Weird problems with 2007 15" MBP after installing new HD, any solution?

Question

Folks-
For a couple of months my machine has been really weird.
(1) Safari will not work. Firefox does, other internet apps do, but no Safari.
(2) everything is ever slower. Spinning beachballs constantly.
(3) won't remember home wifi network. It remembers the pw, but must select the network
(4) won't sleep when scheduled, only when closed or immediately commanded to sleep.
I would say that these weird problems surfaced after I installed a new optical drive, after I upgraded to 10.7, etc, except that the main problems are absent when I start up from the old HD externally mounted (the refusal to sleep when scheduled is also present statring from the old HD).
This could indicate some wierd driver thing with the new drive, or a system software event I didn't notice or one of these "malware" things, right? Maybe?
Any ideas for how to troubleshoot this would just rock.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Since you have your old hard drive here's a suggestion:
Step One: Boot from the external drive.  Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears.  Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Step Two: New Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your new internal hard drive (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.  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. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID  then click on the OK button. 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 Options 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.
Step Three: Clone the old drive to the new drive
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new internal drive. Source means the old external drive.
Step Four: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume.  Click on the Restart button.  You should boot from the new drive.  Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.