13" uMB - New HDD, machine won't boot

[ascender]

I've just tried installing a new WD 500Gb HDD in to a 13" uMB machine.

When I power it on, I get the "?" folder which is expected. However, the machine won't boot from the Leopard DVD. The drive spins up the disc and then the machine power cycles off, back on and repeats.

Any ideas? Not had much luck with Google.

Thanks

 

[jmann]

Did you make a bootable backup of your hard drive? You could try booting from that and then format/install Leopard on the new internal.

 

[ascender]

No, I might try that later, have put the old HDD back in for just now. Thought I'd check first to see if it was a known problem or not.

Thanks for the idea.

 

[orpheus1120]

Make sure you press and hold "C" during reboot. This will boot from your OS disk.

 

[ascender]

Make sure you press and hold "C" during reboot. This will boot from your OS disk.

Yes. All it does is power cycle the machine.

 

[ascender]

Installed the new drive in an external caddy and successfully installed OS X on to it, to the point of being able to boot my Mac Pro from it.

Disk in to laptop and it does the same, just continually power cycles. Apple power-on noise, grey screen, black screen. Repeat.

 

[ascender]

Could I make an image of the old, working drive, restore it to the new drive and then try booting from that?

 

[gerabbi]

Could I make an image of the old, working drive, restore it to the new drive and then try booting from that?

Make a clone of your good disk to your new disk with either Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper and you should be good to go.

 

[ascender]

Sorted. Still no idea why it wouldn't boot with the blank hdd in it, but its working now after using SuperDuper to make a clone.

 

[Cave Man]

I think this is one of the strangest problems I've ever seen on MRF.

 

[AppleTecFan]

I've just tried installing a new WD 500Gb HDD in to a 13" uMB machine.

When I power it on, I get the "?" folder which is expected. However, the machine won't boot from the Leopard DVD. The drive spins up the disc and then the machine power cycles off, back on and repeats.

Any ideas? Not had much luck with Google.

Thanks

Pretty sure the unibody macbook 13' does not support 500GB HDD

 

[Cave Man]

Pretty sure the unibody macbook 13' does not support 500GB HDD

I can't speak for the 13' MacBook, but the 13" sure supports 500 gb.

 

[ascender]

Pretty sure the unibody macbook 13' does not support 500GB HDD

Pretty sure it does

Not sure what the BTO options were, but people on here have definitely upgraded theirs with this exact drive without any problems. It was such a weird issue though, never seen it before in 12+ years of upgrading Macs.

 

[clyde2801]

Pretty sure the unibody macbook 13' does not support 500GB HDD

Shhh! My 2.4 uMB might hear you!!! (It's working on mine.)

 

[Jeffrosproto]

Pretty sure the unibody macbook 13' does not support 500GB HDD

Works fine here.