how to start operating system on a Samsung SSD when old hard drive was broken so had to replace Recently went into Apple with my early 2011 MacBook Pro, was told that my hard drive was broken. So I decided to replace it myself with a Samsung 850 EVO, all went okay, but now when I turn it on all I get is a file with a question mark in it.

I couldn't upload anything to the SSD before installing as my Mac wasn't working at all and had a white screen with a spinning wheel. I had no new operating system on my Mac as I hadn't updated it in a while. A CD came with the drive but my laptop is having none of it it just turns on to a white screen with the mouse on it.

As you can see I'm not very technical so if any responses could be dulled down a bit that would be helpful!
If you can get it online (for example, with an Ethernet cable), all you have to do is hold command-R at startup to enter recovery mode and install the OS over the Internet. You can also use it to format the disk if needed.

http://www.techradar.com/us/how-to/computing/apple/how-to-fix-mac-boot-up-problems-in-recovery-mode-1305641