I purchased a new hard drive, installed the OS and used Time Machine. I then swapped it out and made that my primary drive. When I started up the computer for the 1st time w/ the new drive it took me to "OS Utilities". What do I do?

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csuflyer2005 Author

Level 1

8 points

I purchased a new hard drive, installed the OS and used Time Machine. I then swapped it out and made that my primary drive. When I started up the computer for the 1st time w/ the new drive it took me to "OS Utilities". What do I do?

I swapped out hard drives after using Time Machine to back it up. When starting up the computer for the first time using the new drive it took me to the OS Utilities screen as if nothin was backed up. it asked ifI wanted to reinstall the OS or backup the drive? What should I do? I am using Mavericks and this is a Macbook pro 13" mid 2010. thanks

MacBook Pro

Posted on Mar 22, 2014 10:35 PM

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Answer 1

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 22, 2014 10:39 PM in response to csuflyer2005

this is your new HD, correct? your backup is on a separate device? you need to install OSX on the new drive before you can put your backups back onto it so choose install OSX.

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Answer 2

Mar 22, 2014 10:40 PM in response to csuflyer2005

I doesn't seem as if you did things in the correct order. If you've made a Time Machine backup to an external drive you should restore that backup to your new drive - NOT just use the Time Machine drive.

Exactly what steps did you take? Which model MacBook Pro do you have (e.g., "15-inch Late 2011")>

Clinton

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Answer 3

csuflyer2005 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 22, 2014 10:53 PM in response to turbostar

Sorry I wasn't very clear, my original hard drive was having some issues and is also close to running out of space so, per the suggestion of the Apple Store, I purchased a new hard drive and enclosed it. I've been installed the operating system onto the new external drive and proceeded to use Time Machine to back up my original HD. Once that was complete, I switched out the drives so my new drive now resides inside the computer.

As I had said, upon initial start up I was taken to the OS utilities screen. Should I have held down a certain command or couple of commands? I hope this helps. Thank you in advance for your help.

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Answer 4

csuflyer2005 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 22, 2014 10:55 PM in response to csuflyer2005

Clearly I am no expert here. I am simply trying to accomplish a hard drive switch with a complete backup. I also wanted to ensure that my hard drive was duplicated before I did any switching. Step-by-step instructions would certainly be helpful. After I get the computer to work with my new drive, I will proceed to reset what was my original hard drive to hopefully fix whatever problem it had that was forcing it to run slow.

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Answer 5

Mar 22, 2014 11:01 PM in response to csuflyer2005

OK, so from what I can guess, you used the NEW drive to backup using it as Time Machine drive and then installed THAT drive into your computer? That's not the way that Time Machine works.

You need an alternate method. If I were you, I would reinstall the 'old' hard drive into the computer, install the e'new' drive into an enclosure and then use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your old drive to the new. Then you can install the new drive into your machine.

Make sense?

Clinton

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Answer 6

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 22, 2014 11:04 PM in response to csuflyer2005

we may need to use names to be clear

brokeHD - self explanatory

newHD - also self explanatory

so where is your time machine backup? is there a 3rd disk?

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Answer 7

csuflyer2005 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 22, 2014 11:16 PM in response to turbostar

My understanding of Time Machine may be skewed and maybe that's why I'm confusing people.

1: Bought new drive and enclosed it

2: Installed OS onto new drive AND used Time Machine to put contents of broken drive onto new drive.

3: switched hard drives so new drive is now sitting in computer

4: Turned on computer hoping it would just work or be a self explanatory setup process but this is where my question lies...how do I get my new drive to work as a normally functioning drive since, I believe, all the necessary contents are already installed on it?

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Answer 8

turbostar

Level 4

2,941 points

Mar 22, 2014 11:27 PM in response to csuflyer2005

ok, but physically where does time machine save your backups? time machine is a backup system to another disk, time machine will not backup onto the same disk (since that defeats the purpose of having a backup). for time machine to work in your situation, you needed 3 disks - brokeHD, newHD and backupHD.

you should do clinton's alternative method if you don't have access to a 3rd disk.

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Answer 9

csuflyer2005 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 22, 2014 11:34 PM in response to turbostar

This is the first I'm hearing of needing a third drive to utilize time machine. I am fairly confident that the Time Machine backup resides on my new drive which, as I said, is installed in the computer currently. Is there really no way that I can use the new drive as it is and somehow extract the data that is already on the drive since it is clearly there in the form of time machine? If not, I will try the alternative methods suggested. Thanks.

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Answer 10

Mar 22, 2014 11:41 PM in response to csuflyer2005

You just misunderstood the way Time Machine works - it does not create a usuable drive, only a backup. To create a useable drive, you'll need to clone your old drive to your new drive.

Clinton

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