parrotdawg
Level 1 (4 points)
Notebooks

Q: installed a new HD in my 2009 Mac Book Pro. Will not boot, shows a blinking folder with a question mark on it.

I have a 2009 macbook pro that would not boot. Bought a new HD today (old is 500GB, new is 1 TB both Seagate). Removed and replaced the drive. When trying to boot to install new OS I only see a blinking folder with a question mark on it. Any suggestions?

MacBook Pro, iOS 10.0.1

Posted on Oct 17, 2016 11:43 AM

Close
parrotdawg

Q: installed a new HD in my 2009 Mac Book Pro. Will not boot, shows a blinking folder with a question mark on it.

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Oct 17, 2016 11:46 AM in response to parrotdawg
    Level 9 (51,412 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 17, 2016 11:46 AM in response to parrotdawg

    Did you partition and format the drive for a Mac.

  • by leroydouglas,

    leroydouglas leroydouglas Oct 17, 2016 11:47 AM in response to parrotdawg
    Level 7 (24,100 points)
    Notebooks
    Oct 17, 2016 11:47 AM in response to parrotdawg

    All new drives need to be formatted.

     

    Boot into Recovery (command R) use Disk Utility to format the drive. GUID extended journeled.

     

    You can get an over view of options here: How to create a boot clone

  • by Grant Bennet-Alder,

    Grant Bennet-Alder Grant Bennet-Alder Oct 17, 2016 11:50 AM in response to parrotdawg
    Level 9 (61,390 points)
    Desktops
    Oct 17, 2016 11:50 AM in response to parrotdawg

    The drive needs to be initialized for MacOS and you need to Install Mac OS onto it before you will get different results. A MacBook Pro from 2009 is too old to contain Internet Recovery in its firmware.

     

    There are three places from which you could get Recovery Utilities:

    • a 10.6 "Full Retail" DVD

    • a home-made 8GB USB-stick Installer you made from a previous download of any MacOS 10.7 to 10.11

    • from the Recovery partition on the drive you previously removed from your Mac. (to make this one work, you need to place the old or the new drive in an External enclosure and boot from the old drive while initializing and Installing on the new drive)