My macbook does not recognize my hard drive

I bought a new hard drive and have gotten a new OS disk but now it shows the folder and blinking question mark every time i turn it on.
What do i need to do next.?

If you insert the OS disk (is it one for this model MacBook or a generic retail OS install disk, or something else?) and boot the computer while holding the C key down on your keyboard, will it boot to the install disk?
If this happens, go into the Utilities and look for Disk Utility. Does DU recognize the new hard drive? What format is the hard drive initialized to?
If not initialized using Mac OS Extended - Journaled format, you should go to the Erase tab and set it to that format and erase the drive. This will correct the format.
Once this has been done, quit Disk Utility and try to run the installer.
Let us know what happens, we'll keep helping you.
Best of luck.

Similar Messages

MacBook does not recognize USB hard drive

Hello,
I have a MacBook 10.5.8 and I have been using an external hard drive (Mobile Drive Clasic 2.5'' 80-GB USB-2.0) to keep saves of important files. It has been working fine until now but I have recently used the same USB drive on a Windows 7, which would often not allow me to eject it, so I did the unwise and simply plugged it off at any rate a few times. This did not appear to cause any problems - but when today I tried to copy one file from my desktop to the USB drive it seemed to lag, I hit cancel, I restarted the computer and since then the USB drive does not show up at all. I plugged it in my Mac to see if it was a Windows problem, but to my surprise it does not show up there either, not in the Finder (I have the box checked in my Preferences) and not even in Disk Utility.
Is it possible that the USB drive was damaged beyond repair and that I cannot retrieve the data? What could possibly be the problem? :/

If the drive used to work with both computers and now works with neither one of them, the fault is with the drive. If it is not showing up in Disk Utility that would suggest a hardware fault.
There are a number of data recovery services that are usually able to get data back off of even badly damaged hard drives, you might try working with one of them. DriveSavers is well thought of. They are not cheap though. You will want to decide how much that data is worth to you.
Best of luck.

Windows XP re-installation does not recognize any hard drive - help

Hi,
I have X60s Model: 17044JU
I have original XP installed.
My computer is very slow and I am trying to reinstall XP from my CD (and format HD so I clean everything).
When Windows installations blue screen shows up and loads drivers etc then it tells me that it does not recognize any hard drive.
I thought I may need SCSI or RAID drivers but since I don't have floppy I can not load them.
Any help how to install new XP would be appreciated.
Thank you
Miron
Moderator edit: Masked serial number to prevent mis-use.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Hi
I changed BIOS setup from AHCI to Compatibility and indeed it worked.
However there is easier way to reload new system on thinkpad.
I didn't know that but you can press ThinkVantage button when you start your laptop and IBM utilities start up.
Then there is an option to reload the system to be in original state as shipped from the factory. It loads or drivers and initial programs. It also formats your hard drive.
I found it pretty convenient.
Thanks for help.
mc

Macbook does not recognize external USB drive - except when booting with CD

Hi all,
I recently swapped my Macbook's internal HD (Toshiba 100gb 5400 rpm) into an external USB enclosure (Eagle Consus). The computer does not recognize the external HD, even when using two USB cables for extra power. No luck with safe mode or resetting PRAM. Disk utility just hangs with spinning wheel if I start it. Switching the USB ports does not help.
I thought it might be a power problem until I noted the following:
1)The external drive works fine if I boot the Macbook from the Mac OS install CD... with this I can run disk utility and scan the drive with no problem
2)It works fine on an old Mac Mini with only ONE of the USB connectors plugged in
3)The enclosure worked fine on the Macbook when I had the new drive in it (320 GB 7200 RPM) while copying the files over
Any thoughts?
Many thanks,
--T

It is actually using a power supply, yet it will not actually power on unless it is connected to a computer's USB port. At least this is how it works on my old desktop running Windows 2000. When you disconnect the drive from Windows, or put the machine in hibernate mode, the device actually shuts down. It powers back up once the machine wakes up from hibernate mode.
It's a somewhat older device which predates the Macbook Pro, but it claims to support older Mac, such as the G3, G4, G5, iMac, iBook. OSX 10.0.4. So perhaps it's just too old?
It's a Buffalo HD-HB250U2 (250 GB).
So you're in Japan too?

My iMac does not recognize external hard drive

My iMac does not recognize my external hard drive. Disk utility recognizes it and a test of the hard drive does not review any error. I use the hard drive as a back up for the time machine. This problem comes and goes. It comes when I turn off and turn on the computer, with the hard drive attached.
Please help.
Insightful

can be this reasons
01 , you have problem with connection ? check the port if you can find any problems physically .
02. if not try to change the cable and with connection ,
03. may be its good idea to check the hard drive with another mac ?(if you have )
Did you note any diference of sound from Hard Drive ? listen to it that carefully to note some unusual sound comes when the hard drive works.
check this link this might usefull: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjgOSxKy-FQ

T60 hard drive replacement - Windows does not recognize the hard drive

Hello All, new to the Lenovo Community. I have a T60 as well as newer Lenovo Edge. The HD crashed on the T60 and it will no longer boot. I just purchased a WD 500GB without doing a lot of research. In trying to install Windows 7 (I had already upgraded the T60) it will not recognize the new drive - Windows does not see the drive at all. Is there a way to get the Lenovo to recognize the WD drive? Thank you in advance for any help.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Glad I was able to help.
Just be careful, the usual "if it doesn't fit, find a bigger hammer" doesn't apply to this model laptop.
Also, there is a part available to adjust the frustration level, I don't happen to have the FRU number available, but I do have a photo and I'm sure you can find a local shop to provide it. Any experienced vendor should be able to match up a similar item from this photo.
It comes in many varieties, this model has a handy extention to aid in installation so you can easily do it with one hand. Others may require two hands to safely install. Use care when installing, one slip can destroy your laptop. Acute abuse can lead to severe embarassing situations and cronic abuse can have impact on your health, so use wisely and always get a spare to share with a friend. They tend ot come conviently packaged in quantity of 6, so you can invite a few friends over.
This invention has saved many a laptop from sailing out of windows worldwide.
ThinkPad W-510 i7-820QM(1.73-3.06GHz) Quad Core... ThinkPad T500, T9900, 8gb SSD...FrankNpad T-60p/61p (X9000 2.8ghz) 8gb SSD ips FlexView...ThinkPad T-61p (T9300 2.5ghz) 8gb ram...Thinkpad X-61 Tablet 4gb ram...ThinkPad A-31 (1.9ghz P4 1.5gb ram)

OS X Mavericks does not recognize my hard drive as start up disk. What can i do? I own an iMac early 2009

I recently downloaded OX Mavericks and run the installer. But at the moment of choosing the start up disk, it didn't allow me to use my internal drive as start up. Any ideas how to fix this issue?
Your comments are most welmcome. Thank you

Thank you. That's what I thought will need to happen.
One more question. I tried using the Apple install disk that came with the computer. It's an OS 10.5.6 disk. It does not see my 10.6.8 system internal hard drive to repair. All it see's is itself 10.5.6 disk. Do you think I can use a 10.8+ disk utillity since that is a higher system it will see the 10.6.8. Where the 10.5.6 does not?
I don't want to turn the computer off for fear I'll get the question mark again. P-Ram got me going last time but for how long I don't know? It would be nice to be able to turn the computer off for the night and startup as usual to give it a rest and try to reset itself.
Thanks for your help, I know I will eventually need to re-install. But I am in the middle of a project with tight deadlines and all I can do right now is back-up. Trying to migrate to another computer temporarily to finish the job. That's a lot of extra work in the short time also.
Just trying to put a band-aid on it for another couple weeks.

Macbook does not see new hard drive

I have one of the first black macbooks...
Intel Core Duo
2GHZ
2mb L2 Cache
2GB RAM
667 MHz bus
Boot ROM Version: MB11.0061.B03
SMC Version 1.4f12
I had an 80GB HD in it that has died. I decided to replace it with a WD Scorpio Blue 160GB.
I've booted to the optical drive and went into Disk Utility to format the new drive but the computer would not recognize the drive. So I formatted it with another computer using a USB enclosure. I put the new HD back and still not recognized.
I then went ahead and installed Snow Leopard on the new drive via USB enclosure, using the macbook I would eventually put the drive into.
Now when I put the new drive, with the OS installed, still not reco

Let us resume the required steps, after putting inside a new, virgin disk:
1. Start up machine and as soon as possible put CD/DVD, press key C to force boot from CD; if the sequence is not fast enough and machine passed over the initial phase, and ? was displayed, force shut down by pressing button key, then start again, with CD/DVD inside
2. Press key C after start, and wait until the Apple logo in displayed, wait
3. You will see a list of install language, choose one, and
4. Go to Apple bar and choose Disk Utility; on the left side, you will see the disk, select it, then, on the cenral-lower part of displayed windows go to Options and choose Apple Partition Map (APM), go back and choose, if not already chosen by default, Mac OS Extended Journaled (HFS+), 1 partition (or more, some prefer more than one), click to partiion/erase disk. Note that you MUST have both conditions achieved: APM and HFS+
5. Close Disk Utility and revert to installation proper, proceed.
If you do not see the disk on the left side of Disk Utility, then disk is damaged or badly connected.
P.S. The same procedures are applied to any disk, with the note that:
- for Intel Macs, partition map should be GUID, not APM
- for external disks or flash drives intended to smoothly work with Windows, format should be FAT 32 and Master Boot Record; NTFS may be done with an additional utility like NTFS-3G or NTFSmounter

At the urging of an Apple Store employee, I upgraded to OS Lion X. However, Excel does not recognize the hard drive and I cannot save any work. I understand there is a small compatibility issue - any suggestions ?

I need some direction on fixing an issue with excel and lion x which has a compatibility issue - can't save my work to a hard drive.

If you made a backup before installing lion, now would be a good time to restore that backup.... Ok, well you can always boot into lion recovery menu.... shut down your mac, hold down the option key and restart your computer..... Select recovery from the disk startup menu and go to disk utility... select the OSX disk, you can try repairing your permissions and repairing the disk.... If you lucky enough, it will fix it.... If not, and you have a decent internet connection, click the reinstall LION OSX after exiting disk utility. Your mac will now REDOWNLOAD LION OSX and reinstall it.... did you happen to make a backup before?
Also, did your mac originally have Leopard? Just curious... Because LION is entirely 64bit now where as Snow leopard had support for 32 bit as well, but the problem may be that some of your older apps where 32 bit.... This is just a guess though I'm not sure.... Because I've had numerous problems and crashes with my CS 4 stuff and final cut pro 7 and aperature.... Not sure if it's totally related to the whole 64 bit thing, but the thing is that the crashes are only occuring on my 32 bit apps.... otherwise the computer runs great.... To remedy, I had previously made an OSX lion USB drive so that I could do a fresh install of LION. I backed up all my data and files, installed a new SSD and my Macbook is SCREAAAAAAMING fast.... Sorry about the gloating but I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of your problem....

Migration assistant does not recognize external hard drive

I just had a new hard drive placed in my computer, and am trying to restore my old data using an external hard drive and migration assistant. However, after I click on transfer from time machine or disk, the external hard drive is not recognized. Help.

Boot into Recovery from the backup drive by holding down the option key at the startup chime. Select Restore from Time Machine. If that doesn't work, install OS X and then follow the prompts to transfer your data from a backup. If that too doesn't work, set up an account and then restore your data in the time-travel interface.

Itunes does not recognize external hard drive

I am a dj and I have a couple of external hard drives to back up my music. Here's what happened last night and things haven't been the same since. Last night I have daisychained one exteranl hard drive with my new xternal that has a copy of all my music on it. I changed the folder to my new hard drive the other day and it was working fine. Well, last night I was working on updating some music and I didn't realize that my iBook G4 laptop wasn't plugged in so the screen went dark. I panic a bit and power downed my two hard drives without dismounting them properly. When I realized it was just the power cord I plugged it back in and I thought everything was fine. Now this morning when I try to run off of only my new xternal almost all of my library is showing that it can't be found. Now, when I plugged in an old external and daisychained it with the new one it works fine. What do I need to do so that it recognizes only the new hard drive with everything on it. I tried changing the folder in the advanced tab and it still comes up unrecognized. Please help me I have tons of gigs coming up soon and I use my itunes as a reference tool.
Thanks,

Craig H100 wrote:
Thanks. Realized something though...on the old computer, Windows XP had a problem (R6034) that prevented iTunes from opening or upgrading.
For general advice see Troubleshooting issues with iTunes for Windows updates.
The steps in the second box are a guide to removing everything related to iTunes and then rebuilding it which is often a good starting point unless the symptoms indicate a more specific approach. Review the other boxes and the list of support documents further down page in case one of them applies.
Your library should be unaffected by these steps but there is backup and recovery advice elsewhere in the user tip.
tt2

Old hard drive broke, Macbook will not recognize new hard drive

Hi,
My Macbook wouldn't boot, hard drive was making an odd sound, only would go to the gray/blue screen with the flashing ? folder. I bought a new hard drive and installed it, used Leopard DVD to boot, went to Disk Utility and the only thing that showed up was the DVD. I tried re-seating the drive and still nothing.
Any Suggestions?

Hey hauebj01 and welcome to the forum -
I know it's a hassle but I've heard of some folks having quite a bit of trouble seating replacement drives. You might try that again. Sometimes you have to push harder than you think you should. Make sure that nothing is obstructing the connection.
Also, the drive may be bad. If you have an external enclosure, you can see if you get the same result with it in there.
By the way, which HDD did you purchase?
-GDF

ArchLinux does not recognize IDE hard drives

I recently bought a new Gigabyte motherboard (GA-EP35-DS3P). At the BIOS level, everything is OK. The motherboard detects my hard drive and correctly reports its size, etc. It places it at IDE Channel 4 Master. However, when I boot Arch, no drives are recognized and I am taken to the recovery shell.
I tried another distribution (Linux Mint) and everything worked fine. The drives were identified as /dev/sda and /dev/sdb. They could be mounted and read just fine. I hope I don't need to abandon Arch!

jbromley wrote:
GRUB uses the BIOS to access the disk since when you boot, since there is no OS loaded. This is why GRUB can work but Linux can't find the hard drive Only once Linux boots will the /dev/sd* devices come into being.
Anyway, do you get any error or warning messages when you are booting before you are dropped into the recovery shell? You say you "boot" Arch, so I take this to mean you selected Arch from the GRUB boot menu, right? My first guess is that perhaps you need to regenerate your initcpio because it doesn't contain the correct drivers for your new equipment. Perhaps try running mkinitcpio to regenerate the initcpio files. If that alone doesn't work you may have to tweak your mkinitcpio.conf file to include the correct drivers.
Good luck,
j
The error message I get is:
"Attempting to create root device '/dev/sda6' ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/sda6' unknown ERROR: root fs cannot be detected. Try using the rootfstype= kernel parameter.
Root device '/dev/sda6' doesn't exist, attempting to create it
ERROR: Failed to parse block device name for '/dev/sda6'
ERROR: Unable to create/detect root device '/dev/sda6'
Dropping to a recovery shell... type 'exit' to reboot
NOTE: klibc contains no 'ls' binary, use 'echo *' instead
I think the problem is exactly as you diagnosed. How would you recommend running mkinitcpio as I cannot boot Arch? I can boot into another distro and do a chroot to the Arch installation, but I don't think this would work right...

HELP! Powerbook G4 does not recognize its hard drive

I had a hard freeze this afternoon and my computer has not yet recovered. I could not force quit any applications and was forced to turn the computer off. When I turned it back on, I got the flashing question mark and file folder. Since then, I have tried every keystroke combination on start up that I could find to no avail.
Now I put the Tiger OS X DVD in there and when it prompts me to select a destination volume to install it, there are no hard drives to choose from.
I need some help here super fast. Either post a reply here or email me at [email protected]
Thanks

There are some troubleshooting steps for this problem at A flashing question mark appears when you start your Mac.
The inability of the system to find a hard drive for installation is concerning and could be a symptom of a hard drive gone bad.
If the steps in the link above do not help, it would be worth connecting your computer to another MAC with a firewire cable and seeing if you can boot in Firewire Target Disk Mode. If that works, your hard drive will show up on the desktop of the second machine. Then, you could try to copy over the contents of your user folder in order to back up your harddrive. However, if you really have a harddrive problem, there is no guarantee that this will work.
EMAC G4 1.0 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I have iMovie 09. I just erased my external hard drive, but it is still formatted for the mac. However, iMovie will not recognize the hard drive. It shows the only hard drive available is the computers. How do I get the external hard drive to show up?

I have iMovie 09. I just erased my external hard drive, but it is still formatted for the mac. However, iMovie will not recognize the hard drive. It shows the only hard drive available is the computers. How do I get the external hard drive to show up?

In Finder's Menu, select Go menu>Go to Folder, and go to "/volumes". (no quotes)
Volumes is where an alias to your hard drive ("/" at boot) is placed at startup, and where all the "mount points" for auxiliary drives are created for you to access them. This folder is normally hidden from view.
Drives with an extra 1 on the end have a side-effect of mounting a drive with the same name as the system already think exists. Try trashing the duplicates with a 1 or 2 if there are no real files in them, and reboot.
If it does contain data...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2474

My macbook does not recognize my hard drive

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for