before starting any of this…there is a device that you can use that comes with the IFixit kit to format and either clone or restore your hard drive to the new drive…it will save you a lot of headaches..it is a SSD enclosure that you can plug into your existing computer …

also…in the IFixit kit there was a device that I believe was there to format the new drive before putting it in…I wish had had that info..I will. repeat this in the firs comments on the instructions

they replacement went fine without a hitch…when I booted it up..the “chrome” was there and then first a ø. then..a folder with a ?…,.,

I was able to boot into recovery….still no hard drive to re install backup…it couldn’t see the new drive….sio after reading all these posts and realizing the new SSD might not be formatted…I checked it with disk utility in the recovery screen…it WAS unformatted…so I selected it and erased it…formatted in 2 seconds and was able to restore my latest backup…whew! hope this helps anyone