Fresh Install of Mtn Lion on new SSD More Difficult Than I Thought

Question

Today I installed my brand new 512GB SSD from Crucial. Had wanted a fresh install of Mtn Lion, but that turned out to be difficult. As a result, I resorted to a restore of my most recent Time Machine backup, which completed just fine.
Changing out the drives was simple and quick. I then inserted my formatted USB Drive, held down the Option key, and re-started my laptop. So far so good, and I was asked which drive I wanted to install Mtn Lion on, but the problem was that my new SSD was not listed as one of the options, so I took out the new drive and re-inserted my old SSD.
When I ordered the new drive, I ordered the one that came with a Data Recovery Kit, which included a CD and a nifty little adapter that attached to your drive, with a short USB cable on the other end. I attached the adapter to the new drive, plugged in the USB end, and then opened Disk Utility. I then realized that the new drive was never formatted, so I thought I had found the problem as to why the new drive never showed as an option when I wanted to install a fresh copy of Mtn Lion. I quickly reformatted the new drive, then re-installed it in my laptop, then re-started and held down the option key. Still, the new drive was not showing as an option to install Mtn Lion.
However, it did show as an option if I chose to install a Time Machine backup, so that is what I did, and the restore process was quick and effortless. In the end, I have a new 512 GB SSD and am happily continuing with my computing. Still, I have to wonder why the new drive was never available to me as a destination option for a fresh install of OSX 10.8.2.
Any ideas if I missed something along the way? Why did the new SSD not show as an option for a fresh install?
 Nick Andriash 
[email protected]
17" MacBook Pro, 2.3GHz Intel Core  i7, Memory 16 GB, OS X 10.8.2
AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB
iPad2 WiFi & 3G, 64GB
iPhone4S 32GB

Answer 1

Drive Preparation for Lion
1.  Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select the SSD (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.  SMART info will not be reported  on external drives. 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. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) 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 Security 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.
7. After formatting is done quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Reinstall Lion and click on the Continue button.