HDD failure - upgrading to Yosemite?

[astrograph]

Hey guys, my late 2009 MBPro died yesterday. Took it to the apple store this morning and they said it was hdd failure. The OS installed on it was Mountain Lion.

I went to Tiger Direct today and thankfully they had the mx100 SSD 512GB and was planning on doing a clean install but with Yosemite.

Since i don't have access to the app store.. how can i go about getting the free Yosemite? Torrent?

Also, can anyone point me in the direction of how i can even create a bootable USD drive on a windows computer? I'm just confused about the "mac journaled" formatting that my mac hard drive was in.

Does that mean after i installed the SSD, i have to format the SSD in "mac journaled" BEFORE i can even install the Yosemite OSX?

IF SO, how would i do that? i tried googling, but i couldn't really find an answer to that.

Also, i was reading about installing the SSD and something about TRIM? i'm a little confused about that as well.. :/

If Yosemite doesn't allow TRIM from 3rd party SSD's ... will that be a problem? will it slow down my computer? or cause errors?

Please help.

 

[Weaselboy]

Hey guys, my late 2009 MBPro died yesterday. Took it to the apple store this morning and they said it was hdd failure. The OS installed on it was Mountain Lion.

I went to Tiger Direct today and thankfully they had the mx100 SSD 512GB and was planning on doing a clean install but with Yosemite.

Since i don't have access to the app store.. how can i go about getting the free Yosemite? Torrent?

You don't want to do that. No telling what cooties might be included along with a torrent download.

Somehow you need to either get a another Mac that can run Yosemite and download Yosemite then make yourself a USB key installer (see this). Or you need to somehow get at least Snow Leopard installed on there then get Yosemite from the app store while in Snow Leopard.

Do you happen to have a Time Machine backup from the Mountain Lion install?? We can work with that to get you going again.

Also, can anyone point me in the direction of how i can even create a bootable USD drive on a windows computer?

Can't be done. You will need a Mac to make the USB installer.

I'm just confused about the "mac journaled" formatting that my mac hard drive was in.

Does that mean after i installed the SSD, i have to format the SSD in "mac journaled" BEFORE i can even install the Yosemite OS X?

IF SO, how would i do that? i tried googling, but i couldn't really find an answer to that.

Yes exactly. Once the SSD is installed and you are in the installer you can use Disk Utility to format the new disk to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Just start Disk Utility and select the new SSD in the left column, then go to the erase tab and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in the dropdown then click Erase.

Also, i was reading about installing the SSD and something about TRIM? i'm a little confused about that as well.. :/

If Yosemite doesn't allow TRIM from 3rd party SSD's ... will that be a problem? will it slow down my computer? or cause errors?

TRIM is the OS's way of telling the drive what are no longer in use and it is a good idea to enable TRIM. Just use this app to enable TRIM. Also, read this.

 

[astrograph]

You don't want to do that. No telling what cooties might be included along with a torrent download.

Somehow you need to either get a another Mac that can run Yosemite and download Yosemite then make yourself a USB key installer (see this). Or you need to somehow get at least Snow Leopard installed on there then get Yosemite from the app store while in Snow Leopard.

Do you happen to have a Time Machine backup from the Mountain Lion install?? We can work with that to get you going again.



Can't be done. You will need a Mac to make the USB installer.



Yes exactly. Once the SSD is installed and you are in the installer you can use Disk Utility to format the new disk to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) format. Just start Disk Utility and select the new SSD in the left column, then go to the erase tab and select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in the dropdown then click Erase.



TRIM is the OS's way of telling the drive what are no longer in use and it is a good idea to enable TRIM. Just use this app to enable TRIM. Also, read this.

Thanks!!!

So my brother's computer has Maverick on it. Can i download a dmg file of the maverick and put it on a USB stick? Then AFTER i mac journaled the SSD from boot up... inser the USB stick and install the maverick osx.dmg file??

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks!!!

So my brother's computer has Maverick on it. Can i download a dmg file of the maverick and put it on a USB stick? Then AFTER i mac journaled the SSD from boot up... inser the USB stick and install the maverick osx.dmg file??

Ah good... yes that would work. Just go to the App Store on his Mac and redownload Mavericks then quit the installer when it launches. Then pop in a 8GB or larger USB key and run this app to create the USB key installer for yourself from the Mavericks download.

Then option key boot to the USB key on your Mac and format the drive like I described then install the OS.

Then if you want after you can sign in to the App Store and get Yosemite for yourself.