HELP new hard drive won't let me open disk utility

[sophieabigail]

I have a mid 2009 MacBook Pro 13" and recently I discovered the hard drive had gone, so I bought a new one (Seagate SATA) along with a new battery. I know it is compatible with a MacBook Pro as I have done some research ha. I have successfully replaced my hard drive (not the battery yet) but when I turn it on I get a flashing folder with a question mark inside. I have followed the correct steps to stop this but none seem to work now my new hard drive is installed.

When I insert the installation CD that came with the Mac and press C/Alt either nothing happens, it ejects the CD automatically or a grey screen appears with the mouse.

I'm not spending £35 just for Apple to give me some support without knowing they can definitely solve my problem. I'm pretty desperate for some help as my uni course starts in a few days.
Apologies if I haven't explained my problem in enough detail etc.

 

[Intell]

What disc are you trying to start the machine from?

 

[sophieabigail]

Well all I do is turn it on a insert the installation disk that came with the Mac as that's what I've read on other forums that you're supposed to do haha. I'm not able to safe boot and boot in recovery mode or open disk utility with the new hard drive

 

[Intell]

You can't safe boot or recovery boot because there is nothing on the hard drive to install from. Your optical drive may be failing, the disc may be dirty, or you may be using the incorrect disc to boot the machine. Try this, turn it on then immediately press and hold the option key until you get to the boot menu. Insert the restore disc. If it ejects it, the drive is unable to read the disc. What you should see is the option to boot from the restore disc.

 

[sophieabigail]

Ah right, I have tried that numerous times but even without the disk inside it won't show the boot menu, just a plain screen with the arrow on it

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I did what you said to do even though the boot menu won't show, I inserted the disk and it just shut off straight away. Also, before my old hard drive died the optical drive worked fine

 

[Intell]

The plain grey screen with the mouse is the boot menu, but only when it is not able to locate any bootable drives.

 

[sophieabigail]

Okay I've done what you've said again but this time it hasn't turned off, but nothing's happening, how long does it usually take for the menu to appear or for it to boot from the disk?

 

[Intell]

It will take at most 60 seconds. It's starting to sound as if your machine may have additional hardware problems.

 

[sophieabigail]

Argh literally my worst nightmare right now, thanks for the help though!