MBP 1,1-10,2 Is my internal SSD drive dying? Slows down Macbook

[subaiku]

Hey guys, just today my internal drive in my Macbook suddenly got ejected. It’s not the one that has OSX installed on it, just use as extra storage.

When I restart, it shows up again but it’s slowing my Macbook down. Opening up files from that drive takes forever. Have run disk utility repair on it and it says everything is ok.

Tried resetting SMC and it restarted without the drive showing up and everything ran normally hence that’s why I think the issue is with this drive but I don’t know what it is. Any ideas?

 

[ojfd]

Sound like a defective HD cable.

 

[f54da]

run DriveDx?

 

[subaiku]

run DriveDx?

Thanks, I’ll try to download that and run it.

 

[subaiku]

Sound like a defective HD cable.

Is it something I could replace myself? Which cable would it be? This drive is installed in the drive bay..

 

[subaiku]

Additional question - If I were to replace this drive, what’s a good brand for optical drives? Can anyone recommend? I wouldn’t replace with a SSD because I only use this drive for storage so that feels like overkill..

 

[ojfd]

Oh, if that's the drive in place of DVD, check if it is seated properly in the frame and also check the small cable/connector. The bottom one in your picture. From my experience they are very loose fit.

 

[DeltaMac]

The optical drive cable is the bottom cable labled in your picture.
Top arrow points to the camera connector, which, in that picture, is disconnected. Is there a reason for that?

You COULD just disconnect that secondary SSD, then check again if that drive is an issue (check if you don't get the slowdowns, etc.)

You would just want to find a replacement superdrive, I suppose. (Would you actually have any use for an optical drive now?)

But, that internal (extra) SSD is a tiny drive, only 40GB. You COULD replace that with a Crucial MX500, or Samsung would also be a good choice, either of those are available with up to 4TB. But, certainly 1 or 2TB would be a great addition to that laptop.

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Is the boot drive also another OWC 40GB? It's likely more than 10 years old, and might be a good plan to consider replacing THAT, too. Those small capacity SSDs just don't exist now, as SSDs over the years have dropped significantly in price.

 

[ojfd]

That's not the OP's machine. The picture is by OWC. See the watermark in lower right corner?

 

[DeltaMac]

OK, missed that watermark.
but, OP also said "This drive is installed in the drive bay." - so, I assumed that was (OP's) drive, or one just like it.

 

[subaiku]

OK, missed that watermark.
but, OP also said "This drive is installed in the drive bay." - so, I assumed that was (OP's) drive, or one just like it.

Yes it is a screenshot from OWC for replacing drives in the secondary bay. Was just using it as reference

My own setup is a 2TB samsung evo SSD in the main drive. In the drive bay is a 1TB Seagate Firecuda drive (which I believe was the original drive of this Macbook before I replaced it with the SSD?)

 

[subaiku]

Oh, if that's the drive in place of DVD, check if it is seated properly in the frame and also check the small cable/connector. The bottom one in your picture. From my experience they are very loose fit.

Ahhhh.. will do as you suggested once I get back home. Hopefully it’s as simple as that! 🤞🏻

 

[subaiku]

Ok so no luck with the drive cable connector. I checked it and was plugged in properly and I even swapped it with another cable from another Macbook 2011 that I had.

The drive showed up for a bit. Opening folders was slow and directories took awhile to appear.

And then all of a sudden it would eject itself.

 

[DeltaMac]

Your Seagate Firecuda is a hybrid drive, with platter drive, and a very small SSD cache. Would not be original to your MacBook Pro, as Apple has never supplied a hybrid drive as a stock device. iMacs and minis used to come with a Fusion drive that would give similar performance to a hybrid drive. Fusion drive was two separate devices, where your hybrid drive has both in one device. Apple never supplied that type in any Mac system.
But, Apple-supplied or not, I suspect that hybrid drive is failing.

 

[ojfd]

Try disconnecting both drives and booting off of external drive. Or move your main drive to the DVD caddy adapter and see what happens then. If symptoms go away, get a new HD cable, the one that connects the main drive.

Diagnosing MacBook Pro Hard Drive Cable F… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

 

[rampancy]

If it's an SSD installed in your ODD bay, the problem could lie with the drive caddy itself. I've had issues with SSDs installed this way randomly disappearing/slowing down my system too (in my case, in a MacBook 5,1), that I later traced to a defective caddy. Try also swapping the ODD cable with another one, and/or locking down the ODD cable connector on the motherboard with some kapton tape.

 

[subaiku]

If it's an SSD installed in your ODD bay, the problem could lie with the drive caddy itself. I've had issues with SSDs installed this way randomly disappearing/slowing down my system too (in my case, in a MacBook 5,1), that I later traced to a defective caddy. Try also swapping the ODD cable with another one, and/or locking down the ODD cable connector on the motherboard with some kapton tape.

Yeah, had the same thought, tested the caddy and the cable, both are fine.

Turns out the problem is with the drive. I finally got a SATA/usb cable and hooked the drive up and had the same symptoms. It turns up for awhile it and then it will auto eject.

Also managed to diagnose with drive dx. Most of the info is over my head honestly, but am assuming the errors are not good news. I just want to save my data at this point but I can’t even copy files over before the disk ejects itself. 😞

 

[rampancy]

Yeah, those errors are definitely bad news. I mean, for SMART to report your drive's status as "Failing" is pretty much all you need to know...

Dare I ask, do you have the data on the drive backed up?

 

[subaiku]

Yeah, those errors are definitely bad news. I mean, for SMART to report your drive's status as "Failing" is pretty much all you need to know...

Dare I ask, do you have the data on the drive backed up?

Only about half.. it was used as storage for work files, so recent projects weren’t backed up unfortunately. Cursing myself now for lagging on doing backups. 😓

Have been trying to connect the drive but now it can’t even load it.. is it a total goner?

 

[eldho]

There has been a more widespread issue recently of SSD drives being ejected for no obvious reason - probably some sort of system bug that hasn't been resolved yet. It is possible that there is nothing in your system that is causing those ejections though there is what is probably a separate issue re the speed of the SSD.

 

[f54da]

You're going to want to use ddrescue, and avoid mounting the disk. Apparently using linux provides most success.

Data Recovery from a Dying HDD?

If you have space to keep a set of drives permanently hooked up and your target data of interest changes frequently enough, some sort of raid thing might be easier than manually maintaining backups across multiple disks. I've heard using zfs drivers on osx and creating a zfs pool for n+1...

forums.macrumors.com

 

[Nermal]

There has been a more widespread issue recently of SSD drives being ejected for no obvious reason - probably some sort of system bug that hasn't been resolved yet. It is possible that there is nothing in your system that is causing those ejections though there is what is probably a separate issue re the speed of the SSD.

As far as I'm aware, that issue won't cause a SMART warning.

 

[subaiku]

You're going to want to use ddrescue, and avoid mounting the disk. Apparently using linux provides most success.

Data Recovery from a Dying HDD?

If you have space to keep a set of drives permanently hooked up and your target data of interest changes frequently enough, some sort of raid thing might be easier than manually maintaining backups across multiple disks. I've heard using zfs drivers on osx and creating a zfs pool for n+1...

forums.macrumors.com

Hey thanks, took a look at ddrescue. Unfortunately working in Linux is a bit above my head. 😓

There has been a more widespread issue recently of SSD drives being ejected for no obvious reason - probably some sort of system bug that hasn't been resolved yet. It is possible that there is nothing in your system that is causing those ejections though there is what is probably a separate issue re the speed of the SSD.

Thanks, but the culprit drive here is a normal HDD.

Am currrently looking into some drive rescue places.

 

[eldho]

Thanks, but the culprit drive here is a normal HDD.

Am currrently looking into some drive rescue places.

All the best with that. With a "normal" HDD often most and sometimes virtually everything can be retrieved.

 

[ojfd]

Instead of going Linux, you might try DiskWarrior. Leave the defective drive inside the MBP on a SATA bus for faster recovery and boot off of external drive. That's what I did when I had dying Crucial SSD.
DiskWarrior has the option to prevent mounting the drives, btw.
Do not use Disk Utility to fix the drive, it will do more harm than good!