My SSD is borked so I’ve just got a new one under warranty

I’ve got a Time Machine backup on an external drive

How do I format the new SSD so that the Mac can see it and then I can do the restore

This should sort you out I believe..

Time Machine restore

Put in the new drive.
Boot from the internet
Open ultility( not time machine it wont see your new drive)
Format the drive cant remember what the settings should be but its default and will be on google.
Now open time machine.
It will ask which drive to load to and show your new formatted drive.
Load to new ( and wish you had just done a fresh restore)

hmmm maybe theres another problem – cant even see the drive to format it in disk utility

So right now .. you have borked ssd still in the machine, time machine connected to usb and have booted from the internet ?

So right now .. you have borked ssd still in the machine, time machine connected to usb and have booted from the internet ?

EDIT: Sorry just re-read your post.

If you put the new ssd into the computer you should be able to boot off the internet and then use DiskUtility to format the new ssd (mac os journaled) which you should see listed. Then with Time Machine connected you can “restore from backup”. This is what I usually do with one exception that I make a usb drive startup drive but as your old ssd was dead you can’t do that.

OP do you have an external caddy ? If so you could put the new ssd in it to see if there is a problem with it (unlikely) or something inside like the sata drive cable.

Beat me to it jam….i have had to replace 2 sata cables.

Are there cables in a macbook?
Open up the case wiggle it about a bit if its still not seen its possibly a duff one.

Lay your hands upon it and say ‘Steve Jobs’ backwards three times and it’ll all sort itself out

OK thanks all will order an external caddy as the mac isnt seeing the new disk in time machine

OK thanks all will order an external caddy as the mac isnt seeing the new disk in time machine

James this sentence doesn’t make sense to me. You need to look for the new ssd in DiskUtility which is one of the options in the <cmd> startup mode. Getting a caddy is a good idea.

If you want to try and start the machine up while doing a video call via your phone I can try and take a look. Schedule for later today ? I am helping my BIL with selecting new PCs/Mac for his office and doing a health check on SIL iMac from about 2:30 today but will be free this evening. Note I am just a keen amateur but have swithed out 5 Mac drives now for myself, friends and family.

We have a number of macs in the office that die because of the cable rather than the disk itself.