New Internal Hard Drive and Clean Install: Errors, Frustration and Hopelessness

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New Internal Hard Drive and Clean Install: Errors, Frustration and Hopelessness

First Off:

Macbook 13" (late 2009) ... It was running Mountain Lion 10.8.5 with 2 gigs of memory and 160gig stock hard drive.

I started this process almost a week ago and despite numerous attempts every night I have had no luck. I appologize if the details here are fuzzy, my head is spinning after reading dozens of threads and attempting multiple solutions to each error I've received and i cant remember everything I've tried so far...

I got my new memory in the mail first, upgraded to 4 gigs and everything works fine with that..

Next came my new Seagate Momentus 750 gb 7200 rpm SATA 3gb/s 16Mb Internal Hard Drive.

Using this guide: http://osxdaily.com/2012/02/17/make-bootable-os-x-10-8-mountain-lion-usb-install -drive/ (and cross checking other guides) I ended up creating a bootable external drive using my 160gb External Firewire drive for my clean install to my new hard drive. So far so good.

I then shut down the computer, removed the old internal hard drive, installed the new, restarted the computer holding option key and booted up using the External Hard Drive, and the install software started fine. Note: I have attempted to re-erase the drive so many times without luck that I cant remember if I actually successfully erased the drive originally to begin with the installation, but either way I started the OSX reinstall and it got almost all the way finished before it gave me the error message:

"Install failed. Mac OS X Lion couldn’t be installed, because the disk (volume name) is damaged and can’t be repaired. Click restart to restart your computer and try installing again."

restarting of course did nothing, it repeatedly gave me error messages and made me quit installation...

Disk Utility isnt getting me anywhere, im either getting errors like:

"POSIX reports: the operation couldnt be completed. device no configured"

it wont allow me to erase the drive or partition the drive

"Disk Erase failed with the error: File System Formatter Failed"

and everytime the drive fails to erase or partition, it disappears from the list of drives on the left of the disk utility screen and i have to restart the computer for it to reappear for a second try. Typically the volume under the drive is greyed out and says that it is unmounted.

Ive zapped the PRAM.... and Ive done other things that I cant quite remember right now because my brain is boiling from reading too many **** threads on multiple devices....

halp.

halp me plase.

Posted on Jul 12, 2014 11:45 AM

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Answer 1

baltwo

Level 9

62,362 points

Jul 12, 2014 2:11 PM in response to aae_kae

IMO, the HD's borked. Return it. You should easily be able to erase, reformat, and partition a new HD.

iMac (27-inch Mid 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9.4), SL & ML, G4 450 MP w/Leopard, 9.2.2

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Answer 2

BobHarris

Level 9

53,003 points

Jul 12, 2014 3:29 PM in response to baltwo

I agree with baltwo. This disk is not working and should be returned for a full refund.

I have replaced disks inside Macs lots of times, and Disk Utility has never had a problem erasing, partitioning, or creating a file system on any of them.

NOTE: You may want to consider an SSD instead of a rotating hard disk, but the cost is more, so you may not either. An SSD will turn your "Old Dog" Macbook into an "Energetic Puppy" 🙂

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Answer 3

aae_kae Author

Level 1

0 points

Jul 12, 2014 4:43 PM in response to baltwo

So funny story...

While writing this discussion I had to come to the computer and try to erase the drive so I could see the error code for reference. The erase didnt work as usual but I wrote the error code down here.

I also could not remember the error code for partitioning the drive so I attempted that as well so I could write down the code, and this time it magically partitioned successfully! The only thing I did differently was that I didn't rename the partition because i figured it wouldn't matter anyway. Since the partition was successful, I attempted the Reinstall of ML and it magically worked!!

I dont know what the **** happened but ive been attempting this install every night for like 3 hours since Monday and this is the first time it went through... for no apparent reason?

Ghosts? Magic? Full Moon?

we may never know...

Thanks anyways guys!

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