I am trying to install a brand new WD 500 gb sata internal hd in my macbook pro. the original install dvd does not recognise the hd. all hardware is ok. any help?

Question

I am trying to install a brand new WD 500 gb sata internal hd in my macbook pro. the original install dvd does not recognise the hd. all hardware is ok. any help?

Answer 1

For some reason OS X disks (whatever edition or flavors) that are supplied with Apple products only seem to contain a limited knowledge of available hard drives on the market at the time of thier publishing. This (rather opportunistically) creates a "Best Before" stale-OS X-software-copy situation where upgrading to or replacing a defective internal SATA hard drive with a newer, better or larger one is a largely hit and miss affair.
If you buy the latest and greatest disk drive available for any older Mac you are likely to run into unresolvable problems making a clean re-install of your own, old edition or flavor of OS X onto any newer or larger hard drive since the OEM (gray) "OS X Install Disks" that Apple supply with retail products seem to contain only time-sensitive lists/mapings of then-known target drives that the Drive Management Tool in the then-published old "Installer Software" will support.
Presumably new (colorful "X") retail versions of OS X (10.whatever.whatever) also contain time-limited Installers with limited knowledge of and adaptability to/compatability with a limited number of old hard drives then kicking-around on the market.
This is especially a problem nowadays since the countless "puny old" hard drives that have been on the market are largely obsolete in a few months time, as manufacturers continue to produce larger and cheaper units, discontinuing older puny products... So if your drive fails you need an exact old (or similar familial) replacement drive for your "backup copy of OS X" to do a fresh, clean OS X re-install. Otherwise you need to purchase a new retail version of OS X, since yours is now effectively obsolete. Purchasing an old, puny drive to re-install your version.flavor of OS X to avoid buying a new version of OS X is a rather false economy.
If you still have a working old hard drive with your old polluted 10.version.flavor of OS X still working on it you apparently must clone it with Time Machine or the newest version of Disk Utility (disk image copying) to most newer, larger drives, and a clean reinstall to such new hard drives is not possible.