Replacing my mac's internal disk: some issues

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Level 1

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Replacing my mac's internal disk: some issues

Hey guys,

I am planning to buy a Seagate internal drive of 1T to replace my current one that's 250GB, which was originally in it when I bought it. (Macbook pro bought in jan 2010)

There are a couple of issues that I hope some of you can help me out with as I am not sure how to go about it!

I know that replacing the drive itself shouldn't be too hard, it's what comes after that I'm unsure about:

My superdrive stopped working quite some time ago. I can still insert disks, it tries to read them but spits them out in a few seconds. I know this is a common problem among mac users, and have tried a couple of options while researching this issue, but to no avail. I have no idea why it just stopped working either, I didn't even use it that much.

Now here's my issue; when the new drive is in, I would like to do a clean install of OSX. Is this do-able with an external disk reader that's connected with USB? Buying an external USB reader is a much cheaper option than replacing my superdrive. I just want to know if it will be an issue if the drive in it is completely blank: will I still be able to choose from where mac will start?

Someone suggested to me that it's possible to make a boot-able usb stick if you download mac on it a certain way but I would like to install windows 7 via bootcamp as well, which is also on a disk, obviously. Also, is it possible to add extra memory? Anyone have any experience with this?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Feb 2, 2014 4:39 AM

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Answer 1

BobRz

Level 5

6,138 points

Feb 2, 2014 4:50 AM in response to milkyskinn

First, try cleaning the lens on your Superdrive. It sounds like that's the issue. Use a cleaning DVD or try carefully inserting a credit card with a microfiber cloth wrapped around it a few times. If you can get the drive working, then put the new drive in an external enclosure and just install to it.

The other way is to use the enclosure and copy the old drive to the new one with Carbon Copy Cloner. Then you're exactly where you are now with a larger drive.

http://www.amazon.com/Screw-Less-ORICO-2588US3-External-Enclosure/dp/B00B0RD2RA/ ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1391342179&sr=8-3&keywords=usb+3.0+enclosure+2.5

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Answer 2

LowLuster

Level 6

12,105 points

Feb 2, 2014 4:57 AM in response to milkyskinn

Q: Is it doable with an external DVD drive connected by USB?

A: Yes it is. Any external DVD drive will work "EXCEPT" the Apple branded USB external Superdrive. Apple has set them to only work on Mac computer that do not come with internal DVD drive, the Air and Retina model Mac notebooks and the newer iMac models.

Any other brand external DVD drive will work.

Q: Choose where the Mac starts from, which drive to boot from.

A: Yes you hold down the Option key at startup to get the Boot Selection screen. Once that loads, and you have the OS X reinstall DVD in the USB DVD drive, give it about 30+ seconds to read from that DVD discs in the drive and then you can select it and boot from that DVD.

You then have to use Disk Utility, found under the Utilities menu bar item, to Partition and format the new drive.

Name it Macintosh HD and format it Mac OS Extended (Journaled) then click the Options button and set the partition table to GUID.

Once that is done continue with the install of OS X.

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