Changed MacBook Pro hard drive. Major problems happening

[makskeleton]

Hi !
So the harddrive in my mothers macbook pro died, and I thought I'd just fix it.
Well, I bought a new harddrive (500 gigabite, sata III) put it in and just tried to restore from backup. For some reason (after hours of research I could not find out why) the computer couldn't format, delete, partition, or anyhing the drive.
So I got a sata to usb enclosure and did all of that from my mac mini. worked fine. Then I put it back in and tried to restore once again, now that it had the right format, but NOPE, didn't work. So I once again went to my mac mini and restored from there, worked fine, I could start the computer from an external hard drive (which was supposed to be internal) and access my mothers files.
Then I put it back in, now that format, partition, files, everything was right.
But NOPE, computer gets stuck on loading screen, it just circles and circles and circles on. So I took it out and put it in the enclosure to start it externally, and there the macbook boots.
So (sorry for the long text) why can I boot her computer with the same hard drive externally (via USB), but not internally (via sata) ?


PS: It's a mid 2009 13' macbook pro running 10.9.3

 

[mominsky]

connector or hard drive cable on the motherboard gone bad?

the drive has been ruled out as the problem since it works externally...so its gotta be either the connection from the drive to the motherboard, or the motherboard itself.

 

[makskeleton]

connector or hard drive cable on the motherboard gone bad?

the drive has been ruled out as the problem since it works externally...so its gotta be either the connection from the drive to the motherboard, or the motherboard itself.

No actually, I know for sure that it is not the cable or the board, I connected MY own macbooks drive and it worked, sorry, forgot to mention it.

 

[GhettoMrBob]

What brand is the new HD?

 

[makskeleton]

What brand is the new HD?

Seagate, as is the old one

 

[Bruno09]

Did you try booting in safe mode ?

 

[makskeleton]

Did you try booting in safe mode ?

yup, and strangely, the recovery partition worked in normal mode (forgot to mention that too)

 

[Bruno09]

Did you try verifying/repairing the disk + repairing the permissions from DU in the Recovery partition ?

 

[DeltaMac]

You should try a different cable.

You said the hard drives are both Seagate.
Are both the same model?

 

[makskeleton]

You should try a different cable.

You said the hard drives are both Seagate.
Are both the same model?

No, I wasn't able to find the same one

 

[simonsi]

Sounds like the new drive isn't compatible in some way with the 2009 SATA controller in the MBP but IS compatible with the SATA controller built in to the USB enclosure.

As your drive works in her machine, try hers in your machine and go from there...

 

[makskeleton]

Sounds like the new drive isn't compatible in some way with the 2009 SATA controller in the MBP but IS compatible with the SATA controller built in to the USB enclosure.

I didn't mention this in the post, just in the responses, but the recovery partition DID work

 

[simonsi]

I didn't mention this in the post, just in the responses, but the recovery partition DID work

If you swap the drives over does the problem disappear, move with the drive or stay with the MBP?

 

[GhettoMrBob]

If you've purchased the drive from a local store, I'd try taking it back and grabbing a different brand.

I've run into this issue SEVERAL times on client machines (mostly with Seagate and Weatern Digital). The OS will try to install and sit for hours or fail quickly. The second I pop in a different brand, the install goes without a hitch.

 

[T5BRICK]

My first guess is the SATA cable. It's worth trying.

 

[makskeleton]

Did you try verifying/repairing the disk + repairing the permissions from DU in the Recovery partition ?

Yes I did, it told me something was wrong with the partitioning (I'm not in town right now, I'll give a more detailed report later), but again, when I let it repair, it fails, over and over. So I tried repairing it from my own computer and there it tells me the drive is fine...

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If you've purchased the drive from a local store, I'd try taking it back and grabbing a different brand.

I've run into this issue SEVERAL times on client machines (mostly with Seagate and Weatern Digital). The OS will try to install and sit for hours or fail quickly. The second I pop in a different brand, the install goes without a hitch.

Thanks, could you recommend a good one ? Sata 3, 500gigs, 7200 RPM if possible

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My first guess is the SATA cable. It's worth trying.

That was my first thought too, so I took out the drive from my macbook and put it in hers, that worked.

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If you swap the drives over does the problem disappear, move with the drive or stay with the MBP?

So:
-The new drive does not work internally in the macbook pro
-The drive from my own macbook does work in the macbook pro
-The new drive works in my mac mini as it should

And for some reason I can't do jack in the disc utility one the macbook pro