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Tried reinstalling OS X 10.8 off of usb. The install didn't complete and now my hard drive doesn't show up in disk utility

A week ago my hard drive died. So i bought a new one, created a bootable usb drive, and tried reinstalling. A little over halfway through the installation it stopped and said something about not finding some files. I figured i would just try to wipe the hard drive and try again. But, when i went to disk utility, my hard drive isn't there anymore. Did the install break this hard drive?

Posted on Oct 12, 2013 7:48 PM

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6 replies

Oct 12, 2013 7:53 PM in response to GreyFrost

Try partitioning and formatting the drive properly before reinstalling. Then perform a network reinstall to preclude the possibility that your homemade installer is no good:


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.


If this doesn't startup properly, then it may be because your Mac is a 2009 or earlier model that will not do a network install.

Tried reinstalling OS X 10.8 off of usb. The install didn't complete and now my hard drive doesn't show up in disk utility

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