Replacing hard drive

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My wife's 13" MacBook (Snow Leopard) failed to boot from the hard drive, so I booted from the external Snow Leopard disc, and ran Disk Utility. That informed me that the hard disc was corrupt. I have today bought a new hard disc drive, SATA 2.5, and installed it carefully, following the online instructions that one can find on YouTube and elsewhere.

However, Disk Utility does not seem able to find the new drive, and recognises only the OSX Installation-disc.

Have I done something wrong ?
 
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Either the disk is faulty out of the blocks or it's not seated correctly in your MacBook or, worst case, the issue is your logic board. First thing to try is to put the old disk back in and see if disk utility can see that.
 
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I shall check that now -- one thing that I notice, though, is that the tray in which the drive is lying is loose, so that, when I pull the white tab, the tray comes out, followed by the drive.
 
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Tray?

Any chance of posting pictures?
 

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The White MacBooks have a tray/Slide that the drive mounts in. It's a thin Aluminum U-Bracket. Did you put in the screws to hold it to the tray? Are you putting it in with the pins toward the inside of the drive bay? When you slide it in are you pushing it in all the way till it seats into the SATA ports inside the bay?
 
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The White MacBooks have a tray/Slide that the drive mounts in. It's a thin Aluminum U-Bracket. Did you put in the screws to hold it to the tray?

The long sides of the tray have tiny "ears," pierced to be engaged by the lugs on the long edges of the drive. The old (Toshiba) drive had such lugs. The new (SATA) drive does not, but I notice that it has threaded sockets where the lugs ought to be

Are you putting it in with the pins toward the inside of the drive bay?
Yes.

When you slide it in are you pushing it in all the way till it seats into the SATA ports inside the bay?
Yes, so far as I can tell. I presume that the drive is fully seated, as it is all the way home, and the L-strip and battery can be replaced easily.
 
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Either the disk is faulty out of the blocks or it's not seated correctly in your MacBook or, worst case, the issue is your logic board. First thing to try is to put the old disk back in and see if disk utility can see that.
Yes, Disk Utility recognises the old drive.
 
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Those lugs unscrew and go into the threads on the new drive
 

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Interesting as I have never seen lugs, just holes and screws. If the drive is not secure in the slide tray, it's probably not seating.
 
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My white MacBook has a thin metal shield that the drive sits it. Four screw in lugs to locate into black plastic runners either side in the drive bay
 
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That's it, step 4 - EM shield and 4 lugs
 
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Those lugs unscrew and go into the threads on the new drive
That is what I expected when I first noticed the threaded recesses on the long sides of the new drive, but the lugs on the old drive appear not in fact to be screws -- there is no slot, cross or socket to receive a screw-driver or Allen key. There is just a black, moulded plastic head, that turns freely.
 

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That is crazy! Was the Toshiba drive the original drive that came new in the Macbook? I have never seen one that did not have threaded posts. I call them screws as besides the longer head that stick out, that is what they are. All I have seen have a Torx screw hole on the top of the part that sticks out from the drive. Without those it's not going to seat in all the way..
 
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My fault, I expect, it sounds as though I need to invest in a Torx screw-driver.

Could you just tell me what size I need ?
 

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I was at a house helping someone and did not have my Torx drivers with me. I had to use a very small pair of ViceGrips on the heads and turn them till they came loose. A Pain but i got it done!
 
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The instructions posted above state it's a Torx T8.........

Though a small flat bladed screwdriver would do it
 

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T-8 sounds right. Not sure where you live but here Sears has some very nice Torx drivers. I got the set from 5-10.
 
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T-8 sounds right. Not sure where you live but here Sears has some very nice Torx drivers. I got the set from 5-10.
I am in the middle of London this evening, but have just rung the helpful Sikh ironmonger in the Gloucester Road, who assures me that he is keeping a T8 for me. In my experience, English prices are the same as yours, if you change the $-sign to £, but we must just live with that.
 

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