new hard drive..how to install OS?

[jobpros]

I have a macbook pro that I had to replace the hard drive. I installed a new hard drive. I downloaded mountain lion and burned to a DVD.

I was able to power up the unit to put disk in and then shut down the system. I restarted, pressed the "c" key . it found the disk, but when I clikcked on the disc icon, another screen came up with a big ? mark inside a folder. I'm assuming it can't read the disk.

I called apple support and they told that the hard drive has to be formatted and need to bring to store. Unfortunately, the apple store is far away.

I was hoping to get your feedback/direction to assist me getting this up and running again.

any help would be appreciated as I'm no expert.

 

[monkeybagel]

What model (year) laptop do you have, and what OS X version did it come with?

 

[jobpros]

What model (year) laptop do you have, and what OS X version did it come with?

I have an early 2011 macbook pro
I don't remember what the original OS was

 

[monkeybagel]

I have an early 2011 macbook pro
I don't remember what the original OS was

Was your disc a double layer disc? It would have to be for 10.8.

I would see if your laptop has Internet Recovery in the EFI by turning it on and immediately pressing and holding Command + Option + R.

That will attempt to boot from the Internet and will probably install Lion but will at least get you up and running and you can upgrade to 10.8 from there.

 

[Macman45]

If you have access to a working machine, download Diskmaker (free)


http://www.cultofmac.com/180518/sin...on-diskmaker-gets-os-x-mountain-lion-support/

Download a copy of ML and make the bootable USB stick following the instructions.

Insert the USB stick into your Mac and boot whilst holding down the OPTION key.

Choose EFI boot and install a fresh copy of ML to the new drive.

 

[jobpros]

Was your disc a double layer disc? It would have to be for 10.8.

I would see if your laptop has Internet Recovery in the EFI by turning it on and immediately pressing and holding Command + Option + R.

That will attempt to boot from the Internet and will probably install Lion but will at least get you up and running and you can upgrade to 10.8 from there.

I tried doing this, but for some reason my password is not working when trying to connect ro wireless network.
any ideas?

----------

If you have access to a working machine, download Diskmaker (free)


http://www.cultofmac.com/180518/sin...on-diskmaker-gets-os-x-mountain-lion-support/

Download a copy of ML and make the bootable USB stick following the instructions.

Insert the USB stick into your Mac and boot whilst holding down the OPTION key.

Choose EFI boot and install a fresh copy of ML to the new drive.

I tried doing this and made a dvd with the sofware. when powering upand pushing option key, it doesn't even bring up the efi menu

i need to format this drive first. how do I do that?

 

[Weaselboy]

I tried doing this, but for some reason my password is not working when trying to connect ro wireless network.
any ideas?

Make sure your router is setup to "show SSID" and is using WPA for password security. If you are using the older WEP security it will not work.

Then do a command-r boot to Internet Recovery (your 2011 machine will support this). Once in the recovery screen select Disk Utility and format the new drive as Mac OS Extended. Then proceed with the OS install. This will get you a Lion install. Then start the machine on Lion and go to the App Store app and enter your Apple ID and redownload and install Mountain Lion.

Not as fast/nice as installing from a USB key or DVD, but your installer devices seem to be jacked... so this will get you going.