urgent help needed!!

Does a new hard drive with nothing installed on it recognize a cd that i put in it? Is it suppose to to recognize it? when i start computer up i get the question folder but I put in cd with information on it and it doesnt even recoginize it. Its either blank screen or question mark. Need help quick, let me know and thanks

and another question. What format does a usb drive have to be so my mac can read it on the start up. It wont show up when plugged in. please let me know and thanks

Your hard drive wouldn't recognize anything. That's now what it does. The system board and it's firmware is what would recognize whether you have a bootable device plugged into it or not.

"Assuming" we're talking about a Mac here and you want to boot to a bootable disc in the optical drive or a bootable device attached via USB, you would hold down the option key while booting until you see the boot menu.

Im not getting any of that. Its brand new hard drive. no os on it at all yet. cd's not reading nor is my usb drive for whatever reason. its htfs format to the little usb drive 8gb

What cd are you talking about? The Install cd or just a cd?

Your new drive probably needs to be formatted so that you can install the OS. If you are inserting the Install cd and nothing is happening, power off the Mac with the cd still inside, and then restart holding down the "C" key. This should force it start from the cd.

Don't follow the instrustions to install the OS, but look for an icon for Utilities. Click on that, run Disk Utility and then format your HDD. You will then be able to install the OS.

If you are only going to use your USB on a Mac then "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" is best. If you are likely to use it on a PC then format it as MS-DOS(FAT).

Does a new hard drive with nothing installed on it recognize a cd that i put in it? Is it suppose to to recognize it? when i start computer up i get the question folder but I put in cd with information on it and it doesnt even recoginize it. Its either blank screen or question mark. Need help quick, let me know and thanks

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It's not clear to me what you're trying to do? First, is the DVD you're trying to boot the machine with your original install DVD that came with the machine?

It sounds like you're trying to boot the machine with a DVD that is either not the correct one or your optical drive is not working.

In order to format that new hard drive you must be able to boot from your original install DVD and prepare the new hard drive with Disk Utility.

yes i dont have the original installation disk that came with the mac. I had a certain file on the cd drive that I hope the mac would read but its not recognizing a disk at all. Im sorry im a little bit of a noob when it comes to mac. Also about the usb. I have a 5.80 gb file on there in and its not reading it on start up. That prob means that I need to format hard drive. I think the bottom line is that i have to go out and buy a os snow leopard. I'm trying to get this machine to work but it appears there is no other way since my mac wont read disk with data on there or it wont read usb.

No computer without an OS installed is going to do anything with a DATA CD or DATA Flash Drive.

Are you trying to install Lion from a Flash Drive? If so, the drive has to be Partitioned with a GUID partition and not Apple Boot Map.

ok thanks dtravis. i can always count on you on this forum.

Mets21, what is on the USB drive and CD that you think should be read by the boot loader? You had said before that you had to order SL to get this machine going, and that it was going to take a week to arrive. That was yesterday. If the CD is the SL install CD, it should be recognized and boot up, unless it's somehow faulty. And what's on the USB drive? They didn't sell SL on USB, AFAIK.