Apple Working on Software Update for MacBook Pro Hard Drive Issues

[jmcguckin]

wow, glad to know I'm not the only one- I've actually been experiencing something very similar with the Seagate 7200.4 320GB drive in my late 2008 13" unibody MacBook... about every 2-3min, it spins down, freezes up, clicks, and then the drive audibly spins back up. not only are the noise and constant freeze-ups irritating, but I'm sure it can't be good for the drive...

oddly enough, I'd been using the drive for several months and never had any issues with it prior to installing Update 10.5.8 the other day... hmm.

 

[314631]

Im going to be buying a MBP in the very near future and getting one of those drives (7200) was on my list. Now im not so sure. Do u think i shud go ahead n buy the 7200 or get the slower bt more reliable version. Will be buying in about 4 weeks times.

Many thanks

Tom

I would wait until we see proof Apple is actually able to fix this issue. You do not want to have to have to deal with AppleCare and their so-called geniuses if you happen to get one of the machines with the defective drives in them.

As far as we know, they are still shipping the drives with G-Force which is against recommendations from Seagate (the drive manufacturer).

 

[0423379]

got a hitachi drive. same problem, but no beeping noise.
system will hang up or freeze for a bit and then go on and work for a good while. sometimes the freezes are more persistent.

15" 2.53 MBP (latest unibody)

 

[314631]

wow, glad to know I'm not the only one- I've actually been experiencing something very similar with the Seagate 7200.4 320GB drive in my late 2008 13" unibody MacBook... about every 2-3min, it spins down, freezes up, clicks, and then the drive audibly spins back up. not only are the noise and constant freeze-ups irritating, but I'm sure it can't be good for the drive...

oddly enough, I'd been using the drive for several months and never had any issues with it prior to installing Update 10.5.8 the other day... hmm.

Correct it is shortening your drives life.

 

[BJB Productions]

I've only been waiting for this since last NOVEMBER!

 

[InkMaster]

Hmm, I have a 17" from 2006, and after I installed a 500GB 5400RPM Western Digital in it last October or so, its been beeping too :/ - though no issues w/ any freezing up.

 

[polaris20]

exact same setup here, and I DO NOT get the clicking.

Yeah, I had the Seagate 7200.4 500GB in mine, and it vibrated like crazy, and was very noisy. Never had the beeps or freezes though. I ended up popping my OWC FW800 drive, taking the Hitachi 320GB 7.2K from that and putting it in my MBP, and now it's dead silent. I've got the 500GB in the OWC enclosure now.

 

[tommyGB]

js wondering, can you replace the HDD now that the battery is locked?

Tom

 

[karlfranz]

Another "Me Too"

I have a new 2.66GHz mid-2009 15" MacBook Pro with the standard 5400RPM 320GB HD and I also suffer from the random lockups where the beachball shows up for about 30 seconds for no apparent reason. I don't get the beeps, but I do notice that this system is definitely <b>much</b> more likely to click from sudden motion compared to my previous (Penryn early 2008) MacBook Pro.

One interesting thing about the freezes: I'll be using an app like Safari and it freezes with the beachball for no apparent reason. While Safari is still frozen, I use cmd-Tab to switch to another app and the cursor changes back to the standard arrow so it <b>looks</b> like that app is not locked up. However, as soon as I try to use that app, the cursor switches back to the beachball. Trying to cmd-Tab to any app that already displayed a beachball will not bring it to the foreground.

Also, if I run the Activity Monitor to see if any particular app is hogging up all the cpu cycles, the Activity Monitor will not update while an app is frozen.

 

[BJB Productions]

I only have a 250, but it won't boot up. It normally takes me about 2 hard boots upon startup to get it to spin up. I also sometimes get the clicking/beeping.

 

[Macman1993]

And I thought my computer was just unique lol. I hated it at first but I've actually come to like the little beep noise and being as I'm not having any freezing I'm ok with apple taking their time on this one and if they issue a recall I think I'll wait till an update on the MBP and then try just to see if I can get the same priced computer but better lol although my hopes aren't high on this one. I was impressed though when my old $1200 MB got replaced they didn't give me a computer with the same specs but the current $1200 MB which I put towards a new MBP

 

[Powerbooky]

Why am I not surprised? Seagate never seems to learn making quality hard drives. Some 15 years ago Seagate already had mechanical issues with almost every drive. And up till today nothing had changed. They didn't even learn from the companies they bought over the years (IBM, Quantum).

I work for some large TV networks and each have medium, large or very large scale storage systems. High reliability is key here, or nothing will air. And very few sites actually use Seagate. The small (budget) stations that do typically need a lot more spare drives ready on the shelf.

Call me crazy, but it almost seems that Seagate intentionally makes crappy drives, so that customers have to buy new drives sooner.

Seriously... Apple really should stop using Seagate.

 

[miketcool]

I just sent a guy home to backup his system because his 500gb 7200 RPM HD just failed on his new unibody MBP. I got Norton Disk Doctor to rebuild the directory and Disk Utility to verify it all. It will not at all boot into OS X. It will mount normally in target disk mode, but will not at all, get past the Apple logo on startup. I wonder what the odds are this issue having an effect on that.

 

[macjonny1]

It Is Happening With The Non-gforce Version Too!

Kinda funny that Apple neglected this when a lot of forum users know not to get GForce versions.

Hey all of you! I purchased the 500gb non-G version and looking at the Apple support pages there are numerous complaints of it happening on the non-G force version. I luckily didn't install it yet as I have a 2007 MBP and have to take it in to have a service tech install it. I am running out of space on my HD and this really ticks me off now!

I'm hoping whatever fix happens that it works for older computers where the HD has been swapped out!!

AGAIN, DON'T ASSUME THE NON-GFORCE VERSION WILL BE OK!!!!

 

[iCantwait]

eh, i found it weird but not a huge issue, beats a 60gb iBook G4 so i aint complaining

 

[jcshas]

Problem is NOT limited to the Seagate drives the G-protection

I hope Apple recognizes this issue is NOT just limited to the Seagate drives the G-protection. I have the Segate ST9500420AS (500 GB, 7200 RPM drive), Revision 0002SDM1 which doesn't include the motion detection, and mine is experiencing the clicking noise (no beeping). From what I've read its due to the drive head parking. When it occurs my MacBook Pro 15" (June 2009) freezes up for about 30 seconds and I get the spinning beach ball. Very annoying!

 

[Shiner]

eh, i found it weird but not a huge issue, beats a 60gb iBook G4 so i aint complaining

Classic apple consumer!! I love this post. Basically taking whatever apple is giving. Man apple can do no wrong, I guess.

 

[Eidorian]

For some strange reason my old WD 120 GB likes to beep too sometimes.

 

[BJB Productions]

For some strange reason my old WD 120 GB likes to beep too sometimes.

Same here

 

[macjonny1]

Interesting post from TUAW:

"Wheels said 7:00PM on 8-10-2009
The problem seems to be focused on MacBooks with 7,200RPM hard drives.

If you delve a little further, however, and go into places such as non-Apple Apple product forums. where you can read from people such as Mac Mini modders, the clicking issue enters their domain as soon as they put a 7,200RPM drive into their Mini.

Then you can delve a little further and read that, yes, 5,400RPM drives experience this parking issue, too, only the majority of those drives are apparently so quiet that nobody can tell it's happening. That is, they can't tell until they run a SMART hard drive utility and see that their head parks are WAY out of line with the amount of time that their hard drive has been powered, sometimes MILLIONS of times vs. a couple thousand hours, and you realize something bigger is up.

http://www.123macmini.com/forums/vi...&start=0&sid=b063c7deca1a2cad1463a0c9a4a83644

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21566852-WD2500BEVE-in-PPC-Mini-High-Load-Cycle-Count

Then, as you're sitting there, cogitating all this, listening to the hard drive in your PowerMac G4 MDD making little clicking noises (noises you think are normal, since you hear them all the time) and you realize, "HF, this thing's doing too."

This problem, IMHO, is rooted in OS X's Power Management system, and is affecting ALL systems running Leopard. But Vista user's can't rejoice about this, though, since Vista's doing the same thing - Although, from what I can tell, not as badly."

 

[soundman2385]

bad hd

I bought my computer with the 500 gig hd, 7200 rpm drive two days after they were released had the beeping problem and could not capture to the drive. I took the computer to the apple store and had the drive replaced and i have had no problems since so it might not be a software issue but could be a hardware issue.

 

[California]

Interesting post from TUAW:

"Wheels said 7:00PM on 8-10-2009
The problem seems to be focused on MacBooks with 7,200RPM hard drives.

If you delve a little further, however, and go into places such as non-Apple Apple product forums. where you can read from people such as Mac Mini modders, the clicking issue enters their domain as soon as they put a 7,200RPM drive into their Mini.

Then you can delve a little further and read that, yes, 5,400RPM drives experience this parking issue, too, only the majority of those drives are apparently so quiet that nobody can tell it's happening. That is, they can't tell until they run a SMART hard drive utility and see that their head parks are WAY out of line with the amount of time that their hard drive has been powered, sometimes MILLIONS of times vs. a couple thousand hours, and you realize something bigger is up.

http://www.123macmini.com/forums/vi...&start=0&sid=b063c7deca1a2cad1463a0c9a4a83644

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21566852-WD2500BEVE-in-PPC-Mini-High-Load-Cycle-Count

Then, as you're sitting there, cogitating all this, listening to the hard drive in your PowerMac G4 MDD making little clicking noises (noises you think are normal, since you hear them all the time) and you realize, "HF, this thing's doing too."

This problem, IMHO, is rooted in OS X's Power Management system, and is affecting ALL systems running Leopard. But Vista user's can't rejoice about this, though, since Vista's doing the same thing - Although, from what I can tell, not as badly."

So you are saying there is something in Mac OSX that is wearing out the hard drives before their time?

And you think this applies to desktop Macs as well as laptops because really only a laptop will have the "motion sensor" built in?

In other words, this constant "parking" of the drives could be affecting mac mini's imacs powermacs mac pros etc?

 

[macjonny1]

So you are saying there is something in Mac OSX that is wearing out the hard drives before their time?

And you think this applies to desktop Macs as well as laptops because really only a laptop will have the "motion sensor" built in?

In other words, this constant "parking" of the drives could be affecting mac mini's imacs powermacs mac pros etc?

I'm not saying anything...I'm merely quoting an interesting point. I don't know enough about computers to come up with such ideas....

 

[Elijahg]

I just sent a guy home to backup his system because his 500gb 7200 RPM HD just failed on his new unibody MBP. I got Norton Disk Doctor to rebuild the directory and Disk Utility to verify it all. It will not at all boot into OS X. It will mount normally in target disk mode, but will not at all, get past the Apple logo on startup. I wonder what the odds are this issue having an effect on that.

I'm not surprised it won't startup if you used Norton Disk Doctor on it, that software was discontinued before 10.3. It used to break filesystems all the time even before it was discontinued. Running DiskWarrior on the drive might be able to fix it.

I have a late 2008 MacBook Pro, with a Hitachi 7200RPM drive. My MacBook does make the drive park its heads very often, even with a slight nudge, or with certain sounds. The iChat received message sound tends to park the heads too. Maybe Apple is going to make the sensor less sensitive, so it won't park the heads at the slightest movement or vibration...

 

[TJCacher]

I just bought a WD Scorpio Blue 750gb drive and replaced my MBP's original 320gb with it. It is a 12.5mm height drive, but it fit just fine in my April '09 17" MBP.

I ordered mine in a Passport external drive case from Amazon for $170 about 10 days ago, and removed the drive from the case.

Anyway, the new drive is now installed and I have a 64gb BOOTCAMP partition running the Win7 evaluation copy, and a 633gb Mac partition for OS X. With all my music/video/pics/data and apps, I have 477gb free on OS X. Thinking of buying a TV stick and using it to record video onto some of that free space.