View source for Install a new hard drive in a Mac

{{Header
|Status=Archived
|PubDate=2019-12-08
|Categories=Hardware
|The problem=I had a problem where I had a MacBook pro that simply wouldn't boot. This is an old machine witha 2.5 inch hard drive. Newer Macs do not have the same configuration.
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{{How to guide
|Device=MacBook Pro
|Guidance=This is for High Sierra, I can’t guarantee that it will work for you. By doing this all your files will be deleted. If you can try and take a back up first.

I took the hard drive that was in the Mac out, I had just literally bought a new external hard drive that I am going to be using for back up purposes. The original hard drive in the Mac was a 500GB drive. The hard drive I am going to use for this check is a WD 2TB hard drive.

First of all, the hard drive I had came with an NTFS partition. We need to make this so it is accessible on the Mac. Two ways of doing this, all depends on what macOS you are using.

Normally, the ideal way of dealing with this is to use installation media, you can download a copy on the [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-high-sierra/id1246284741?mt=12 App Store], but if you don’t have that, don’t worry, I am going to use Internet recovery, hold down Command, alt/option and R when booting, when you hear the chime release.

For some reason, I couldn’t do this on the Mac that isn’t working, so I had to plug it into my personal machine. Open disk utility and select the drive.
[[File:Mac Disk Utility.png|none|thumb|800x800px|Shows the hard drive in Disk Utility as external media]]
Click on erase. Give the drive a name, the format is Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and scheme is GUID partition map.
[[File:Erase Disk in Disk Utility.png|alt=The erase disk options in disk utility|none|thumb|800x800px|The erase disk options in disk utility]]
Click on erase.

I still couldn’t get the thing to install. I was getting the error:<blockquote>you may not install to this volume because the computer is missing a firmware partition</blockquote>This is what it looked like:
[[File:MacBook installation options.png|alt=MacBook installation options|none|thumb|800x800px|MacBook installation options]]
So I went back to the macOS utilities and decided to try and install it using the time machine.
[[File:MacOS utility center.png|alt=The MacOS utility center|none|thumb|800x800px|The MacOS utility center]]
Select the time machine:
[[File:Mac Time Machine.png|none|thumb|800x800px|Mac Time Machine]]
Then the backup:
[[File:Time Machine entries.png|alt=A list of Time Machine entries|none|thumb|800x800px|A list of Time Machine entries]]
Click on continue and select the target drive, in this case Paddy:
[[File:Selection of target drive and for Mac time machine.png|none|thumb|800x800px|Select the taregt drive, this case the tarfet drive is Paddy]]
The restore process will start.

After 6 hours, I tried to boot, nothing.

I put the original drive back in, initially it wouldn’t boot. So I thought I would try something different. I held down the alt/option button down and selected the Macintosh HD, this time I got this.
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