Disk Utility can not find new 320 GB Drive

[fateemagee]

Hi everyone. I'm fairly Technical, I just can't seem to figure this one out. I own a 13 Inch Macbook with the stock 120 GB HD. It was purchased this past September 2008. I bought a new HD from Newegg. Here is the link to the HD.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136197

I read the reviews, and more than 20 reviews I read said this HD worked perfectly in their Macbook.

-So I received the HD yesterday
-I put it inside my laptop
-I put in the OSX install CD
-I powered up and held down C and booted into OSX Installer
-From the menu i selected Disk Utility but the hard drive does not show up as listed hard drives

FYI - after all attempts failed, I put the disk in my windows machine as an extra sata drive, and it booted perfectly fine, so I know the disk is ok.

Some other thoughts?
-The difference between the stock and new HD is size and also 1.5 GB vs 3.0 GB Transer rate
-Does my Macbook need a firmware upgrade - I doubt this, but just a thought
-Does the Macbook not recognize unformatted disks - I doubt this too

any suggestions?

 

[logana]

Do you have a usb caddy for the drive ?

OSX will normally recognize the drive as "unreadable - do you want to initialize ?"...

Have you tried going to the installer to try and install ?

Sometimes people try and put the drives in upside down in MacBooks or they don't push hard enough on the disc ....

If you can see the disk in Windows then why not format as FAT32 in Windows then put it back in the MacBook - boot from the install discs and then Disc Utility will see the disc and reformat to HFS+ or whatever.

 

[fateemagee]

320 GB wd3200bevt

Thanks Logana. I ordered the USB Caddy yesterday. I'm waiting for it to arrive by tomorrow. Yes - I wanted to initialize the drive, but I thought Disk Utility will allow me to initialize the drive irrelevant of the format. The disk is currently NTFS after I tried it in my windows box. When I go home, i'll reformat to FAT32 and try again while I wait for the USB Caddy. Also I know it's not Upside down, and I'm definitely pressing it firmly down. I swapped 15 times between the old and the new one last night .

Do you have a usb caddy for the drive ?

OSX will normally recognize the drive as "unreadable - do you want to initialize ?"...

Have you tried going to the installer to try and install ?

Sometimes people try and put the drives in upside down in MacBooks or they don't push hard enough on the disc ....

If you can see the disk in Windows then why not format as FAT32 in Windows then put it back in the MacBook - boot from the install discs and then Disc Utility will see the disc and reformat to HFS+ or whatever.

 

[logana]

Try the FAT32 route - MAC OSX as you probably know can read NTFS formatted disks but cannot write to them.

Once you format it to FAT32 it will appear in Disk Utility from your installer and off you go. USB caddy very handy !!!

 

[Cave Man]

-From the menu i selected Disk Utility but the hard drive does not show up as listed hard drives

If Disk Utility does not see the drive, then it is not properly seated. Are you sure you installed it correctly, using the screws from the MacBook?

 

[fateemagee]

Problem Solved

Sorry, I had fixed this a few days ago, but I didn't get a chance to write back.

So apparently, if your Hard Drive is not formatted for a Mac, such as NTFS, Fat 32, or just whatever comes by default from the manufacturer, Disk Utility will not find the Disk.

What I did to resolve this issue, is wait for my external enclosure to arrive. I formatted the hard drive Mac OS Journaled formatting, then swapped hard drives, rebooted, and immidiately it was recognized.

Thank you all for your help.

 

[Cave Man]

So apparently, if your Hard Drive is not formatted for a Mac, such as NTFS, Fat 32, or just whatever comes by default from the manufacturer, Disk Utility will not find the Disk.

This is not true. Any hard drive, regardless of how it's initialized, should show up in Disk Utility. If it is initialized in formats other than native Mac OS, then your initialization options are limited for that volume. The drive itself should still be in the devices pane on the left.

 

[fateemagee]

This is not true. Any hard drive, regardless of how it's initialized, should show up in Disk Utility. If it is initialized in formats other than native Mac OS, then your initialization options are limited for that volume. The drive itself should still be in the devices pane on the left.

Disk Utility starting from Mac OS X CD, recognizes only MAC OS Journaled file system. Disk Utility starting while you are booted in the OS can recognize anything. I tried it more than 20 times. Have you tried it, or is this an expert guess?

 

[harry454]

yeah, thats the way to fix it just format and then it should pick it up, which is what you did, enjoy the new drive bud

 

[friendphil]

re Hard Drive replacement issues

Sorry, I had fixed this a few days ago, but I didn't get a chance to write back.

So apparently, if your Hard Drive is not formatted for a Mac, such as NTFS, Fat 32, or just whatever comes by default from the manufacturer, Disk Utility will not find the Disk.

What I did to resolve this issue, is wait for my external enclosure to arrive. I formatted the hard drive Mac OS Journaled formatting, then swapped hard drives, rebooted, and immidiately it was recognized.

Thank you all for your help.

HI... I'm facing a similar issue, and have questions about how you resolved it. I replaced a crashed 120GB Hd with a new 160GB seagate in a powerbook G4. When I finished installing the new hard drive and booted up with a 10.5 system install disk, the new HD didn't show up in the system profiler or in the disk utiility.

Do I have it right that you needed to install the HD in an external device, then format it? I only have the one powerbook, and am in Thailand with limited resources, so am trying to do this without ordering stuff or taking it to technicians...

any suggestions?

thanks
friendphil

 

[NewMacbookPlz]

Disk Utility starting from Mac OS X CD, recognizes only MAC OS Journaled file system. Disk Utility starting while you are booted in the OS can recognize anything. I tried it more than 20 times. Have you tried it, or is this an expert guess?

That cannot be true. When I replaced the drive in my iBook I ordered just a regular Seagate, not the mac version.

It came FAT32 formatted as ID'd by Disk Utility on my Panther DVD. I changed it to HFS+ and was on my way....

 

[drjuice]

Regardless of how it is formatted, Disk Utility will show you a drive as long as it is connected properly. You shouldn't have to connect a bare drive with an external enclosure to format it.