Replaced HDD w/ SSD, replaced Sata Cable, can't install OSX

Hello All,
So I've got a Late 2009 13in MBP that I thought had a HDD go bad. Nothing unusual, so I replaced the HDD, had a second one "go bad." After a bit of trouble shooting, I ordered a new Sata cable and a a 512gb Crucial M4 SSD. Replaced both, and I've been having some trouble ever since.
I've tried to install 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8, and every single attempt has failed in it's own way. 10.8 refuses to create a recovery partition, 10.7 just hangs on first reboot after copying files and never reboots to finish the installation, 10.6 makes it half way and refuses to copy Essentials.pkg.
I did a test and used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my other macbook pro (10.8) to the HDD with the 13in in Target Disk Mode, and it failed at first boot but after reparing disk permissions a few times I got it to boot just fine.
I'm left with two options. Either the new Sata cable is also fried, or the logic board is fried. The macbook has passed both Apple hardware test and TechTool Pro's hardware test. But no matter what, I can't get an OS installed on it the traditional way.
Just wondering if anyone here can shed some light on some possible solutions... this post is more of a last resort as I'm all out of ideas.
Thanks!

Could be the SSD.

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Replaced hard drive can't install OSX

A friend gave me an iBook G3 500 MgHz. I want it to coordinate with my iMac G5 to be able to use same Tiger software. I put in 640 MB of Ram, then installed OSX 10.4. Everything OK but the modem was broke and there was not much room on HD. So I bought new 80Gig Toshiba HD and new modem, did the surgery using excellent iFixit instructions and went to reinstall OSX from my cds. The computer works if I start it with OSX installer cd, and the disk utility and System Profiler show the hard drive properly,
BUT WHEN I START THE INSTALLER THE HARD DRIVE DOESN'T SHOW UP AS THE DESTINATION DRIVE,NOTHING SHOWS UP AS A POSSIBLE DESTINATION DRIVE.
DID I MISS A MAJOR STEP TO PREPARE THE COMPUTER FOR A NEW HD? IS THERE SOMETHING I CAN DO WITH DISK UTILITY TO MAKE IT SHOW UP?
HELP

Hi, and welcome to Apple Discussions.
In a Mac, it's called Open Firmware, and you get there by holding down the Command (Apple) Key + Option + o + f.
If it's a G4 (and it sounds like it is because the G3's have tray-loading optical drives), you may want to try posting in the iBook G4 Forum.
You have posted in the iBook G3 (Dual USB) Forum.
Also, an iBook G4 will not have version OS X 10.1.x (that version of the operating system is too old for an iBook G4), so you may want to check that information.

Can't install osx on 2009 macbook pro

Hey guys i'm haveing a nightmare getting osx reinstalled on my macbook pro, firstly i have no experance with mac's but have always wanted too so when offered this macbook pro i snapped it up even with a dead HDD thinking it to be a very easy fix, so replaced the drive with a new one and still can't install osx
anyway here's whats going on, i booted the macbook with the instalation dvd it loads up as it should but when you get to the select drive part nothing is there so googled a few things and found the drive has to be set-up first so entered disk utility to partition and format the drive but get an error with whatever i do, i have removed and reseated the HDD cable and memory and have tried booting with only one stick to see if there was an error with one of the sodimm's, i have also tried accessing the AHT but none of the ways i have found work............ please if anyone can help me, please let me know

Thanks for the reply mate, sorry to say i have tried every option in disk util i've even tied a couple of terminal commands to do the same thing with no luck, i have however been able to remove the partition but that's where the good news ends as i can't create a new one..... is there anyway to prep the disk in windows? as i don't have an external case or another mac?
also what are the chances of the HDD cable being at fault? after more googeling i found someone with the same sort of problem's as me and he ended up replacing the cable http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/apple-notebooks/237964-cant-partition-brand-new -hard-drive.html unfortunatly i don't have an apple store anywhere near me so thats not an option but it's something i could do myself, the only problem is i don't have the £18 for a new one right now as i've had to buy a HDD and charger as well as the macbook and it's left me a little skint lol

Can't install OSX Mountain Lion, on the disk selection screen i cant select the Macintosh HD to install OSX giving a message (This disk cannot be used to start up your computer).

Can't install OSX Mountain Lion, on the disk selection screen i cant select the Macintosh HD to install OSX giving a message (This disk cannot be used to start up your computer).

Read
https://discussions.apple.com/message/15659267#15659267

Can't install OSX Mountain Lion, on the disk selection screen i cant select the Macintosh HD to install OSX giving a message (This disk cannot be used to start up your computer).only have one disk to select and my partition map scheme is GUID partition

just bough OSX Mountain Lion, my laptop operating with v10.6.8. Can't install OSX Mountain Lion, on the disk selection screen i cant select the Macintosh HD to install OSX giving a message (This disk cannot be used to start up your computer).only have one disk to select and my partition map scheme is GUID partition table. 24.44gb disk available.

Verify your computer can run Mountain Lion:
Upgrading to Mountain Lion
To upgrade to Mountain Lion you must have Snow Leopard 10.6.8 or Lion installed. Purchase and download Mountain Lion from the App Store. Sign in using your Apple ID. Mountain Lion is $19.99 plus tax. The file is quite large, over 4 GBs, so allow some time to download. It would be preferable to use Ethernet because it is nearly four times faster than wireless.
     OS X Mountain Lion - System Requirements
       Macs that can be upgraded to OS X Mountain Lion
         1. iMac (Mid 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 7,1 or later
         2. MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 5,1 or later
         3. MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         4. MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 2,1 or later
         5. Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         6. Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
         7. Xserve (Early 2009) - Model Identifier 3,1 or later
To find the model identifier open System Profiler in the Utilities folder. It's displayed in the panel on the right.
Open Disk Utility and verify the drive is partitioned using GUID and formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled. If it is then do this:
Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your Snow Leopard Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Now try installing Mountain Lion.

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I just purchased and received Tiger from Amazon.com via a seller that is a legit make repair biz. The disk they sent me says: Mac OS X Tiger "CPU drop in DVD" also states that the software is part of a hardware bundle. I can not install from this disk it shows up in my startup prefs as "Mac OS X upgrade DVD". Was I sold a bogus DVD? Do I have to buy another version of the install?

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I bought a 25 euros iTunes Card but I can't install OSX Lion why? Could you help me and show me all the passages to downlad lion? please..

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Model Identifier: iMac6,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM61.0093.B07
SMC Version: 1.10f2
Serial Number: W86386XAVGN
Can I Install osx 10.6 if yes How?. I tried using my New imac's Install DVD 10.6.2, it say this version of osx cannot be installed on this mac
please tell which version of OSX 10.6 can be install in the above imac

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Can I install OSX lion on a MacBook 4.1? I'm trying to install iCloud on this computer and I need to install OSX (10.7.4) or higher. I don't see OSX (7) available in the store.

mqanderson wrote:
Can I install OSX lion on a MacBook 4.1?
Yes. Lion is not offered in the App Store, so you must phone Apple on the number shown in the Apple Online Store.
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How can i install osx now ?

I clean my disk totally by disk utility and now nothing comes up when holding option key. After a while this text comes with a black background, "No Bootable Device -- insert boot disk and press any key".
I think I erase everything, even boot settings!!!
Now, How can i install OSX now on my iMac?

What is the exact iMac model you have, please? If your model can run Snow Leopard then you need to install Snow Leopard from your installer discs. Snow Leopard must then be upgraded to 10.6.8 so you can upgrade to the version of OS X you had installed from the App Store.

MBP wont recognize drives after replacing SATA cable

Background: I decided to replace my existing drive with a SSD. While in the process of replacing the drive, like a morron, I picked up the drive too fast and ripped the SATA cable. Stupid, I know. So I ordered a replacement. Hooked up the replacement without any trouble, fired it up, the computer wont recognize any drives, formatted or not, SSD or HDD. So I thought "great, terrible luck, I must have gotten a bad cable." So I contacted the seller and they were kind enough to overnight me a new one. Hooked up the new one, same **** problem.
What on earth is going on here? The computer worked great before I ripped that cable, and now it's like it's just given up on reading drives all together. Is there anything I can try?
Please help! :/
(MBP is a mid 2010 if relevant)

Ok then you either have bad cables or you are not installing it correctly. Like not seating it properly on the logic board.
There is also a piece of foam on the top of the part that connects to the logic board. If you did not move that foam from the original to the replacements it could be shorting to the bootom case.

Replacment SATA cable

Hello!
My macbook pro 2010 doesn't recognize the hard drive and I was planning to replace the SATA cable. I tried to disconnect it to have a look at it but I ran into some trouble. The end part is connected to som kind of yellow flap (marked by "1" in the picture). I tried to gently loosen the plug but unfortunately the yellow thing broke. It had a little black part at the end which was connected to the plug in some way. That part fell off.
When I'm looking for a new cable on the Internet I can see in some of the sellers pictures that the whole plastic part ("2" in the picture) is included but in most pictures it isn't.
Does anyone of you know what the broken yellow flap means? Can I still buy a new cable or do I need more replacment parts now?

Depending on the Card Reader you purchased, I suspect it is using a USB header connection, rather than SATA. If the existing card reader is still connected to the motherboard, just plug the new one to an empty USB header connection. A picure of the motherboard can be found HERE. Just verify yours looks similar. The USB header connections are along the lower edge of the motherboard ( in the picture ). I see your motherboard may have a special connctor for the card reader
just above the SATA ports, labeled Mini Card on the picture, I have not actually seen that .before
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Replaced HDD w/ SSD, replaced Sata Cable, can't install OSX

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