Hello, new member here and this is my first post to MacRumors. I'm hoping you folks can help me solve my dilemma. I'm having trouble trying to switch out my hard drive, and I'm so frustrated I'm about to give up.
I've purchased a 2 Tb Western digital Black Label drive to replace the original Western Digital 650 Gb drive. Physically, the old and new drives look the same, and use the same electrical connections. Using a USB adapter cable, I have successfully formatted the new drive, installed El Capitan and restored my data from my external backup disk with Time Machine.
Here is my conundrum: With the old drive still installed in the mac and the new drive connected via USB adapter I can use the Option key to select the boot drive. All drives show up, including the old, internal HD, my external backup HD, and the new WD 2 Tb drive. When I select the new drive (connected via USB) the computer boots up and runs just fine. However, when I install the new drive in the mac I cannot get it to boot up at all. When I try to use the option key to select the boot drive all I get is the white screen of death. I've tried this with all three drives connected, and with only the newly installed drive on board, and I get the same results each time. Also, the only keystroke that seems to work with the new drive installed is CMD+Option+P+R to reset the PRAM. I just can't figure why I can boot from the new drive when it's connected via USB, but not when it's installed in the mac.
I have an early 2009 24" iMac that I've updated to El Capitan. I use a wired Mac keyboard.
I've searched online and haven't been able to find information on how to resolve this particular problem. If anyone has any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong, or what step I am missing I would sure appreciate some advice.
Thanks in advance.
I've purchased a 2 Tb Western digital Black Label drive to replace the original Western Digital 650 Gb drive. Physically, the old and new drives look the same, and use the same electrical connections. Using a USB adapter cable, I have successfully formatted the new drive, installed El Capitan and restored my data from my external backup disk with Time Machine.
Here is my conundrum: With the old drive still installed in the mac and the new drive connected via USB adapter I can use the Option key to select the boot drive. All drives show up, including the old, internal HD, my external backup HD, and the new WD 2 Tb drive. When I select the new drive (connected via USB) the computer boots up and runs just fine. However, when I install the new drive in the mac I cannot get it to boot up at all. When I try to use the option key to select the boot drive all I get is the white screen of death. I've tried this with all three drives connected, and with only the newly installed drive on board, and I get the same results each time. Also, the only keystroke that seems to work with the new drive installed is CMD+Option+P+R to reset the PRAM. I just can't figure why I can boot from the new drive when it's connected via USB, but not when it's installed in the mac.
I have an early 2009 24" iMac that I've updated to El Capitan. I use a wired Mac keyboard.
I've searched online and haven't been able to find information on how to resolve this particular problem. If anyone has any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong, or what step I am missing I would sure appreciate some advice.
Thanks in advance.