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Hard Drive troubles

N

nickarmadillo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 24, 2003
223
0
St. Louis, MO
I've finally gotten around to upgrading the hard drive in my 2007 aluminum iMac, but a few unexpected problems have cropped up. I'm upgrading from the stock 320gb HD to a 1tb Samsung Spinpoint F3 and using 10.5.8.

I reformatted the new disk as MAC Journal (extended) and installed it internally, but upon restarting with the OSX disk inserted, the HD didn't show up in the "install location" screen.

At first, I chalked this up to a poor installation job, so I then got an external enclosure, put the old HD back in and tried again, but still only got the old disk as an available install location.

Any idea why the OSX installer isn't recognizing the new drive (both when it's internal and externally mounted)? It works as a storage drive and, when reformatted, also works on my PC, but it won't take the OS.

Thanks in advance.
 
I thought maybe that was it too, but it's been partitioned w/ GUID (ticked it under options in the partition menu). Not really sure what is going on.
 
nickarmadillo said:
I thought maybe that was it too, but it's been partitioned w/ GUID (ticked it under options in the partition menu). Not really sure what is going on.
Click to expand...

Try re-partitioning it once it's installed. I always do it this way as a general rule. It's a hang-over from years gone by, but may be appropriate.

Does the drive show up in Disk Utility when installed internally?
 
Not sure if it shows up internally as it wouldn't boot. I booted with my old HD as an external, reformatted the new internal, and tried to install the OS, but its a no go.
 
Still can't figure it out. I've swapped the HDs several times now. The old one still works, so I know there isn't a connection issue. I can also use the new one as an external, so I know it works. It must be something to do with formatting. However, I've formatted it as MAC OS Extended (Journaled). Hmmmm...

Any other ideas?
 
nickarmadillo said:
Still can't figure it out. I've swapped the HDs several times now. The old one still works, so I know there isn't a connection issue. I can also use the new one as an external, so I know it works. It must be something to do with formatting. However, I've formatted it as MAC OS Extended (Journaled). Hmmmm...

Any other ideas?
Click to expand...

Nope.... especially considering this:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/12545492#12545492

You may need to use a PC and use this tool to inspect the hard drive and see if it's set at SATA 3.0Gbps:

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/downloads/support_in_es.html

If it's set at 3.0Gbps, you could try setting the drive to 1.5Gbps as a test (though you really want to use it at 3.0Gbps). :eek:

Finally, make sure any SMC & EFI firmware updates have been done. What system version are you running? Some updates require later versions of MacOS.

According to this:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237

there is only one EFI update (v1.3)

http://support.apple.com/downloads/iMac_EFI_Firmware_Update_1_3

That's all I have! :(
 
HDD appearing on Desktop

Just a few days ago I installed 1TB Samsung F3 spinpoint in my late 2006 Intel iMac 2 GHz, 4GB RAM, running OS X 10.6.8. The F3 didn't appear on the Desktop; however, Samsung customer support helped me by accessing the FINDER preferences. There is a list "show these items on the desktop"
be sure to select hard disk. Now the F3 appears on the Desktop.
 
Klavier7 said:
Just a few days ago I installed 1TB Samsung F3 spinpoint in my late 2006 Intel iMac 2 GHz, 4GB RAM, running OS X 10.6.8. The F3 didn't appear on the Desktop; however, Samsung customer support helped me by accessing the FINDER preferences. There is a list "show these items on the desktop"
be sure to select hard disk. Now the F3 appears on the Desktop.
Click to expand...

Totally unrelated.^^^
So the HDD is on the bus as a device in Disk Utility?
If so create 1 GUID HFS+ Journaled partition and rename it what you want.
Boot to Installer and choose. You should never have to mess with jumper's anymore these day's. Running at 1.5Gb SATAI is no big loss as the drive can't really get more than 140MB/s anyway. No benefit from running SATAII vs. SATAI, except the drive is rated SATAII and should work out of the box. I bought 5 of those F3's prior to the thailand flooding for 40.00 each. Great transfer rates, meager response time.
 
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