My hard drive died in my MBP a few days ago, so I went out and bought a new Western Digital 2.5" Scorpio 320 GB HD from Fry's. It even said on the side of the box it supported the Mac OS. So I install it, I install Mac OS X, and was then at the point were you are asked to Migrate any old data. I chose yes, intending to migrate my user account from my External Hard Drive. The HDD was not detected, so I said "Oh, Well" and hit Go Back. The pinwheel replaced the mouse and just sat there spinning. I let it sit for about a minute and a half before doing a Hard Shutdown. I rebooted the computer and watched the Apple Welcome Video for the 2nd time, only this time the video froze when the big X started flipping onto the screen. The audio continued, but the video was frozen. The computer seemed unresponsive. I let it sit for a minute before saying ****, and restarted for the third time. This time I get a kernel panic while the apple logo is on the white screen with the loading circle under it. Great. Then I booted from my External Hard Drive to see if the hard drive was detected in Mac OS X. It was. At this point, I should have ran Disk Warrior or something, but I didn't. I ran a Verify from Disk Utility, which reported the drive to be a green 'OK'. I ran a Check Permissions, which froze Disk Utility half way through the test. I rebooted one more time, and now the disk is gone from the desktop, too. I am at a loss as to what I can do at this point. When the hard drive is not detected in any of my diagnostic programs, I can't get much accomplished. I can hear the HD running, so I know it has power. I thought maybe I should unplug it from the logic board, and plug it back in. But I did not have much faith that it would solve the problem, so I have not done that yet. I wish I did not have the only Macbook to date that does not have a conveniently accessible hard drive next to the battery. I have to take the damn top case off every time I want to do anything to the hard drive. Any suggestions? I find it hard to believe the hard drive could possibly be completely useless now, but I have no idea.
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New Hard Drive installed in MBP...Short Life now Dead??
- Thread starter aking94597
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This does not sound like a good situation.
One could speculate that the system has a problem and it may be eating hard drives. Speculation only.
Can you boot your Recovery DVD and run disk utility? It maybe time to run the hardware diagnostics (I think it is found on the second DVD).
Neil
One could speculate that the system has a problem and it may be eating hard drives. Speculation only.
Can you boot your Recovery DVD and run disk utility? It maybe time to run the hardware diagnostics (I think it is found on the second DVD).
Neil
What disc are you referring to as 'Recovery DVD'? If you mean Install Disc 1, then yes, I can run disk utility and the disk is not there. How do I run the diagnostic tools off of Install Disk 2?
i thought it was disk 1, but maybe I'm forgetting. Either way, hold down D on start up (instead of C) and the hardware test should start. Just be prepared for a very pre-OS X feeling to the whole deal. Good luck!
On my set of Recovery DVDs, the Hardware Test is on the second disk. Also, it is labeled as the Application Install DVD and has a note "To use Apple Hardware Test, hold down the D key as the computer starts up."
I have never found the need to run these tests.
Good Luck,
Neil
I have never found the need to run these tests.
Good Luck,
Neil
Thanks. I will try tomorrow.
BTW: The two gray install disks I have are entitled 'Install Disk 1' and 'Install Disk 2', and neither says anything about diagnostics. So I will just try both tomorrow.
BTW: The two gray install disks I have are entitled 'Install Disk 1' and 'Install Disk 2', and neither says anything about diagnostics. So I will just try both tomorrow.
Sorry it took so long, guys. I had some family issues come up. Anyway, I was not able to boot diagnostics from disc 1, it just proceeded to boot the Leopard Installer. One thing I have noticed, is that before I removed the hard drive, System Profiler gave me an 'error scanning for Serial-ATA (SATA) devices. Now that I have removed the HD, it correctly identifies the Intel SATA controller. I will plug the HD back in to see if it shows the error again.
Edit: Plugged HD back in. System Profiler says 'There was an error while scanning for Serial-ATA devices' again. HD does not show up on Desktop OR Installer OR Disk Utility. I am going to return the HD to Fry's claiming a defect and exchange for another. Just to be clear, is their anything special to do to a new hard drive before installing Leopard that I did not do? I booted the installer, formatted the drive using GUID, and then the install crashed during the Migration Assistant 'Volumes on this Mac' hard drive detection like previously mentioned. I am pretty sure the hard drive failed on it's own.
Edit: Plugged HD back in. System Profiler says 'There was an error while scanning for Serial-ATA devices' again. HD does not show up on Desktop OR Installer OR Disk Utility. I am going to return the HD to Fry's claiming a defect and exchange for another. Just to be clear, is their anything special to do to a new hard drive before installing Leopard that I did not do? I booted the installer, formatted the drive using GUID, and then the install crashed during the Migration Assistant 'Volumes on this Mac' hard drive detection like previously mentioned. I am pretty sure the hard drive failed on it's own.
I agree with you that the drive you replaced your failed on with is unfortunately defective itself. 
It is certainly possible and it sounds like your preparations were correct, so hopefully you just got a lemon straight from the manufacturer this time, particularly with the interference with scanning the SATA bus. I would guess that it was just bad luck and that another replacement prepared the same way will wind up being fine. Good luck.
It is certainly possible and it sounds like your preparations were correct, so hopefully you just got a lemon straight from the manufacturer this time, particularly with the interference with scanning the SATA bus. I would guess that it was just bad luck and that another replacement prepared the same way will wind up being fine. Good luck.More Fun
Ok, I installed a replacement of the exact same hard drive, and I can hear it humming. But it does not seem to be detected. I am back to the System Profiler 'there was an error scanning for Serial-ATA devices' crap. I know there is nothing wrong with the SATA controller because it is detected and reported as working without the hard drive plugged in. I haven't tried to format it or anything yet, because it is not detected in Leopard Installer. What the Hell !?!?
Edit: Reopened the case and checked the connections, still isn't detected, yet I can hear and feel it spinning up...
And there is nothing wrong with the ribbon cable or the front and keyboard lights wouldn't be working right now...
Edit 2: I ran a 3 minute Apple Diagnostics (Old OS9 thing) with the hd connected and everything (It isn't interfering with tthe boot process like the old one), and it said 'No trouble found'. I don't have time to run the hour long test, so I will do that tomorrow.
Ok, I installed a replacement of the exact same hard drive, and I can hear it humming. But it does not seem to be detected. I am back to the System Profiler 'there was an error scanning for Serial-ATA devices' crap. I know there is nothing wrong with the SATA controller because it is detected and reported as working without the hard drive plugged in. I haven't tried to format it or anything yet, because it is not detected in Leopard Installer. What the Hell !?!?
Edit: Reopened the case and checked the connections, still isn't detected, yet I can hear and feel it spinning up...
And there is nothing wrong with the ribbon cable or the front and keyboard lights wouldn't be working right now...
Edit 2: I ran a 3 minute Apple Diagnostics (Old OS9 thing) with the hd connected and everything (It isn't interfering with tthe boot process like the old one), and it said 'No trouble found'. I don't have time to run the hour long test, so I will do that tomorrow.
Have the HD in an external USB case and it is now recognized correctly in Disk Utility. I will attempt to format it, and hopefully after I format it, the computer will recognize the hard drive internally.
EDIT: Ok, formatted the drive. It went smoothly. But the drive still isn't being recognized anywhere. God this pisses me off. What the hell is wrong here? The drive is recognized in the external case, and I know the computer is supplying the hd power because I can put my ear up to the laptop case and hear it spinning at a decent speed. The only two things that come to mind, are
1) There is nothing wrong with the power connection of the SATA cable or controller but there is something wrong with the data connection.
Or
2) There is some hardware confliction that is preventing the computer to use the SATA controller correctly.
I don't see why this problem even arose, myself. I can't think of anything that I have done that would even have MAYBE caused this problem. The last time I remember any hard drive being recognized internally was when I bought the first replacement and installed OS X. Refer to the first post to see what happened. After that, nothing has been detected unless plugged in externally.
I have no idea how to approach this situation any further, and would appreciate any available help I can get.
EDIT: Ok, formatted the drive. It went smoothly. But the drive still isn't being recognized anywhere. God this pisses me off. What the hell is wrong here? The drive is recognized in the external case, and I know the computer is supplying the hd power because I can put my ear up to the laptop case and hear it spinning at a decent speed. The only two things that come to mind, are
1) There is nothing wrong with the power connection of the SATA cable or controller but there is something wrong with the data connection.
Or
2) There is some hardware confliction that is preventing the computer to use the SATA controller correctly.
I don't see why this problem even arose, myself. I can't think of anything that I have done that would even have MAYBE caused this problem. The last time I remember any hard drive being recognized internally was when I bought the first replacement and installed OS X. Refer to the first post to see what happened. After that, nothing has been detected unless plugged in externally.
I have no idea how to approach this situation any further, and would appreciate any available help I can get.
Sounds like a motherboard issue. Just remember, it is made in china, so it will break by itself. Macs are not Higher quality, they are made in the same factories as other laptops, and Laptops have an extremely High failure rate.
The Bottom Line: Unless it is a driver issue with the OS on the external drive, you need a new motherboard.
The Bottom Line: Unless it is a driver issue with the OS on the external drive, you need a new motherboard.
You've got to be f**king kidding me. Why would it just break like that? I realize it is made in china like 'all the other computers', but the thing is, I've never had a problem like this using 'all the other laptops'
I am guessing that since I still have a warranty, I can go into the apple store with the old defective hard drive installed and act dumb and they will see the problems and fix it? Because there is no reason for this to happen. No matter where it's manufactured, I still expect better than this from Apple.
BTW what are you talking about with the drivers?
I am guessing that since I still have a warranty, I can go into the apple store with the old defective hard drive installed and act dumb and they will see the problems and fix it? Because there is no reason for this to happen. No matter where it's manufactured, I still expect better than this from Apple.
BTW what are you talking about with the drivers?