Installing new hard drive without install disk

I just recently purchased a 500gb 7200rpm 2.5" seagate momentus for my macbook and my install disk doesn't work. Is there anyway to get OS X off my old hard drive onto my new one?

Why doesn't the install disc work?
Most drives are pre-formatted to work with windows.
Is your new drive formatted for Mac use? That's OSX Extended (Journaled).
Al

Similar Messages

  • Tutorial: Clone/Installing new hard drive (hdd) & install windows(FAT NTFS)

    This is a tutorial for people looking to clone their internal hard drive and install it into their macbook (usually because you've upgraded to a larger hdd). I have also included an installation of windows vis a vis boot camp style. Ive been battling this for the past 3 days, so hopefully this tutorial will answer some questions and save you some time.
    1. Firstly get your external drive (clone) ready. Go to applications---->utilities---->disk utility. Click on your external drive and then partition it. I used 2 partitions, one for mac (200 GB) and one for windows (40 GB). For now partition in GUID partition format (found in options). This is important. You can check whether it actually as in GUID at the end of the format when you click on the drive and on the bottom part of the screen it will give you all the drive information. (NOTE: if you have a standard windows installation you can have 1 partition at this stage and then later let boot camp create a partition for you. Boot camp will only format in FAT, so all windows using NTFS are out of luck).
    2. if you ve decided to go for 2 partitions, format the windows partition into FAT or NTFS. If you are using windows 7 (which by the way, is a pretty good effort by microsoft and WAS free to download on beta), anyways if your using a windows which requires NTFS obviously format so. WINXP runs just fine on FAT and is probably the easier option. (This is a note for those formatting on NTFS; sometimes OSX with have some error in formatting NTFS at this stage, God knows why, dont download NTFS 3G or Disk Warrior, nothing will fix it. Just leave it for now and when your finished cloning and ready to install windows, use the XP CD to boot from and then you will be presented with the option of formatting in NTFS. I did this then exited before the actual XP install to get my windows 7 in there. (NOTE: you cannot clone windows installations, ntfs partitions, etc)
    3. With your external drive ready. Download carbon copy cloner or super duper. I used super duper. So just choose your internal drive and 'backup all files' to your external. This disk will be bootable. It will not be necessary to use a third hdd to restore to. infact i tried both ways of doing it and both worked just as well as each other. No need for a third drive as some have suggested.
    4. Once finished, check out the clone. Restart, just when the mac is starting HOLD down the 'option' key....you will be presented with a list of devices to boot from, choose your external (usb or firewire------> note usb only works for INTEL macs, if your not sure if you have an intel mac. In OSX click on the small black apple on the upper left hand corner of the screen and 'about this mac'....it should say whether its intel or not. Also if your pressing option and you get a padlock wanting a password (like i did), but you dont know the password. Dont worry. Get your OSX installation discs, reboot from those (it will do so automatically). Go to Utilities drop down menu and choose reset firmware password. The other 'reset password' resets the password which would come right before entering into OSX at startup.
    5. Anyways, assuming your all good booting from your external drive, check out drive, whether everything is where it should be. if it check outs your good to go.
    6. Disassemble macbook to install your clone (not that difficult, get a good youtube tutorial for this like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXqJn465lxs and be careful with disengaging your keyboard cable, otherwise its fairly straight forward. I did this about 6 times trying to get everything right and experimenting with installations. So im pretty blase about it
    7. Start up your machine hold OPTION at startup, choose your now internal hdd. Your in. (NOTE: if you reset your firmware password the first time, you will have to do this again with your OSX discs)
    8. If you have a standard windows installation you can download boot camp assistant or alternatively it will already be in applications---->utilities---> boot camp assistant. Boot camp will create you a partition and then ask you to put in the windows installation disc, is fairly automated.
    9. If you decide to do it manually because you have 2 partitions already. Just restart with your windows cd in there and wait for it to boot, if it doesnt, restart, hold option key. Then just go through the usual windows installation, choose the partition with FAT or NTFS.
    10. After all this you will have a working copy of OSX and Windows. I use VMWARE to use windows inside OSX, like a virtual drive. VMWARE has a more straight forward installation then Parallels Desktop (which is apparently faster).... but choose whatever works for you. To look at OSX files through Windows install MACDRIVE and you will be able to view and alter all files as you see fit.
    Hopefully this tutorial was of some help. I don t generally read any mac forums so i cant really reply to any questions. I just wanted to post my experience so if someone else out there is searching for answers like i was, then these words will be guide and save you time trawling through numberless webpages......Good luck.

    I would approach the situation as follows;
    install Acronis, if your new HDD is from Seagate or Western Digital I believe you can download this free from their support sites.
    create an Acronis Rescue Disc and when it's created uninstall Acronis as you don't need it any more.
    attach external HDD and ODD and boot from the Acronis Rescue Disc
    create an image of the current main HDD to the external HDD
    remove current HDD from your X61 and insert the new HDD in it's place - this is very important.
    boot from Acronis Rescue Disc and recover the image you created to it.
    Enjoy your new hard drive.
    Alternatively, if you can put your original HDD in the external HDD caddy (connectors are the same) or purchase a 2.5" caddy, you could clone after creating the Acronis Rescue Disc, step by step instructions for cloning can be found here.
    Andy  ______________________________________
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  • Installing new hard drive and installing mac OS X again?

    Hi I just ordered a new seagate 160gb hard drive along with 2gb corsair ram and im waiting for it to come in the mail.
    Anyways I was wondering when I install the new hard drive in.... do I just put in the macbook os x installation disk or do I have to do something else.
    Also when I install it will it ask for the serial number or anything like that? because I dont see the serial number anywhere on the disk or the laptop.
    Basically what im asking is what are the steps that need to be done.

    thanks a lot, when I put on the new hard drive can I
    put on the tab on the old one and put it on the new
    hard drive so when I want to take it out I can?
    because should I want to sell the laptop one day i
    would want to put on the original parts.
    Yes, follow this video.
    http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=Video/macbook/macbook/high. html
    -Bmer
    Mac Owners Support Group
    Join Us @ MacOSG.com
    ITMS: MacOSG Podcast
     An Apple User Group 

  • Installed new hard drive & cannot install OS X 10.5

    Seems my 2007 aluminum iMac's hard drive was dying (disk warrior was giving me errors saying it was unable to swap out the new rebuilt directory with the old one- plus the apple geniuses said the HD might be dying, and I had tons of issues with apps, especuially world of warcraft which constantly accessed the HD during use for image files, etc).... So I went to Best Buy and bought a new one. The same type as the original faltering HD (WD Cavier blue 320GB). It was installed by the Best Buy Geek Squad Dept.
    I got it home today, booted off the install CD disk 1, and it cannot find a destination to install OS X.
    The box I am stuck at says: DESTINATION
    where do you want to install OS X
    and no drive is listed. Nothing in the box.
    At the bottom the buttons are options, go back, and continue ... only go back is not greyed out.
    So ... lol what is the problem?
    Thanks.

    GUID Partition Table/Mac OS X Extended (Journaled), sorry I missed your post earlier!
    Back in Jan. I went with the same WD 320GB Caviar Blue HD, replacing the Seagate 160GB in my Early Core Duo and I'm very happy with it. Instead of using the Install Disk I booted from the Clone on my Maxtor FireWire External HD, then Partitioned/Formatted the new HD and Restored from the Clone on the External HD.

  • How do i reinstall yosemite on new hard drive without a disk?

    I bought a used imac late 2009 as mine died and needed far to much to be repaired.  It came with yosemite installed.  I used carbon copy cloner were I had an external hard drive with a recent backup image.  I connected a usb external device and boot from my external backup.  I copied the image I had back to the new iMac internal HD.  I thought it would have been as simple as that. NOOOOOOO! that failed and now I am completely messed up.  Purchased software says my serials are no longer good. I can't do any work. Office 2011 and outlook won't even read my email. Adobe software hangs and won't allow the OnOne software I purchased work. I bought the latest version of OnOne 9 Suite and it fails to install stating to contact the vendor. (of course no one is there to help). I have several photo sessions I need to edit. I am under pressure.  I tried for hours to work around and try to resolve my issue.  I safe booted and used time machine.  It was chugging all night for 9 hours and in the end it said an error occurred and failed to restore my computer.  I have now had 1.5 hours of sleep and truly frustrated and had enough. I dug out my PC laptop and posting to this forum.  I gather at this point just say **** it and format and start over.  Documents are saved and photos are on a raid device. SO I am not concerned about my work.  I am concerned about getting the reinstalled software reinstalled because many of them when I tried to launch stated it was not compatible with Yosemite and to download a compatible version.  Of course the vendors want money to get the latest greatest.  I don't need the latest greatest because the version I had did exactly what I needed and I do not need anything more.  My email in outlook is a concern.  My livelihood, meaning how I make a living, is primarily based on email communications.  My business purchases are in email. My billing and receipts and sales are in email. The last time I had a catastrophic failure with outlook and hours and hours of trying to recover from backups, I ended up asking my clients to forward me their copies and just started over with Outlook.  iMail can't handle the 10,000 emails I deal with weekly and the deluge of email accounts I manage.   I could not find any other email client that offers what I need... Calendar, appointment collaboration, organization etc etc. All this does not change the fact I am still stuck.  I was told in a pop up this iMac is not registered on my Apple ID account.  I can't even find where my broken one is registered, remove it and add in this used one.  From what I can read, the solution is to bite the ******* bullet, again, and format and start over.  Well, with the downloads of MAC OS X I don't have a hard copy on disc to boot from and just do that.  With all the issues with Yosemite, I am not even 100% positive I want to go there and just be happy with Maverick and ignore the lies from Apple just how much better Yosemite is as it is not and just a license to print money with all the cash I need to spend to get my purchased software up to speed.  Ok, I have ranted enough.  I still believe that MAC is better than WINDOWS.  Considering to buy a WINDOWS PC had crossed my mind and when it crossed I pushed it in from of the MAC truck and lost that consideration. I am a Microsoft engineer and know all the reasons why not to buy Windows.  I need help from the community.  I can't afford to pay a Apple support guy that says just reboot and hold down this key and when it fails to help he says he will have someone call be back that is smarter than he is.  I am out the cash and never get that call.  Your suggestions, recommendations and "How To's" are very much appreciated.  Thank you for reading my query and my rant.  -Brian
    <Edited by Host>

    Thank you to all that helped.  I did get the CD from Apple Care and managed to rebuild from scratch. In conclusion, there should be a better way to help recover from a complete disaster. I lost the original computer and hard drive.  I had a Clone Copy of the hard drive I regularly updated.  I used Time Machine. I thought I had all my bases covered in the event of a disaster. Even the cloned hard drive is stored is a fire safe guaranteed not to exceed room temperature even if the safe was in a fire 2700 degrees for over 25 minutes.  (Enough time to have a fire department put water on the fire) The safe cost me a lot of money. The time Machine external hard drive is a RAID striped system with 5 HDD with a failover of 3 complete HDD failures simultaneously. Because of piracy, software installs will go to extraordinary lengths from having a license copy of the software cloned from one computer to another. I get it. People steal. Software companies deserve a pay cheque just as much as I do. I did what I did because of all the money and time I spend in setting up, installing and configuring my licensed software I wanted a fast resolution to recovery.  As I learned from this experience it is simply not possible. If your HD changes, there are several disc sectors that are used for licensing that is not recovered in a carbon copy. Carbon Copy to me I thought was old school Bit Copy if you remember. Not so.  Changing a motherboard or whole computer even if it is to a same make and model has issues too. It's called an ESN. Electronic Serial Number.  This number that is specific to every motherboard made is used in licensing software. I searched the net looking for a way to PAY to have a fail safe system for recovery.  I only found systems that are available or for very high sensitive information servers and is priced way out of reach for an average consumer.  Meaning, that a complete disaster in your city will not loose billable or liable information about you.  You can rest assure that after the zombie apocalypse you will still get your cell bill, hydro bill, mortgage payment schedules  and your criminal record will remain intact. We can thank Hitler for teaching us that error when he destroyed the records of the cities he overthrew.  It leaves me with an argument about accountability.  Why is it when I buy software, I own nothing.  It is a licensed agreement to use the software but I never own it.  The developer sides with the fact they own the intellectual property and can not just sell it once and loose it.  Agreed!  It's the legal departments of the companies that want a piece of that pie too. So they remove any accountability of that licensed agreement that would hold them accountable the end user does in fact own nothing.  When the software or product breaks down, their system they use that writes information to parts of your HDD that you can not back up and to be used against you because they don't trust you, there is plenty of small print that states they can not be held liable for their decisions. No matter what happens, their fault or not, with or without prejudice, they are not accountable, whatsoever. Being that I had no choice but beg and plead the people I paid money to for permission to use their software, on ways to help myself in a disaster, get copies back, to put me in the same state I was in before the disaster happened without getting further ahead of the game, I was simply told its not my problem or responsibility.  When I asked about accountability? I am told read the fine print and when you are done, pay me to get the old copies back, to get the bootable medium you need and all along they way, let me ram a few more policies down your throat and say, your working software you had is no longer supported and you need to buy the updated version.
    Can someone explain to me how I am a better person for all this.  How about at least explain why I should not cave in like most other people I know and seek out pirated copies instead of paying for them.  It's certainly not for support. I go none and what I was offered I had to pay for on top of paying for the license agreement.
    My personal argument came to this head.  I asked why do companies and people want to rip off each other. Was it greed?  Was it economy? Was it the state of technology is changing so fast everyone is eventing on how to deal with this by the seat of their pants?  Here is my conclusion:  People generally are followers and not leaders.  People that are leaders, thinkers and risk takers are  generally outcasts, different and unusual people. Einstein said there is a very thin line between genius and insanity.  He never said if they crossed that line or not or what happens.  I think, the ones that do cross the line are more than we would like to consider acceptable. We coerced by their insane thinking, there leadership and their ideas.  We elect them and let them form governments. We allow them to invent things and then tell us we can't live without it. I know most of you agree and some of you will say it has been going on for a long time.  It's true. But like I said we are mostly followers. Thus it has been accepted as a way of life. Right?  Wrong! The masses are getting fed up. They are being tired of being ripped off.  Need to test this??? Just go a mall and on it's busiest night stand in the middle and shout at the top of your lungs "FREE 10" TABLETS, RIGHT OVER THERE" and point at some poor unsuspecting store.  Watch what happens   People love the word free. Because they are tired of not getting value for that they pay for.  Free Software, Free Games, Free this and that.  People download by the millions. Why, they no longer see the value of one person making money and getting value for that hard earned money. They are tired of paying for it and getting nothing. The know this intimately. Themselves are ripped off every day by government, insurance companies, banks, energy resources and yes even software companies. We have learned from the best, well at least the most insane.  Here is a thought to leave you with as I seek to ponder about this experience and how I thought I had done the right thing for myself... get my value for my dollar:  Have we been here before?  YES, many times.  The most recent one like this were the fat bubble burst was WWII.  What happened in that war was not so much about the atrocities of the murdered and killed, the real story was the living, the survivors.  The playing field was leveled.  It no longer mattered just how rich you were, how new of a car your drove or what job you had made you different from everyone else. There was one objective. Survive. Live to see another day. After the war the survivors were not liberated. We had a great depression.  Overcoming the loss of that war and the rebuilding that needed to be done when no one was willing to pay to have it done. We had to put our differences aside. Our culture, our creed, our resolve had no bearing. We were all in the same leveled playing field of life.  My pondering is leaving me one tough question... What happened to us.  How did we become so greedy and so racist with each other that we threw out accountability. Not only did we through it out, we all said ion way way or another that it was acceptable. Our problems may very well be different from each other but what has not changed we all feel we deserve respect and should hold each other accountable for our decisions. What happened to that very resolve that government bodies, religious leaders and factions, manufacturing and developing companies all feel this resolve does not apply to them.  What happened? 
    LOL: Funny how a 12 cent CD could have been offered in the first place with a little knowledge being shared could have misdirected what I just said to the focus of this group. Wow.
    Thank you people for helping me with my issues.  I truly appreciate it. Thank you to those of you that put up with my rant. More thanks to those who read it. My sincerest apologies to those I reminded just how life *****. To the rest of you... click the home button on the browser.  I hope it lands you on Google, Wiki or God forbid, Bing, were you can start a new quest in life.
    -B

  • How to install a new hard drive without bootable disc/usb

    Hi- my hard drive has totally failed and although I can get into disk utility it won't let me create images and keeps coming up with input/output errors when I try.
    I don't have another mac to work from and have no discs whatsoever even for older OS versions
    I've ordered a new hard drive(a seagate 750GB 7400rpm one) but how do I get mountain lion on the new hard drive without any discs? If I just put in my new hard drive will it come up with an option? I have a mid 2009 MBP if that helps

    I have a mid 2009 MBP if that helps
    Here is how it helps:
    You need the Utilities from Recovery_HD. Your broken Mac can boot from a Thumb drive.
    Use this article to download this Utility to copy the Recovery_HD from your older, working Mac to a minimum 1GB USB thumb drive:
    OS X: About Recovery Disk Assistant
    Then boot the new mac with the thumb drive by holding down Alt/Option, wait wait wait while it draws an Icon for each bootable Volume, choose the Recovery_HD, choose proceed arrow, and use Disk Utility to erase the drive and create GUID partition Map, 1 partition, Mac OS X Extended (journaled). Then install Mac OS X by download.

  • Just installed new hard drive in mac book pro 15", when trying to boot OSX from original disk I still get a folder with a question mark in it. How can I reinstall the OS?

    Can't seem to get my mac book to boot from the CD after installing new hard drive.
    I keep holding down "c" while restarting the machine with the disk in but it just keeps ejecting the disk and giving me a folder with a question mark.

    If your on 10.5 with a Intel Mac, I think Apple has jinxed the firmware so you can't boot from the 10.5 disk anymore.
    So far several people, myself included, can't boot from a 10.5 OS X disk on a Intel Mac.
    Your going to have to buy a 10.6.3 Snow Leopard retail disk, it's wayyy better than 10.5 anyway, faster and most stable even better than Lion. Have to buy iLife though as it doesn't come on the 10.6.3 retail disks, only free with grey disks.
    http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC573Z/A
    https://discussions.apple.com/message/16276201#16276201

  • Can I transfer a Time Machine backup to a new empty hard drive, without installing Mountain Lion again?

    Can I transfer a Time Machine backup to a new empty hard drive, without installing Mountain Lion on that new hard drive?

    Yes - I just did it the other night. Took five hours, but it finally finished and is working great.
    I sort of followed the instructions found here -->> http://pondini.org/TM/18.html.
    Also, if you want to have dual backups, see -->>
    http://pondini.org/TM/27.html.
    I say 'sort of' because I used Carbon Copy Cloner to do a block-level transfer. I just didn't want to get hung up with a Finder copy.
    Give CCC a try - you have to enable the block copy in Preferences before using this method, but I was quite happy with it. I used it to move over 1TB of TM backups from a FireWire 800 drive to a 2TB Thunderbolt drive. 5 seconds short of taking 5 hours.
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  • Installed new hard drive in imac and i get folder with question mark, put in OS install disk and it does nothing? All I have is wireless key board and mouse, is this a factor?

    Installed new hard drive in imac and i get folder with question mark, put in OS install disk and it does nothing? All I have is wireless key board and mouse, is this an issue?

    Other than put disc in you don't give much info about what you've done. With the install disc inserted restart your Mac while holding the C key, that should start it up from the install disc. Should also work fine with a wireless Apple keyboard.

  • HT4718 Installed new hard drive, click on restore from time machine, get to 'select a destination' but just keeps searching for disks.. any help please?

    Installed new hard drive and want to restore from time machine.
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    1. Be sure your drive is attached and mounted.
    2. If you have already written any data to the drive, back it up before proceeding to the next step.
    3. In the Finder, choose Go > Utilities. The /Applications/Utilities folder will open.
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    7. From the Volume Format menu, choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
    8. Enter a name for the external hard drive in the Name field.
    9. Click the Erase button.
    Make Sure that you choose the correct drive

  • I install new hard drive 500gb and i still have 400gb available but my macbook run very slow getting rainbow all the time on screen

    i have install new hard drive 500gb and i still have 400gb available but my macbook run very slow getting rainbow all the time on screen.
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    First boot into recovery and select Disk Utility>First Aid and repair the disk.
    If there is no improvement, perform a Safe Boot:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1
    If there is an improvement, then third party applications are probably the cause of the problem.
    Ciao.

  • Installed new hard drive and windows 7 at the same time. Left old hard drives in computer but unable to get bookmarks from old drives to new.

    Installed new hard drive and windows 7 at the same time. Left old hard drives in computer, installed firefox however I have no idea in which file the old bookmarks are located. I still have the old files for firefox in the old drives.

    Your "Firefox personal data", like bookmarks, are stored in your Profile folder in Firefox. See this support article about how to recover that data from that old hard drive and transfer it your your new Profile.
    http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Recovering+important+data+from+an+old+profile

  • Bookmarks in version older than 8 - installed new hard drive - where is the bookmarks file?

    installed new hard drive two months ago - just now reinstalling Firefox -- installed new version 8 -- need to know where my old bookmarks would be stored (what file and where)

    Profile is a folder which store all your personal data in a safe place
    * https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Profiles
    * here explain how to backup profile https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Backing%20up%20your%20information
    * here explain how to restore it
    https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Recovering%20important%20data%20from%20an%20old%20profile

  • Hard drive on my mac died, installed new hard drive.  When I try to sync my phone for the first time, will the computer wipe all the songs, photos, ibooks from my phone?

    hard drive on my mac died, installed new hard drive.  When I try to sync my phone for the first time, will the computer wipe all the songs, photos, ibooks from my phone?

    Yes because that information is not located on the hard-drive of your new mac! If it is purchased content from the store, than this issue isn't as bad as it looks!
    Here is a link explaining how to get your previously purchased content back:
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2519
    You also want to authorize your Apple ID account on the computer by following these instructions as well:
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    Basically this link explains to go to the top left corner of your screen where you will see file, edit, view etc! Click on Store in that section and click on authorize this computer, also you want to make sure that the computer will not automatically sync by going to iTunes in the top left corner, just to the right of the apple symbol if iTunes is selected, and go to prefrences, and here you will see back up! Right under the back-ups has an option explaining to prevent devices from automatically syncing which is good cause you may be able to transfer your purchases from there which will put your content into the computer, and if that happens than we don't lose anything
    Hopefully I was of some help:)

  • Can I get my bookmarks back after installing new hard drive?

    Can I get my bookmarks back after installing new hard drive?

    http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/Recovering+important+data+from+an+old+profile
    Your old Profile is located here in Vista & Win7: <br />
    ''drive'':\Users\''Windows login user name''\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\''profile_name''

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