Dead hard drive-how to format and startup with new disk

I have a 9 month old non-retina MBP. I replaced the HD with an SSD when I bought it. It seems the SSD has stopped working and I need to replace it. Grrr. I do have a Time Capsule backup that I can use, but how do I install the OS on the replacement SSD? After I have the MBP running with the new SSD, I should be able to reinstall everything else from the Time Capsule backup. I have another MBP that I can use for assistance/transferring/formatting if this will be helpful. Will Apple store Genius help me to do this? I would not be surprised that any warranty coverage may have been voided when I installed the SSD. I could use the other MBP to format the new SSD before installing it.

Your computer has got Internet Recovery. Use it to restore your backup.
To start in Internet Recovery, hold Command, Option (Alt) and R keys while your computer is starting. Then, open Disk Utility, choose your hard disk at the top of the sidebar, go to Erase tab and erase the disk using "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" as format.
Finally, close Disk Utility, plug the external disk with your backup, select the option to restore a Time Machine backup and follow its steps

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How do I remove one failing hard drive from raid set and replace with new one

Last Friday apparently one of my raid drives started failing.
As I mentioned on this forum I started getting continous beeping.
I was finally able to get the raid working at a degraded level. I ordered a replacement hard drive which is arriving today.
(In the meantime I made twice daily backups of my work.....)
Below was the message I got from the browser based raid software:
Blahblah 09    1000.2GB   RaidSet Member SamSung HD103SJ
Blahblah 10    1000.2GB     Free                 SamSung HD103SJ
Blahblah 11    1000.2GB   RaidSet Member SamSung HD103SJ
Blahblah 12    1000.2GB   RaidSet Member SamSung HD103SJ
(See this earlier thread if you wish!)
http://forums.adobe.com/thread/727867?tstart=0
At one point when I did the checked the browser interface I saw the message Failed and Degraded
As I said, I was able to work over the weekend on the degraded system.
This morning I got the beeping again and did the rescue and now I am running a "full raid" without the notice that one raid was "Free".
In any case, the new hard drive is arriving today.
What steps should I take to incorporate the new drive into the raid system.
I have one OS drive
and 4 tb raid drives.   One needs to be replaced with the new one that I am getting today.
Thanks
Rowby

Harm,
Regarding your comment:
Re: How do I remove one failing hard drive from raid set and replace with new one
Please tell me how to read the serial number from an individual drive rather easily, without un-installing them:
If you select the proper drive to change out, you only need to remove one drive and look at its serial number...
Step 1: Identify bad drive serial number using Areca's tools
Step 2: Turn off the computer
Step 3: Remove what you think is the bad drive based on following your numbered cable method, marked hot-swap bays, whatever
Step 4: Verify that the serial number matches the "bad drive" serial number from step 1; if it does great, proceed; if it does not match, go back to step 3
Step 5: Change out the CORRECT drive - that's the bottom line for this whole procedure
Cheers,
Jim

External drive, how to format and partition?

Hey everybody!
I'm about to buy an external drive for my mac. I am reasonably capable on a computer, but I've never done formatting or partitioning so I have two questions:
1) I just want to check that I do not need to buy a mac-formatted drive. A little big of googling told me I could do the formatting myself with Disk Utility, just wanted to double check that that was true.
2) Once I get my external drive, what I want to do is create two partitions within that drive, one for my Time Machine backup and one for random files and movies. I'm not sure how to do that (apparently I might need to pick different formats for each in Disk Utility?) so if anybody could help out that would be brilliant.
Thanks
(if that helps, I have a MacBook Pro with a 512GB hardrive, and I want to buy a 1TB external drive)

Hi,
Here is a link that will help you set up your external drive. http://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-set-up-an-external-hard-drive-for-use-with-os- x/
You won't need different formats for Time Machine backups and storage space partitions. However, given the size of your hard drive, 500 gb for Time Machine may not be enough. You could buy a separate one for Time Machine, budget permitting.
Check the size of your startup disk, and if it is only 250 gb or less, then 500 gb for Time Machine may be OK, for a while. It will soon fill up, but the older backups will be erased.
Regards.

Dead hard drive: how to 'uninstall' CS6?

My iMac hard drive has just died, with CS6 installed. I have the other permitted installation on my macbook pro. Once I get my hard drive replaced - or replace the iMac- I presume this will appear to be a third installation, and therefore not allowed. How can I get round this?
All advice appreciated.
Gilly, UK

Contact support by web chat or phone and have them reset activations.
Mylenium

Dead Hard Drive - How to Recover?

The hard drive in my iMac recently "died". The Apple Store diagnosed my problem as a failed drive.
Luckily, they allowed me to borrow my failed drive for a couple of days. I was able to use an external USB enclosure and Data Rescue II to recover all of my data to an external drive. Unfortunately, the recovery does not provide a disk image but rather just the folder/file structure from the original drive.
The Apple Store has replaced my drive (under Apple Care Warranty) and now I have an iMac with a fresh install of OS X and nothing else.
Is there a documented procedure on how to recover my home-user folders (including Library), the system Applications folder, and the System Library folder to bring my refreshed Mac back to the previous state?

Kevin,
Tailor these instructions to match whatever you have done so far within the new installation...
1) Create new accounts within the new installation, using the exact same usernames and short names that existed in the old installation.
2) Enable the "root" account, then log in as root.
3) From the root account, navigate to the "Users" folder. Move all of the newly created HOME folders to the trash. Connect the drive that houses the backed up data, and locate the same-named HOME folders there. Drag them to the new "Users" folder, replacing the folders you moved to the trash.
4) Open /Applications/Utilities/Terminal. At the prompt, type the following:
<pre style="overflow:auto; font-family: 'Monaco'; font-size: 10px">chown -R username:staff /Users/username</pre>
In the text above, you will replace all instances of "username" with the short name for a replaced account. If the short name is "fred," for example, you will type the following exactly:
<pre style="overflow:auto; font-family: 'Monaco'; font-size: 10px">chown -R fred:staff /Users/fred</pre>
Verify that the text is correct, then press <RETURN>. When you return to the prompt, perform the same task for the next replaced account, or quit Terminal.
5) Log into the replaced accounts to test that everything works as expected. If so, log back into the root account, empty the trash, then log out of and disable the root account.
It would be best if you just reinstalled any third-party applications. Keep in mind that the data, settings, etc. for those applications already exist within the restored HOME folders.
Scott

Changing computers but not external hard drive, how to modify and delete catalogs?

Moving my relatively new 2012 Mac Mini from office back home that has LR4 and PS CS6 installed. It has a small LR catalog that I want to delete completely.
Presently at home, I use my MacBook Pro which I want to take "offline" in regards to photo editing, which also has LR4 and PS installed and is attached to an external drive with all my pictures that I want to have recognized by the Mac Mini LR4.
1) Can I just delete (from the Mac Mini) the Lightroom folder which contains the Backups folder, and the following files: LR4 Catalog Previews.Irdata, LR 4 Catalog.Ircat, LR4 Catalog Ircat-journal, and LR4 Catalog.Ircat.lock?
2) How do I create a new LR4 catalog on the Mini to existing picture folders on the old hard drive, which were previously associated with the MacBook Pro?

1) Yes
2) You don't create a new catalog in this situation; you simply move the catalog file from the MacBook Pro to the Mini, then double-click on it.

Seagate external hard drive -- should I format and partition?

Hi all,
Sorry, three weeks into owning my MacBook Pro, I'm still a newbie.
I got rid of PCs because they just kept grinding to a halt, and so I want to do everything EXACTLY right as I start out in Macworld.
I need to get an external drive for Time Machine and other back-ups. Is it generally accepted by you all that the drive should be formatted (to get rid of whatever Seagate puts on it) and then partitioned along the lines of Answer #5 in the Time Machine FAQ? Is that what most people do -- with good results?
Thank you.

MarkPek wrote:
I need to get an external drive for Time Machine and other back-ups. Is it generally accepted by you all that the drive should be formatted (to get rid of whatever Seagate puts on it) and then partitioned along the lines of Answer #5 in the Time Machine FAQ? Is that what most people do -- with good results?
If the Time Machine FAQ recommends something, I'd do it.
By the way, if you're going to use that drive for Time Machine and "other back-ups", I'd create separate partitions for each of those two uses.

Pavilion 7 Bad Hard Drive, How to reinstall HP software on new Hard Drive?

Hi, I have a 2 1/2 year old p7 1247cb running Windows 8 Pro x64, just out of warranty, and the Hitachi internal hard drive is failing (eightforums.com helped me with diagnostic tools). I am replacing the HD and want to reinstall the whole system that was on the machine when I bought it. It came with Windows 7 and a promotion for free upgrade to Windows 8, which I did. I have my Windows 8 Key Code and have borrowed the installation files for Windows 8.
This is the first time I've done this sort of replacment, and I am wondering whether it's possible, or even desirable, to get all the manufacturer-installed drivers and software back on the new HD, or should I just let the Windows install search for all drivers for me?
Until the HD started failing, this was by far the most reliable desktop setup I've ever used, and I am wary about whether the new system, with cobbled-together drivers, will be as stable and reliable as what I had with the manufacturer-installed software and drivers,
Plus, as an aside, I want to vent for a moment that it seems crazy to me that a hard drive should start failing after just 2.5 years! This bundle was sold as a gaming system (it's never used for gaming, but the specs were what I wanted), and while it gets heavy use (mostly streaming video, wordprocessing, photo/video -editing and storage), I was surprised to encounter a hardware issue only 6 months past the warranty.
Any assistance is appreciated.

Hi,
Hard drives are mechanical and do fail. It's quite common in the industry and not just with HP.
Be sure that the new hard drive is not an advanced format hard drive and is not greater than 2TB.
Back up your data to external media if you can. If not then you will need to later use for backups.
Be sure to create the external HP recovery media (this should have already been done right after you received your PC).If you don't have the external recovery media then order it from HP. HP Recovery Disks. Performing a HP System Recovery with Windows 7
Replace the hard drive and then boot up the external HP recovery media and recovery your PC back to a factory day one condition.
Now you can reinstall Windows 8 using your "borrowed Windows 8 media".
There may be other ways of installing Windows 8 but I have given you the text book method. A generic key method, mentioned by me on this forum long ago and just recently revisted by another forum member may work.
HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT

Music is on an external hard drive how to transfer to iPod without using disk space on MacBook

Hi
I just brought a new iPod as my last one broke and I was wondering if there was a way to transfer my music currently stored on an external hard drive on to the iPod without having to have it using up disk space on my MacBook.
I was told in the Apple store by a sale guy that you can do this by creating a playlist in iTunes and dragging the music files in from the hard drive. He said it wouldn't be stored on the MacBook and the playlist could only be accessed (or music played on the macbook) when the hard drive was connected. But when we tried this it started transferring ALL of the music from the hard drive onto the main iTunes library and subsequently onto the disk space on the MacBook.
Can someone help me :-)

The sales guy does not know what he's talking about...
Open iTunes preferences Advanced tab. Uncheck the box for Copy files to iTunes Media folder when adding to library. Click OK.
Now, when you add those songs to your iTunes library, iTunes will access the song files from the external drive, where they are currently located. And you can sync them to your iPod.

Hard drive volume appears in sidebar Favorites when new disk mounts

Hard drive on my 17” MacBook Pro Quad Core i7 (2.5 GHz, 8GB SDRAM OS 10.8.2) is partitioned into 4 volumes; I'll call them A-Mountain Lion startup drive, B-Personal, C-Work, D-minimal clean Mt. Lion for emergencies. Problem relates to my regular boot drive.
I have Finder sidebars set to show 8 or 10 folders in the "Favorites" section and have ticked all boxes in the "Devices" section. Most of the time I have no external disks, CDs, etc., connected to the MBP, so the Devices section generally shows my computer and the four partitions. So far, so good.
Lately, every time an external volume is mounted and every time a disk image is mounted, the Personal volume (B) of my internal drive, which is already showing under Devices, also pops up in the Favorites section of the sidebar. I remove it from the Favorites, but the next time an external disk or a disk image mounts, there it is again. It's always volume B, never A, C, or D.
I have tried everything I can think of to cure this odd behavior: Used Disk Utility (verify all disks/volumes; repair volumes; repair permissions; etc.), though nothing seemed wrong. I've run Disk Warrior on all volumes. I cleaned out everything possible on the startup drive (A) with the latest version of Onyx. I've repeatedly trashed the plists I could identify in my user Library that had "sidebar" or "finder" in their names. I've logged in and out; started and restarted; started with shift key down. Still, every time a new volume or disk mounts, up pops this extra volume B among the Favorites (where it shouldn't be). I checked and unchecked various combinations of sidebar items in Finder Preferences. I've Forced Quit the Finder. It doesn't matter whether all, some, or no devices are checked; when a new disk mounts, there's the extra volume B again.
I have only two other clues to add. (1) I created a new temporary user account on my startup drive (volume A), and this behavior did NOT occur in the new account. (2) This same behavior had arisen once before, a couple of months ago. I went through similar blind attempts to cure it then, but at some point I must have done something right because I it got fixed. For the life of me, I can't remember which of all the things I tried did the trick.
Many thanks to anyone who can shed light on this annoying behavior.

I can add a bit to my earlier description. I had said the problem did not occur in a new user account. Well, after using the new account for a while, it showed up. Eventually I erased the startup volume and installed Mountain Lion (plus updates to 10.8.2) fresh. I used migration assistant to transfer only my old user, pared down applications, and network settings -- no preferences, application support stuff. The old user carried over the problem. But I immediately created a new user and have been working from it for the past two weeks, very gradually opening apps, adjusting settings, etc., and testing for the anomaly at each change. In some cases I did move preferences from a backup clone, but was always careful to test after each addition. All was well for a week, until one morning I noticed the data partition had appeared in sidebar Favorites. So I'm back to where I was. I had been documenting each change or introduction I made. The only things my notes said from the day before the sidebar anomaly appeared was launching and struggling to activate QuarkXPress 9.3, and copying over my old prefs and settings for TextWrangler. I completely removed every trace of QXP, but the problem remained. (I did not remove TextWrangler because I just can't believe it could be the culprit -- but could it?)
I also noticed a similar (though maybe not identical) problem posted in another thread <https://discussions.apple.com/message/20591050#20591050>, but so far no answers there either.

Disk repair failed / should I reformat my drive / how to format and restore

I have a MacBook Pro late 2011 model and upgraded to Yosemite. The performance on my MB is ok, but just out of curiousity I ran a disk verify, and was told I needed to reboot, hold down CMD / R and run disk repair. I did so and the repair failed. I was promoted to backup and reformat/restore.
Now, I do backup everything using time machine (not sure though if Parallels image is backed up). I do not however have any install disks for Mac OS.
My questions:
1. Should I even bother reformatting my HD?
2. How do I go about formatting the HD and then re-installing the OS and all of my apps, particularly given that I have no DVD
Any thoughts are appreciated. Thank you

If you have extra external HDD, make clone backup with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!, then,
1) boot from external clone backup drive.
2) reformat internal HDD.
3) restore from clone backup drive with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper!.

I have an external hard drive that was formatted by a PC and has files and directories etc. I want to format it and use it on my IMAC for backup but I can't seem to write to it nor can I delete current content. How do I initialize it for use with the MAC?

I have an external hard drive that was formatted by a PC and has files and directories copied to it etc. I want to use it on my IMAC for backup. I see it on my my IMAC . I can open files etc. But I can't seem to write to it nor can I delete current content. I don't care if I lose current content. How do I initialize it for use with the MAC?

You can't write to it because it's formatted as NTFS which OS X will read but not write to. If you want to continue using the drive with both a PC and OS X you will need to download and install NTFS-3G so you can then write to it from your Mac. You can get NTFS-3G at:
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/24481/ntfs-3g
If you want to use the drive exclusively with your Mac then move the data off it and reformat it in Disk Utility (Applications - Utilities - Disk Utilities) as Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)

I'm installing windows 7 64-bit on my imac which I've done before but I get a message that the partition is GPT even after I format the bootcamp partition. I just upgraded my hard drive to a 3tb and I'm allocating 1tb for windows. How can I fix this?

I'm installing windows 7 64-bit on my imac which I've done before but I get a message that the partition is GPT even after I format the bootcamp partition. I just upgraded my hard drive to a 3tb and I'm allocating 1tb for windows. How can I fix this?

No easy fix for a few reasons:
1) Bootcamp requires a hybrid MBR for the partition table. That is: both an MBR and a GPT partition table at the same time with the GPT one having all partitions and the MBR one having only the ones that are relevant, but at most 4 of them (including the protective partition and the Macintosh HD one). Which leads us to:
2) The MBR part of the hybrid partition table cannot work with 3TB hard drives. MBR is limited to 2TB.
I am working on a small EFI app that can boot Windows in EFI mode on a Mac and that would mean that you can go GPT only on your system. The progress of the app is slow due to the nature of EFI and for now requires that you do an unattended Windows install with slipstreamed graphics drivers, but we are adding VGA loading on top of EFI quite soon after the rest of the app stabilises. The status of the app is documented at:
Win7 x64 booting natively via EFI (no bios emulation)
Windows does actually successfully boot in EFI mode on most Macs (anything with a 64bit EFI should work), but does not have graphics support even if you load the driver due to the VGA pci registers not being set by the firmware. Furthermore, in Setup and Safe Mode, Windows uses VGA instead of GOP which is a failure by design since VGA is a BIOS standard and not really compatible without hacks with EFI. Other EFI implementations also add VGA compatibility at a high cost to the firmware complexity for the VGA cards available on the market that don't actually contain anything in their ROM except the VGA BIOS.
My recomendations:
1) Install on a second smaller hard-drive; or
2) Wait for the EFI app to come out officially and use that to boot Windows Vista SP1 x64 and Windows 7 x64 (RTM and SP1) in the native EFI mode.
3) Wait for Windows 8 which supports VGA-less booting acording to the AMD presentation at UEFI Plugfest.

How to install and reconfigure a new hard drive?

How to install and reconfigure a new hard drive?
I installed a new hard drive from best buy for my "vintage" MacBook laptop. When I turned on the laptop and the flashing folder appeared, I need help?
I looked online for some clues. I put in the software disk I received when I bought the disk but I cannot select a destination volume to install the software. I tired to partition the drive within disk utility but there was an input/output error. Should I just plug in my external hard drive and hope everything reboots like magic ?
Thank you for any help you can give

How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot from your OS X Installer disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Installer menu (Utilities menu for Tiger, Leopard or Snow Leopard.) After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the installer.
If DU reports errors it cannot fix, then you will need Disk Warrior and/or Tech Tool Pro to repair the drive. If you don't have either of them or if neither of them can fix the drive, then you will need to reformat the drive and reinstall OS X.
Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive. Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure. You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
Step Three: Boot from the external drive. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Step Four: New Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your new hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
Step Five: Clone the old drive to the new drive
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new internal drive. Source means the old external drive.
Step Six: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume. Click on the Restart button. You should boot from the new drive. Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.

HT1553 I did the back up as instructed... Installed a larger hard drive and followed the restore instructions... Now I get a white screen with a folder icon and blinking question mark. When trying to set startup with new drive I get a bless tool error...

I did the back up as instructed... Installed a larger hard drive and followed the restore instructions... Now I get a white screen with a folder icon and blinking question mark. When trying to set startup with new drive I get a bless tool error... Help!!

If you have installed a new hard drive , you will need to have formatted it in Disk Utility correctly. This may explain your problem.
Boot into your 10.6 Install disk again at the top menubar > Utilities > select Disk utility and in there select your new hard drive, and select the tab Erase and choose to make the format as Mac OS Extended Journaled. When that is finished look in the main window to make sure that the partition map scheme says GUID Partition Table.
Now go to the Restore tab and reinstall from your backup.

Dead hard drive-how to format and startup with new disk

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