Chosen Solution
@jar7050 Sounds like the SSD is faulty if it doesn’t get recognised both ways. Don’t you have around your older drive for testing by any chance ? Update (10/24/2019) From your update, I’d say that as already pointed out, probably your N1 is faulty. N2 and N3 can’t be recognized as unformatted or not compatible file system. N4 doesn’t have an OS installed. You’ll need your original install Dvd or a Usb pendrive with any Mac Os you wish to install up to 10.11 to format and install any of your drives except N1
Well, the SSD is the correct one for your system as its a SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) like your system. I think you need to find a another drive which is bootable or if you still have the grey CD/DVD’s that came with your system you should be able to boot up under them as well. Update (10/24/2019) @jar7050 - Your series does not offer Internet Recovery so thats out, Your only hope here is to find someone who has a Mac that you can attach your drive to format it and install a proper OS (OS-X El Capitan 10.11.x). Forget the SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) drive as your system won’t support it internally. Here’s the guide to make a bootable OS installer drive How to make a bootable OS X 10.11 El Capitan installer drive. Now the Rub! You’ll need to alter your systems Data & Time settings. You need to set it to manual and then, back date the system to let’s say January 2016. That way the certificate check will work correctly. Don’t forget to reformat your drive to GUID Journaled from the OS installers menu under Disk Utility before you install the OS its self.
