Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

MBP won't recognize new HDD

Hi Everyone -


I'm having a problem with my MBP and am stumped; I hope someone has a solution. Here's the backstory (please bear with me; this may be a bit long in order to give you all the details).


My keyboard croaked, and the 160gb hard drive was filling up, so I thought I would replace both and add more RAM while I had the beast opened up. So I did all that, successfully (I think). Prior to taking out the HD, I backed it up using Time Machine. The MBP was running Leopard. I have the original 10.4.8 disc, after which I updated to 10.5.8.


After swapping out the keyboard, drive and adding RAM, I fired the system up and it worked! So I inserted the Install disc, went to Disc Utilities and formatted and partitioned the 750gb new drive. When I asked the system to install the OS, it chuckled at me and did nothing. The new partitions are on the desktop, but the Install disc doesn't recognize them. I plugged my external drive in (the one that has the Time Machine backup...), restarted the MBP, and it booted from the Western Digital external drive. So my question is... how can I get the system to recognize the new drive and install the OS on it?


Please help...!!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on May 25, 2012 6:08 AM

Reply
15 replies

May 25, 2012 6:53 AM in response to stickball

Assuming that the partitioned disk is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and you insert the install disk, it should restart the MBP and after the agreement panel, you should see a window that asks you to select a destination. That would be one of the two partitions you have made. Do you get that far?


Have you tried both the Tiger install disk and the Leopard disk?


Ciao.

May 25, 2012 6:57 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Right. The partitions are OSX Extended Journaled. And I did indeed get as far as you mentioned. But no Destination disc showed up in the window. No disc anywhere. I also tried the 10.5 disc as well as the 10.4.8 disc. I'm almost ready to make this MBP a boat anchor... 🙂.


I'm off to run some errands and will check back in a couple of hours. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

May 25, 2012 7:40 AM in response to stickball

I find it very odd the you see the partitioned HHDs on the desk top but not on the install disks.


Regardless, let me suggest this. Put your old 160 GB disk into the MBP and make certain that it is operating as before. If it does, put the new HDD in an enclosure and follow these instructions:


INSTALLING A NEW HDD IN A MBP


1. Make certain that you have backed up all of your important data.


2. You will need a HDD enclosure. One with a USB connection will do. A 9 pin Firewire is better.


3. Install your new drive in the enclosure and connect it to your MBP.


4. Open DISK UTILITY>ERASE. From the left hand column drag the new drive into the 'Name' field. Make sure that the format is 'Mac OS Extended (Journaled)'. Click on the 'Erase' button.


5. Click on the 'Restore' button (on top). Drag the old drive into the 'Source' field and the new drive into the 'Destination' field. Click on the 'Restore' button on the bottom right hand corner.


Depending upon the amount of data you are transferring, this may take a couple hours or more. A Firewire will speed up the transfer. This will result in both drives having identical information on them.


6. After the data transfer has completed, you may swap the drives. Start the MBP and you have finished the installation. The initial boot may take a bit longer than you are accustomed to, but that is normal.


7. When you are satisfied that the new hard drive if functioning properly, you can erase the old drive and use it for any needs that you may have.


Prior to the swap, you should be able to boot from the new (external) HDD by a OPTION key startup if you want to. This approach eliminates having to deal with any of the installation disks.


Ciao.

May 25, 2012 8:57 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Oglethorpe - thanks for the very well-detailed, considered response. I need to go shopping to get the HD enclosure (probably Best Buy or some place like that later today...), and will do as you suggested. I was trying to avoid re-opening the machine, but I guess it's somewhat inevitable. I'll report back as soon as I'm done, probably later this evening. Thanks again.


Wait. I just thought of something. I have already copied the backed-up contents of the original HD to one of the new partitions (I partitioned the 750gb drive into two pieces: 200gb and 550gb). The apps and documents and stuff like that transferred over, but no operating system. And only 65gb of a 150gb drive was transferred. Why would doing it again a different way give better results? Just asking...


Also, when I was backing up the original HD I tried to use CCC, but received a message just prior to hitting the "Clone" button that the resulting clone will not be bootable.

May 25, 2012 10:40 AM in response to stickball

It may be best to start from the beginning: Look at this and is this how you prepared you new HHD?


Extended Hard Drive Preparation


1. 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, Leopard or Snow 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. 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 Optionsbutton, 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.


Once formatting is completed you can quit DU and install OS X.


If not, I suggest you do so. MAKE CERTAIN THAT YOUR DATA IS BACKED UP!

In answer to your question regarding a faulty disc, it is possible but do you not have a Tiger as well as a Leopard disk? It is not likely that both would be defective. Clean them off carefully before you use them.

You brought up CCC. That can also work essentially the same as my suggested method.

Installation of the OS can take about 45 minutes or more. Data transfer is dependent upon volume and the transfer speed of the method used (USB or Firewire).

Try not to get frustrated.

Ciao.

May 25, 2012 12:19 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

This is so very weird. I did exactly as you suggested the first time, and when I got to the Disc Utility screen where it asks for you to choose which disc you want to work on, I saw that the new drive indicated a size of 5.5TB, not 750GB!! ***, says I. I went to zero it out anyways, and the message I received was that it will take 14 hours. Three hours later, it still read 14 hours, so I figured something was amiss. I then (just now, actually...) booted off of the backup drive (an external 1TB drive) and here I am writing from the computer. In Disc Utility, I set the now correctly read 750GB drive to have zeros written and it started doing that. Message on the screen says it'll be done in 1 hour 48 minutes. That's more reasonable, right? So I'll wait and see and try to install from the OS disc later. Film at 11...


And thanks so much for the really terrific help you're providing, Oglethorpe. Much obliged.

May 25, 2012 5:42 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

Well, it's 8:30 Friday evening and I've been messing with this **** problem on and off all day. Nothing worked. I did everything except put the old drive back and copy from it to another internal drive in a housing that may then be taken out of the housing and installed in the computer.


This last attempt sorta got me excited. I tried booting from the OSX 10.4.8 disk. It wouldn't boot, of course, so I went to the disc utility offered on the disc. It saw the new drive as a 5.5 TB drive. So I fgured I'll try to Zero that out again. Instead of 14 hours as an estimated time, the system indicated 8 hours. OK. So I went to dinner, hung out for a while, came back three hours later and there was a message saying the the Erase Failed, I/O Error. I'm ready to give up and find an authorized repair shop. I absolutely hate doing that. Maybe this weekend I'll re-install the old drive, buy an external housing ($50??) and go from there.


Any suggestions? Anyone? Anyone? .... Bueler?

May 26, 2012 4:22 AM in response to stickball

I suspect that you have a pre-unibody MBP and having one myself I know the difficulty in replacing a HDD so you have my sympathies.


An enclosure will be needed for the old internal drive anyway, unless you want to toss it, so it is not to be viewed as an unnecessary expense.


I would urge you to install the old HDD and proceed from square one. Prepare the new HDD as already outlined. You may use Disk Utility or Carbon Copy Cloner. Both should achieve the same objective.


I am suspicious of your new HDD because of the fact that you say it appears as a 5.5 TB drive. It may be the reason why you are struggling. If that turns out to be the case you would have to take it out any way and replace it. If not, then I think your chances of a successful installation are good by using the proper sequence.


Ciao.

May 26, 2012 6:38 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

I would hate to think that this brand new drive is faulty, but I suppose things like that happen. I'm gonna give it a rest this weekend and try to relax. I think that you are absolutely correct in that the HDD needs to be reinstalled and start again from the beginning. I'll go shopping for an enclosure this weekend and will report back sometime next week when this is resolved one way or the other.


Ogelthorpe, thanks so much for all of your patience and assistance. You, sir, are a star!

MBP won't recognize new HDD

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.