In DESPERATE need of help with reinstalling OS X on new i5 macbook pro!

I hope you guys/gals can help .. I'm so stuck

I know everything there is to know about Windows computers.. but this is my first Mac and I figured I wouldn't run into something as simple as reinstalling the operating system...



Keep in mind.. This computer is 4 months old (it is a 2010 model i5 2.4ghz 15.4" macbook pro).



I am giving the Mac to a family member because I do not use it.. I have had zero issues with it thus far. I wanted to give it to them reformatted.



So ..



I followed this: Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard: How to Erase and Install



The link is straight from here... I followed it exactly.



I put the disc in... Followed the onscreen instructions .. Erased the Hard Drive called "Macintosh HD" under Disc Utility.. Then I clicked install..



I just installed the default programs to start off with (languages, 8.2GB system, etc).. I have tried just doing the system alone and no changes..



Here is what it does:



It starts off and says that it is going to be 29 minutes (this time changes everytime I start over).. Then after about 30 minutes.. The bar will SLOWLY go like ONE notch of progress... Then it will go down to 28 minutes... and so forth... So the time is completely wrong.. and it will take probably about 6 hours to just go through this one install screen?



This was just on the first install.. Not even restarting the computer and doing the 2nd portion that the webpage mentions.



I also ran into a problem at first where the progress bar finished completely and then said that I actually had a NEGATIVE time remaining for the installation? This is when I rebooted and tried again......



Is there anything that I can do ? What is the deal? This laptop has barely been used and was working perfectly.....



PLEASE HELP .. I am begging you guys/gals..



Thanks!

Don't start over. The time estimate is just that, an estimate. At this point, I'd format it again and run the install. Just start it and leave, go on with more fun things than getting frustrated with a computer. Come back in an hour or so and it'll probably be done and waiting for the first boot setup.

Dysfunction said:

Don't start over. The time estimate is just that, an estimate. At this point, I'd format it again and run the install. Just start it and leave, go on with more fun things than getting frustrated with a computer. Come back in an hour or so and it'll probably be done and waiting for the first boot setup.

Click to expand...

The thing is this though... The first time I did it, it started saying that the time was a negative value... It would say like (-48 minutes left). And the bar would be completely full for the entire negative time.. It got to the point where it was just stuck on that..

Does this installation really take like 6 hours just for the first update on a brand new computer? I have reformatted it a few times now trying this and let it run for hours and it just goes turtle slow like its a mac from the 70's or something...

Thanks!

Sometimes it can take ages. Make sure that your install disc is nice and clean, no smears or scratches. If it can't read the disc properly you will struggle to get it to install.

Kevriano said:

Sometimes it can take ages. Make sure that your install disc is nice and clean, no smears or scratches. If it can't read the disc properly you will struggle to get it to install.

Click to expand...

Hey, it does have some little scratches .. I'm not sure how they got there since this is a brand new disc that I used yesterday.. Maybe since it is a laptop and I moved it with the disc in, it in turn, created some little scratches.

It ended up installing fine.. Just took a few hours.. The computer seems a lot slower now though.. I wonder if this is from the install of the operating system?

Like when I click on anything like Safari, preferences, etc etc it will pause and take A LOT longer to open the programs. I even did all of the system updates to ensure stability..

Your hard drive could be failing. Extremely slow read and write speeds are a tell tale sign of this and this would explain both the slow install and the slow computer performance.

thurstmw said:

Your hard drive could be failing. Extremely slow read and write speeds are a tell tale sign of this and this would explain both the slow install and the slow computer performance.

Click to expand...

I think you may be right on this.. It seems that it is now showing a Red screen overlay over the Hard Drive in the Disk Utility. It is weird though.. It says that it is the SMART that is failing.. but when I go to repair the actual Disc, it says that it is working okay. And then I did what people were saying online to do with the Application Disk where you run the Apple Hardware Tests and it said everything is functioning correctly..

The thing that is weird about this whole deal is that the computer was only used a few times prior to this and it was in perfect working order until I Erased the Hard Drive and reinstalled the Snow Leopard OS X onto it.. It never once had that about my hard drive in Red until today when it was really really slow.

Well now that you have the reinstall completed, run a time machine backup. Once that is completed try running a reinstall using the backup and see how fast that goes. This will determine if your hdd or the cd was the problem. If it ends up being the hdd. you can replace it and reinstall from the backup you made.

If you are getting the S.M.A.R.T. status indicator in red I would not count on that drive. It will probably need to be replaced soon. Here's what I think is happening to have the S.M.A.R.T. status show a problem when verification does not.

S.M.A.R.T. status focuses quite a bit on the drive hardware. Apple's Disk Utility does not test as many of these functions as some utilities but it looks at mainly the physical mechanism and controller. When you run the option to verify or repair the disk the focus is one the contents of the disk such as the directory structure and other aspects of the filesystem. It is possible for these to be fine right up until the hardware fails. If it's a new machine it should still be under warranty.

Slydude said:

If you are getting the S.M.A.R.T. status indicator in red I would not count on that drive. It will probably need to be replaced soon. Here's what I think is happening to have the S.M.A.R.T. status show a problem when verification does not.

S.M.A.R.T. status focuses quite a bit on the drive hardware. Apple's Disk Utility does not test as many of these functions as some utilities but it looks at mainly the physical mechanism and controller. When you run the option to verify or repair the disk the focus is one the contents of the disk such as the directory structure and other aspects of the filesystem. It is possible for these to be fine right up until the hardware fails. If it's a new machine it should still be under warranty.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply! I contacted a local Apple Service shop and they ordered a new hard drive for it and are going to fix it under warranty! Thanks so much!

Glad that is working out so well. I had a drive fail in my Mac Pro recently. It was the first time I had seen that screen you saw in Disk Utility. Nice of them to put up a red flag.