Trouble with a new internal drive and GUID tables

[bazzaric]

Hi Folks,

I bought a 320Gb external HDD which was to replace my internal 160Gb drive in my Unibody Macbook.

I used SuperDuper! to copy my original disk on to the new one, then swapped the disks. My 160Gb is no loger working, which is fine, but I want to install a fresh OSX on to the new hard drive. I can use the Disk at the moment but the mac can't boot from it. I need to hold down the option key and select it at startup, I presume because of the format/partition type.

When I try to do a fresh install of OSX, I get an error saying cannot install on this disk because of partition type (GUID Tables).

I'm not allowed to do anything to this disk because I can't 'unmount' it, so, can I run disk utilities from my install DVD? before mounting the disk?

 

[gr8tfly]

You can run Disk Utility off the install DVD. After selecting the language, you should be able to launch it from the Menu Bar.

When you select the drive, it will tell you what the partition map type is. If it's not GUID, you'll have to re-initialize it. (You can set the map type by clicking "Options" from the Partition tab.)

It wasn't totally clear whether you can boot from the drive (by manually selecting it) or not at all. Anyway, Intel Macs require the GUID partition map on bootable drives.

You can also use Disk Utility to do the clone itself (from the 160 > 320), using its Restore function (check "erase destination" to enable block copy). If the 160 is dead, you might need to create an image of the 320 on an intermediate drive, reinitialize it with GUID map, then put the contents back on. Again, you can use Disk Utility to create the image (DMG), then use Restore to put it back on the 320.

 

[bazzaric]

You can run Disk Utility off the install DVD. After selecting the language, you should be able to launch it from the Menu Bar.

When you select the drive, it will tell you what the partition map type is. If it's not GUID, you'll have to re-initialize it. (You can set the map type by clicking "Options" from the Partition tab.)

It wasn't totally clear whether you can boot from the drive (by manually selecting it) or not at all. Anyway, Intel Macs require the GUID partition map on bootable drives.

You can also use Disk Utility to do the clone itself (from the 160 > 320), using its Restore function (check "erase destination" to enable block copy). If the 160 is dead, you might need to create an image of the 320 on an intermediate drive, reinitialize it with GUID map, then put the contents back on. Again, you can use Disk Utility to create the image (DMG), then use Restore to put it back on the 320.

Managed to sort it all from your very first sentence!!

If there was a way to submit thanks or reputation, then I would do both. Eternally greatful!

 

[gr8tfly]

Thank you - you're welcome! Glad you got things worked out!