Is this a bad hard drive cable?

Discussion in 'MacBook Pro' started by summerdream, Aug 30, 2012.

Most Liked Posts
  1. summerdream, Aug 30, 2012

    summerdream macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2012
    #1
    My mid-2009 MBP starts to act strangely lately, sometimes system won't boot, all kinds of I/O problems in the apps, beachballs. But when I put the HD into an external enclosure and boot from it, it works just fine. ps, I am running Lion 10.7.4 on it.

    Can I conclude this is a internal hard drive cable failure? If it is, where can I get replacement? My AppleCare just expired less than 2 months ago...
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  2. Mal, Aug 31, 2012

    Mal macrumors 603

    Mal

    Joined:
    Jan 6, 2002
    Location:
    Orlando
    #2
    Most likely, I've seen those fail on those models relatively often. While you could pick up the cable if you want from iFixIt (13" Model), it also should be a pretty cheap fix at an Apple Store or repair center. Worth looking into.

    jW
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  3. summerdream, Sep 3, 2012

    summerdream thread starter macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2012
    #3
    Ordered a cable from eBay for $20. Will see how it goes.

     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  4. snake1212, Sep 3, 2012

    snake1212 macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Jun 22, 2010
    #4
    I had the same thing happen to my Mid-2009. I replaced the hard drive cable and it was as good as new.
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  5. whoknows87, Sep 3, 2012

    whoknows87 macrumors 6502a

    whoknows87

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2012
    Location:
    S.Florida
    #5
    mine starts up gets stuck on the apple logo, apple told me HD issue , but in ur case it seems like it actually starts up and is functional at times so I would say order the cable and give it a shot.. good luck
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  6. summerdream, Sep 6, 2012

    summerdream thread starter macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2012
    #6
    Actually most of the time it won't start (stuck at spinning wheel with apple logo). Even if it does boot into OSX, there are all kinds of problems.

     
    share
    + Quote Reply
  7. summerdream, Sep 14, 2012

    summerdream thread starter macrumors newbie

    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2012
    #7
    Received the SATA cable yesterday and installed it right away. Meanwhile I popped in a new Vertex 3 120GB SSD, fresh install Mountain Lion. Everything is great so far. OSX boots up in 15 seconds and speed test shows 265/165mb/s read/write speed. No beachball/hang, no need to downgrade EFI to 1.6 on mid-2009 MBP.

    Now I am waiting for Nimitz optibay to come so I can use 500GB Seagate Momentus XT as storage.
     
    share
    + Quote Reply
(You must log in or sign up to post here.)

Share This Page