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Cannot install Snow Leopard or Lion to a new hard drive

I have a late 2008 Macbook Pro and regardless of what I have tried, I cannot get Snow Leopard (original DVD) or OSX LIon Recovery Disk *(USB) to reinstall the OS to my new internal hard drive.


IU also tried to clone my drive with SUper Duper, Carbon Copy CLoner, and form TIme Machine backup. was able to clone the original dirve and restore a time machine backup, but could not boot the the drive once I moved it internally.


I have spent days and days trying to perform this simple task. HELP!!!!!!!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Aug 3, 2013 1:18 PM

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9 replies

Aug 3, 2013 1:23 PM in response to keybis

Did you prepare the new drive properly before using it?


Install Lion/Mountain Lion on a New HDD/SDD


Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.


Boot to the Internet Recovery HD:


Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND-OPTION- R keys until a globe appears on the screen. Wait patiently - 15-20 minutes - until the Recovery main menu appears.


Partition and Format the hard drive:


1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.


2. After DU loads select your external hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. 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. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed. Quit DU and return to the main menu.


Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion and click on the Install button. Be sure to select the correct drive to use if you have more than one.


Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.

Aug 4, 2013 12:29 PM in response to keybis

I do not believe you can get that model to run in your computer. Yes, it will work fine in an external enclosure, but not in the computer. For your model you need to stick with the XT500 model. It does work. I would exchange the drive. Be sure not to buy a drive that is specifically SATA III - 6.0 Gb/s rated. Stick to 3.0 Gb/s SATA II drives for your computer.

Cannot install Snow Leopard or Lion to a new hard drive

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