Problem installing new hard drive

That's not going to work. A time machine backup is not bootable - as you noticed. And the files in a time machine backup are protected against accidental changes, as a backup should be - you noticed that as well. Whether the advice you were given is wrong or whether you misunderstood it, I don't know. But the copy of the time machine backup on your new internal hard drive is useless.

If you have a MacOS X installer, you'll first have to start Disk Utility. Identify your internal hard drive and format it again. After that, you can install MacOS X And during the installation, you will be asked whether to copy the data from a Time Machine backup. That will put your data back in a form that is usable.

Best to not have the Time Machine backup connected when you format the internal drive, just to avoid the possibility of any fatal mistake. And make sure you keep your old internal drive around until everything is working; worst case you can use that to restore everything.

 

You have an external USB/SATA docking station, is this correct?

If so, I suggest you follow these instructions carefully.

1. Put the OLD drive BACK into the laptop for now.

2. Get the laptop up and running.

3. Download CarbonCopyCloner from here:
http://www.bombich.com/download.html
(it's "pay for" software, but you can use it FREE for 30 days)

4. Now connect the USB dock and put the new drive into it.

5. First, use Disk Utility to re-initialize the NEW docked drive. Also, use DU to "repair" it once or twice (this actually just tests the drive for errors).

6. Now launch CCC. In CCC's window, on the left side, pick your SOURCE drive (the OLD internal one). On the right side, pick your TARGET drive (the NEW one in the dock).

7. CCC will also clone the recovery partition if you wish.

8. Once you've got it set up, let CCC do its thing. If there's a lot on the OLD drive, it will take a while -- you're creating a bootable, cloned backup.

9. When done, TEST YOUR BACKUP FIRST. To do that, do this:
a. Restart
b. As soon as you hear the startup sound, hold down the option key and KEEP HOLDING IT DOWN
c. In a few moments, the startup manager will appear
d. Select the NEW (docked) drive with the pointer, then hit return
e. The laptop will now boot from the NEW drive in the dock.

10. When you get to the finder, look around. The clone should look EXACTLY like your old drive -- check "About this Mac" to be sure that you're booted from the new drive.

11. Once you have done a test boot, and are satisfied that everything is as it should be with the new drive, NOW it's time to shut everything down and swap the drives.

12. Once the swap is done, reboot. Are things better now?

If this works for you, I STRONGLY SUGGEST that you continue to use CCC in the future instead of Time Machine. You can use the old drive in the dock as your backup. Do this, and you will always have an immediately-bootable "emergency backup" close-at-hand.