04-23-2007, 12:33 AM

hi, had a question about mac os x in general. I have swapped the hard drive in my macbook pro for a larger/faster drive (old and new are both seagates) with the intention of building Mac OS X again from scratch off the install DVD's. When I boot though it does not see the new hard drive. I am guessing that is because the install DVD's are not at a high enough level of MAC OS X (below 10.4.7) so they do not have the drivers for the new drive.

I am relatively new to Mac OS X so the quesiton is: what methods exist to install/boot off the latest copy of MAC OS X without having the latest install DVD's? or, is there a way to boot off the DVD's I have which are at an earlier patch level of OS X and then specify new drivers for the new hard drive??

Any help would be great.... thanks

04-23-2007, 12:46 AM

The machine will not boot from this blank, unformatted hard disk so you’ll need to boot from your external backup. Plug power cable back in and connect external hard disk that you will be booting from. Turn on computer and boot from external.
Use Disk Tools on external to format the new hard disk. Don’t forget to partition it using the GUID partition table as it’s an Intel-based Mac.

Here are the steps you should consider when upgrading an internal HD:

- Install the original drive in the external enclosure
- Install the new drive in the MacBook
- Boot from the old drive
- Format the new drive using Disk Utility
- Use SuperDuper to clone the external drive to the new internal drive
- Format the external drive using Disk Utility

Here's something else to consider if you want to transfer your data from the replaced drive to the new one:

You just boot up off the install CD that came with your computer and install a fresh copy of Tiger on the new drive (after you've installed inside of the MacBook). During the setup process (either before or after reboot, I can't remember) the Migration Assistant will come up and ask if you want to import from another drive. Just turn on your Firewire drive and click Go. Select what you want to transfer and just let it do its thing!

04-23-2007, 12:58 AM

Has the new hard drive been initialised and formatted ?? My guess is that if it has been formatted it was formatted for Windows. e.g. NTFS which a Mac will not recognise.

Try reformating as Mac or Fat 32.

04-24-2007, 02:12 AM

thanks for the help. I did not know about the GUID setting.

I actually did not realise thaty I could use Disk Utility from within the MAC OS X installer, so once I realised it was there I partitioned the new disk with the GUID setting on. This fixed the problem and I could install the new OS to it.

I have a backup of the old drive so will only copy the files I need to the new drive once its all installed etc..

Thanks again...