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1TB HDD Early 2011 MacBook Pro

Mainbeam

Mainbeam

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 15, 2012
39
1
Liverpool, GB
Hi Guys, I am hoping to upgrade my MacBook by installing a 1TB HDD and a 256GB SSD. This is the HDD I want to buy http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitachi-Tra...-Drive/dp/B007Y4BOH8/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

This is the SSD I want to buy http://www.amazon.co.uk/Crucial-CT2...id=1368902926&sr=8-2&keywords=ssd+macbook+pro

Can anyone tell me if this will fit? Also is it important to house the SSD in the original HDD location in order for hibernation mode to work? I will be buying a caddy to put the 2nd drive where my DVD drive is currently.

Is there anyone who has successfully completed this upgrade and what are your thoughts on performance etc?

Also, I am a bit concerned about how I will get OSX Mountain Lion onto the new SSD as I downloaded it from the App store.

My plan is to use the SSD as the start up disk and have all my apps boot from the SSD. How do I set up my apps to run from the SSD? The HDD will be used for storing all my pictures, music etc.

Sorry if this has been previously discussed on this forum.

Advanced thanks to any helpful replies.

Cheers

Paul
 
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Hold off on the Hitachi 1TB HDD...

Don't buy it yet.

I did and it doesn't work in my early 2011 MBP optical bay with fenvi caddies. Perhaps because it's SATA-III.

But I have yet to try the 'OWC Data Doubler bundle' caddy so it may work with that.

Can anyone else confirm whether or not this 1TB drive can work in the optibay for the early 2011 MBP?
 
SATA III drives will not work reliably in the optibay of 2011 uMBP-15s. Though the optibay does use a SATA III interface, it may or may not actually work with your SATA III drive. If you use a SATA II drive in the optibay, you should be fine.


___
 
NewishMacGuy said:
SATA III drives will not work reliably in the optibay of 2011 uMBP-15s. Though the optibay does use a SATA III interface, it may or may not actually work with your SATA III drive. If you use a SATA II drive in the optibay, you should be fine.


___
Click to expand...

Just the 15 inch cMBP or also the 13 inch?
 
Root cause of the instability when running the 1TB SATA3 Hitachi drive on MBP 2011

Romarion said:
Hold off on the Hitachi 1TB HDD...

Don't buy it yet.

I did and it doesn't work in my early 2011 MBP optical bay with fenvi caddies. Perhaps because it's SATA-III.

But I have yet to try the 'OWC Data Doubler bundle' caddy so it may work with that.

Can anyone else confirm whether or not this 1TB drive can work in the optibay for the early 2011 MBP?
Click to expand...

NewishMacGuy said:
SATA III drives will not work reliably in the optibay of 2011 uMBP-15s. Though the optibay does use a SATA III interface, it may or may not actually work with your SATA III drive. If you use a SATA II drive in the optibay, you should be fine.


___
Click to expand...

Hi, I used to have the same problem when using an 1TB-7200rpm-SATA3 Hitachi drive in my late MBP 2011 15"

I plugged it to the main bay and it was recognized at 6Gbps. But it ran very unstable as sometimes the whole drive hang for 20-30s (I/O error in the system log).

It turned out the root cause was neither my MBP, nor the SATA cable, but the Drive itself. When running at full SATA 3 speed, it will be very unstable like. I contacted Hitachi support and ask them for the tool which can modify the drive so that it will run at SATA 2 only. When I got the tool, I used it to force the drive running at SATA 2 speed only. And the drive is now running happily in my machine in the main bay at SATA 2 speed, along with my SSD running at SATA 3 in the optibay.

Hope this information could help you who is having trouble with this infamous drive.
 
Last edited:
phamhainguyen68 said:
Hi, I used to have the same problem when using an 1TB-7200rpm-SATA3 Hitachi drive in my late MBP 2011 15"

I plugged it to the main bay and it was recognized at 6Gbps. But it ran very unstable as sometimes the whole drive hang for 20-30s (I/O error in the system log).

It turned out the root cause was neither my MBP, nor the SATA cable, but the Drive itself. When running at full SATA 3 speed, it will be very unstable like. I contacted Hitachi support and ask them for the tool which can modify the drive so that it will run at SATA 2 only. And the drive is now running happily in my machine in the main bay at SATA 2 speed, along with my SSD running at SATA 3 in the optibay.

Hope this information could help you who is having trouble with this infamous drive.
Click to expand...

Something doesn't make sense here.

You used the tool to run it in SATA 2, then put it in the main bay while putting the SSD in the Optibay.:confused:
 
justperry said:
Something doesn't make sense here.

You used the tool to run it in SATA 2, then put it in the main bay while putting the SSD in the Optibay.:confused:
Click to expand...

As both of them (main bay & optibay) can work at 6Gbps so I decided to put the drive in the main bay so that it will be easier to upgrade the HDD (I will not upgrade the SSD for the next few years).
 
phamhainguyen68 said:
As both of them (main bay & optibay) can work at 6Gbps so I decided to put the drive in the main bay so that it will be easier to upgrade the HDD (I will not upgrade the SSD for the next few years).
Click to expand...

So, you didn't need the tool, didn't use it, read your own post, or the bits I highlighted in Red and Bold.:p
It just does not make sense, that was my point.
No worries though.
 
justperry said:
So, you didn't need the tool, didn't use it, read your own post, or the bits I highlighted in Red and Bold.:p
It just does not make sense, that was my point.
No worries though.
Click to expand...

Sorry for not making myself clear...

I used the tool, of course. Because originally, the drive can run at SATA 3 speed which causes the instability.
 
I have no problem with the Travelstar 7K1000 in the proper place of an early 2011 MBP.
 
cube said:
I have no problem with the Travelstar 7K1000 in the proper place of an early 2011 MBP.
Click to expand...

Could you take a look at the Negotiated Link Speed of the Drive in the System Info?

For my case, it was 6Gbps and it caused a lot of trouble to me.
 
OK.... so I've decided to try and disable the SATA 3 on teh 1TB drive and see if that works.

Thus far I've:

1) downloaded the Hiatachi Feature Tool .img from - http://www.hgst.com/support/index-files/simpletech-legacy-downloads#FeatureTool

2) told parallels desktop to see the .img as a floppy drive then booted from it - it works!

3) Hitachi tool scans for drives and says "no drives found". I tried with the 500gb HDD in the optibay and the 1TB in there as well. Nothing...

Anyone want to a guess as to how to get the tool to see these HDDs?

Oh the woes of persistence :)
 
Last edited:
SanJacinto said:
Just the 15 inch cMBP or also the 13 inch?
Click to expand...

15" and 17" have the SATA III interface which won't run SATA III drives reliably in the optibay. I think the early 2011 (and possibly later 2011) 13" specs were SATA II in the optibay.


___

----------
yusukeaoki said:
The early 2011 model only has SATAII for optibay.
I went for Samsung Spinpoint instead and works fine.
Click to expand...

The uMBP-15 and 17 from early 2011 have SATA III interfaces in the optibay, but they won't run reliably (hit or miss).


__
 
Ok. Update - I'm still trying to get the infamous 1TB hiatachi to work in the early 2011 MBP!!

The current strategy?
Disable SATA3 on the drive to force it to run in SATA2.

How?
Use the Hitachi Feature Tool - http://www.hgst.com/support/index-fi...ds#FeatureTool

Progress?
I can access the tool but in one case, it can't see any drives, and in the other case, i can't get far enough to see if it can see the 1TB drive.

Here's how i've accessed the tool:
1) The way where I 'can't see the drives'
ran Parallels Desktop, set Hitachi Feature Tool.img file as a floppy image, booted from this floppy image --> WORKS, however, it can't see any of my HDDs... why not?​

2) 'the way where I can't get that far...'
burned the Feature Tool.iso to a CD and boot from that CD at startup. Works too but since it's DOS and doens't have any mac keyboard drivers, I can't navigate!​

Does anyone know how to either:
1) get the tool to see my SATA hdds using parallels when booting from an image? or
2) boot to the tool from a CD with keyboard drivers on a mac?

At the moment my setup is:
SSD in main
HDD in opti
 
You're barking up the wrong tree trying to get it to work within Parallels. So, skip that path from now on and focus on getting a keyboard working in that booted DOS environment.

Perhaps a USB keyboard of some type, but if I remember right, I believe the Apple keyboard in their laptops are wired internally to the USB controller (could be wrong though). If so, then you're going to need to get some DOS-based USB drivers in order to get the keyboard working.

An easier strategy might be to look at the physical drive itself. I'm not familiar with those particular drives yet, but I would see if there are any pins on it beside the SATA and Power connectors. If there are, they might allow you to set the SATA mode for the drive (it's a rather big stretch though.)
 
Romarion said:
Ok. Update - I'm still trying to get the infamous 1TB hiatachi to work in the early 2011 MBP!!

The current strategy?
Disable SATA3 on the drive to force it to run in SATA2.

How?
Use the Hitachi Feature Tool - http://www.hgst.com/support/index-fi...ds#FeatureTool

Progress?
I can access the tool but in one case, it can't see any drives, and in the other case, i can't get far enough to see if it can see the 1TB drive.

Here's how i've accessed the tool:
1) The way where I 'can't see the drives'
ran Parallels Desktop, set Hitachi Feature Tool.img file as a floppy image, booted from this floppy image --> WORKS, however, it can't see any of my HDDs... why not?​

2) 'the way where I can't get that far...'
burned the Feature Tool.iso to a CD and boot from that CD at startup. Works too but since it's DOS and doens't have any mac keyboard drivers, I can't navigate!​

Does anyone know how to either:
1) get the tool to see my SATA hdds using parallels when booting from an image? or
2) boot to the tool from a CD with keyboard drivers on a mac?

At the moment my setup is:
SSD in main
HDD in opti
Click to expand...

Parallels can not help you in this situation. You have to boot the computer from the CD. But because you can not use they keyboard, I suggest you should find an external USB keyboard, hoping it work.

Another method is to plug the HDD into a PC and try to boot the CD from it (this is exactly what I've done).
 
phamhainguyen68 said:
Parallels can not help you in this situation. You have to boot the computer from the CD. But because you can not use they keyboard, I suggest you should find an external USB keyboard, hoping it work.

Another method is to plug the HDD into a PC and try to boot the CD from it (this is exactly what I've done).
Click to expand...

Ok i'll try a keyboard. And post results.

Will i need to have the 1TB drive in my main drive or do you think it'll be able to see it externally?
 
Romarion said:
Ok i'll try a keyboard. And post results.

Will i need to have the 1TB drive in my main drive or do you think it'll be able to see it externally?
Click to expand...

Most likely you need to have the drive connected to your computer via SATA connection. I don't think the tool is smart enough to recognise it through USB/thunderbolt/Firewire port...
 
Romarion said:
Ok i'll try a keyboard. And post results.
Click to expand...

SOLVED!

The problem was that the 1TB drive was set to run at SATA 3 which was causing drama in both the optical and main bays.

I ended up using the Feature Tool to disable SATA 3 and run it at 3gbps (SATA2).

Thank you to phamhainguyen68 who gave me the winning Feature Tool that works with osx HDDFT10.iso

:)
 
Hi,
Please! someone could send me the HDDFT10.iso who work on mac osx for the travelstar 7K1000 who causes issues in optibay in sata 3, even if my macbook is a mid 2012, I test with the original apple hard drive which is in sata 2 and It was ok,

I can't find the file HDDFT10, so I wait for you help me!
Thank you and sorry for my poor english ;-)
 
Romarion said:
SOLVED!

The problem was that the 1TB drive was set to run at SATA 3 which was causing drama in both the optical and main bays.

I ended up using the Feature Tool to disable SATA 3 and run it at 3gbps (SATA2).

Thank you to phamhainguyen68 who gave me the winning Feature Tool that works with osx HDDFT10.iso

:)
Click to expand...

Very Interesting...so the Hitachi Tool actually enabled you to change a SATA 3 HDD into an SATA 2 device? (The manual, dated 2009, only talks about SATA 1.5 and SATA 2).

I have an early 2011 MBP which is notionally SATA3 for the optical bay, but as NewishMacGuy says, SATA 3 just doesn't work in 2011 MBPs (at least the 15 and 17 in models). I would really like to put one of the new 1.5 Tb HDDs but can't because it is SATA 3. Sounds like the Hitachi Tool would enable me to convert it to SATA 2.

Incidentally I currently have a Samsung HN M101 HDD (SATA 2) in the optical bay and it works well as gorskiegangsta says.
 
Sata 3 in the optibay on 2011 machines other than 13" is often broken and causes disk errors.

This is why I am running a hybrid - if you want to risk it, go for it, but there is heaps of documented cases of people's optibay screwing up when run at SATA3 speed.
 
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