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replaced hard drive, OSX reinstall won't recognize it

waywardsage

waywardsage

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Dec 22, 2006
282
0
CA
I just replaced my hard drive in my mid 2008 17" Macbook Pro with a brand new 500GB 7200RPM hard drive. I followed the installations guides to the T and reassembled the computer.

Upon inserting the OSX install disc, it won't read the drive for me to select it to install. It just eternally searches for a drive.

What am I doing wrong? What might the problem be? Any help would be great.
 
I just put the DVD in when the blinking file with a question mark appeared.

Do i need to hold down c when it restarts?
 
Did you open disk utility after booting to disk but before install to format the drive for HFS+ ? If not, then the MBP isn't reading the drive because it's not formatted.
 
waywardsage said:
I just put the DVD in when the blinking file with a question mark appeared.

Do i need to hold down c when it restarts?
Click to expand...

If you don't hold down C, your Mac will look for an OS on a hard drive until it finds one. Obviously it won't. You need to hold C to install the OS.
 
hold 'C' right after the startup chime with the disk inserted. You will see the Apple logo and the spinning gear, then you can release. After the initial screen appears advance the screen by clicking Continue, or I agree, or something of that nature and you see the option for Utilities in the menu bar at the top, open the disk utility from that drop down and format the new drive. Then you should be able to install like normal.
 
wow...now I feel stupid..duh. Thanks guys! Your awesome.

One more question. Think i should do a clean install of OSX then restore via Time machine? Or restore via time machine from the beginning after i format the drive?
 
would migration assitant be the same as clean install then going to time machine and restoring my former hard drive data?
 
yes and no,

yes in the fact that you're restoring the data virtually the same way

no in the fact that Migration Assistant generally is done (I say generally because you can do it at any time) during the initial setup of a new machine, new drive, etc before the OS is started up for the first time. After the install is finished and you have booted up you will see the welcome screen and at that time it will ask you to transfer your data from an existing mac, drive, TM backup, etc... this is Migration Assistant using a Time Machine Backup to restore your data. It will pull everything from your personal data (name, phone, email, etc used when registering your computer for the first time) to applications, documents, desktop, backgrounds, etc...
 
but does a Time Machine restore allow you the option of excluding certain data from the restoration like Migration Assistant does? For example the new user may not want the "Downloads" or "Documents", etc. portion of the old User folder to be transferred to the new machine. I know with MA you get to pick and choose, but I was under the impression that with TM restore it just basically replaces everything exactly like it was. Therefore MA would be more effective than just a restore would.
 
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