What is a 'network volume', 'start up disk', and Hard Drive issues

Ok, so I got new memory (4GB in total), and a 500GB Western Digital Hard Disk Drive.
The memory is working, but I can't make the hard drive work. when i turn on the computer, there's a flashing folder with a question mark on, and even if left for a while, it does nothing.
What can I do to make my computer work? I tried putting in the first disk of leopard OSX, but the computer just spat it out again, and ever since, the cd drive seems to be having issues, so now I have a dvd stuck in my computer.

So then i was looking through system preferences, and i'm wondering if the following would help/has ANYTHING to do with my issues!:

System Preferences -> start up disk. Then there are 2 options, my current hard drive (and when it is selected below it says 'You have selected Mac OS X, 10.5.8, on the volume Macintosh HD.) and a hard drive with a question mark on it called 'Network startup' (and when it is selected, it says below, 'you have selected to search for a new network volume at startup'


So yeah, what can i do? Thanks!

Macbook 13 Inch, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Bought new on boxing day 2008

Posted on Jan 25, 2010 7:46 PM

Reply
6 replies

Jan 25, 2010 8:52 PM in response to annabp

Do you have an external enclosure in which you can put the old hard drive that you will remove from the computer? You need to remove the old drive, place it in the external enclosure, and install the new drive in the computer. Once that's done boot the computer from the old drive in the external enclosure by restarting the computer. After the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the icon for the external drive then click on the large downward pointing arrow button.

To prep the new drive:

Extended Hard Drive Preparation

1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.

2. After DU loads select your internal 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. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs) then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.

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.

With DU still open clone the old drive to the new one:

Clone using Restore Option of Disk Utility

1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (journaled, if available) and click on the Erase button. This step can be skipped if the destination has already been freshly erased.
4. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.

Destination means the new internal drive.
Source means the old external drive.

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What is a 'network volume', 'start up disk', and Hard Drive issues

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