.
Also several months ago I had a Windows XP installation on this computer with no issues. I wiped it just before going to Snow Leopard.
Any clue as to what is going on here?

What is really odd is if I take my hard drive out of my Unibody Macbook Pro and put it into my wife's non-unibody Macbook Pro, it boots the Windows partition with no problem (Remembering I previously swapped these hard drives to complete the Windows installation to my hard drive). Seeing as the disk boots on her machine fine and not in mine, and my Windows cds (DVDs) boot fine on hers and not on mine, it seems to me it's something specific about my machine, but I can't imagine what it is.

Mid-2009 MacBook Pro sees internal SATA hard drive, but will not boot from or format

I inherited a Mid-2009 MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53 GHz model) with a very strange issue.
It first presented itself as not being able to boot from the internal SATA hard drive that came with the computer. Nothing I tried could get it to boot, so I assumed the file system was corrupted beyond repair and booted from a CD to try to format the drive. Disk Utility on the CD would not format the drive, giving me strange error messages like "Unable to write to the last block of the device".
At this point I figured the drive itself must be toast, so I pulled it out and put another known-good SATA hard drive in, booted from CD, and attempted to format. Again, same error messages and an unsuccesful format.
So I had the bright idea of formatting one of the drives in an external enclosure and then putting it in the MBP to see if OS X would even install. No dice. Get a cryptic error message before installation even begins.
So I installed OS X on the drive in the external enclosure and put it in the MBP, and it attempts to boot, but never goes anywhere.
So to sum up, the symptoms I'm seeing:
MacBook Pro CAN see internal SATA hard drives.
MacBook Pro WILL NOT boot from any internal SATA hard drive and cannot format or install OS X to any internal SATA hard drive.
MacBook Pro WILL boot from any CD or external device and seems to work properly otherwise.
At this point I'm thinking it's one of two things: the hard drive ribbon cable or the SATA controller on the logic board.
Since the MacBook Pro seems to work completely fine other than this one issue, and will boot properly from both external devices and the CD (also a SATA device), I'm thinking and hoping that it's just the hard drive ribbon cable. From my searches online, I've heard that this batch of MacBook Pros is known to have issues with the hard drive ribbon cable, but it seems in most cases this manifests itself by the Mac not being able to see a drive at all.
I've done quite a bit of troubleshooting to get to this point, but right now I'm just looking for any feedback at all. Specifically I'd love to know a way I can easily test to see whether it's the logic board or the cable.

UPDATE: An interesting development!
I just tried a third known-good SATA hard drive, one which I believe supports SATA I only (but I'm not sure), and unlike the other drives that the Mac sees but cannot properly interact with, the Mac can't even see this one when I put it inside.
Frustrating as this may be, I believe I'm actually getting closer to a solution since my symptoms now appear to be closely aligned with people having SATA ribbon cable issues.
Onward!

Macbook unibody not booting from disk

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