Hmmm... MBP not seeing optibay HDD

[terzinator]

Never an issue before. Has run perfectly since new, when I put a 750GB OWC Black HDD in the optibay...

Now, today, was gonna fire up some Christmas music to trim the tree by, and lo and behold, all exclamation points. Can't find the file...

Ok, let me see... not just the Christmas music, but everything.

Ok, wait, where's the big HDD? Not showing up in the finder. Not showing up in System Profiler. Not showing up in Disk Utility.

Weird. (I'm sure it's still in there?) Usually it spins up when I fire up iTunes, but nothing.

Any good tricks/utilities for locating the drive? Or is it assumed it's fried? (I'm backed up seven ways to sunday, but why might it go missing?)

 

[some idiot]

Is it not spinning up at all? If not, maybe check for a loose connection before writing it off as a loss.

 

[yetieater]

Is it not spinning up at all? If not, maybe check for a loose connection before writing it off as a loss.

This. One should always test connections and do a quick check before reassembling a machine.

 

[terzinator]

thanks, yeah... for sure i'll check this...

Only that it was running fine yesterday and the machine hasn't moved.

I just looked through "recently played" in iTunes, and it appears that it had been playing songs all night long (must have forgot to hit "stop"), through about 5am. Then it stopped on its own.

Wondering now if it just was spinning too long and just plumb up and died. I'm sure it's under warranty, though. (Only installed it in April in my 2011 MBP.)

I'll check connections, though.

 

[visim91]

thanks, yeah... for sure i'll check this...

Only that it was running fine yesterday and the machine hasn't moved.

I just looked through "recently played" in iTunes, and it appears that it had been playing songs all night long (must have forgot to hit "stop"), through about 5am. Then it stopped on its own.

Wondering now if it just was spinning too long and just plumb up and died. I'm sure it's under warranty, though. (Only installed it in April in my 2011 MBP.)

I'll check connections, though.

This is why I prefer to put the HDD in the original bay and the SSD in the opti-bay. Makes for a smoother set-up.
However, if this is not the case, if you have not installed a separate SSD in the original bay - and this is merely a second HDD installed to compliment the first - my apologies.

 

[johnhurley]

Any good tricks/utilities for locating the drive? Or is it assumed it's fried? (I'm backed up seven ways to sunday, but why might it go missing?)

I would shut down your machine and leave it off for at least 30 minutes. Let it cool down etc.

Start it back up and see if the drive is working now ... if so then get new backup etc ... before doing anything else to it.

 

[terzinator]

This is why I prefer to put the HDD in the original bay and the SSD in the opti-bay. Makes for a smoother set-up.
However, if this is not the case, if you have not installed a separate SSD in the original bay - and this is merely a second HDD installed to compliment the first - my apologies.

It's a secondary drive that houses music/movies/photos. Original SSD that came with the machine is still in the original bay, housing boot/home/vmware win7 partition.

Like I said, it's been backed up so I'm only out the drive if it's dead, but odd that it's dead, I think.

I would shut down your machine and leave it off for at least 30 minutes. Let it cool down etc.

Start it back up and see if the drive is working now ... if so then get new backup etc ... before doing anything else to it.

Yeah, this is a good call. Might have just hit a high temp and is needing to cool. Who knows.

Signing off now... what did Dan Rather used to say? "Courage" or something?

 

[terzinator]

I would shut down your machine and leave it off for at least 30 minutes. Let it cool down etc.

Start it back up and see if the drive is working now ... if so then get new backup etc ... before doing anything else to it.

THIS!

It did the trick. My guess it was just getting too hot. I also must have had my Win7 virtual machine running, and that can make things heat up. Even if it's not doing much. And the fact that it was playing music for 8 hours, well, maybe the drive just shut down to protect itself?

I had rebooted a couple of times earlier, but it was probably still too warm.

But the cool-and-reboot did it.

THANK YOU!

 

[dylan.shenton]

OP;

If I were you, I'd move your SSD to the optibay, and your HDD to the standard bay. SSD's are less susceptible to heat/vibrations than the HDD and obviously the conditions will be better in the original bay. You won't have to change anything software wise, just do a straight swap and then hold the option key down when you boot up to select the bootable drive.

 

[terzinator]

OP;

If I were you, I'd move your SSD to the optibay, and your HDD to the standard bay. SSD's are less susceptible to heat/vibrations than the HDD and obviously the conditions will be better in the original bay. You won't have to change anything software wise, just do a straight swap and then hold the option key down when you boot up to select the bootable drive.

I'll have to do some searching, but I remember there being issues with sleeping and other stuff when the boot drive isn't in the main bay.

That might all be resolved now, but that's what I remember.

Why are the vibration issues lessened in the main bay? Vibrations from the drive itself? (Because when it's in use, the computer is generally sitting still. Ok, maybe occasionally it's on my lap, but generally it's on my desk.) Is it that much cooler in the main bay?