Momentus 750 XT causing freeze in Optical Drive.

[MGrizam]

installed a 256 SSD in the main drive bay and replaced a 750 7200 drive that was in the optical bay (running fine for ages) with a 750 Momentus XT. Before switching the drives in the optical bay i did a clone of the 750/7200 to the 750 MXT... looks fine through USB as an external drive.

When i switched the optical bay drives i had a problem. Machine booted very slowly, comes to the desktop but the cursor (trackpad) is non responsive as well as the keyboard. An external mouse works but only to move the cursor. The desktop and icons do not react to click or drag. Machine is essentially frozen.

Removed the drive, works fine. Re installed old drive in the optical bay, works fine. MXT shows up and works well through USB as an external but no dice on the connection through the optical bay

Any idea's? Searching here and google didn't find anyone with this specific issue.

mbp 2.2 i7 2011 running Lion w/ latest updates.

Any insight is appreciated, thank you in advance.

 

[mgartner0622]

Would you be able to try the old drive in the optibay to see if it still works? I actually had an optibay's connector go out on me in my old MacBook Pro.

 

[MGrizam]

Would you be able to try the old drive in the optibay to see if it still works? I actually had an optibay's connector go out on me in my old MacBook Pro.

Tried that (third paragraph) and it worked fine again

 

[blueroom]

Perhaps the new drive since it was cloned isn't blessed by the OS or something got screwed up in the permissions.

An easy fix might be Time Machine backup the original working drive to an external drive, reinstall your new HDD plus OSX and simply allow Time Machine to restore. You get the added bonus of a nice squeaky clean OS install.

 

[MGrizam]

Perhaps the new drive since it was cloned isn't blessed by the OS or something got screwed up in the permissions.

An easy fix might be Time Machine backup to an external drive, reinstall OSX and simple allow Time Machine to restore. You get the added bonus of a nice squeaky clean OS install.

It's not the OS drive, simply a data drive for music etc. The OS drive is a 256 SSD that's running fine. Also before the clone i did a erase using disk util to make sure it was prepped ...

Again it looks great as an external it just balks the machine when plugged in through the optical. But the old 7200/750 works perfectly so it's not the connection. The machine just doesn't like this drive through the optical (sata?) but has no issue through USB.

i'm stumped

 

[mgartner0622]

Tried that (third paragraph) and it worked fine again

Sorry, I seemed to have missed that.

I would try and repair permissions. Do you have a bootable OS on your SSD? If so, boot from that with the XT in the optibay and then open disk utility, select the XT, and click "repair permissions". I'd do it a couple of times.

 

[blueroom]

Hmm not sure but I recall somewhere reading the optical bay drive wants to be the boot drive when the CD is removed. Try swapping the SSD to the optical bay.

 

[MGrizam]

Sorry, I seemed to have missed that.

I would try and repair permissions. Do you have a bootable OS on your SSD? If so, boot from that with the XT in the optibay and then open disk utility, select the XT, and click "repair permissions". I'd do it a couple of times.

you missed a bit more than that. I have a bootable SSD in the main drive (works fine) throughout this issue and when the XT is in the optibay the machine boots to a frozen screen. I've repaired permissions with the MXT plugged into the USB but as soon as it goes back into the optibay machine becomes unusable after boot.

Appreciate the suggestions though

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Hmm not sure but I recall somewhere reading the optical bay drive wants to be the boot drive when the CD is removed. Try swapping the SSD to the optical bay.

The SSD in the main drive runs perfectly with the 7200/750 in the optibay, only when the MXT is in there does it freeze up.

BUT i will try switching it, never know right? thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Satnam1989]

you missed a bit more than that. I have a bootable SSD in the main drive (works fine) throughout this issue and when the XT is in the optibay the machine boots to a frozen screen. I've repaired permissions with the MXT plugged into the USB but as soon as it goes back into the optibay machine becomes unusable after boot.

Appreciate the suggestions though

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The SSD in the main drive runs perfectly with the 7200/750 in the optibay, only when the MXT is in there does it freeze up.

BUT i will try switching it, never know right? thanks for the suggestion.

I know your exact issue, its not that there is something wrong with the HDD or the SATA Connector, Macbook Pro's 15 and 17 just do not like SATA III HDD/SSD's in the Optical Bay Slot....regardless of what brand, type or speed if they are SATAIII its not going to work. Because I had the similar results when I placed my SSD that is SATAIII in the optical bay slot. Its something to do with EFI and no there is no fix for it, your other drive works perfect because its SATAII and the all new Momemtus XT is actually a SATAIII drive....100% is your issue no doubt about it

 

[blueroom]

If that's the problem then it's unlikely to ever see a firmware fix from Apple as it's not an officially sanctioned type of upgrade. Heck they don't even support Trim for non Apple SSDs, or disabling the thermal sensor on recent iMac HDDs.

 

[MGrizam]

I know your exact issue, its not that there is something wrong with the HDD or the SATA Connector, Macbook Pro's 15 and 17 just do not like SATA III HDD/SSD's in the Optical Bay Slot....regardless of what brand, type or speed if they are SATAIII its not going to work. Because I had the similar results when I placed my SSD that is SATAIII in the optical bay slot. Its something to do with EFI and no there is no fix for it, your other drive works perfect because its SATAII and the all new Momemtus XT is actually a SATAIII drive....100% is your issue no doubt about it

Well that's just great. before reading this i tried to switch the SSD with the MXT and sure enough same issue, would not see the boot SSD in the optical bay.

I guess i have to send this back then

Thanks everyone for your help.

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In conclusion i spoke to a few people and did some homework before trying this out and didn't run into any hints about this issue. Of course now that i google sataIII / optical drive / macbook pro i see others speaking about this issue.

My fault for not doing enough homework. Live and learn.

 

[blueroom]

Not sure what your requirements are for gobs of storage but would an external HDD suffice or better yet IMHO a good NAS.

 

[MGrizam]

Not sure what your requirements are for gobs of storage but would an external HDD suffice or better yet IMHO a good NAS.

Yeah that's an option, but for making music on the road/plane/hotel i love having both drives inside the machine.

 

[mgartner0622]

Yeah that's an option, but for making music on the road/plane/hotel i love having both drives inside the machine.

What was wrong with just having the original 750GB hard drive? If you're already using a SSD, I can't see how the momentus XT will increase your speed that much more...
I'm sorry my answers previously were a bit vague and not really addressing your problem, I was attempting to read and fix some issues with my iPhone at the same time. Back on topic, usually if you can just move the mouse and not select anything that usually means that your OS has been loaded into the RAM, however it's not getting any data from your hard drive. You'd probably get the exact same effect if you only had one drive and removed that. This must mean that somewhere right after startup, the hard drive stops transferring data. My best guess would be when it loads drivers and realizes that what you have in the topical drive slot is much faster than an optical drive. It's probably slow at boot because it loads drivers early on.

 

[blueroom]

What about using just the XT 750? I have an SSD and I'd have a hard time going with just a hybrid even though the XT 750 is no slug. I just don't like mechanical drives.

A NAS can be wireless, not super fast but super handy. A Time Machine is one, a Synology *what I use* is another.

Even a Seagate Satellite WiFi (portable, small, iOS compatible too)

Can't be any worse that lugging around musical gear unless it's one of those wee AKAI Synthstations.

I think I'm getting one of these for Christmas

 

[onions]

so has anyone had success installing an SATA III SSD in the optical bay? anyone? bueller? bueller?

 

[Satnam1989]

Ya Momentus XT can only be enjoyed if used as a main drive and its generally for people who do not want to buy a SSD.....As for me and you since we have SSD's it doesn't really help......if u have bootcamp by any chance on your Optical Drive what you can do is get the 500GB MXT to increase your experience. I have bootcamp on my HDD in my optical bay but because I don't use it enough so I didn't buy the MXT 500GB and stuck with my 500GB 5400RPM stock HDD(Split 150GB Bootcamp/350GB HFS+ Storage) instead until it wears out maybe then ill upgrade the HDD or maybe/hopefully/ Apple will fix the issue with EFI update by then....im sure its fixable but only apple can do it.