MACBOOK PRO Model A1278

did the disk work for you (JEFFREY1521) or not?

I ask because I order me a replment disk from apple for my MBP 15" (FEB 2011) and the white replament installion DVD (NOT FOR RESALE) for me did not work when I bootup while holding down the C key I get 3 beeps every few sec. so that is why I'm wondering if the disk they send you (JEFFREY1521) worked or not!

After booting into recovery, choose Disk Utility from this menu:

Choose Disk Utility and go to Partition tab:

Click on Options and choose GUID partition scheme.

Csound1 wrote:

I have two 8GB memory in my MBP for a totaling of 16GB of ram in my MBP 15" (FEB, 2011), I'm also planning concating apple again, tho!

to see if I can get the Gray Disk that are designed for my model as I hear as stated before is some models need the original factory disk and won't use or can't be used the white retail disks, well, since my MBP was bought used, I don't have the gray original factory disk for my MBP.

but thanks for the help!

NOTE:

the MBP start up fine without any beeps at all only get them when I try to boot from the white MAC OS X Snow Leopard Install DVD (REPLACEMENT DVD, NOT FOR RESALE ) "likey I have the retail" Disk.

If you purchased Lion, you should be able to boot into internet recovery on the new drive - Command + Option + R keys held down while booting up/restarting; if that does not work, try Command + R. However, a far easier method would be to purchase a drive and an external enclosure, format it and clone your current system onto it with CarbonCopyCloner, take out the old drive, and install the new - bingo, you're done. I used that method when I upgraded my MBP to an SSD.

Edit: You said you have Lion, but your profile shows 10.8 which is Mountain lion - above should work with either.

Well, I have no idea what problems will arise from connecting a Mac formatted drive with Mac OS installed to a PC. I have never done it nor would I ever try it. For one thing, you are not allowed to run Mac OS in any machine other than Apple hardware and it's not compatible. Personally, I also would never use any WD software. So, I can't help further with that drive.

But, if you install a new drive and you purchased Lion or Mountain Lion, you should be able to use either/both of the recovery options to download/reinstall your OS. If you cannot, I'd suggest installing the new hard drive and going to your nearest Genius Bar for some free troubleshooting.

Start over. If you have a Hard Drive with a lot of Bad Blocks, buy a new drive and re-Install Mac OS X from Scratch.

Trying to boot from the old one while trying to get stuff off it is an exercise in self abuse.

Once you have a working Mac with a reliable drive, THEN you can beat on the old drive to see if it will cough up any old files for you.

--------

And as you now know:

"Any Drive can fail at any time". You MUST have a Backup.

If yours is a 2011 model, it may have shipped with 10.6.6, so terminology is important here, bear with me.

It may not Install from the "Full Retail" installer DVD that has a picture of a Snow Leopard on it. The latest that might have is 10.6.3.

¿ You bought a copy of the original software that shipped with it from Apple support, right ?

Did you buy the retail copy or did you ask for a replacement of the original install disk? Grant thought that the retail copy may not boot your machine as Macs cannot be booted from an OS version older/earlier than what they shipped with. The retail copy is version 10.6.3 and yours may have had 10.6.6, which would mean you may not be able to boot it with that retail copy.

Csound1 wrote:

3 beeps repeated every few seconds indicates a Ram problem, check that your Ram is correctly seated.

what I have leaned on the forums/discussions here on apple is that the 3 beeps mean I don't have the right disk for my MBP (Gray Disks) as when my computer boots up it doesn't beep at all only when I have the instantiation DVD (NOT FOR RESALE) white Snow Leopard, that I order from apple/apple support, in the drive and hold down the C key durning bootup, even when I hold the optioon/alt key and give me a list of disk to boot up from I pick the CD/DVD drive and when I do it starts do the 3 beeps every few sec. so I have to press and hold the power button to get to restart.

I have MAC OS X 10.9.3 running right now on my MBP 15" (FEB, 2011), and that is what I using right now to write this now.

Message was edited by: dsmart

and when I had apple call me back I forgot I had to be some where at the same time frame they called me and did not have my S/N even when they ask for it but I told them I had left it on the form that apple ask for when I did the setup a call back service online, I just don't know if they had that info or not when they called me, in their computer!