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[Editor's Note: Do you own a MacBook Pro? Check out two of our other articles: How to
Upgrade Your MacBook Pro's Hard Drive, and How to Upgrade Your MacBook Pro's
RAM.]
Upgrading your MacBook's internal hard drive is a simple way to store more documents,
music, movies, applications and other files on your new Apple portable.
Hard drives (or hard disk drives) are large capacity storage devices which store all of
your data - everything from Mac OS X to your latest iTunes music album. Adding a
larger capacity internal hard drive will allow you to store more data without having to
plug in external devices. This can also help alleviate slow-downs, errors and other
weirdness that can occur when your hard drive starts to get full. It's generally
recommended that you keep 5% or 5GB of space free (whichever is larger) to alleviate
such issues. If you're running out of space, it's time to consider an upgrade! (For
instructions on checking the amount of space available on your hard drive, see Check
the Available Hard Drive Space on a Mac.)
We know this tutorial is a little long, but don't worry - we've divided it into three easy
sections. Part one discusses preparation and backup; part two focuses on installing
your new hard drive; and part three talks about data restoration. Be sure to read
through our instructions first! Before you do anything, you should understand why
you're doing it. We also recommend that you print this page and keep it for reference.
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Since upgrading your hard drive involves replacing the unit which contains all of your
data (i.e., email, documents, applications, etc.), you are going to lose anything and
everything on your MacBook. Backing up to an external hard drive first will create a
copy of this data - a copy which you can move to the new drive.
Additionally, it's good practice to backup your data in case your hard drive fails or a file
becomes corrupt, and this is as good a place as any to get into the habit. (See
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Choosing backup software is your first step. We'll be using SuperDuper! from ShirtPocket Software. This is a very popular, easy to use and free application with additional
features you can unlock for the relatively small cost of $27.95.
Choosing a Backup Drive
There are many factors to consider when choosing a backup hard drive. Firstly, (and
often most importantly) there is the fact that Mac OS X can use an external USB hard
drive to boot from as if it were using the internal hard drive. We recommend the
Western Digital My Passport 1 TB USB drive (currently $109.99) shown below.
A backup drive can come in handy if you have a need to start your Mac in the middle of
the upgrade process, or if your internal drive fails. And this drive will continue to serve
as an excellent Time Machine backup drive after you replace your MacBook's internal
drive!
How to Backup Your Mac
1. Turn on your backup hard drive and connect it to your Mac. Launch SuperDuper!
(which you will already have downloaded from Shirt-Pocket Software). You can
find it in your Applications folder.
2. SuperDuper! asks you to choose two locations. You will want to copy Macintosh
HD (your current internal hard drive as shown on your desktop) to your external
hard drive which will also appear on your desktop, now that it's plugged in and
switched on. Using the default option of "Backup - all files" will automatically
create a boot-able backup, one which you can later boot to as if it were your
internal drive. This is great if you want to test something, have a fully cloned
system to revert to (should the worst happen), or in this case, to copy to your new
drive without loosing a single setting. Click the Copy Now button, and then click
Copy in the next dialogue box.
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3. Sit back and wait. Once the copy is complete, you will have what's known as a full
boot-able backup. Now you can do whatever you want to your internal hard drive
- your data is safety stored on your new backup drive! Just to make sure, it's
always worth booting to that drive and checking that everything went according
to plan. It only takes a minute, and it's better to do it now rather than find it
didn't work.
4. Restart your Mac. While it starts, hold the Option (Alt) key until a display appears.
This asks you to choose a hard drive to boot from. Clicking on your backup, and
then clicking on the arrow below it, will tell your Mac to boot to the backup. You'll
know that you have successfully booted to your backup rather than your internal
drive because the backup will now appear at the top of your Finder window side
panel, like so:
Now that you have everything backed up, it's time to install your new hard drive!
section without first reading and printing this tutorial. Otherwise, you may not be able
to boot your computer.
Which Hard Drive Should I Buy?
All MacBooks currently use the same basic hard drive specification: A single 2.5 SATA
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(or Serial ATA) internal hard disk drive, many of which are available from Amazon.com.
There are two different types of drives available: Hard disk drives (HDD) and solid-state
drives (SSD). Solid-state drives are more expensive than conventional hard disk drives,
but they have numerous advantages.
Solid-state drives have no moving parts, so they can access data virtually
instantaneously - providing a significant performance increase when compared to hard
disk drives. Buy a solid-state drive if you can afford it. We recommend the Crucial 256
GB drive (currently $199.99) shown below.
Hard disk drives have physical disks that need to spin up before information can be
retrieved. If youre looking to purchase one of these drives, be sure to purchase the
fastest drive you can afford - higher speeds are better. We recommend the Western
Digital 750 GB drive (currently $99.24) shown below.
Of course, there are many other hard drives available for your MacBook. Use Amazon's
website to find the best deals. They have a wide selection of low-cost, high-capacity
drives perfect for the average MacBook user.
ESD Grounding
ESD (Electro-static Discharge) is the sudden current when a charge flows between two
sources, such as yourself and your hard drive. ESD is usually associated with static
electricity - the main cause of concern when physically handling computer components.
Static electricity can damage these components in a split second!
In order to protect yourself against ESD and static electricity in general, it's always a
good idea to ground yourself. If you want to make sure you don't damage your hard
drive or computer, we recommend that you take the simple step of properly attaching
the Belkin Anti-Static Wrist Band (currently $7.50) shown below.
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For more information about ESD cause and prevention, see the Wikipedia article.
2. Inside the bay, there is a small L-shaped bracket running down the left and far
edges. This is removable with a Phillips #0 screwdriver. Unscrew the three screws
along the far (longer) face. Don't be fooled: these screws are not removable from
the plate itself. Once unscrewed, the plate should pull out very easily.
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3. Now you can see the memory (RAM) modules behind the long side of the plate
(we will leave these for the moment) and a small white tab on the left (behind the
shorted side of the L-Shaped bracket). Pull the tab to release the hard drive from
its slot and pull it free from the computer.
4. When you compare the new and original drives, you will notice that there are 4
small pegs (2 on each of the longer sides) of the original hard drive. These
perform two functions. First, they hold the EMI (Electromagnetic Interference)
shield on, which is the silver shield covering the delicate underside of the drive
(the one you don't want to touch). Second, they guide the drive into its bay and
hold it in place.
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Using your Torx T8 screwdriver, unscrew these pegs, move the EMI shield to the
new hard drive and hold it in place with the 4 pegs. Make sure the EMI shield's
tab, which you used to pull the drive out, is facing the front (clean side without
any connectors) before screwing the pegs in.
5. Now you can push the drive back into its bay (EMI shield facing up, tab facing out,
connectors facing in) and replace the L-shaped bracket. You may need to use the
Philips screwdriver to gently and carefully push the foam pads on the back of the
plate down to allow it to sit flush against the unit before screwing it in place.
Replacing the hard drive (note the position of the EMI shield tab).
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Make sure to push to the foam pads down so the "L-shaped" bracket sits flat or
you won't be able to put the battery back in.
6. Fit the battery back in its slot, and then use the coin to lock the cover in position.
Turn your MacBook over. You're ready to continue onto the next section!
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Once your Mac has booted to the desktop, you'll probably see a message asking if you
wish to initialize a device. If this does appear, you will choose to Initialize, but if it
doesn't you will want to launch Disk Utility, which can be found in the Utilities folder
inside the Applications folder. Either way, you should be greeted by a display looking
something like this:
Select the new hard drive listed at the top of the left-hand column, and then select the
Partition tab. Choose the number of partitions you want from the drop-down menu
(currently stating Current) as 1 Partition. Next, you will want to rename your drive to
something other than Untitled. By default, Apple calls this Macintosh HD, but we will
choose MacBook HD just to be different.
Using the Options button at the bottom, make sure that GUID Partition Table is selected
(this is the new standard by which Intel Mac hard drives can be found as boot-able
devices, which you will want as it will be your main hard drive) and click OK. Now click
Partition, and when the dialogue box appears, click Partition again. Wait a few seconds
while you watch the blue progress bar flash from left to right, and then notice that the
name you selected for your drive is now displayed below the manufacturers name in the
left-hand column. You now have yourself a usable, formatted, partitioned drive. Easy,
huh?
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Reboot your MacBook once again, holding the Option (or Alt) key to choose the internal
hard drive. Click the arrow button to boot from it. You're done!
If You Don't Have a Boot-able Backup, or Wish to Use Your Restore Disks
Start by turning on the MacBook and inserting Restore Disk 1. As soon as you hit the
power button, you must hold down the Option (or Alt) key. This will allow you to boot
to all boot-able devices connected to the MacBook. There will likely be only one: the
restore disk you just inserted (it may take a minute to show up. If it doesn't, try holding
the power button until the machine turns off, and power it back on again holding the
Option key). Select it, and then click the arrow button to continue to boot from this
device.
Once the machine has booted to the Restore Disk, you can choose your language. After
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the next screen appears, you will notice a familiar looking Menu Bar across the top of
the screen. Under the Utilities menu, you should see the Disk Utility application.
Selecting this option will allow you to follow the same instructions for performing this
procedure as if you were booted to a backup drive.
Once you have partitioned your drive, you can close Disk Utility. Your new hard drive
will now be fully recognized by your MacBook. Continue to walk through the on-screen
instructions for installing Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger to complete the process. If you want to
really show off, you can click the Customize button in the bottom of the window part
way through this process to choose not to install certain bundled applications,
language packs you won't use, and so on. Deselect all of them to slim down the space
required to install Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger to a mere 2GB! This is the real benefit of the
fresh installation over using SuperDuper! to restore, however, you can always use the
Migration Assistant to recover your user account to a fresh installation if you previously
backed up using SuperDuper!
After you receive the enclosure, follow the instructions to install your old hard drive.
The resulting product will look a lot like an external hard drive. Just connect the USB
cable to your Mac and you'll be able to access your old hard drive! It's a great way to
keep it out of the recycling bin.
Related Articles
Check the Available Hard Drive Space on a Mac
How to Upgrade Your MacBook Pro's Hard Drive
How to Upgrade Your MacBook Pro's RAM
Back Up (Clone) Your Mac's Hard Drive with SuperDuper!
How to Test Your SuperDuper! Backup
How to Restore from a SuperDuper! Backup
61 comments
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Nigel Graham
9/25/13 2:45 PM
10 months ago
Awesome guide! Thank you!! One quick question: I have an early 2008 MacBook
running Leopard. I have a new internal hard drive to install as well as a Snow
Leopard Install DVD from Apple to upgrade my operating system. I plan on
using Time Machine to restore. If I need to use the installation disk when
restoring, can I go straight to the Snow Leopard disk or do I need to use the
original Leopard disk that came with my MacBook?
Thank you again!
62
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Kiran Malavade
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9 months ago
I've hit a wall at restoring my backup. I did all the steps up to preparing my new
drive. I can choose my external drive, but then it nothing happens (for more than
24 hours). It just spins a circle (not rainbow) but does nothing. I never get to the
desktop. Help??
10
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Oliver37205
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2 years ago
Hi, this is a great guide, thanks for taking the time! My question is: can I use
Time Machine instead of SuperDuper to get the same results? If I follow the
"Restoring Your MacBook" section exactly except use TM instead of
SuperDuper, will it work?
20
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mattcone
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Mod >
Yes, booting from the Recovery partition and using the Time Machine
restore feature should do the same thing.
7
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hc
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a year ago
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Shellbell
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a year ago
I have just upgraded both my ram & HD on my early 2008 MacBook. I followed
your instructions & it went like a dream. Thank you so much, it's stuff like this
accessible on the Internet that gives me the confidence to do this! So I've
replaced my 250gb HD with a 500gb Hybrid drive, & with the ram going from
2gb to 6gb my MacBook flys again! I'm definitely bookmarking this website for
future tips & tricks.
7
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Dave
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10 months ago
Time Machine works great for this. I backed up with Time Machine to an
external drive and was able to restore to the new hard drive through the "Mac
OS X Utilities".
When I tried to do a test boot from the external, the "Mac OS X Utilities" came
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When I tried to do a test boot from the external, the "Mac OS X Utilities" came
up asking if I wanted to restore with time machine, install Lion again, or use disk
utility. This seemed close enough so I went ahead and swapped hard drives.
When I booted from the external with the new hard drive in, the same screen
came up. So I went into "Disk Utility" and partitioned the hard drive as stated
above. Then I went in to "Restore with Time Machine" and restored to the new
hard drive.
Real easy, thanks for the how-to!
3
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PIB
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2 years ago
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jr2232
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2 years ago
I've followed these instructions, but when I get to the part in partitions where I
am to select "Options" the options selection is visible, but it is grayed out and
unable to be selected. Does anyone know a way around this, or what I could be
doing wrong?
Thanks.
8
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Peter Breis
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>
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DIYGurl
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a year ago
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Bjorn
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2 years ago
Thx alot for those instructions, worked 100% with time machine :)
2
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2 years ago
thanks
Share
Thank you very much for taking the time to do this. SuperDuper's manual
sucks.
Much appreciated - worked well. I just upgraded the HD to a new momentus
750GB
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Jaime
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a year ago
Hi, thanks a lot for the info. I have one question only: i made a bootable back up
in the New 500g HD then placed it inside and booted fron there. Didn t have
option to partition just started using and now everything is very slow! Q is,
should i partition My New HD? This one has the bootable backup!
7
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Denise
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8 months ago
you are the best!!! Thank you! I was having such a hard time until I found your
site. Whew!
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Page 13 of 18
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MacFan101
9/25/13 2:45 PM
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a year ago
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Rupesh
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2 days ago
hi,
I have Apple Laptop and my laptop hard drive is crashed. so please tell me how
to restore the apple OS.
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Deborah Dictson
6 months ago
What do I do if the Disk Utility does not recognize the new hard drive? How do I
know if I need a new connector cable for the hard drive?
Reply
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Danielle Miranda
6 months ago
Thank you so much. You just saved me a bunch of money! I went today to get a
new computer because I could not get my husband laptop to work. I even took
it to a computer tech and he could not get it to install the operating system. I am
more of a software person not hardware. So I did not know that the hard drive
needed to be formatted. Thanks again
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MF
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7 months ago
That was fabulous instruction! Thank you and for all the little extra tips, like the
conversion of old HD to new external HD.
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Ewizzle
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8 months ago
Great guide! If I have 100gb on Google Drive, can I use the Cloud as my external
drive for my back up?
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Andrew Williams
9 months ago
Really great guide - thanks so much the Crucial M4 256 GB drive is working well
on my MacBook. Time Machine worked well and if you have the time it would be
good if you could add a few tips about using Time machine. But excellent - right
up to exactly the right screwdrivers to use and how to make the old drive into an
external drive.
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Kiran Malavade
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9 months ago
Help? I seem to be stuck at the "preparing your new hard drive" I am connected
to my external drive where my superduper backup is, and got to the screen
where I could choose that drive on startup, but have been sitting at this screen
with the apple and the "thinking" circle (not rainbow CoD) for about 2 hours....
any advice??
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misterjohn
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11 months ago
Page 14 of 18
9/25/13 2:45 PM
back up to the new drive via SuperDuper is almost complete. If there are any
other silver surfers out there, be brave (like I was) and follow these clear, helpful,
good-natured guides!
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jredcps
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a year ago
Could I put my old hard drive in a usb enclosure, and use it as a backup drive? I
figured this would be less expensive than buying an external drive.
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Ken Tallman
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a year ago
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Poncho
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a year ago
will my early 2008 white macbook support the western digital hd recommended
above? even though it is faster and considering the maximum capacity for my
model was a 250 gb hd when sold by apple?
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Peter Breis
>
1
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Ashy Boy
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a year ago
Great tutorial BUT ONE PROBLEM: I've installed the suggested hard drive to a
2009 macbook pro. I run high CPU software, which run with no issues, but when
I use Google Chrome extensively (10+ tabs for example), it seems to crash the
computer out and I get this blue screen flash up a few times.
(possible) SOLUTION:
I've recently done a disk utility > verify and repair job to see if that helps, and so
far so good. Figured I'd post this for anyone else looking, as I was looking for
AGES and found nothing, then thought to do that and it seems OK for the last
24 hours.
If anyone has any other resolves (as this might not remain the case), would be
great to know :)
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Jim Miller
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a year ago
This looks perfect and I plan to use these steps to upgrade my early 2008 Mac
Book Pro running Lion on the factory 200GB hard drive to a new 750GB
Seagate XT Hybrid drive. One question though... couldn't I just swap in the new
HDD, format it and then plug in the old/current hard drive via a USB drive
enclosure?
Reply
Jim Miller
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>
I guess I'm asking why the need for the bootable-backup? Is it just a
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9/25/13 2:45 PM
safety precaution? I also use TimeMachine, but won't restore from that
as it sounds confusing.
1
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Peter Breis
>
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Jim Miller a year ago
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niko
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a year ago
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Raul Montagne
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a year ago
I have just upgrade my HD in an early 2007 MacBook (the cheap white one, with
only 80GB!). I followed your instructions. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Great
job! I reused an external HD (of 250GB).
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niklasjansson
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a year ago
mattcone
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Mod >
Yes, you can upgrade all 2012 MacBook Pros except the next generation
MBP with the retina display. For MBP instructions, see this
tutorial: http://www.macinstruct.com/nod...
1
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Jason
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a year ago
I've just replaced the hard drive in a late-2006 MacBook Pro. Replacement went
like a dream. But now having trouble on the OS X (10.4.8) install. Have original
OS X Install Disc 1 that shipped with machine. I insert the disc but it eventually
gets spit out and I get the folder with a question mark appearing. I've got a slight
work around. I also have a MacBook Pro 2010 and use the 10.6.3 install disc.
That enables me to get in (after quite a few attempts of disc being spat out,
pressing C, pressing shift, pressing D, pressing option etc) - but obviously I
can't install from this disc. However, I can buy-pass a few steps and get into
utilities. I've created a drive partition. I then select startup disc but the only
options I have are network or the 10.6.3 install disc. I then restart and obviously
I'm back to square 1. I try to force eject the 10.6.3 and insert the 10.4.8 which
then gets spat out!I've spent about 10 hours on this and am losing patience! I'm
sure an expert on here has the solution.Thanks.
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Alvin97
>
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Jason a year ago
I brought mine to Apple and the reinstalled everything back onto the
computer like the day I bought it...free!
1
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Johnball2
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a year ago
I've installed a new HD (very easily thanks to the instructions here), but when I
turn on the macbook and hold down the option/alt key I just get a blank screen.
Nothing happens. Any ideas anyone? It's a OSX, not Lion.
Reply
Peter Breis
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>
Lion is OSX.
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9/25/13 2:45 PM
Lion is OSX.
When you hold the option key down it has to switch to an available OSX.
Did you insert the installer DVD first?
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skinnykids86
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Johnball2 a year ago
>
John
>
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Peterbreis
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a year ago
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Karim Elleboudt
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a year ago
Found this site a bit too late I'm afraid. I made a backup of my data and just
mounted a new hard disk in my macbook pro. The problem is that now I only
get a folder with a question mark. When inserting my original installation disk I
cannot boot nor install the OS, the folder just keeps on flashing. Does anybody
have any ideas on how to solve this problem? Thanks.
Reply
mattcone
Share
Mod >
I believe the flashing question mark means that your Mac cannot find the
startup disk. To select a startup disk, hold down the Option key after you
press the power button. A list of all available startup disks appears -- just
select the hard drive and click the arrow button to boot from it.
1
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LawrenceMcatee
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Lesley
>
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Deborah Dictson
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mattcone 6 months ago
What should I do at that point if disk utility does not show the new
hard drive??
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9/25/13 2:45 PM
hard drive??
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Markib85
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a year ago
Just upgraded a Macbook (early 2009 white Core 2 Duo 2ghz.) with a 750gb
WD Black, and some pc2 6400 memory (6gb). The upgrades were worth the
$180 instead of buying a new Mac. However a problem that i did encounter for
this was initializing the HD. I plugged it into my PC first initalized it and then
plugged it into Macbook and i was able to Erase at that point. And yes the
memory was recognized by the Machine and is running at 800mhz.
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Ryeguy
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a year ago
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Copyright 1999-2013 Macinstruct LLC. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
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