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mid-2009 SSD upgrade "Searching for Disks"

I have a 2009 macbook pro 15" 2.53ghz running 10.9.1. My 320 HD was dying so I bought the OWC Mercury Electra 240GB SSD to replace it. I installed the new SSD and went to fire it up. It started up and got to the utilities menu. I backed up my computer to an external HD yesterday, so I selected "restore from a time machine backup." That was fine, I found my backup from yesterday, but then the next screen says "select destination disk to install OS X" and it just says "searching for disks" forever as in it doesn't recognize the new HD. What gives? It's listed everywhere as being compatible with my computer.


Any advice is appreciated. 4->8GB RAM upgrade after I get this sorted out.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1)

Posted on Aug 21, 2014 2:18 PM

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Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Aug 21, 2014 2:33 PM

You will need to partition and format the new SSD. Boot from your backup drive:


Boot Using OPTION key:


1. Restart the computer.

2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the

"OPTION" key.

3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.

4. Select the external backup drive.

5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.


After startup is completed do the following:


Drive Partition and Format


1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.


2. After DU loads select your new SSD (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 Apply button and wait until the process has completed.


4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.


5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.


6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.


You should now be able to clone your external backup to the new SSD as you tried yesterday. Or you can just quit Disk Utility and clone the backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.5.6.

2 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Aug 21, 2014 2:33 PM in response to lfboarder133

You will need to partition and format the new SSD. Boot from your backup drive:


Boot Using OPTION key:


1. Restart the computer.

2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the

"OPTION" key.

3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.

4. Select the external backup drive.

5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.


After startup is completed do the following:


Drive Partition and Format


1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.


2. After DU loads select your new SSD (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 Apply button and wait until the process has completed.


4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.


5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.


6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.


You should now be able to clone your external backup to the new SSD as you tried yesterday. Or you can just quit Disk Utility and clone the backup using Carbon Copy Cloner 3.5.6.

mid-2009 SSD upgrade "Searching for Disks"

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