Hard disk problem with MBP 13 unibody

[HenryBahus]

Hi everyone!
16 months ago I bought MacBookPro 13.3" and upgraded the hard disk to a Scorpio Black 7200 rpm 320Gb.

Two days ago I had troubles:

MBP very slow, so I restarted the system and when started up: no hard disk found.
I suddenly thought: "Hard disk gone", in fact booting from CDROm and using Utility Disk I figured out that no sata hard disk was detected.

So I removed the hard disk and using some softwares I checked that the hard disk was perfect (logical and physical): all my files were ok!
Re tried in mac and it worked again: the system recognised again the hard disk. But it was again slow and after a restart happend the same before.


AT THE MOMENT the problem is: the MPB doesnt recognize ANY sata hard disk (I tried connecting another!);

Now I'm using my mac booting from usb cause I've connected the hdd were mac os x was in, but it still doesnt recognise any hard disk connected to the sata cable!
In System profiler under SATA section I see two NVIDIA MCP79 AHCI:
one detect DVD-ROM reader,
but the second one, where now I've plugged the second hard drive (that is perfectly working!) there is nothing: no trace of the sata hard disk.


I dont really know what's wrong!
I Bought a new cable (the one that connect the hard disk to the main board) from ifixit,hoping that could be the solution, and I'm waiting it arrives, but I dubt this could be the solution because the hard drive that is now connected is on (I can hear the disks spinning!) and I think that if the cable is broken the hard disk would not be turned on. Idk!


Help me please!

Sorry guys for my english🙄

 

[oakie]

well, if a new cable doesnt fix it then it's obviously an issue with the SATA controller, which is not user replaceable, requiring a trip to an apple repair specialist in your country.

 

[HenryBahus]

I know, but the weird thing is that the MBP after the first troubles recognised for a while the hard disk: I used it!
pfff

Thank you for ur answer oakie

 

[oakie]

I know, but the weird thing is that the MBP after the first troubles recognised for a while the hard disk: I used it!
pfff

Thank you for ur answer oakie

probably a bad solder point somewhere that is now finally revealing itself after being heatcycled repeatedly or a weak point in the cable itself that is now revealing itself after being handled during the drive replacement.

 

[Dadioh]

I know, but the weird thing is that the MBP after the first troubles recognised for a while the hard disk: I used it!
pfff

Thank you for ur answer oakie

It is a flex cable so it contains multiple signals. It could still provide power to the disk but have an intermittent data signal. A slight flexing of the cable and it makes or breaks contact. Hopefully it is the cable because otherwise you are looking at logic board replacement which is not cheap.

 

[HenryBahus]

😀
Problem solved!

Cable replaced and everything's perfect!


Thank you guys for yuor support!