MacBook Pro won't boot with new hard drive, but a different MacBook Pro will

So here are the details. My friend and I both have 13-inch Mid 2010 MacBook Pro's. Same processor and specs since they were purchased at the same time, but originally had 250 GB hard drives. His hard drive failed and needed a new one. Put a 500 GB Seagate Momentus 5400.6 in his computer, and tried using a flash drive with "Install OS X Mavericks" on it to install Mavericks on his new hard drive. No matter what, it wouldn't install. I finally was able to install OS X 10.9.4 on it by connecting the new hard drive to my computer with a USB hard drive enclosure. I put the hard drive back inside his computer and it wouldn't boot (stuck on the gray screen with apple logo and a spinning wheel). I then attached to the hard drive to his computer externally with the USB enclosure, and then it booted and worked perfectly.
So, it seemed like the problem was with something inside his computer, but then I switched our drives, and that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. I put my original hard drive into his computer, and his new hard drive into my computer, and they both booted and worked perfectly, so I have no idea why his computer will not boot with the new hard drive internally.
To summarize, his computer boots with: 1) new hard drive connected externally (won't work if it's internal), and 2) my hard drive internally
but my computer boots with: 1) new hard drive connected externally AND internally, and 2) my hard drive internally.
Both hard drives have OS X 10.9.4 installed
If anyone has any idea what's causing this and how to make his computer work with the new hard drive internally that would be greatly appreciated.

So after switching the internal SATA cables from each computer, now we have
His computer, with my SATA cable:
1) Worked with every hard drive!
My computer, with his SATA cable:
1) Works with 1 TB Toshiba hard drive
2) Works with 500 GB Seagate hard drive
3) Works with my original hard drive
4) Flashing folder with question mark with his old hard drive
So it turns out you were right! Definitely had something to do with the SATA cables. But it's still strange that mine was able to boot with all the hard drives except the one that was originally in his. So it seems like it was some combination of his SATA cable and something else, since when his SATA cable was in his computer only 1 hard drive (my original) worked, and when it was in my computer, 3 hard drives worked. But at least its working, and I'm just gonna keep our SATA cables switched since that seems to work out fine

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Imac won't boot with new hard drive installed

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wierd i have similar problem. I removed HDD after crash to backup in an enclosure before reinstalling os again, put the hdd back and connected the hdd sensor backup (although i thought it was a knock sensor..doh!) . Mac wouldnt start, no screen, no chime, nada, but sleep light stays on. With PCs this usually mean CPU fault so i removed RAM to see if could get a BEEP meaning CPU is ok as it spots ram. No beep. So after checking everything i stripped out ram, hdd, airport and battery and reset PMU, tried again and now i get beep!! so cpu works. slowly adding everything back in and trying power up, last thing to go in was hdd sensor and sure enough when this is connected i reproduce the symptoms. So i disconnected the sensor and tried and i get chimes etc... Ive inspected the cable and made sure is connected right way up and still cant get to work. So it seems sensor is goosed! Debating wether to replace just yet

I backed up my macbook pro before they intalled a new hard drive but when I reinstalled, my book says it isn't compatible with Maverick and I can't get the last year of pictures or files back.

I backed up my macbook pro before having a new hard drive installed. They installed Maverick for me, but now My Book says its not compatible and I can't restore my files and pictures from the external hard drive. What can I do?

Simple if you have a complete backup of your old drive erase the new one and restore from your Time Machine backup. That will put your Mac back to exactly like it was before you had the hard drive changed.
In all honesty I have no idea why most all the Apple stores upgrade every Mac that comes through to Mavericks.
To do the erasing and restoring you need to either boot from the original system discs that came with your Mac or if it came with either Lion or Mt Lion use the Online Internet Recovery system. To boot to that at startup hold down the Command + Option/alt + r keys and keep them held down until you see a globe on the screen. Once thje Mac OS X Utilities screen loads use Disk Utility to Repartition the drive as one partiotion to remove all data from it. Then when that is done exot disk Utility and select Restore from Time Machine Backup. Have the TM backup drive connected before you start this process.

MacBook won't boot from new hard drive.

I'm trying to upgrade my hard drive, but my macbook will not boot to the new hard drive. I have erased and cloned the hard drive about three times now, using both Carbon Copy Cloner and SuperDuper. It won't boot while it is in the macbook and it won't boot from an external hard drive case. All I get to is the screen with the mac logo and the spinning wheel. I have made sure the drive is GUID formatted, but it still doesn't work. When I put the new drive in an external case and plug it into the USB port of my macbook I can see and access everything on the drive. Can somebody please tell what I am doing wrong?
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Satellite Pro 460 won't start with new hard drive in

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It sounds like 80GB is too large for that model, I really doubt the BIOS and Chipset can support more than 8GB HDD. 8GB may not even work.
Here is some information regarding different HDD modes and limitations: http://www.adminxp.com/hardware/index.php?aid=129
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68GB - Possible problem with disks larger than 67GB under Windows 9x... See article WD800
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Whenever I put a drive in bay #1, the system will no longer boot.
I've removed all of my hard drives except my boot disk.
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Hello CaptianNike, welcome to the HP Forums.
I see that you're trying to install Windows 7 on a replacement hard drive. I will try to assist you with this.
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Thank you for posting on the HP Forums.
I worked on behalf of HP.

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I used a SATA drive with adaptor as a boot drive in an MDD for most of the past year. I just got a MacPro 5,1 and wanted to use this SATA drive as a data drive in the new computer. I pulled it out of the MDD and put it in the MacPro. On start up I get the message You need to hold the power button or press restart. Since it has a boot volume I thought this might be a problem. I held down the Option key during start up to select a boot drive. Here it shows both the this drive and the OEM MacPro drive. Which ever I select I still get the error message. I can put this back in the MDD and get the same error even though it shows up as a boot volume when holding the Option Key. This drive does not seem to be totally dead since it can be seen during start up but it wont let the computer finish booting. It gets to the Apple logo but no farther. Can I salvage this drive? Data on it is unimportant.

You really need to use FW case; reformat the drive to use GPT partition table.
When booting the system's EFI polls all drives to look for valid system paths and to see which is blessed. A corrupt directory can even prevent booting from any drive or DVD.
I tell G5 owners to reformat as soon as possible once data is recovered, even though if they were running 10.5.8 their SATA drive may be okay.
Nuke the drive one way or another, I'd assume you have a spare FW case. And try booting from OS X DVD - you can install a fresh OS as backup/emergency system drive.
Any new SATA II or III drive are fine, WD Black are popular and 640 $69 or 1TB $89.
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Power Mac 7200/120 won't boot off new hard drive. Says HD "not supported"

I just recently came into possession of a PowerMac 7200/120. The only thing it came with is a boot cd with Mac OS 8.1. It booted fine off the cd with only the date/time issues of a dead PRAM battery, but when I tried to boot the internal HD on its own, it was a no-go. Flashing ?. When I tried to verify the HD, the software would not even find the HD. Not even listed on the program. You can't initialize what isn't there, so I ordered a new HD from an online vendor. I replaced it according to the directions on the Apple .pdf file I googled. I also reset the logic board and replaced the PRAM battery. Upon booting after all this ... still flashing ?. I run the same verification process as before and I actually DO see this HD listed, but it says it is "not supported" and doesn't allow me to initialize it. It's virtually the same quantum fireball HD with the Apple logo as the old one I just took out, just a different GB size. Connections and slots are all the same. Is this just not the right HD for my computer? Is there something I need to download? I just rebuilt a Performa 6300cd with ZERO issues.

Ok ... a couple of mistakes on my part which of course could change EVERYTHING. I'm embarassed with the amount of mistakes in my own question. A couple of forgetful omissions on my part ...
#1. The drive DID start up just fine upon first switching out the HD. Original software on HD was 8.1, but as I needed to run older programs not compatible with 8.1, I initialized and installed 7.5.3 clean. (I know ... HUGE omission here, but be kind as I've been working on multiple computers and it has been a couple months since I did this). It worked fine after download. After coming back to this computer a couple of months later, I get the flashing ? again (like before the HD switch).
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UPDATE
The strangest thing ... I just booted up off the cd and it's now reading the HD. I ejected the cd and booted it up on its own ... and it works just fine. I did NOTHING since I asked the question. In fact, I just booted the computer back up in response to your response.
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I have my itunes stored on my external hard drive of my IMac.
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I have my itunes stored on my external hard drive of my IMac.
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Sometimes they do work - i've done it before. I have a late 2008 Macbook Uni and used the install dvd of my 2009 Macbook White and it worked.
Why not just clone your hard drive? It'll save you a lot of time doing a clone rather than doing a clean install.
Unless you're having issues with your old set up or your old hard drive is dead.
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Once you've done the swap, you can install your old hard drive in the USB enclosure and use it as a backup drive.
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I have a macbook pro 13" from early 2011...last week the hard drive crashed and after a few hours at the genius bar had to got tekserv to recover my data and get a new hard drive and update to 8GB of Ram. When I got my macbook back I was given an external hard drive that had everything from my old hard drive saved by the users on the old hard drive. I was hoping I could just transfer the user over to the new hard drive but since I had to restart the computer as a new computer I am not able to just reassign my old profile as the new one on this laptop. Maybe I've done something wrong but at this point I transferred all my documents over, moved my music and pictures over but I have a few things I can't figure out that I'm hoping someone can help with.
1. Do emails that were in my mail program from both gmail and my verizon.net program get saved somewhere or do I have to just assume those were lost?
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Here's the spec page on your PB. http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_g4/stats/powerbook_g4_1.25_15.ht ml It came with OS 10.2.7 installed. The max OS is Leopard 10.5.x
Tiger install DVDs are in short supply. Tiger is no longer available at the Apple Store but may be available for $129 by calling Apple Phone Sales @ 1-800-MY-APPLE (1-800-692-7753). For other sources, do a Google search for MA453Z/A (10.4.6), MA190Z/A (10.4.3) and M9639Z/A (10.4). Also look on eBay. Be sure & buy a retail version (black with silver X) and not a model specific version (gray) (See http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1976068 Can I use another Mac's system restore disc on my Mac?.
Also check these web stores: http://www.lacomputercompany.com/cgi-bin/rpcart/index.cgi?command=dispitem&type= sku&sku=19521 http://www.allmac.com/shop/index.php?cPath=5_10003
After you install the base 10.4.x, update to the final Tiger version 10.4.11. Here's the link for the 10.4.11 combo update http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24901?viewlocale=en_US
Look at this link Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger Installing Software Support Page
http://www.apple.com/support/tiger/install/
You can also download the Tiger Installation and Setup Guide
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/Tiger_Install_Setup_Guide.pdf
 Cheers, Tom

Will Time Machine with Leopard Sync With New Hard Drive and Snow Leopard?

My computer is a 20" iMac that I bought in late 2008. The hard drive had trouble so Apple repaired with disk utility. Week later, more trouble so they did full hard drive erase. Data was backed up on Time Machine, 500GB also bought in 2008. After full hard drive erase, and reinstall of basic software, upon reboot, computer would power on then immediately off. It doesn't get past white screen. They advised a new hard drive install is needed.
A computer friend can install a hard drive just fine for me. However, I do not have the Leopard install disc. He could do it with Snow Leopard but I am scared. I'm afraid because my Time Machine last backup was with Leopard, not snow Leopard. I do not have my application discs with me, they are in storage in another state. Thus, if upon adding replacing hard drive and installing Snow Leopard my computer won't be able to sync FILES and APPLICATIONS from Time Machine because its on Leopard I will have a problem.
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thetrudz wrote:
A computer friend can install a hard drive just fine for me. However, I do not have the Leopard install disc.
Hi, and welcome to the forums.
That Mac should have come with Leopard. If so, call AppleCare. They'll send you replacement discs for a nominal fee.
Once this is sorted out, make a 8-10 GB partition on an external HD or your internal HD, and use the Restore tab of Disk Utility to copy the Install disc to that partition. Then you can boot and run from it instead of the physical disc. It will boot and run much faster, too.
He could do it with Snow Leopard but I am scared.
If he does, and doesn't provide a retail Snow Leopard disc, you must buy one ($29). It's a violation of the license to share software, and you'll need a SL disc to do things like restore a Snow Leopard backup, or the Snow Leopard Apple apps, or repair the internal HD.
Your best bet is to stay with Leopard, at least until you have access to your 3rd-party software discs.
What you can do, however, is borrow his Snow Leopard Install disc (assuming it's a white Retail disc, not a gray one that came with his Mac), and use it to do a full system restore from your backups. That's not a violation of the license, since you don't install or use OSX from that disc; you just use the Installer utility on it to restore the Leopard OSX and all your data from your backups.
See #14 in [Time Machine - Frequently Asked Questions|http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/FAQ.html] (or use the link in *User Tips* at the top of the +Time Machine+ forum), for details.

MacBook Pro won't boot with new hard drive, but a different MacBook Pro will

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