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i see that i have a problem after installing my new hard drive on my macbook pro mid 2009 version. I put a new hard drive, with all of my information from my old drive installed on it, into the computer. but now have the blinking question mark folder

i see that i have a problem after installing my new hard drive on my macbook pro mid 2009 version. I put a new hard drive, with all of my information from my old drive installed on it, into the computer. but now have the blinking question mark folder. I see that it means that it isn't reading the new hard drive.


did i miss a step between transferring all of my information from my old hard drive to the new hard drive and installing the new hard drive into the computer. I believe that i installed properly. it was quite easy.


thanks for your help

Posted on Mar 6, 2015 1:56 PM

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8 replies

Mar 6, 2015 2:04 PM in response to toddjulian

It means there is no bootable system on the drive. If you still have access to the old drive, then I suggest you boot from it then clone it to the new internal drive. Use OPTION boot to boot from the Recovery HD on the old drive:


Boot to the Recovery HD:


Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.


1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu then press the Continue

button.

2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.

3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.

4. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it

to the Destination entry field.

5. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to

the Source entry field.

6. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.


Source means the external old drive. Destination means the new internal drive.

Mar 6, 2015 5:09 PM in response to Kappy

ok great. thank you for you response.


however i am not sure i understand what 'destination volume from the left side list is in steps 2 and 4.


my options from the left side are

-160.64 gb hitachi htss

-macintosh hd

-disk1

-osx base system


can you tell me which volume destination goes where?


thanks and sorry for the inconvenience

Mar 6, 2015 6:41 PM in response to toddjulian

What operating system are you running. The osx base system is your recovery partition. When you first set up the new drive. Did you do it this way. Mount drive in disk utilities. Click on main drive(the full drive) go to erase and erase drive. Then go to partitions select 1 partition make sure it is macintosh os extended journaled. Click option check GUID close option click apply. You should have to drives showing. Each having a main drive and an indented volume. The two indented volumes would be the ones you want. One volume has your operating system on it ,the old drive. The new drive is the destination volume. The old drive is the source volume. I do not see that in the list you give What is disk1?

Mar 6, 2015 6:54 PM in response to my ginger

I am running the OS X version 10.9.2


I purchased the drive and payed extra to have all my information from the current hard drive placed onto the new hard drive. then i put the new hard drive in the computer and it gave me the gray folder with the question blinking question mark. which i now know is the computer not being able to read the new hard drive.


i am assuming i need some sort of cord to plug the new hard drive into the macbook pro externally while the old hard drive is internal. is this correct?


currently i just have the old hard drive in my computer and the new hard drive is not plugged in.


what plug should i get? if this is the solution

Mar 6, 2015 7:07 PM in response to toddjulian

This solution requires you to remove the new drive from the computer. You don't need to do that. All you need is an external enclosure for the old drive you replaced.


If the new drive is not in the computer then you mis-described the situation in your original post. In that case you need to put the new drive in an external enclosure. Connect it to your computer. Boot from the Recovery HD and use Disk Utility to clone the old drive to the new one. Remove the new drive from the enclosure and install it in the computer. All Done.

i see that i have a problem after installing my new hard drive on my macbook pro mid 2009 version. I put a new hard drive, with all of my information from my old drive installed on it, into the computer. but now have the blinking question mark folder

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