How do I install OS on a new hard drive?

Recently my hard drive failed (for the second time in two months) and when I turn on my macbook pro, a blinking folder with a question mark appears. I opened up my laptop and a friend's laptop and put his external hard drive into my computer and it booted up fine with his OS, data, etc. From that I figured I could conclude that the hard drive cable was not the issue and rather it was the hard drive itself. Today I bought a new hard drive and installed it but the blinking folder / question mark still appears. So I made a bootable install disc and booted holding C. Doing this gave me a couple options. One of them was to install the operating system (mavericks). I clicked on this option but the only disk that it registered was the CD and there was no hard drive to select to install the OS on. But I went back and went into Disk Utility where I noticed that the hard drive was registering in the side bar. So... any help?
Thanks!

You are very welcome.
When it installs, it will automatically tear off a very small (210MB) partition for EFI Boot loading and another one (650MB) for Recovery_HD. These will normally remain invisible but they are there.
If you are backing up with Time Machine, versions after 10.7.4 create a Recovery_HD on the Time Machine drive as well, and you can boot from that to do Internet Recovery.

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How can I install OSX into a new hard drive without a CD?

I just installed a new hard drive and I don't have a installation CD/DVD to install OSX. How can I go about install a fresh copy?

Are you able to beg or borrow access to another Mac that has access to the internet & is new enough to use the App store?
You can sign in to your App store account & download the appropriate installer (Mavericks or whatever you have in your account). Then you can make a USB bootable copy of the installer (there are many other guides around)…
http://osxdaily.com/2011/07/08/make-a-bootable-mac-os-x-10-7-lion-installer-from -a-usb-flash-drive/
If you can access a Mac but don't want to do the huge download you can use the recovery assistant to create a bootable recovery partition on a USB stick.
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433
When you boot your Mac it will download the OS for installation.
Does the original HD still work? It may be quicker to get a cheap 2.5inch case & boot from that just to get an OS downloaded & installed. It will mean you are not wasting cash & time on 10.6 that is only needed for one App store download.
I'd consider a trip to an Apple store if you have one local, they may drop an installer or recovery partition onto a memory stick for you.

I purchased mountain lion from apple but never got a disk. How do I install it on my new hard drive, old hard drive failed and is not recoverable according to Apple and Recovery Specialist?

I have a mid 2009 MacBook Pro with newly installed SATA HD + SSD, I can get mavericks download free but I can't recover photos, apps, files etc from time machine (1TB Time Capsule), I think I was running lion when I started backing up on it but I had updated to mavericks before the HD Failure. When I tried to transfer info from Time Capsule it says " no volumes detected" or something to that effect. I had mucho info backed up on that capsule. Any help appreciated, please spell it all out for me if you can help, I am not at all tech savvy and desperate to get up and going as I am an online student with a fast approaching deadline for course paper. Thank you in advance :)

Step 1: Buy a new Hard drive that can be installed in your MacBook Pro later, and an External enclose to place it in for now.
The MacBook Pro before 2010 can not contain the stand-alone firmware to go to the Internet and get a fresh copy of Mac OS X and install it.
You will need a working Recovery_HD, or to drop back to a 10.6 DVD (if it will Boot on your Mac).
There may be a functioning Recovery_HD on your existing Boot Drive. If you were running 10.7.4 or later and Time Machine, there may be a Recovery_HD on the Time Machine Volume.
To check:
Hold down the Alt/Option key as you restart. This will slowly draw a gray screen and then add an Icon (over several minutes) for each potentially-bootable volume. If any Recovery_HD shows up, take it, and you will be able to get to Internet Recovery and re-download some version of Mac OS X that can be installed on a new drive.
It is generally far quicker to set up a new drive and install Mac OS X than to struggle with only the primitive tools available only on a DVD or a Recovery_HD. Once you get any version of Mac OS X running, you can get some work done and attempt to salvage first your data, then your drive (if either will be possible).
By NOT trying to Boot from and use the possibly-damaged drive, you improve your chances of being able to salvage some files off it, since blocks will not be over-written by running Mac OS X from it.

How to install Windows 7 on new hard drive?

I have changed the old hard drive (500 gb) with a new hard dirve (1 Tera), and now I have two problems: -
1. How do I install Windows 7 on new hard drive?
2. My laptop was pre-installed Windows 7 Pro, but all the DVD kit (Application & Drives Recivery Disc + Operating System Revocer), which was provided (by Lenovo) for the laptop is in the Windows 8 Pro. So how do I install Windows 7 Pro, in my laptop while all DVD kits are in Windows 8 Pro?
by the way this is my laptop spec (for reference) ; -
* Note *
I plan to install Windows 7 Pro in my new hard drive using another Windows 7 DVD (Not DVD provided by Lenovo), but how do I get all the Leveno program which found within the 'Application & Drives Recivery' disc (such as ; - Lenovo System Health and Diagnostics, Lenovo Power Control,Lenovo's Fingerprint Reader) to install in that hard drive? (as I tell you before, all the DVD kit is in or only for Windows 8 Pro)
I hope somebody will help me answer my question,
Thank You
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I got the solution;
Answer to question 1 ; using a backup & recovery software to clone my current OS, then transfer to my new hard drive.
Answer to question 2 ; download all the Drivers and software ( all the application that located on the DVD kit that I have) on Lenovo Official Website.
or other solution, send it to a computer service shop and let the experts ( the workers) install it for me ( the most simple and safe way).

Any ideas on how I install Lion on a new hard drive

Any ideas on how I might install Lion on a new hard drive when I purchased the OS online from Apple prior to my hard drive failing? I don't have a disk.

when you install your new drive, what happens? it should boot into internet recovery and you setup from there.
does it not do that?
here is an article about how to force internet recover http://www.cultofmac.com/106669/force-lion-to-start-internet-recovery-on-your-20 11-or-later-mac-os-x-tips/
here is apple literature about the recovery partition (if you had a hard drive) http://www.apple.com/osx/recovery/
here is a do it yourself downloader that makes a usb stick the recovery disk. If you have data on the usb drive I would back it up, as this will erase everything else on the thumb drive. http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

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.

My conputer crashed and I want to install cs4 onto a new hard drive, how can i do this the registration won't let me?

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Hi,
I'm a SL user so far. Unfortunately, my hard drive just crashed! How to purchase-download-install ML on a new Hard Drive?
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http://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-Inch-Aluminum-Enclosure-EC-TB4P/dp/B005EIGUD4/ ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1395317179&sr=8-3&keywords=2.5+enclosure

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How do I install OS on a new hard drive?

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