Chosen Solution
My hard drive died recently so I replaced it, but now, in the process of trying to clean install Yosemite via a flash drive, I’m having a problem. To install Yosemite on the flash drive I used DiskMaker X 4b4, upon the suggestion of this post: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-burn-os-x-y…. When I try to install Yosemite from the flash onto my new hard drive, though, my computer isn’t recognizing the presence of my hard drive - the only device it’s recognizing is the flash drive. When I look in Disk Utility, though, it recognizes my hard drive. Any advice?
That sorta makes sense here… First your drive is virgin so you do need to prep it by setting up a partition on it via Disk Utility. Once the partition is created you can then install onto it the OS. But before we go there, is your USB drive booting up under OS-X correctly, and the OS installer is able to run - Correct? If so you should be all set from that side of the issue. But, did you make sure the systems firmware was upto date? If not follow this Apple T/N: EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs. Also did my make sure you got the correct HD? Your systems SATA port is SATA II (3.0 Gb/s). Not all HD’s will work in your system reliably! If you give us the drives make & model we can double check it for you.
