Leopard Install DVD won't recognize SSD

[Kevin L.]

A friend has an older black MacBook with the Core Duo processor; he bought a new SSD and we formatted it externally, then installed it and tried to run the Leopard installer via DVD. No matter what I try, the Leopard installer won't "see" the SSD drive. If I boot-up from an external disk that has Leopard already installed, it can see that the SSD is in the MB and everything is fine, but when running the installer it stops seeing it.
I've reformatted it a few times on other computers, but when I try to run Disk Utility and Terminal inside the installer DVD, they can't see see the internal SSD either.
What's weird is that he was even able to install Tiger on the SSD from the Tiger DVD, but when he tried to do an upgrade within the OS, it wouldn't show the SSD. Also, Leopard installed on the MB fine via an old Toshiba drive, but it just won't see the SSD. In other words, I've tried every possible configuration to make sure that Leopard can work on the older MB, and to make sure that the hardware is able to recognize the internal SSD. It just seems to be an issue with the Leopard DVD.
Any ideas?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

You could clone a Mac OS X install on another HDD by booting from it while it is connected via USB or Firewire 400 to the properly formatted HDD* via CarbonCopyCloner (3.4.7 is still free and available for download) or SuperDuper!.

* How to format a new HDD to install Mac OS X onto (or make a bootable copy onto)​

 

[Kevin L.]

That's exactly what we ended up doing; thanks for the good idea though!
I wanted to still help him do a clean install and it's driving me nuts why Leopard can't see the drive.

 

[Edz2]

Installing Leopard on 1.42 GHz eMac

Can any of you please help me run Leopard off my external HD? The eMac reads and writes to my external HD no problem, but it doesn't seem to find it when I hold the option key down on boot or in the Startup Disk options.
I used Disk Utilities to format my external HD to APM and restored Leopard onto it. I am using a FireWire so idk what else to do.

 

[DeltaMac]

Can any of you please help me run Leopard off my external HD? The eMac reads and writes to my external HD no problem, but it doesn't seem to find it when I hold the option key down on boot or in the Startup Disk options.
I used Disk Utilities to format my external HD to APM and restored Leopard onto it. I am using a FireWire so idk what else to do.

If you connect your external HD to your eMac, open Disk Utility. Choose your external hard drive from the list. Be sure to choose the line with manufacturer's info, not a line with the name that you gave the partition.
You should see Partition Map Scheme at the bottom of the window - which should be Apple Partition Map, or APM, and NOT GUID
If you select the name of your hard drive partition, then you should also see that the partition is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and not something else, like MS-DOS or ExFAT. If you have the wrong format, you will need to erase that external again, and start over.

 

[Edz2]

If you select the name of your hard drive partition, then you should also see that the partition is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled), and not something else, like MS-DOS or ExFAT. If you have the wrong format, you will need to erase that external again, and start over.

Thanks. Did all that twice. Still no go

 

[DeltaMac]

Thanks. Did all that twice. Still no go

I offered that as a suggestion, so you would respond back with what you found.
So - can you give me more information? Some of this may not appear to be related, but it may help me decide how to help you more effectively.

Does your hard drive appear to have both the correct format, and the correct partition map?

Is your external connected through Firewire (and not USB) to your eMac?
(be sure that you are not "helping" by also connecting with USB - I've seen others do this so I have to ask… )
What capacity hard drive is your external?
How much RAM is installed in your eMac?

Finally - how exactly are you "restoring" Leopard to the hard drive?
Here's a method that should work: Erase the external.
Launch Disk Utility.
Erase the external.
choose the Restore tab, and set your internal hard drive as the Source, and then the external as the destination. And - click Restore. You shouldn't change ANY other settings, just a simple restore. That will completely copy your internal hard drive to the external - and SHOULD give you a bootable hard drive from your external.
If that is exactly what you have already tried (several times), then you need to tell me more information about your external drive, such as the manufacturer of the enclosure (LaCie, OWC, etc) and model number, if you know it.