Please help, Swimming in Mac Failure

[Kookiedo]

Here is our problem: The disk drive was / is failing on a MacBookPro. I backed up all our important files to an external hard drive. Stupidly we DL'ed the Maverick update. Now all I get is OS X cannot be installed. HD is damaged and can’t be repaired. So, went out and got a new HDD.

So, I do still have access to the Disk Utility and Terminal with the old drive. Thought I'd do a clean install of Maverick. I found a copy of Maverick and DL'ed it on my only other computer, a PC. Put the dmg file on a USB drive formatted in ExFat because the file is over 5GB and communicates with PC. Formatted another USB drive using the Disk Utility in Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and GUID Partition Table. Used Terminal to copy the maverick dmg file to the GTP USB drive. Put in a new HDD and boot holding options. I get nothing. Just an arrow.

I can’t figure out how to boot Maverick and format the new drive with a failing old Mac drive, new HDD, a PC, and two USB drives. Oh, and five dogs, but they are no help.

 

[Bruno09]

Hi,

copying a Mavericks .dmg (?) to a USB drive does not create a bootable drive.

Which model of Mac is it, which original OS ?
If your Mac can use Internet Recovery, you do not need a USB drive to re-install the (original) OS.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

 

[Kookiedo]

Its a late 2008 MacBookPro 15". Not sure wich model number, but its either of these: MB471xx/A or MC026xx/A. I believe the original was snow lepard. OS X 10.6.8 was on it last.

I've tried all sorts of methods to get this to work. All the options described in your link do not exist for me. Really I would just like to load up Maverick on the new HDD. My only real option is to boot the up from USB.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

You need a Snow Leopard DVD - http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/ if you don't have one.

 

[Kookiedo]

Yeah, I concur. I've tried every imaginable way to do this without the disk. I don't have one on hand. I will have to get.

 

[Weaselboy]

So, I do still have access to the Disk Utility and Terminal with the old drive.

Hold on here.... how are you doing this? If you have the old drive and can option key boot to the Mavs recovery partition on that drive (I think that is what you are doing here), you can use that recovery partition to erase the new disk with Disk Util then reinstall the OS onto the new drive.

 

[yjchua95]

Its a late 2008 MacBookPro 15". Not sure wich model number, but its either of these: MB471xx/A or MC026xx/A. I believe the original was snow lepard. OS X 10.6.8 was on it last.

I've tried all sorts of methods to get this to work. All the options described in your link do not exist for me. Really I would just like to load up Maverick on the new HDD. My only real option is to boot the up from USB.

In order to boot from USB, you must:
1. Have a working Mac to create the bootable USB.
2. OS X Mavericks installer downloaded from the App Store.
3. 8GB USB drive (or larger)
4. DiskMakerX (for streamlined process in creating a bootable USB)

If you don't have access to a working Mac to create a bootable USB, you're out of luck.