New hard drive but can't boot from disk?

So I dropped in a new Travelstar last night, reseated all the connections, closed everything up, popped in the software disk that came with the powerbook (OS9) and tried to boot from the disk by holding down the "C" when starting up. No dice. The Screen is black, the drive just spins the disk intermittently and I don't hear the hard disk spinning. I'm guessing that means it's not the hard disk that was the problem. The original problem was that it would lock up and when I restarted it would either get stuck on the gray screen or just a black screen and the hard drive wouldn't spin, just the disk drive would spin. This last time it was just the black screen. Any suggestions?

Hi, rickDJ. Have you tried resetting PRAM and NVRAM?
I'm guessing that means it's not the hard disk that was the problem.
It sounds that way, but the clincher would be if you pulled the new drive and tried to start up from the CD without any HD in place, and got the same result. Then you could be sure neither hard drive was at fault.
One possibility is that the hard disk's short connecting cable is loose or has gotten damaged. Others are that the the optical drive's cable is loose or damaged, or the optical drive itself is dirty or damaged. If the problem persists without any HD or HD cable in place, my next (free) step would be to pull the optical drive and open it up, clean the lens with alcohol, put the drive back in place, make sure its cable connector is solidly seated on the logic board, and test again with the bootable OS 9 disc.
If you can't start the computer up from any bootable CD or DVD with or without a HD in place after zapping PRAM and manually cleaning the optical drive, there's not much more troubleshooting you can do. There are other possible causes of the problem, but they're not pretty $-wise, and you can't identify them by yourself under the circumstances.

Similar Messages

  • Problem: installed new hard drive but can´t boot from leopard dvd

    So I just installed a new hard drive in my ibook G4. At first I started up the computer using the leopard DVD I had purchased. Got to Disk Utility and after a few seconds in the spin wheel came up and froze. So, I shut the computer down and when I tried to boot it again from the DVD I wouldn´t even reach the apple screen. Tried it a few times unsuccessfully.
    As an alternative I just tried booting the comptuer using the original CD and it did read it.
    I am currently at the installer page but I am concern about installing the old CD as I really would like to run the leopard dvd 10.5.
    Is it that my ibook g4 can´t be booted from leopard dvd?
    Please advise. thanks!!

    OK, so I decided to leave my computer resting all night and give it a new try this morning.
    This morning I was able to boot from the Leopard DVD, so I don´t really think it is a problem with my superdrive. Started to format at 32 minutes to complete. Then towards the 10th minute the spinning wheel appeared, I heard the fan running, then it stopped and then I heard the superdrive making some reading noises. Then all noises stopped and now the spinning wheel continues..not sure what to do now.
    In the meantime, I wanted to share also another problem that I´ve been having for quite some time which I don´t know if it is related to my current problem. It is with the computer power:
    - I´ve been experiecing load surges that take my computer from 100% to 1 or 0% and then goes to sleep or shuts down. The same thing happens when I am charging the computer.. it starts charging and showing 2 or 3% charge and then jacks up to 100% in minutes.
    - My computer also makes like a slight humming noise sometimes when the ring around the power cable is in orange color, so I move it around until it stops. When I do that sometimes it goes from orange to green eventhough it is not fully charged. There has been times that under green it appears to be charging (battery charging icon on desktop shows up), and other sometimes like right now when it is in green color and the battery icon on the desktop says ´99%´. Weird enough, once I get the cable in a certain position it enables the battery to charge, if I keep it without moving it, the load surges disappear (at least for some days).
    Should I try resetting the PMU? I´ve not done it because I don´t know what consequences it may have.
    NOTE: When I bought the computer I never calibrated my battery because I was (and still are) clueless when comes to computer technicalities. I tried using a different power adapter and get the sample problem.
    Below is the information I get from coconut battery:
    My battery is in its 256 load-cycle. current battery capacity 58512mAh (original battery capacity: 4400 mAh).
    The last system profiler I was able to pull shows:
    Battery Information:
    Charge Information:
    Charge remaining (mAh): 58320
    Charging: No
    Full charge capacity (mAh): 58512
    Health Information:
    Cycle count: 256
    Battery Installed: Yes
    Amperage (mA): 0
    Voltage (mV): 16250
    System Power Settings:
    AC Power:
    System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 15
    Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
    Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 15
    Dynamic Power Step: Yes
    Reduce Processor Speed: No
    Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No
    Wake On AC Change: No
    Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
    Wake On LAN: Yes
    Wake On Modem Ring: Yes
    Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
    Battery Power:
    System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 5
    Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
    Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 5
    Dynamic Power Step: No
    Reduce Processor Speed: Yes
    Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No
    Wake On AC Change: No
    Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
    Wake On Modem Ring: No
    Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
    Reduce Brightness: Yes
    Hardware Configuration:
    Clamshell Closed: No
    UPS Installed: No
    AC Charger Information:
    AC Charger (Watts): 26
    Connected: Yes
    Charging: No
    Any help is greatly appreciated.
    Thanks a bunch!!!

  • I have installed a new hard drive but can not recover from the HP 2 recovery disks

    My computer: HP Pavilion dv9825nr
    Windows Vista Home Premiu. SP 1
    My old computer (I have a new HP  laptop) had a bad hard drive so I bought a new hard drive  - 488599-001, as recommended by HP.
    When I try to restore using the diskds I bought from HP, I get an error: 0x400110020000100A.
    Windows does not recognize the hard drive and I read somewhere tghat the Vista restore disks are problematic.
    I'd appreciate any help you can give me. Good timing for expert day :-)

    Hi:
    If you think you did something in the BIOS, just set it to its defaults, save and exit.
    Here is what you need to do to make your own vista disk...
    If you're up to a slight but rewarding challenge you can make your own if you can read your 25 character Vista product key on the PC.
    Just download the 3 files you need at the link below, and read all of the instructions to create a bootable DVD installation disk using imageburn.
    Disregard the part of the text under the first screen shot about "extract the files to the Vista folder."
    The files were already extracted to that folder when you ran the X14.exe file by reading the text on top of the first screen shot.
    The other thing I noticed is on the 4th screen shot, where it shows Developer ID Microsoft Corporation. I had to type Microsoft Corporation in myself, and then the other codes automatically populated.
    When I went to compile the ISO file, ImageBurn gave a message that about a WIM file and ISO, and if I wanted to burn it in a different format.
    I selected No, make the ISO file.
    It was not that hard to do. I burned both the 64 bit disk and the 32 bit disk in case I ever need them.
    I tested both of them on my hp dc7100 CMT desktop PC, they worked perfectly.
    When you enter the product key, it knows what version of Vista you have.
    http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/software-os/w/microsoft_os/3317.2-3-microsoft-windows-v....
    After you successfully install Vista, you can then install the drivers from your PC's support and driver page.
    Paul

  • New hard drive.  Will not boot from install dvd.

    Earlier this week, I dropped my computer.
    It was probably a 3 foot fall.
    Computer froze, so I restarted and got the flashing folder with question mark.
    Started in internet recovery, and disk utility confirmed that I had killed my hard drive.
    Got a new hard drive and installed. Started in internet recovery, formatted hard drive. Disk utility says it's good to go.
    Was given the option to install Mavericks, but keep getting an error message.
    Attempted to restart from install dvd that came with the MBP. Tried every startup shortcut there is.
    Optical drive recognizes the disk, but I always get stuck on the gray screen with the wheel.
    Reset PRAM. Reset SMC. Same problems. I do not have access to another mac or a PC with admin rights.
    I'd rather not brave the Apple Store this weekend in the snow in a town that never gets snow (people drive poorly on a good day!).
    Any tips?
    Got the MBP in 2010, new. Was running mountain lion when I dropped it.
    Thanks!

    Yiou can't use Internet recovery on a 2010 Mac notebook to install any version of OS X on it. That is why you are getting that error. You have to use the original System reinstall discs that came with it to install OS X on a new drive or use the OS X reinstall disk to restore from a time machine backup.
    Since your system doesn't seem to want to completely boot from that disc you should try an external DVD drive that connects by USB port as the built in superdrives are known to fail or partially fail at any time. Don't buy an Apple external Superdrive as they only work on Mac computer that did not originally come with a built in DVD drive. Any Brand external DVD drive will work on your Mac except Apples own external DVD drive.

  • Just replaced my hard drive. Can't boot from install disc.

    Hello all. I just bought a powerbook (1ghz) from a person I work with. The hard drive was not working and she did not want it anymore. I paid her for the computer and bought a new hard drive. With the new hard drive installed, I can not get it to read from the combo drive. I kept trying to boot to the install disc and it kept ejecting the dvd. Then I tried to boot to the hardware test.....still no luck. Then the combo drive started making a very loud noise and now it is not spinning and will not eject my disc. Any thoughts?
    thanks in advance.
    PowerBook G4 12" 1ghz

    As a first step, I would have triple checked all the connections from the optical drive inside the powerbook.. but it's not unheard of for the drives to just die.
    You can install MacOS X onto the system via an external firewire DVD drive (Firewire only, not USB2.0), or you can put the system into Firewire Target Disk Mode (hold down T as soon as you hear the startup sound), plug it into another Mac, and run the installer on that system, or you can buy a new DVD drive (such as the Pioneer K06 for around $100, or have a look in the drive compatibility database at xlr8yourmac.com).
    I hope you got the Powerbook for a good price...

  • New hard drive...wont boot from cd

    hello,
    i just installed a new hard drive. when i powered on and tried to eject the cd bay, it would not. i opened it via paper clip, installed cd and restarted holding "c" but it would not boot from cd. power button is pulsing and fans accelerated, so i powered off. 2 x 1 gig of ram in top two slots. cd drive light does not flash when holding c button.
    any help would be great.
    thanks

    Have you done a PRAM reset, CMDOption+pr...
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
    Does it boot into Open Firmware with CMDOption+of ?
    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=42642
    reset-nvram (press Enter)
    set-defaults (press Enter)
    reset-all (press Enter)
    How to reset the SMU on a Power Mac G5 (Late 2004) or Power Mac G5 (Late 2005) ...
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1436
    Earlier G3, G4, G5 models...
    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1939

  • Installed a new hard drive, but can't install mac os X

    Hi! I need some help. I just installed a new WD320GB hard drive in my new macbook, but when I try to install OS X on it I'm not able to. When I get to the "select destination, Where do you want to install Mac OS X" screen, the new hard drive doesn't show up. What do I have to do?

    Or you could have purchased a case to power the new hardrive as an external drive, plug it into your laptop, format the drive, then copy the old drive using Superduper! to your new temporary external hardrive. Once you transfer your old hardrive onto your new hardrive (external), you would then remove the new hardrive from its external drive case, then remove your old hardrive from the laptop, and then install the new drive into your laptop. It should work like a charm after that. The best part is that you can install the old hardrive into your external case, format the old drive turn that into a backup external drive. I hope this all makes sense.
    Anyway, this was just an idea that actually works best.

  • Replaced hard drive, now can't boot from install disc to restore backup

    Yesterday, my hard drive died (disk warrior informed me, that HD had irrecoverable errors, and my iMac would shut down unless it was booted from the Disk Warriorr disc).
    Today, I have a new internal HD professionally installed. And when I brought it home, and installed Snow I got an error at the end of the installation "OS could not be installed, restart or choose start up disk" or something to that effect. However, on licking OK I got the snow music, and welcome movie nd eerything seemed to be working fine.
    I can log in normally and have get to my desktop, but on trying to boot from the Snow Leopard disk (10.6), I get to the gray screen with the apple logo and hang. I have tried resetting Pram/firmware and also ran the fdisk command (twice).
    It seems too much of a concidence that my hard drive and now my disc drive would die all in span of two days? I can hear the disc noise, but as I mentioned I cant get beyond the gray screen on trying to boot from the disc.
    Suggestions?
    Late Nov '07 intel iMac. And I did update the OS to 10.6.4. Install disc is 10.4.

    Return it to the repair station.

  • Replaced faulty hard drive now can't boot from Snow Leopard.

    Hi there,
    As it says I replaced my internal WD 250gb drive in my late 2006 2.16ghz imac . I followed the tutorials on the net to the tee yet upon trying to boot from Snow Leopard after firing it back up all I get is the Apple logo and the timer . I've tried holding C to no avail . I've held Alt to select the OSX disc yet it still won't boot to get me to Disc Utility . I've even put the old hard drive back in . When I hold Alt on start up it shows the drive and the disc but will boot from neither when selected . I've tried to get the Snow Leopard disc to eject so I can try my originals but it won't even do that . I'm convinced I haven't damaged anything but I'm at my wits end ! Does anybody have any ideas how to get the Leopard disc out so I can at least try from my originals ? The drive I've installed is compatible it's a 1tb WD . I also triple checked all the connections and they all seam sound . Really appreciate your help lads as I wanted to give the iMac to my daughter when we get a new one .

    You will first need to prep the new drive using Disk Utility on the original 10.4 Disc or Retail upgrade 10.6 DVD. It needs to be Partition GUID Partition Table and Format it Mac OS Extented (Journaled) before you can install and run OS X on it.
    1. Boot from your SL install DVD or Bootable Clone and open Disk Utility.
    2. Highlight the new HD in the list of drives and select the Partition tab.
    3. Under Volume Scheme select 1 Partition and click on the Options... button.
    4. Select GUID Partition Table in the drop down window and click OK.
    5. Set the Format to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and click the Apply button.
    6. Once thats done, then you can do a clean Install, Restore from TM or a Bootable Clone.

  • Mid-2009 MacBook Pro sees internal SATA hard drive, but will not boot from or format

    I inherited a Mid-2009 MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53 GHz model) with a very strange issue.
    It first presented itself as not being able to boot from the internal SATA hard drive that came with the computer. Nothing I tried could get it to boot, so I assumed the file system was corrupted beyond repair and booted from a CD to try to format the drive. Disk Utility on the CD would not format the drive, giving me strange error messages like "Unable to write to the last block of the device".
    At this point I figured the drive itself must be toast, so I pulled it out and put another known-good SATA hard drive in, booted from CD, and attempted to format. Again, same error messages and an unsuccesful format.
    So I had the bright idea of formatting one of the drives in an external enclosure and then putting it in the MBP to see if OS X would even install. No dice. Get a cryptic error message before installation even begins.
    So I installed OS X on the drive in the external enclosure and put it in the MBP, and it attempts to boot, but never goes anywhere.
    So to sum up, the symptoms I'm seeing:
    MacBook Pro CAN see internal SATA hard drives.
    MacBook Pro WILL NOT boot from any internal SATA hard drive and cannot format or install OS X to any internal SATA hard drive.
    MacBook Pro WILL boot from any CD or external device and seems to work properly otherwise.
    At this point I'm thinking it's one of two things: the hard drive ribbon cable or the SATA controller on the logic board.
    Since the MacBook Pro seems to work completely fine other than this one issue, and will boot properly from both external devices and the CD (also a SATA device), I'm thinking and hoping that it's just the hard drive ribbon cable. From my searches online, I've heard that this batch of MacBook Pros is known to have issues with the hard drive ribbon cable, but it seems in most cases this manifests itself by the Mac not being able to see a drive at all.
    I've done quite a bit of troubleshooting to get to this point, but right now I'm just looking for any feedback at all. Specifically I'd love to know a way I can easily test to see whether it's the logic board or the cable.

    UPDATE: An interesting development!
    I just tried a third known-good SATA hard drive, one which I believe supports SATA I only (but I'm not sure), and unlike the other drives that the Mac sees but cannot properly interact with, the Mac can't even see this one when I put it inside.
    Frustrating as this may be, I believe I'm actually getting closer to a solution since my symptoms now appear to be closely aligned with people having SATA ribbon cable issues.
    Onward!

  • Hard drive issue, can not boot past disk utility

    I got off work this morning and was wanting to do a clean install of osx10.10, unfortunately I did something bad, with my lack of sleep. I think I canceled the operation when I clicked cancel during the reinstall of OS X. Now I can not boot past the disk utility screen. There is also no sub menu under my listed hard drive "Macintosh HD." Is there a way I can fix this?
    It's a brand new MBP, 15inch retina. I had it for only a week and I am at work right now. So if there is anything I can do from here that would be great!!
    I also tried to reinstall OS X from the disk utility and when it asked to select disk to install OS X my only option was the recovery HD

    Ok, I will try that. I still have my old MBP that I am supposed to be trading in. Good thing i haven't mailed it off yet.
    I just reset the SMC and Pram and tried to boot in recovery. Once it downloaded everything online and i went to install OS X, it asked me to select and disk where i want to install. Well, there wasnt a disk listed at all...
    So, now I will try to create a USB installer when i get home from work and try that out. I will keep you posted
    Thanks,
    Keith

  • I had the pages app on my macbook but had to put in new hard drive. Can I download pages again for free?

    The Apple folks said I could download any apps I had purchased previously but were lost when my hard drive died. Now have the new hard drive, but don't know how to obtain Pages free from the App Store.

    Welcome to Apple Support Communities
    If you purchased Pages in the Mac App Store, open the App Store, log in with your Apple ID, go to Purchases and download that application. If you don't see it, check that it is hidden, and if so, unhide the application > http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4928
    If you purchased Pages on a DVD, insert it and install iWork. Then, open  > Software Update, and install the latest version

  • Installed a cloned a 500g solid state hard drive but unable to boot. Can only hear drive spinning quietly, no chime to launch OS. Total darkness. Can anyone help? thanks in advance!

    Installed a cloned 500g solid state hard drive but unable to boot in macbook pro. Can only hear drive spinning quietly, no chime to launch OS. Total darkness. Can anyone help? thanks in advance!

    Hi Retired Engineer,
    Yes, you're right. It is the Seagate Momentus XT and it does not spin. That was just a layman's term for computer illiterate like myself. After hours of inspection & a prayer, I discovered by pulling the 4 GB memory chips out I put in, replacing the 1.5 GB back in for the memory which I upgraded 3 years ago. Chime! It works! So it is the 4 GB memory causing the problem. But why? Does that mean my Macbook Pro does not support with more memory? The fan noise is now gone which I suspect it was caused the other overheating Seagate hard drive & eventually causing the crash. However, the top bar temp indicator shows 174˙F @ 000rpm. Does that also mean the fan on the left is not working? (the right fan on the board works). Do they work simutaneously? Or left fan is just a back up?
    Thanks for your reply & kind gesture.

  • Hard Drive crashed.  I have a new hard drive but I cannot log into computer.How do I reset password to my i Mac?

    Hard Drive crashed.  I have a new hard drive but I cannot log into computer.How do I reset password to my iMac?

    Forgot Your Account Password
    For Snow Leopard and earlier
         Mac OS X 10.6- If you forget your administrator password
    For Lion/Mountain Lion
        Boot to the Recovery HD:
    Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
         When the menubar appears select Terminal from the Utilities menu.
         Enter resetpassword at the prompt and press RETURN. Follow
         instructions in the dialog window that will appear.
         Or see Reset a Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Password and
         OS X Lion- Apple ID can be used to reset your user account password.

  • Restore using Time Machine to new hard drive, but last "full" backup was 2012.  how do I restore the rest of the Time Machine backups, particularily IPHOTO libraries for each user?

    Restore using Time Machine to new hard drive, but last "full" backup was in 2012.  How do I restore the rest of the Time Machine backups, particularily IPHOTO libraries for each user? 
    I entered Iphoto for my user and only photo up until 2012 were in the library.  I thought the restore would do the incremental Time Machine backups too.....
    Running 10.8.2

    It usually means you are running Mavericks but have an earlier version of iPhoto. Open the App Store and upgrade your version of iPhoto to the Mavericks version.
    The iWork apps are free with a new iOS device since 1 SEP 2013. They are free with a new Mac since 1 OCT 2013. They are also free with the upgrade to OS X Mavericks 10.9 if you had the previous version installed when you upgraded.The iWork apps are free with a new iOS device since 1 SEP 2013. They are free with a new Mac since 1 OCT 2013. They are also free with the upgrade to OS X Mavericks 10.9 if you had the previous version installed when you upgraded.
    iWork and iLife for Mac come free with every new Mac purchase. Existing users running Mavericks can update their apps for free from the Mac App Store℠. iWork and iLife for iOS are available for free from the App Store℠ for any new device running iOS 7, and are also available as free updates for existing users. GarageBand for Mac and iOS are free for all OS X Mavericks and iOS 7 users. Additional GarageBand instruments and sounds are available for a one-time in-app purchase of $4.99 for each platform.

Maybe you are looking for