how to help please??!!

[pecostx51]

I am not only new to this forum but new to macs as well. So I "rescued" this old mac book pro and started to tinker with it. Long story short, I totally screwed it up. wiped hard drive and then replaced it with new western digital and am trying to do a fresh install of osx 10.4 as that is all that I could get and it was new in the box unopened. I hear the disc spinning but all i see is a flashing folder with a ? in the middle. Machine had 10.6 snow leopard on it and I am going to update to it again as soon as the update disc arrives and the 10.4 is operational. I need instructions on how to bring up some kind of menu and how to format the drive and all that. I know that someone out there can but will you help me? My wife is away till 10/9 and I'm wanting to get this taken care of by the time she returns. She REALLY likes the pro and has sort of taken it over. well that is before I blew it up. HELP!!!

 

[chscag]

Can you give us some information regarding the MacBook Pro? We'll need the year and model. Also, which operating system was originally on the machine?

For your general info: You can not install a previous operating system on a Mac because it will not have the proper drivers. It won't even boot.

For example: If that machine originally had Snow Leopard (10.6.X) or Leopard (10.5.X) pre-installed on it, you can not install Tiger. (10.4.X)

 

[pecostx51]

the is a 2006 model and it had 10.6 on but I don't know if it was "pre-installed" or upgraded.

There is nothing on the new hard disc, what can I do? How can I get to any kind of a boot menu? It's like there is no disc in the drive, I get the same folder with the ? flashing with or with out the disc.

 

[pecostx51]

sorry, the model is a A1150.

 

[chscag]

Thanks for the model number. It looks like this was the first Intel MacBook Pro introduced by Apple in 2006. It's either a 1.83 GHz or 2.00 GHz Core Duo Intel CPU. And, it was originally pre-installed with Tiger (OS X 10.4.5).

Let's start from the beginning: You installed a new hard drive and naturally it has nothing on it. In order for the hard drive to be useable, it has to be formatted and prepared for installing the operating system.

Insert the Tiger disk (OS X 10.4), boot the machine and as soon as your hear the chime (bong) hold down the C key. Keep holding it until you see the Apple appear on the screen. It should then boot to the disk. (not the hard drive)

Accept the license, select the language (English), click OK. Now, go to the top menu and click on "Utilities". Next click on "Disk Utility". From here, highlight the hard drive you installed on the left side. Go to the right side and select format. Format the drive as Mac OS Extended Journaled. The GUID scheme should automatically be selected. Name the hard drive "MacIntosh HD" (no quotes). Click apply. The drive should be formatted fairly quick. After that, you can proceed with installing the operating system.

Once OS X is installed, reboot the machine. It should boot from the hard drive if you did everything right. Once in OS X, go ahead and eject the Tiger disk. And you should be on your way.

Just a note.... It's an old machine so don't expect too much from it. Also the most current operating system you can run on that machine is Snow Leopard 10.6.8. It will not run Lion because it's only a 32 bit machine.

 

[pecostx51]

Thanks, that's the stuff that they don't tell you in the guides. The formatting part I mean. Will give it a shot and let you know how it works (or not).