UPDATE: new hard drive won’t format

[DariaMorganD]

UPDATE: I got the new hard drive to show up by putting tape on the cable but now it won’t format it gets stuck in the middle and it goes from 1 minute to 9 hours

If the cable is the problem why would it work with Toshiba hard drive. And what are the chances I got a faulty new hard drive could it be something else.
Below I attach a photo of the loading bar getting stuck I don’t get an error or anything

——————————

but when I hook up an old Toshiba internal drive it shows up.

A couple weeks ago I got the folder with the question mark thing after updating. I tried everything in regards to this topic google could find and finally accepted that the hardrive was dead. so today I finally had time and money so a bought a new one. Now It won’t show up in utility disk in recovery mode.

However just to see if it were the connector/cable/ribbon I took the hard drive (250 GB) out of my 8 year old Toshiba and when I booted it up in recovery, it showed up. I tried to reformat it by the “erase” method and I had no luck, the OS wouldn’t install.


What can I do now?????

Photos below: what utility looks like when I put the Toshiba hardrive in, model number from the back of the laptop, and the new hardrive I just purchased.

If you need more information let me know.

- Daria

 

[jav6454]

Before doing anything, OS X required that you format the drive first.

 

[DariaMorganD]

I can’t do that because it won’t even show up. I don’t even have that option right now

 

[jerryk]

I can’t do that because it won’t even show up. I don’t even have that option right now

Get a replacement drive cable. You did not say which model Mac Book Pro you had, but is seems you are replacing a rotation drive so it must be 2012 or older. The drive cables on these system are known for going bad, leading to intermittent failures and pulling of hair.

You can get the cable on Amazon or iFixIt

 

[greenmeanie]

Was it a brand new hard drive or previously formatted to Linux or Windows?
Sometimes you need to format it in Windows again or run a shell command in OSX.
I also had times where Disk Manager can't find a Drive I used on another machine before.

 

[DariaMorganD]

Brand new drive that says it can work for both Mac and pc.
[doublepost=1519498203][/doublepost]

Get a replacement drive cable. You did not say which model Mac Book Pro you had, but is seems you are replacing a rotation drive so it must be 2012 or older. The drive cables on these system are known for going bad, leading to intermittent failures and pulling of hair.

You can get the cable on Amazon or iFixIt

If I can scrape up some more money I’ll grt the cable but it doesn’t make sense that I read the Toshiba hard drive just fine.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Daria,

Is that a new SATA II or SATA III drive? Are you planning to use it as an internal or as an external hard drive? My advise is to buy a USB3 SATA dock like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Exte...9498338&sr=8-6&keywords=usb+sata+docking&th=1

Buy the the $24.99 one because it has a cooling fan. It is relatively cheap, self powered, and you can use it with any SATA hard drive or SSD. I use a "Plugable" dock, and have several hard drives that I plug into the dock to save thousands of my photographs. With a dock like the one above you don't need a hard drive enclosure. Also, a cable works fine, but the external hard drive is using power from the computer, while the docking station does not.

 

[DeltaMac]

Probably a faulty cable. Yes, it may work on some drives, but not on others (or can be really intermittent - not a good way to use a hard drive).
One thing that you can try is to put the Western Digital drive in an external USB 3 case, and try to format while it is connected through USB. That will at least tell you that the drive is OK, and would be another way to know that you need to replace the internal cable.
Be sure when you format the drive that you change the partition map to GUID, instead the current Master Boot Record (which would be good if you were installing Windows. GUID is better (and the only way that OS X installer will allow the install) You can change over to GUID in the partitions tab in Disk Utility when you erase the drive again.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Probably a faulty cable. Yes, it may work on some drives, but not on others (or can be really intermittent - not a good way to use a hard drive).
One thing that you can try is to put the Western Digital drive in an external USB 3 case, and try to format while it is connected through USB. That will at least tell you that the drive is OK, and would be another way to know that you need to replace the internal cable.
Be sure when you format the drive that you change the partition map to GUID, instead the current Master Boot Record (which would be good if you were installing Windows. GUID is better (and the only way that OS X installer will allow the install) You can change over to GUID in the partitions tab in Disk Utility when you erase the drive again.

Yes, probably a faulty cable. And that's the reason why I don't use cables. Yes, a cable is a lot cheaper than a dock, but there are lots of benefits with the latter. For example, not using the computer's USB port to power the drive, and not having to move or bend the plug at the SATA's end. The SATA connector is firmly held in place by the dock, so the only thing that is moved into the connecting position is the drive.

I just connect the dock to the computer's USB port, power it, and then slide the drive into the SATA connector in the dock. Then launch Disk Utility, and "erase" the drive as you mention above. I do name the new drive so I can always recognize it by its name, then erase. Most times I don't partition it, unless I have some reason for doing so. For example, if I want to use a partition for backing the computer every once in a while, then I may decide to name that specific partition something like "Backup Drive", and name the other partition (s) differently.

 

[DeltaMac]

Yes, probably a faulty cable. And that's the reason why I don't use cables. Yes, a cable is a lot cheaper than a dock, but there are lots of benefits with the latter. ...

But, the internal SATA cable is not optional - if you want to have an internal drive. We are talking about different "cables". The cable, in my post, is the ribbon SATA cable used internally in the MBPro that the OP has, which is a Mid 2012, 13-inch MBPro. Those cables are known to be quite fragile, but easy to replace.
But, your point about using an external interface (whatever it might be is your choice) is a valid one.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

But, the internal SATA cable is not optional - if you want to have an internal drive. We are talking about different "cables". The cable, in my post, is the ribbon SATA cable used internally in the MBPro that the OP has, which is a Mid 2012, 13-inch MBPro. Those cables are known to be quite fragile, but easy to replace.
But, your point about using an external interface (whatever it might be is your choice) is a valid one.

Maybe I got confused by the OP's original post. I thought that she was trying to format and external hard drive. Anyway, you are correct about the SATA cable inside the Mac, although she said that the old drive shows in Disk Utility when connected to the cable, and that the new drive does not.

To me it is a lot easier to format the hard drive externally.

 

[Fishrrman]

It's the ribbon cable.

A faulty cable -may- be able to work ok with a platter-based hard drive, but the same cable WILL NOT work with an SSD. It happens.

The easiest way to "work around" this is to have a way to connect the drive -externally- via USB.
Something like this is cheap and works well:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-...478&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=sabremt+usb3+to+ssd

With it, you can boot and run the MacBook "as it is" (even with a faulty cable) -- until you get the cable replaced.