How do I boot from a new hard drive?

I have a 15" MacbookPro (pretty much stock) that I purchased new in Jan. 2012.  I had to replace the hard drive and just got the new drive installed.  Now I need a disc with an OS on it to boot from to get it all working again.  I originally had OS X Lion, but now that they've upgraded to Mountain Lion I can't find anyplace to download Lion.  It was preinstalled so it didn't come with a disc.  And I have another mac running OS X 10.6... should I make a boot disc from that? and how would I do that?  Or do I need to do Lion since my computer was orginally registered with that verson of OS X?  Any ideas on what is the most logical step would be helpful.  Thank you.

Oh this is on a NEW drive. You have to Partition and format it before you can install the OS.
Once booted from the Internet Recovery system open Disk Utility and select the drive makers name and or model number of the drive, the top most listing in the left hand side of DU, then select the Partition Tab.
From the Partition Layout section select one partition from the drop down list. Make the name Macintosh HD and the format Mac Extended (Journaled) then click the Apply button.
Once that is done exit DU and Reinstall Mac OS X.

Similar Messages

  • How do I boot from an alternate hard drive?

    How do I boot from an alternate hard drive?

    Boot Using OPTION key:
      1. Restart the computer.
      2. Immediately after the chime press and hold down the "OPTION" key.
      3. Release the key when the boot manager appears.
      4. Select the desired disk icon from which you want to boot.
      5. Click on the arrow button below the icon.

  • How do I boot from an external hard drive if my MacBook Pro only recognizes the internal drive?

    Hi there, I recently got the white screen of death (w/ circle slash) on my 13" 2009 MacBook Pro. Most people are saying that it is hard drive failure, so I am trying to boot it from an external hard drive to save some of my data before having it repaired. Unfortunately, every time I press "option" while it boots, it only shows the internal drive on the grey screen. I have my external drive connected, but it won't recognize it. What should I do?
    Thanks!

    Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
    You can only start from an external drive if OS X is installed there. If not, it won't appear as a bootable volume because there isn't any operating system inside it.
    As you have a Mid 2009 MacBook Pro, it's better to start from the Mac OS X disc that came with your Mac. Insert it and hold the C key while your Mac is starting. After starting, go to Utilities menu > Disk Utility, select "Macintosh HD" in the sidebar and repair it. If you can't get it repaired, take the computer to an Apple Store.
    If the hard drive can't be repaired, the only option to recover your files is to use an application as DiskWarrior, but it's expensive and it's not sure that it will work, because it may fail

  • How do you boot from an external hard drive if...

    Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer any advice. My 24" IMAC suddenly had hard drive ****. After much investigation it has been determined that my internal hard drive has bit the dust. Instead of taking the IMAC apart and replacing the internal drive(which I know a bit about and also could get help doing)can I just replace it with an external drive and load the OS on that and boot from there? If so what exactly, step by step, would I need to do? What are the disadvantages of doing this? If this is possible it seems like an easier solution than replacing the internal drive.
    Again, thanks for the help.
    Bill

    easybpw wrote:
    can I just replace it with an external drive and load the OS on that and boot from there?
    Yes, but it's not recommended for long-term use.
    If so what exactly, step by step, would I need to do?
    First, make sure the drive will boot a Mac. Most will, but some won't. If it's a Western Digital, check here: http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc.cfg/php/enduser/stdadp.php?pfaqid=1787. But note the disclaimer that they don't support it +*at all.+*
    If you're reasonably sure the drive is capable of booting your Mac, you need to format it. Start up your Mac from the Install disc (insert it, and hold the "C" key while starting up). After selecting your language, select Utilities, then +Disk Utility+ from the menubar.
    Select the drive, select the top line (with the make and size), click the Partition tab and select 1 Partition from the the pop-up menu under +Volume Scheme,+ unless you need more than one.
    Give it a name under +Volume Information,+ and select +Mac OS Extended (Journaled)+ for the Format unless you're certain you need Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, journaled). Click the Options button below the box, and select GUID (that should be the default, but make sure), and click the OK button, then Apply. That should only take a few moments. Quit Disk Utility and you’ll see the Utilities menu again.
    Quit that and proceed with the installation to the new drive. When done, I think it will reboot automatically from the external; if not, start up while holding down the Option key, which will give you the +Startup Manager,+ where you can select the desired drive.

  • How do I boot from an external hard drive?

    I have a MacBook Intel. I attached a USB hard drive and made a partition for an system image and another for Time Machine. I did a system Restore to the Image partition. I would like to test it to see if I can back up to it. Is there a key or something that I have to hold down to be able to choose which disk to boot from (internal or external)?
    also, I created the system image for the external hard drive by using the Restore command with the source as my current hard drive and the output as the external partition. There did not seem to be any other options. Is there something else I should have done?
    The drive is formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and I chose the Intel set up (GUID ?).
    The OS is Leopard

    Is there a key or something that I have to hold down to be able to choose which disk to boot from (internal or external)?
    Hold the "Option" key when booting.

  • Why can I not boot from my new hard drive?

    After replacing my hard drive (40 Gb) with a larger (120 Gb) drive the computer will not boot. I can boot from the 10.4 system CD and have managed to install the system without problems, but after restarting the computer I only get to see a folder with a flashing question mark in it.
    My computer is the first of the Titanium series (400 Mhz). The hard drive is a Seagate momentus 5400 rpm. Is there a compatibility issue here? Any input would be greatly appreciated!
    PowerBook G4/400 Titanium   Mac OS X (10.4)  

    Hi, StenErik. If I were you, I would forget about FireWire Target Disk Mode. I'd start the Powerbook from a retail OS X 10.4 installer DVD, open Disk Utility from the Utilities menu, select the hard drive, reformat it as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", check the box for installing OS 9 drivers, and then install Tiger. I can't explain why this should make the resulting installation any different from what you have installed now. But it seems to me there must be some detail you've failed to mention and we've failed to think of, and that detail, whatever it is, is much more significant than it seems: significant enough to prevent your Tibook from booting. Therefore, reverting to the most basic installation procedure possible, with as few external variables as possible, seems a useful thing to try. To minimize variables even further, disconnect all peripherals from the PB while reformatting and installing.
    As Hardy has suggested, the size of your drive is not the issue. A 120GB drive should be fine.

  • 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.

  • How can I boot images on external hard drives with an older OS

    Hi,
    I recently bought a new MacBook Pro Retina (running OS 10.9.2 Mavericks), because I had to give back my „old“ one (bought in February 2013, running OS 10.8 Mountain Lion), which was only a loan from University.
    So here comes my problem: I used Carbon Copy Cloner to create bootable images of my old MacBook on two independent hard drives. I tested these images and they both booted perfectly well on the old MacBook. As it turns out, I cannot boot from these images on my new MacBook Pro, I just get a crossed grey circle (both images work perfectly well when I boot from my internal hard drive and I just use them as external drive, by the way). Is it really correct, that it is not possible to boot a system with an older OS as the OS of the MacBook? Why? I really would like to have the option of booting these images, since I have some applications installed I might want to use from time to time in the future (and I don’t want to migrate all applications to my new MacBook, but prefer a clean install). As I understand, it would be necessary to update the images to Mavericks. But how do I do this when I have no computer which is able to boot them?
    I still have a very old MacBook from 2007 running OS X 10.5 (Leopard) and I also tried booting the images with this computer - didn’t work either. Would it help to update this to Snow Leopard? What OS would I need to boot my Mountain Lion images?
    Any help on this is highly appreciated!
    Thanks!

    Hi!
    Thanks for your prompt response. The reason I don't want to migrate all apps is that I had installed a lot of scientific applications on the Mt-Lion MacBook that I will definitely not use in the future, some that I might use only very rarely, and I can migrate only the complete applications folder (and I have only a 256 GB hard drive). Of course I could deinstall the unused apps manually after the migration, but I am not 100% sure, if this procedure completely removes all the stuff from the libraries and preferences, etc. Moreover I also started playing with some time ago with server applications like apache server etc. and since I am a complete newbie in this field, I have to admit, I really don't know how to uninstall these things properly. So I figured a clean install for the new MacBook would be the best. Well, maybe I will migrate everything and remove the unnecessary stuff afterwards manually. I am just a bit disappointed, because I didn't anticipate these problems with the images...
    Just one further question: Is it correct, that if I find a way to update my images from Mt-Lion to Mavericks (if that is possible at all?), this would make them bootable again?
    Thanks!

  • My Macbook air flash had gone for a month and I saw Apple's Macbook air flash storage drive replacement program. I'm not sure whether that program is still available for the broken device or not. Now, I'm booting from the external hard drive. Thank you.

    My Macbook air flash had gone for a month and I saw Apple's Macbook air flash storage drive replacement program. I'm not sure whether that program is still available for the broken device or not. Now, I'm booting from the external hard drive. Warranty has gone in October 2013..
    I want to send back my macbook air back to apple store. The problem is that I bought it from US and now, I'm using it in Myanmar. If the program is free of charge for my device, it's worth trying to send back to US. Since mine is broken, I'm afraid Apple will take charges for reparing.
    So, if anyone having the same problem as me, I would like to get suggestion....
    Thank you!!

    I have no idea about how to handle the international aspect of your question.
    But here is the Apple writeup about the problem and the remedy.  Maybe that will help you.
    http://www.apple.com/support/macbookair-flashdrive/

  • I want to Boot from My old hard drive.

    I an trying to do this work around so I can continue using protools 7 with my MBP running Snow leopard. I pulled out my old hard drive running Tiger and put it into a USB case. I installed a new 650GB hard drive in to my laptop, installed Snow Leopard and reinstalled all my old software. So far so good. Now I want to boot from the old hard drive running Tiger so that I can launch Protools 7. I choose the external HD as the startup disc and end up getting a circle with a line through it on startup.
    Is there something else I need to use my old hard drive running Tiger as a startup disk?
    Thanks!

    If the original HD still has the version of Tiger installed on it that came with the MBP (probably Mac OS X 10.4.8, build 8N1037, 8N1051, or 8N1430) or a later version of Tiger like 10.4.11, then the MBP should be able to boot from it.
    To determine what OS & build number is on that drive, open the Startup Disk system preference. Hover the pointer over the drive's image in the window & the OS version & build number will pop up in a ToolTip window after a brief delay. What does it show?
    Also, which MBP do you have? Open System Profiler to the Hardware Overview page. What is the Model Identifier shown in it? Is it "MacBookPro2,2" or something else?
    Assuming the OS version & build number are sufficient to boot the MBP, it may be that the USB enclosure does not support booting. Most do, a few do not. What is brand/model of the enclosure? Do its specs specifically say it can boot a Mac?
    If all of this seems OK, you can try running Disk Utility's two repairs (permissions & disk) on the external drive. If no errors are found, you may be able to get it to boot the Mac by reinstalling Tiger on it from the original system disc set. This will require updating the OS to the latest version you had installed on it for best results.

  • My hard drive crashed and I lost everything on my Mac desk top, including my Adobe Lightroom. I had my hard drive replaced but how do I download to my new hard drive? I have my previous serial number but when I entered that, it said it was invalid.

    My hard drive crashed and I lost everything on my Mac desk top, including my Adobe Lightroom. I had my hard drive replaced but how do I download to my new hard drive? I have my previous serial number but when I entered that, it said it was invalid.

    Lightroom - all versions
    Windows
    http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=113&platform=Windows
    Mac
    http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/product.jsp?product=113&platform=Macintosh
    Contact Adobe Support by chat for serial number issues:
    http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/global/service1.html ( http://adobe.ly/1aYjbSC )

  • How to import music from an external hard drive to my itunes on my computer?

    how can import music from an external hard drive that i saved my itunes music to. i dragged the music from my hard drive to the itunes on my computer but the music does not play from my itunes. it does however play on my ipod. it gives me an error that the original can not be found and do i wish to locate it. i am thinking that i did not drag the right file or all of the files necessary .thanks. kevin

    To import music into your iTunes library on the computer go to iTunes>Help>iTunes Help>Add items to iTunes and follow the instructions

  • My old hard drive crashed.  How do you reload CS2 on new hard drive and get it activated?

    My old hard drive crashed.  How do you reload CS2 on new hard drive and get it activated?

    You'll need to get onto Support and explain, and if you have not made a habbit of asking, they'll reset your activations limit back to zero.  Or if you have only ever installed it once, you'll still have an activation to use.
    http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/activation-deactivation-products.html

  • My computer shows the grey screen that says i need to restart when i tray and boot from an external hard drive

    It shows the grey screen that i need to restart when i try to boot from an external hard drive. both drives have snow leopard

    Kernel Panics? Don't panic too!
    "You need to restart your computer" (kernel panic) message appears (Mac OS X v10.5, 10.6)

  • How do I reload to my new hard drive from my external backup

    Hey All,
    I am a little confused and ignorant. My hard drive on my G4 recently started to fail. I was able to copy my entire drive to a Lacie external before it finally died and I had a new hard drive installed.
    My question is how do I tranfer all the data on the external back to the new drive. I.E. make it just like it used to be.
    I have not installed the OS from the CD's yet, I am curious if there is some trick to upload it all from the Lacie or am I gonna have to upload the OS then go through all of the updates that have happened in the last 3 yrs. Then individually tranfer all of the files from the Lacie.
    I am hoping that I can do something. restart the computer and my old wallpaper,Itunes and desktop will magically appear! Hey I said I was ignorant.
    Any help will be much appreciated.
    Thanks in advance,
    Sean
    iBook G4   Mac OS X (10.3.4)  

    If you don't have an OS on the internal drive the iBook should automatically find and boot from the OS on the external FireWire drive.
    If it doesn't automatically do it, you can hold down the OPTION key during boot. You can then select the volume to boot from.

Maybe you are looking for