Clover->MacOS Installer->..HD not detected

[jttraverse]

For some reason after booting the Clover USB and getting all the way to the MacOS Installer screen where you select the hard drive to install Sierra...the drive is not showing up.

I've been working on this a few days, and the drive does show up in my running version of OS X (Mountain Lion) where I can erase/partition it as required. So I'm lost as to why it won't show up now for the installer. If it may matter, I previously had 'restored' the ML version to that drive thinking I'd just switch to it. For days the drive had always been detected in the Clover boot menu and elsewhere. However, trying to get past other glitches, I erased it and partitioned it using Disk Utility (Mac OS extended and journaled), which I don't think should have hurt anything, but now, even though it's detected in BIOS and it's detected in the working version of ML--whenever I boot up the Clover USB and go all the way to where I'd select it in the Mac installation...it's not there.

Anyone have any ideas why that happens?
Fwiw, it's only an older 80gb WD drive, so I don't think the size is an issue. This is an older MSI X58 core i7 machine, with an Nvidia graphics card, the same machine currently running Mountain Lion just fine (a dual-boot with Windows).
-JT

 

[cmn699]

To help figure out the problem I suggest the following:
Shut Down the computer , Power Off, remove the Power cable from its socket on the Computer's PSU,
Push the Power button to discharge any residual current from the Mother board and
Disconnect all the hard disks from the SATA ports EXCEPT the target disk for Sierra Installation and
Reconnect PWR cable .
Insert Sierra USB Installer in USB 2.0 port .[ Is it Legacy or UEFI USB Sierra Installer ? Please let us know]
Restart the Computer.
Press Del key and Enter the BIOS Setup and press F-7 and Save to Load Optimized BIOS
Reset the Month Date Year and Time to the current.
Load all BIOS options for Sierra Installation per the Installation GUIDE. [ Please List your choices to share with the readers]
Make your Sierra USB Installer as First Boot and the Target WD SATA HDD as the 2nd boot device
Take Picture of your Boot Options screen to show how you have setup your options and upload the image with your post.
MAKE SURE you have NOT missed to make your SATA Controller in AHCI mode which is an over looked option causing a missing HDD at the Installation screen!
Take a Photo of SATA Controller choice to upload.
Press F10 and Reboot and Press F12 and Select your Sierra USB Installer to Enter Clover Boot Manager Screen
Make sure you have the correct Boot flags INCLUDING -v to boot the Installer disk.
In the Utility>Disk Utility screen Take a Picture to upload and if your disk is seen Partition and Format to proceed with Installation.

Good luck

 

[jrii]

Are you sure your HD is set to AHCI mode?

 

[jttraverse]

Thank you cmn699 and jrii for replying and giving me suggestions to check (and double-check, which I did, and even reset my CMOS and reloaded things just on the chance something was awry there). It did eventually lead me to the problem, which was apparently my own goof. I had it, but had forgotten to load, IOATAFamily.kext.

After reading somewhere that there was a rumor Sierra had issues with some WD drives, I changed to a Samsung but found that one wasn't being seen either. So it was an ATA problem apparently, and the kext seems to have fixed it.

I've now managed to install Sierra on the drive, set things up, and then used Multibeast to finish up...arg, but booting now from the drive itself leads to a black screen with the white crossed circle (in verbose mode it stops at some issue with either USB ports or HID: Legacy shim 2...whatever that is). I'll post another question on that.

But at least I made progress...so thanks for that.

 

[40Boulos]

Asus P5K Q8200 mem 4GB Asus Nvidia EN210;
in bios SATA config [AHCI] settings [HD] correctly identified: HD however not seen by Mac OS disk utility/legacy-installer HS. Impossible to get -v verbose.
Has anybody encountered/solved this problem? Kindly advise solution; help will be highly appreciated.