Same here. I have the same MBP from March and my system randomly tries to entertain me with a spinning beach ball for about 30 seconds several times a day. I hope they eventually come out with a fix ... or perhaps upgrading to Snow Leopard will be another option.
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Apple Releases Fix for MacBook Pro Hard Drive Issues
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Think you should have bought AppleCare or taken it back withing the first 30 days.
I haven't had the wacky sounds and freeze-ups since installing this yesterday. It's looking like it solved the problem for me. Excellent.
Apple should just 'fess up to using the nForce chipset wasn't such a good idea after all... Their graphics are ok (mostly...) but the chipsets are just cheap, embarrassing stuff. What the hell are they doing in an Apple product?
Wouldn't it be easiest to stay clear of the seagate drives? I think it would be worth $99 or so a new HD would cost to get rid of this issue for good. Samsung makes a nice 500GB drive, as does WD. I know Seagate makes the only 500GB 7200 drive but if it comes at the cost of system freezes it's just not worth it.
I installed a WD 7200 RPM 320GB in my umbp 17 early 2009, it's just fine, never had this issue. I also wasn't offered the firmware update.
I installed a WD 7200 RPM 320GB in my umbp 17 early 2009, it's just fine, never had this issue. I also wasn't offered the firmware update.
I just installed the Seagate 7200.4 in my 2 yr. old 2.33GHz MBP and it doesn't have any of the issues. I see that it is the ST9500420AS (No G) model, and now that I look closely at the box, it doesn't say anything about motion detection or G forces. Got to be very careful about what you buy at Fry's.
i guess for drives its pretty subjective..some claim their WD drives all fail... Seagate's great, but personally, the only drives i had that failed are Maxtors...
10 Years ago, WD sucked and Seagate was great. This year, Seagate's had a bunch of problems and WD was great. Hitachi and Samsung are always second tier.
But yeah, Maxtor's always have sucked. I have a slew of ones with dead actuator arms sitting on a shelf
.As always, YMMV, this is my experience/opinion.
Hitachi bought IBM hard drives some years ago, and at that time IBM was the greatest. You might want to adjust that opinion
this is exactly what Google's large scale study on hard drives said too: There are no differences between manufacturers - you can't say one is good and one is bad. But there are differences between specific batches of hard drives. One year this brand had a bad batch, one year another.
Got a few WD HDs this year and they're all fine, no failures. In the previous years I've had a couple of Hitachi 7k models fail on me - though I think it's more because of heat than anything else. The old MacBook Pro was just not made to dissipate HD heat enough - the unibody models are much better in this regard.
Those of you who are experiencing system freezes with a Seagate ASG drive installed should try to deactivate SMS.
Read this: Apple Portables: Advanced tips for Sudden Motion Sensor
I've used the 500 GB 7200.4 with G-Forece protection (ST9500420ASG) in both the 2008 MacBook Pro 2,53 GHz and the early 2009 MacBook Pro 2,66 GHz. I had total system freezes and the computer was unusable until I figured it out and deactivated the SMS. No problems since then. Performance in AJA System Test lies around 70-80 MB/s.
I have not heard any of the sounds that are being reported. Guess I'm lucky...
I really don't understand why Apple aren't installing the non g-force drive in their computers. Either they got them cheap from Seagate or the just don't have a clue (which would be rather unlikely).
Read this: Apple Portables: Advanced tips for Sudden Motion Sensor
I've used the 500 GB 7200.4 with G-Forece protection (ST9500420ASG) in both the 2008 MacBook Pro 2,53 GHz and the early 2009 MacBook Pro 2,66 GHz. I had total system freezes and the computer was unusable until I figured it out and deactivated the SMS. No problems since then. Performance in AJA System Test lies around 70-80 MB/s.
I have not heard any of the sounds that are being reported. Guess I'm lucky...
I really don't understand why Apple aren't installing the non g-force drive in their computers. Either they got them cheap from Seagate or the just don't have a clue (which would be rather unlikely).
Question re 500 GB 7200 rpm drives
Say, Nictan, did you ever find out about what drive models are affected? I have a MacBook Pro 17" with a 320GB drive running 7200 rpm (a Hitachi Travelstar model) and Hitachi now has a 500GB drive model out for the MacBook Pro (model number 7K500, HTS725050A9A364). The key is does the motherboard support 7200 rpm, but my computer should since it came factory installed with a 320GB 7200 rpm drive. Don't want to upgrade to 500GB, though, if freeze / beep problems will occur -- but this whole thread has been on the Seagate model not Hitachi. Hope to hear from you.
dlemper
Say, Nictan, did you ever find out about what drive models are affected? I have a MacBook Pro 17" with a 320GB drive running 7200 rpm (a Hitachi Travelstar model) and Hitachi now has a 500GB drive model out for the MacBook Pro (model number 7K500, HTS725050A9A364). The key is does the motherboard support 7200 rpm, but my computer should since it came factory installed with a 320GB 7200 rpm drive. Don't want to upgrade to 500GB, though, if freeze / beep problems will occur -- but this whole thread has been on the Seagate model not Hitachi. Hope to hear from you.
dlemper