Chosen Solution

I just installed a new Crucial M500 drive into my 2009 2.0 GHz Mac Mini. I created a bootable USB using Disk Creator and attempted to boot from it so I can load the OS onto the new drive… but I keep seeing the No Entry icon. Did I need to format the SSD first? I have no idea how to load a fresh OS onto the new drive and could use a pointer in the right direction. Thanks!

  1. In the Apple menu, choose Restart or power on your Mac.
  2. As the computer restarts, hold down the Command (⌘) – Option (⌥) – R combination immediately upon hearing the startup chime. Hold the keys until the animated globe appears on the screen. “Starting Internet Recovery,” the message reads. ”This may take a while.”
  3. Select your method of Internet connection and wait wil Internet Recover downloads.
  4. Use Disk Utility to format and partition the drive, then reinstall OS X fresh.

Yes, you do need to format the SSD as it likely still had a FAT32 or exFAT partition which won’t work with Mac’s as a booting volume. Make sure you have GUID partition map and Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition using your other Mac. Update (01/09/2017) How about making this easy! Setup your Mac Mini in Target Disk Mode so its seen as if it where an external drive and then connect it to your MacBook Pro. That way you’ll use your MacBook Pro’s Disk Utility to prep the drive and install the OS. Here’s how: macOS Sierra: Transfer files between two computers using target disk mode

Upon booting with your USB that “no entry” logo appears since the Mac tries to read your SSD and wont recognize it as validly formatted drive. Solution: Just wait a while and the logo will disappear as the Mac will continue on to read next the Bootable USB and it then loads the Disk Utility.

I have the same issue, I have made a USB Bootable mac catalina but when I restart and press option key and then select bootable usb drive it shows me no entry logo. After sometime it disappears and shows white screen and then gets restart after 20-30 sec. My SSD is already APFS formatted and have MacOS installed. What to do now? please help.