Installing Leopard on new hard drive

First:

Extended Hard Drive Preparation

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder. If you need to reformat your startup volume, then you must boot from your OS X 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 Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger or Leopard.)

2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.

3. Set the number of partitions from the dropdown menu (use 1 partition unless you wish to make more.) Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (only required for Intel Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the volume(s) mount on the Desktop.

4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.

5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.

6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

Quit DU and return to the installer. Have your TM backup drive already connected. When installing you will be provided the opportunity to restore an old system from a TM backup. I believe this will appear after completing the Setup Assistant.

If your old drive is still functional then you can put it in an external enclosure, boot from it and clone it to the new drive after the new drive has been prepped per the above.

You cannot eject it until the next restart.

Kappy,
Your description of how to format a new harddrive was great and was just what I had been looking for but unfortunately, this was the fourth time I had tried to format the new drive and each time I try to reboot with the dvd I get a message that reads Mac OS X cannot be installed on this computer. What gives--- the diagnostics on the hard drive appear to be fine and it says it is formatted and ready to go. Any ideas?

With what are you trying to install OS X? Is this a retail disc, an OEM disc? If the latter is it one that came with the computer? A disc that will not install because of hardware on a newly formatted drive usually means the disc is not compatible, does not have the right version of OS X required by the hardware, or is not a retail version compatible with the hardware.

Yes the disc is the install disc that came with the MacBook Pro-- I believe it is OS X 10.4 and the hard drive I installed is a Seagate Momentus 7200.2

After the installer loads and you select your language did you proceed to the part where you select a destination? Then try selecting the drive and click on the Options button. Select the Erase and Install option and click on OK button. See if you can get that far. Ignore the error message if it appears (dismiss it.)

I assume you have prepped the drive as I recommended previously. BTW, exactly which model MBP do you have? Do you have the Leopard retail DVD? If so try installing with that one rather than the original OS X disc that came with the computer.

This is very confusing: first you ask about installing Leopard on a replacement drive in a dual 1.8 G5, & now you say you are trying to use a disk that came with the MacBook Pro -- that installs Tiger on that machine -- to accomplish this.

In a word: HUH?

Sorry, I do see your confusion. When I got my MBP it came with Tiger but I had upgraded to Leopard and then the hard drive crashed. Unfortunately the Leopard discs seem to be with my daughter at college and I had the original discs that came with my computer. Is that important or are you just trying to clarify?

You are also confusing me with the original poster about the 1.8 G5

Yes, I prepped the drive just as you outlined. Everything went well in that regard but I still get the error message when I try to reload the OS.
I have a 17" MacBook Pro (core 2 duo).
When I dismiss the error message thats all I get I don't have an option of selecting a destination or erase and install option.

Wow don't I feel dumb-- I found another set of install discs: the one I was using must be for my wifes MacBook it seems to be installing now. Thanks for all the help.

This seems remarkable simple. I'm about to undertake a similar exercise with my MBP 17". I've just finished installing final cut pro and only have 5GB of space left. I've Samsung 320GB on order which should arrive in a day or so.

My question - Can I create an exact copy of my internal drive on the new 320GB drive with FCP and other software ready to go, ie. remove current drive and replace with new 320GB. With nothing else to do? Or is this wishful thinking.

I'm an old Windows/DOS still coming to grips with Apple software procedures.
Regards, Wayne

Hi uaSqb;

Since your problem has nothing to do at all with the OP's problem, what you are doing is called threadjacking.

I suggest you start your own thread for your problem.

Allan