Replaced dying hard drive, can't boot into installer

Well, this is always fun.
My hard drive was dieing in my 12-inch Powerbook (last-model, I believe), so I ordered a bigger one and just finished installing it.
So, I try to boot to my 10.5 installer disk, and it gets to the Apple logo for about a minute, occasional DVD drive noise, and then freezes. Even the little spinny thing stops spinning. Sometimes there are vertical, dotted lines running through the darker areas, sometimes not.
It was doing this when my previous hard drive was dieing, and that was on 10.4. I can now and could then log into single-user mode, but no GUI. I've tried everything I can think of, and nothing's worked thus far.
Any help? My laptop is completely dead without an OS, and I've got school work and a programming internship that largely rely on my laptop.

sheez
I'm really ashamed of these forums. Doesn't anyone here even know how to ask intelligent questions?
I managed to rip apart some of the info from the Single User mode, purchased a new set of OS disks, ran the hardware test, and discovered the video RAM had failed the test.
ANY of those should have been suggested by someone with some repair knowledge. Non-booting? Did you ask about the hardware test built into the OS disks? Noooo, I had to find that out , and run it, myself. Problem not solved by replacing hard drive? Gee...
Strange vertical lines on a boot screen where there shouldn't be any? Mayhaps it's video related? Hmmm? Even if you were wrong, it'd have been SOMETHING to try, instead of silence.
Maybe I should just amble around here and show you people how to help people. I've had almost NO help (often no replies, either) for most of my questions on this forum, despite offering more information than most, and I ultimately have solved most of them myself, when they didn't resolve themselves.

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X102e - Hard drive does not boot into Windows

Hi, I was trying to reinstall Windows on my X120e.
I tried clean install with Windows 7 Professional, but the hard drive does not boot into the Windows once it has done the first phase of the install(you know, the copying part)
After the restart done by Windows, it goes as far as "Starting Windows" but does not actually boot into the Windows.
When I try to install Windows with another HDD, the device works well, but I can't swap the HDD because it is not 7.5mm think HDD.
Is there any possibility the HDD will work trough any software-level process? The HDD works fine as external HDD when tested with external HDD adapter, and installs well. only problem is that it fails to boot
Kim
W540( ), Helix(Sold), Tablet 2(Sold) Tablet 2( ), X120e(Sold), X201 Tablet, X41 Tablet(Sold), X41, X32*4, 701C*4

Thank you for reply.
This is not exactly the issue. I was talking about the HDD originally installed in the PC.
The PC successfully recognizes the external disk I used to install the Windows, but the problem was that I did not boot into the "First boot" screen, which basically works on the already installed data.
As of now I have installed an SSD and is working fine. strange part is that HDD works just fine when I use it as an external HDD via adapter. Strange huh?
Kim
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Replacing Dying Hard Drive

My hard drive has been acting funky, so I booted to the startup disk, and sure enough, the Disk Utility finds errors and can't fix them. Such is life, I have my data backed up all over the place.
So I'm going to be replacing the hard drive, which is no big deal, I am a PC tech, though there is no diagram in the manual showing where it is, I'm sure I'll find it.
One question is specifications. Can I replace this 4200 RPM with a 7200 RPM or will that cause problems (ie. laptop not giving it enough power to spin up, or generating too much heat)?
*So, anyone replaced their hard drive with a significantly better one, specifically fast spin speed, and ran into problems?*
*And is there a service manual or technical diagrams for taking appart your iBook out there?*

Well, it's done. I followed these directions form iFixit.com site.
BEFORE DOING STEP 30 (removing upper case) READ step 31 and 32 carefully. I did not do that and ended up pulling the connector for the power cable off the motherboard. The connectors were stuck together extremely tight. After an extremely nervous repair job (very small parts), the damage is repaired.
There were some differences between those instructions and my iBook 1.42 GHz 14".
In step 9, the bolts on the bottom of the iBook require a T9 (not T8).
In step 35, there is not a yellow cable to disconnect.
In step 36-7, a y-shaped bracket must be removed before the hard drive could be removed. The edge of the bracket blocks the hard drive from being lifted out.
The hard drive in my iBook lifted out from the end instead of the side. You must lift the end toward the edge of the iBook. Then slide the hard drive toward the edge of the iBook to dislodge it from the connector.
The plastic block on the drive's connector, the side brackets, and bolts for side brackets must be removed from the old drive and installed on the new drive.
After I got it all snapped together and booted, I realized that the clicker (mouse button) would not work. I dismantled it enough to dislodge the top case and then the clicker was working. Assembled the iBook again while periodically checking the operation of the clicker.
All working now! It took about 2.5 hours even with the repair.

Upgraded MBPro hard drive, can't boot from hdd or dvd

Hey all,
I got my mid-2010 15" Macbook Pro back from the Apple store a few days ago (they had replaced a faulty logic board). As the repair forced me to back up my data, I decided it was a good time to upgrade the size of my hard drive.
I slapped a blank WD 1TB in there but when I went to boot off the Snow Leopard DVD, nothing happened--my computer froze on the gray screen with the Apple logo (curiously no spinning wheel populated). It was evident the DVD would eventually spin down as well. I then tried booting off a properly formatted 10.6.3 USB--same results (mind you, my iMac booted the USB with no problem).
After resetting the PRAM (nothing), I booted my MacBook into target disk mode and then used my iMac to install Snow Leopard on the (now initialized) 1TB drive. No issues. iMac was able to boot off my MacBook's hard drive just fine. But when I try booting my MacBook, it hangs at the same grey screen with the Apple logo (even if I hold Option to select the hdd).
To be sure, I cracked my MacBook open again then tried booting with the old 320GB drive--the machine's working just fine, thankfully I didn't seem to screw it up. In fact, I'm writing this from my MacBook that's booted off of my iMac's hard drive through target disk mode.
This is an odd problem if I've ever seen one. It's as if the mere presence of a foreign hard drive has thrown my laptop into a lockdown. I've effectively ruled out a defective hdd and a defective laptop, yet I can't get the two to play nice. The conspiracist inside of me wonders if the new logic board has any "safety" mechanisms to blame...
Thoughts? Ideas? Thanks in advance for your help.
Anthony

S.U. -- Thanks for your help!
I actually got to the bottom of the problem, and it was a much simpler fix than I anticipated. The Snow Leopard DVD I was using was an older version than the one that shipped with my MacBook. As I don't know where that DVD is, I used target disk mode to install Snow Leopard on my MacBook, updated it, and am typing on it right now.
DrBurke--I hope your problem is as simple to solve as mine was.

PowerBook G4 With New Hard Drive - Can't boot from 10.2 OS Install Disk

My sister's hard drive died so I bought and installed a new Seagate 160GB drive. She has OS 10.2 OS disks but is not sure if they were for this computer. The fact that the computer is copyright 2004, and the disks 2002 makes me wonder. When I try to boot with the 10.2 disk, I never see the drive icon when I'm booting up. Holding keys results in:
Option - Return Arrow and Next Arrow, no drive icons
T - With attached USB DVD drive - only get the strange floating Y with the circle in the middle
None - just the folder and ?
I've also reset the PRAM.
Are these the right disks? If so, is there something else I need to do to have the computer recognize the CD when booting up?
The disks are white with the Jaguar(?) spotted X. The only text on them say Mac OS X v10.2/Install disk 1; Not for Resale; Version 10.2/2Z691-3706-A; the Mac and Apple logos and the copyright 2002 notice.
PowerBook G4
Model a1095; copyright 2004
1.3GHz/256MB/60G/Combo/BT/APX
W84200GUQHX

Hi, kjfrey55 -
Typically the OS version that a machine originally shipped with is the minimum OS version it can use.
Based on info from the s/n you gave, your machine is a PowerBook G4 (15 inch) model, with an estimated ship date of Aug '04.
That model originally shipped with OSX 10.3.3. It can not use OSX 10.2.
It can use a retail OSX Panther disk set provided that the version on it is OSX 10.3.4 or higher (if those exist).
It can also use a retail OSX 10.4 (Tiger) disk set.
You may be able to get a replacement original disk set for it from Apple's Customer Service -
http://www.apple.com/contact/phone_contacts.html

What hard drive can I put into my powerbook G4 titanium

The hard drive just won't boot up no matter what I do. Even from the repair disk. What can I put into this thing. I don't want to buy the wrong thing.
thanks,
Jon

PATA drive, up to 320 Gig. Look at this OWC link for some candidates. You can filter on your exact machine to narrow down the selections..

Hard drive won't boot into safe mode

My mid 2010 Macbook Pro has suddenly decided to not boot up after installing BitDefender and running a scan.
I installed it on a whim when I saw minor malware that hijacked Safari, and decided to run a scan. While I was working on Photoshop, the scan must have finished because all of my windows disappeared and I was left with my desktop and the spinning gray loading at the bottom of my screen. I waited 20 minutes, realized it wasn't going anywhere and force shut down the Macbook by power button.
Now, I cannot successfully get it past the grey apple loading screen. Attempting to boot into safe mode still leaves it at the same screen. Tried to reset the PRAM, still can't get past the loading screen. I still have my OS disk, however it is Snow Leopard and my current is Mavericks and I'm unsure if it is a wise idea.
15 inch mid 2010 Macbook Pro running OS X Mavericks, how dead in the water am I and how much would this cost me to "fix"?

Use the original Snow Leopard installation disk and start the MBP as if you were going to reinstall the OSX. Early in the process you should see a menu bar on the top of the display. Click on UTILITIES and from the dropdown menu select Disk Utility. Run Disk Utility>First Aid, Verify and Repair. If it is not successful, the HDD will have to be replaced.
Ciao.

My itunes was lost when I replaced my hard drive can I transfer from my iphone?, my itunes was lost when I replaced my hard drive can I transfer from my iphone?

when my hard drive died I lost my itunes. Can I transer all my content from my iphone onto the new itunes I have installed?

It has always been very basic to always maintain a backup copy of your computer. Use your backup copy to put everything back.
The iphone is not a backup device. The music sync is one way - computer to iphone. The only exception is itunes purchases: File>Transfer Purchases

What hard drives can be installed into a MBP?

I'm looking at options for upgrading the internal hard drive on my MBP, and have noticed that there are 250GB 2.5" drives available (e.g. http://www.skycomp.com.au/productinfo.php?productsid=67390). Can you install any old 2.5" drive into a MBP? If so, how hard is it to do? Are there any common gotchas with trying to image the old drive to the new one, esp. when using BootCamp?
Any help much appreciated. Apologies if this is a noob question.

*"Can you install any old 2.5" drive into a MBP?"*
Yes, as long as it's a SATA and not an IDE/ATA drive.
*"If so, how hard is it to do?"*
Instructions can be found at http://www.ifixit.com
Keep in mind though, that if you do decided to install it yourself you run the risk of voiding the computer's warranty.

Hard drive won't boot into OS but all files are intact

Hi,
I recently installed Lion and when I did so I backed up my OS drive to two internal drives both of which were partioned--each back up drive has 2 partitions (one of each was for my back up OS).
Yesterday I wanted to restore my original OS drive to it's orignal state and did a restore from one of the back ups. I have done this several times with no problem. Yesterday, however, something went wrong and I cannot boot into either of my backups--I tried restoring to my original OS drive and I can't boot to it either. I know that all the files are still there because upon boot up if I use the option-command-shift-delete to get alternate boot device i can choose my back up and/or my main boot up drive to boot up. This is, however, the only way I can boot up. I fear that I corrupted some kind of boot file while creating the back ups when copying.
I erased my main OS drive and reinstalled Lion to it and it boots up--however, I have none of my files.
Ideally I would like to copy everything over from my backup drive to my new OS without the corrupted boot problem coming along with the files.
Is there a straightforward way to do this?

Disk Utility : Restore - look in Help, there really are good tips and How to tips and steps
Sometimes DU Restore has been a problem where SuperDuper would work.
Have more than one backup set and type.
Clones are bootable, and first thing to do after making one (and repair permissions and the drive even) is test and insure it is bootable. GUID partition table for one thing.
MA should work if it sees the volume as a system.
TriBackup is great for synching folders and files, even a system.
Maybe the change to Lion is why this time failed. You did try the Lion Recovery Mode (command-r) and read up Apple Support Lion.

Can't boot into installation

Tried to boot from USB with:
dd if=archlinux-2009.08-core-x86_64.img of=/dev/sdb
MD5 checksum checks out
USB formated FAT32, then I tried with an ext3 formated USB
I also tried unetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/)
Then I got an external USB cd reader/writer and burnt 2009.02 and 2009.08 (sould I try 2008.X builds?)
Tried to boot on this PC and get (on mine it works fine):
ERROR: boot device didn't show up after 30 seconds...
Falling back to interactive prompt
You can try to fix the problem manually, log out when you are finshed
ramfs$
Sometimes I got erros like:
sda1 (and all others) could not be mounted.
No boot device found.
I googled and I found this:
ramfs$ ln -sf /dev/sdb1 /dev/archiso
ramfs$ exit
Source: http://www.redbluemagenta.com/2009/10/0 … rch-linux/
Tried it, kernel panic after 'exit'...
I'm trying to install arch on an older machine, its not real that old tho.. It's specs (maybe it's relevant): AMD X2 4400+, 1GB DDR2, NVIDIA 7600GT, asus m3a78 motherboard, 450W PSU, HDDs (all SATA): 1=250GB (this is where I want to install arch), 3 and 4=2TB (x2 1TB on raid1, enabled in the BIOS). It's a machine I aquired from a family member, I want to turn it into a personal webserver, file/media-server, access it via ssh, etc.
I already installed arch on my PC, could I just make an image of my HDD, copy it to the 250GB hdd in the new PC and install grub? (Im not sure how to do this...)
Any help will be appreciated, thank you!
Last edited by Ryuujin (2009-10-18 10:21:41)

I had a similar error message than your first one (... didn't show up after ...). I had to try a different USB slot in order to get it booting from the USB stick. I used the 2009.08 image, so in general, that image should be the right one. Do you have a cd/dvd driver in your machine or is there a chance to connect an external drive?

Damaged Hard Drive, Can I Clone?

I have a damaged hard drive that does everything but boot my MBP, I can use it as an external drive and it works fine. My question is when i get my new hard drive can i boot damaged hard drive in safe mode and clone it to new hard drive or will it transfer damage to new drive Im fairly sure the damage is physical though...

Have you attempted a software solution to your non-booting problem?
Step by Step to fix your Mac
or will it transfer damage to new drive. Im fairly sure the damage is physical though...
Well if there is damage to the data on the drive, then it's certainly going to transfer over.
Your best option would be to do a fresh install of 10.6 on the drive/new drive, then update...
Reducing bad sectors effect on hard drives
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
Next install your free iLife and any third party programs
Restoring your Free iLife (iPhoto, iMovie etc)
Then upgrade to the latest OS X version you were using via AppStore
Then install any third party programs from original sources.
Then cherry pick your files from the bad drive eliminating the corrupt ones, transferring manually out of the Music, Pictures, Documents etc., folders (do NOT use Migration or Setup Assistant against a corrupted drive/data.
(mind you have to transfer files into the same named user account, then likely have to reset #6 Users Permissions)
Then make plenty of backups/clones of this new install
Most commonly used backup methods

I replaced my hard drive on my G5, now what do I do??

I replaced my hard drive, do I boot my computer with the factory disk or OS X?

Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
7. Upon completion quit DU and return to the installer. Complete the OS X installation.

HT203167 Had to replace my hard drive. Now I can't get into i-tunes to enjoy my list (about 98 songs). Is my music stored in my old hsrd drive? Sorry guys I'm not real good with this comp. stuff. Just want my music back

Had to replace my hard drive. Now I can't get into i-tunes to enjoy or purchase new music.Are my i-tunes stored in my old hard drive ? Do I have to take my old hard drive to a computer store and have them placed on something called a flash drive ? I'm having the same trouble retrieving my Ancestry.com infor.

Yes, all you iTunes data are on the old drive. Get an external enclosure in which you may install the old drive in order to connect it to your computer and copy your iTunes data to your new drive.
Everything is on your old drive unless you copied it to the new drive.

Can I boot into Windows XP from a firewire enclosed Hard Drive? Boot Camp

I understand you can install XP (as long as it has service pack 2 or 3) on an Intel Mac using Boot Camp, but I was wondering if it would be possible to take a HD from a PC computer which already has XP installed, and, using an firewire HD enclosure, boot the Mac into XP from that. Would this be feasible?

Yes, but not exactly. The page says:
"Can I install Windows on an external drive?
No. Installing Boot Camp on an external hard drive is not supported."
But I don't want to install Windows, I want to boot my computer into it.
It also says:
"External FireWire disks are not recognized by the Startup Disk control panel in Microsoft Windows. To start up from a bootable external drive, press and hold the Option (Alt) key while the computer starts up, then select the external disk."
I don't mind if external disks won't appear under Windows, as long as I can still boot into it.
I found another helpful post:bootcamp windows 7 Firewire external drive NTFS?
Here someone writes:
"I still use Windows XP with my Mac but still never had such a problem with my two Firewire external HDs (one FW400 and one FW800).
And I did a lot of things with these
Partioned one for use with OSX and Windows (one HFS+ partition; one NTFS partition); copied my complete MP3-collection (180GB) from one external HD to the other; etc.
All without any kind of glitch or slowdown."
So it seems this person was successful in booting XP from an external drive. Windows 7 or Vista on the other hand will encounter problems booting, which that tread explains.
In another thread (Boot camp on an external hard drive) someone wrote:
"I believe there might be a way, I just haven't gotten around to trying this out.
1) use disk utility to partition the external drive to ntfs (i think)
2) attach this disk to a pc and install the OS
3) install refit onto your mac
4) attach the drive via fw800, or even better yet esata, to you mac.
5) Start up your mac
6) choose the win xp option from the boot menu
7) install bootcamp drivers
this seems, in theory, that it should work."
So from what I gather, I think this method would probably work, I just want to know if anyone had any specific knowledge regarding this subject.
From here I only have two questions:
Is it possible to take a working drive from a PC which already has XP installed, and change the format to ntfs under OSX without damaging the drive or OS?
And, would I need a version of XP with service pack 2 or 3, or will anything do, since we are not installing it with Bootcamp, we are only running it under Bootcamp at this point.
Thanks for any help!

Replaced dying hard drive, can't boot into installer

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