I bought a new hard drive for my MacBook Pro (2009)

I bought a new hard drive for my MacBook Pro (2009)

I installed a new hard drive in my 2009 Macbook Pro 15. The previous one moved to an external enclosure. I do not own any installation discs for this laptop, yet I somehow need to get an operating system loaded. When I turn on the machine, it displays a white screen with a light-grey folder bearing a question mark, flashing. I have tried holding down keys to enter Disk Utility or Safe Mode, to no avail. Holding ‘option’ does remove the folder icon, and produce a cursor for the trackpad, yet no more than that. How do I get an OS on this hard drive?

Asked by: Guest | Views: 234

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bert [Entry]

Plug in the external enclosure with the old hard drive. Hold down the option key on boot and select it. Go to Disk Utilities and format the new drive GUID MacOSX extended. Now you can install a system from the old drive or download El Capitan and install it on the new drive. Boot from the new drive and use migration assistant to move your old data.