Installed new HD,, "you need to restart your computer. hold down the power button..."

I recently installed a new internal hard drive after my original one died unexpectedly. The replacement internal hd is the Western Digital WD1002FAEX 1TB Caviar Black. I restored from a time machine backup using the OSX reinstall disk after creating a single GUID partition for the HD. At startup, I get the wonder "you need to restart your computer. Hold down the power button until it turns off, then press the power button again," message.

I checked the ram slots, they're fine. I can access the new internal HD when I boot from my External Clone HD with no problem. But, it still will not boot even when I go to system preferences>startup disk> and try to boot from the new internal HD.

I had to "restore from backup," using a time machine backup because im missing disk 2 of the OSX reinstall, and was thinking that running "archive and install" may solve the problem. I called Apple and ordered a new set of OSX install disks that should be here within the next week.

Anyone know what a possible problem could be? Help would be very appreciated!!! Thankss!

ps: My specs are in my sig \/

Sounds like the machine is going into kernel panic. That usually indicates a hardware problem.

Did you prepare the new 1 TB hard drive properly before restoring from the Time Machine backup? That is, format the drive as HFS Extended Journaled using the GUID scheme? How about the OS X disk that you do have, is it the correct one for the machine? If all is OK, you might have a defective 1 TB hard drive.

What software did you use to clone the contents of your old hard drive to the external? Also, if you have a bootable clone, you should be able to copy (clone) it directly to the new 1 TB drive while booted from the clone. Did you try that?

I have done about 4 Time Machine restores to both a new hard drive and a old one to get rid of fragmentation and never an issue.

Did you do everything Chscag asked?

Yes, I already formatted it and the disk im using is the correct one. What I'm not understanding is that I have complete access to the drive when i boot up from the external. I'm running DiskWarrior right now to see if i can solve the problem, if not I will try to replace this hard drive.

As asked, did you go into Partition > Options and select GUID mapping?

Well, GUID is the default partition option selected, I observed this after I had already partitioned the drive. Is it possible that it wasn't selected the first time around?

Ive had this problem with an old Quicksilver off and on for several months..Replaced the HD, reinstalled the OS,repaired permissions .....the problem turned out to be a USB hub. This may not be your issue..but its something to think about..other hardware on the machine.

Interesting thought. I had something similar happen with my G5. At this point two possibilities occur to me:

1. Boot into single user mode and see if there is any indication what is causing the hang.

2. Instead of doing a restore from Time Machine clone the external drive to the internal that is giving you a problem. Then try to boot from the internal. If all goes well we can then address restoring any missing information using Time Machine.

BTW when you set up Time Machine did you tell it to exclude any System files or file from the User folder? If so that might also be an issue.

The most common cause of kernel panics is faulty hardware as noted by chscag. Given your circumstances, I would bet money on it.

First things first, I'd run the AHT:

Intel-based Macs: Using Apple Hardware Test

You could also take a look at the logs to see if they give you any hint.

While booted to the external, try looking in Library / Logs / Crash Reporter on the internal drive.

Check both at the root and in your user account.

My initial thought would be something to do with putting that 12.5mm drive in a space designed for a 9.5mm drive. That pretty much gets thrown out the window if you're able to boot from the external and everything works incl'g full access to that drive.

I had a question. I ordered it non-oem, but it still didn't come with an SATA cable. This is my first time installing in Imac, do I need to order an SATA cable separate aside from the two plugs that already connect to the HD?

ps, im tryin the other suggestions throughout the day, i work nights so its like midnight to me right now,,,, i will post when i have a second to check out what you guys have told me to look for.....

Ncascone said:

I had a question. I ordered it non-oem, but it still didn't come with an SATA cable. This is my first time installing in Imac, do I need to order an SATA cable separate aside from the two plugs that already connect to the HD?

Click to expand...

No additional cables are needed. Just attach the drive using the same connectors the old one was attached to. Let us know...

Okay, thank you chscag, I had it right, I was just making sure. Anyway, this morning I reopened my Mac and disconnected and reconnected all of the wires to see if that might be the problem. I also ran the Apple Hardware test as suggested by cwa107. The results were "No troubles found." I don't know if that means that the internal hard drive is actually not the problem or not.
I did contact Western Digital to exchange the one I currently have in my computer, but I would hate to go through all of that to find out that the next one I receive does the same thing. But, nevertheless they are already sending one out to me. What do you think? Even after the AHT comes back saying everything is fine, can the HD still be the problem here?

bobtomay said:

You could also take a look at the logs to see if they give you any hint.

While booted to the external, try looking in Library / Logs / Crash Reporter on the internal drive.

Check both at the root and in your user account.

My initial thought would be something to do with putting that 12.5mm drive in a space designed for a 9.5mm drive. That pretty much gets thrown out the window if you're able to boot from the external and everything works incl'g full access to that drive.

Click to expand...

I have access to the crash reports for the day that my original hard drive crashed, and also a couple from yesterday, which pertain to the new hard drive I have in my computer that is not starting up. I have the crash reports but I have no idea what they mean.

The AHT is not a definitive test but generally it will catch things like bad memory, logic board problems, GPU, and so on. In my experience with using it, it does not detect all hard drive problems. So it's possible your hard drive could be the culprit. Since WD is sending out a new one, go ahead and swap it out and let's see what happens.

Thanks for all of your help so far guys! Any other suggestions are appreciated! I will update and post as I continue on with all this... WD is sending the new one out, so for now I gotta wait.

For sure keep us posted.

Not sure if you tried this or not but in Disk Utility, did you check the SMART Status? Does it pass? AHT has found a few hard drive issues for me but as was said, it's not perfect.

Download SMARTREPORTER and see what it has to say.

http://www.corecode.at/smartreporter/

Got the new HD today. Installed it and.... EVERYTHING is FINE! It was the hard drive all along, hardware malfunction. Anyway, I received my new OSX restore disks and the new HD both today and got everything up and running. What a hassle I went through just because of a stupid hardware malfunction. Thank you to everyone who helped me along in narrowing down what the problem was. I appreciate all of your help!! Thanks!!