The hard drive in my macbook died last week. I have a couple of hard drives here but I cannot get my OSX re-installed on them. It came with Lion and I downloaded the dmg from Apple and started installing it from a USB key. Everything seemed fine but with 10 minutes left on the install it just hung there. I tried again and same thing even leaving it for 2 days to see would it progress. I also tried to restore from Web and the same thing happened. I've also tried restoring from my Time machine bacup. I've tried three different drives a 500Gb a 750Gb and a 1Tb. Same problem with all three with all three restore methods - can anyone assist please?
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Cannot re-install OSX on new drive
- Thread starter rockfield
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Which Macbook do you have? Can you boot to a USB stick or DVD (any OS) OK using the Option key? If so, the basic parts of the Mac may indeed be OK. If this problem started only after you replaced the HD, indeed you probably have a lose or broken SATA ribbon between the HD and motherboard. You should be easily able to get the part at sites like www.ifixit.com....or on ebay. You can still partition, format and install the OS on the target drive if you put the drive on a SATA-USB cable on the desktop. One of those cables is usually around $10. You can find them at Frys, MicroCenter, and other computer parts stores. Granted installing and testing via USB2 is slow. But it will prove the drive is OK and lets you do the install or restore while waiting for the replacement SATA ribbon.
Separate topic: Any reason to be using any of the old big cat OS releases instead of Mavricks?
Mavericks will run on the following and do a great job of memory management.
iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),
MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
Xserve (Early 2009)
Separate topic: Any reason to be using any of the old big cat OS releases instead of Mavricks?
Mavericks will run on the following and do a great job of memory management.
iMac (Mid-2007 or later)
MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, Late 2008), (13-inch, Early 2009 or later)
MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later),
MacBook Pro (15-inch or 17-inch, Mid/Late 2007 or later)
MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
Mac mini (Early 2009 or later)
Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
Xserve (Early 2009)
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Just wanted to say thank you both for replying.
I borrowed another Macbook and did as belkacemi suggested and everything worked out perfectly.
Thanks so much!