Mac Pro won't clean install OSX on new HDD

I have a Mac Pro early 2008 and I was running windows and mac on 2 separate hard drives. I was using the 500gb WD hdd that came with the mac that had mac installed and I just upgraded to mavericks, and I was also using a new WD 1TB hdd for Windows (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0088PUEPK/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1394048774&sr=8-1). I was using windows more because I was having trouble switching back and forth and sometimes the mac hdd wouldn't show up. I tried a few different things with the harddrive and I just came to the conclusion that the mac hdd was dead. It was the original hdd that came with the Mac Pro so it was pretty old I figured it just died, it wouldn't show up anywhere. Anyways, I bought. 2TB WD hdd (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B008YAHW6I) to use for mac and now when I tried to install it with the retail mac snow leopard install disk from apple, it gets to the grey apple logo with the loading circle and just stays there forever. I've left it on for a while and it still stays there, which is the same thing that happened when I tired to reinstall it to the old mac harddrive that I think is dead. I've started up into boot option and the new hdd doesn't show up, idk if it's supposed to show up being that's it's a new hdd or what. So I'm not sure if the hard drive is incompatible or the installer disc is incompatible with this Mac Pro. Or the 2tb is too big, I've heard people run up to 3tb on one hard drive on mac pros and they still run good. So I'm not sure, if anybody could please help I'm sure it's probably something simple. Links to the harddrives I have are above. Thanks a lot !

No 2TB is not too big, though it is overly large for a boot drive.
A 128 or 250GB SSD is just about perfect for system boot drive - for either system.
Cloning for backup is the best type of insurance against issues. Two probably, one you can have a copy of the working sytem, one older safe copy. And use those to repair.
you might have been able to clone it. You might be able to mount it and use Data Rescue 3.
A "recovery drive" and two backup drives: TimeMachine and clone.
System drive and "data" drive for all the media and data and other non system files, all YOUR user folders and files.
Did you change out the video card? that could be one reason why. Apple's ATI 5770 requires 10.6.5+ - beyond the build of the retail Snow Leopard.
You could try buying Mountain Lion too.
With good backup clones then rare to ever need to redo and install the system. But it is good to start fresh when you have a new OS, and to format any drive at that time, and probably on a yearly basis - and not just keep using same drive for system, or for data.
I would think that without proper maintenance and use of Disk Utility: Repair Disk, you just had simple directory corruption issues.
How to Clone a Volume
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
See also Erasing a Drive, How and Why to Partition a Drive, RAID.
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/7032/carbon-copy-cloner
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-HowToClone.html

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Hi,
I have just received my new Mac Pro and tried to install OSX from the enclosed discs on my Raptor. Only trouble is is says I can't, I tried on my 500GB Maxtor and it wouldn't put it on their either! Any ideas?
Thanks
B

Glad we could be of service.
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My Mac Pro keep restarting after install OSX Mountain Lion!

I had start up errors, took forever to start they keep restarting again and again.
How can I fix this problems?
Thx!!

smc reset
fixes (should fix) random shut downs and sleep
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
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BUT.... my WD 1TB firewire400 external disks no longer work with the Lion enabled machine now.
FURTHER... I read somewhere that WD is problematic with Lion but Seagate was not... so I went and bought a new 3TB Seagate GoFlex.
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What is up Apple? So dissappointed. Ive read these type of problems are notorious with Lion and I wish I never upgraded.
Are you trying to make issues with External disks, to drive people to iCloud? That trick ont work in me. I will not reward bad behaviour Apple.
Please provide a fix... I wasted hours/days screwing around with this, instead of using the Mac for what its intended!

Solved by Pondini, on another thread I opened...
Answer:
Sounds like either:
A directory problem on your internal HD. Verify your internal HD, and Repair any other volumes being backed-up per #A5 in Time Machine - Troubleshooting.
Something in OSX may be damaged. You've tried the "combo," so a fresh copy of OSX (that won't disturb anything else) would be worth a try (and you don't need a tech for that). See Installing the ''combo'' update and/or Reinstalling OSX.

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I had the same problem as you with Bluetooth stuff. It was suggested to me that I buy an external BT dongle
as the bluetooth reception in the stock Mac Pro was spotty at best.I did so- iogear 421 (the 521 is supported but ONLY in Mountain Lion, so I was told) and bluetooth works just fine. Of course it might be that the cables for your Bluetooth/Airport card in your Mac Pro could have been installed incorrectly (just google bluetooth in Mac Pro help) but...if they have been, then the dongle might be your best bet, or some kind of external antenna
(the G5 had one, as you may know, but we don't......)
I see by your posting you have tried every suggestion you possibly could, and it's not software related
and it's not a simple one-shot-done fix...
that's the best I have for now. I think I paid about $25 for the dongle and it was easy as pie to install
John B

Can somebody please advise urgently... I backed up my entire hard-drive of my macbook pro - just prior to installing osx mountain lion. I put everything into a folder on my desktop - then backed it up onto an external drive. Once this was done - i deleted

Can somebody please advise urgently...
I backed up my entire hard-drive of my macbook pro - just prior to installing osx mountain lion.
I put everything into a folder on my desktop - then backed it up onto an external drive. Once this was done - i deleted the folder off my desktop - and following this - things started to go all weird...pages hanging, the coloured 'wheel of death' appeared for ages. So i had to employ a 'hard-boot' restart - as i had not other options.
I'm pretty sure i made copies of of files/apps/folders etc - however not so sure now as i cant even start up my laptop!!!
Can somebosy please help me urgently??!!!

Got the exact same problem, and I also did this operation many times before, from 500Gb to 750Gb, and then from 750Gb to 1 Gb. Not My HD got a little such complaining about bad sectors when in windows bootcamp, but still runs fine though.
So I bought a new 1Gb drive exactly same drive as the one thats getting sick. I did the clone thing, with super duper, CCC, DU, but no matter it will not boot when i move the new drive inside the macbook…….**** thing exuse me, but wasted so much time.
Now I get this strange feeling that something must have changed in the macbook itself. Just wondering if this could be a EFI "mac bios" prevention thing, they made just to sell more new computers, when you can't improve or fix your old one.
If so, then its pretty scary. If not then I simply can't figure out why this suddenly becomes a problem for so many people, as I see so many posts about this!!
BR Pete

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Confused about how that works...in the "old" days I just put the DVD in...
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I have a new macbook pro...I want to do a clean install on a new hard drive...but when I goto the app store it shows lion app available but it's not free? Do I need to buy this when i just purchased the Mac?
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You will need a bootable OS X 10.9 installer drive to accomplish a clean Mavericks install using this method. You can learn how to easily create one here if you haven’t done so yet.
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(Excuse the unusual picture quality, some images taken with an iPhone 5 during the boot install process where screen shots are not allowed)
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SRC - http://osxdaily.com/2013/10/26/clean-install-os-x-mavericks/
<Edited By Host>

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Tried doing Network Diagnostics multiple times, did not work. Keeps saying it can't connect or times out.
What color was the light pertaining to Wifi in the left column? Red, Green, or Yellowish/Orange?
Some of the following you may have already tried:
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Change your router channel number. Most times this works & is all you have to do.
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System Preferences>Network
Click the Assist Me button.
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4628 Wi-Fi: How to troubleshoot Wi-Fi connectivity
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============================
What to do when you can't connect to the Internet
Also, run the Airport Utility app which is located inside the Utilities folder.
=====================
If using a Linksys router, contact LinkSys Customer Support and/or post in their forums.
If using Apple's Airport, please re-post over in one of the AirPort Forums.

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download the installation files and install using your serial number or adobe id,
Downloads available:
Suites and Programs: CC 2014 | CC | CS6 | CS5.5 | CS5 | CS4 | CS3
Acrobat: XI, X | 9,8 | 9 standard
Premiere Elements: 12 | 11, 10 | 9, 8, 7
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Lightroom: 5.5 (win), 5.5 (mac) | 5.4 (win), 5.4 (mac) | 5 | 4 | 3
Captivate: 8 | 7 | 6 | 5
Contribute: CS5 | CS4, CS3
Download and installation help for Adobe links
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My system:
2008 8-core Mac Pro running 10.6.8 Snow Leopard
4 HDDs installed, 2 of them are a striped RAID 0 that is the bootup volume, a couble of external hard drives (1 of them a bootable clone), a DVI display
backed up with Time Machine; thanks for the concern.
Problem:
I came home one day, and my computer was acting funny. It was fine earlier in the day. Time Machine had failed a backup, an AFP mount had unmounted with an error, Dropbox was trying to sync but couldn't because of bad access permissions for a file, and Terminal wouldn't open, giving me a message about an invalid shell. I restarted, and it failed to restart, so I turned it off. I thought it was a corrupt filesystem (and striping is unstable, so it would make sense), but no, no other bootable disks worked.
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ATI graphics card fan runs pretty fast after a minute or so.
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Unplugged the monitor. Graphics card fan wasn't loud, but the computer still wouldn't boot.
Unplugged all USB and FireWire devices. No effect.
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Booting in Safe Mode did not help, but it did show a grey circle with a cross through it instead of an Apple logo like before.
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Mac Pro won't clean install OSX on new HDD

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