New 500GB HDD doesn't show up in Disk Utilities.

[RodrigoBG]

Hello guys! I have a mid-2012 13" MacBook Pro, and since a few weeks ago it started lagging a lot, so I took it to the support, and they told me that most probably it was a HDD, SATA cable or logical board problem. And after investigating the problem, they ended up telling me that it was a HDD failure. So I took my MacBook back and bought a new Hitachi (same brand as original) 500GB SATA 3 (6.0GB/s) HDD. Well, you may be wondering why I didn't get a SSD, that's because I'll sell this MacBook very soon, actually I was about to sell it when the problems started...

Ok, continuing, I perfectly installed the new HDD, and holding Command + R, I turned it on, so I could proceed to internet recovery, as it didn't come with the OS DVD.

And here's the problem, when I opened Disk Utility to format it, it didn't show up in the list, on the left side of the screen! As if I didn't have any HDD connected at all!

The weirdest thing is that it does recognize my old and broken HDD, it doesn't even boot the system anymore, gets stucked on Apple's logo all the time, but it's still recognized!

I have no clue on what to do now! I don't think this new HDD was already dead when it was delivered to me, cause it was intact, it's a quality product and I never had any problems like this before, I'll try to get a SATA to USB adapter, so I can test it properly on my PC!

Is there anything I should try? Do you guys know if there's any solution for that? Thank you so much!

 

[simonsi]

I don't think this new HDD was already dead when it was delivered to me, cause it was intact, it's a quality product and I never had any problems like this before

Dead new disk, or faulty installation are still the most likely causes. To prove whether the new disk is good can you install it into an external USB case and get the system to recognize it there?

 

[2984839]

Could be a bad cable.

 

[RodrigoBG]

Dead new disk, or faulty installation are still the most likely causes. To prove whether the new disk is good can you install it into an external USB case and get the system to recognize it there?

I still have to buy this external USB case, probably tomorrow I'll get one of these! And then I'll tell you if it worked or not! I really hope the problem is in the HDD, it would make things much easier and cheaper, haha!

But if the problem is in the SATA cable, I'll be really disappointed with Apple, when I bought this MacBook 2 years ago I thought I'd never have any issues with it at least for the first 4 years...

 

[simonsi]

But if the problem is in the SATA cable, I'll be really disappointed with Apple

If it is the cable then possibly it was crimped during your installation work, assuming it wasn't giving errors before you changed the disk then it is hard to blame that on Apple....

 

[RodrigoBG]

If it is the cable then possibly it was crimped during your installation work, assuming it wasn't giving errors before you changed the disk then it is hard to blame that on Apple....

Well, actually I only changed the HDD because it was already failing, so, the cable could possibly be damaged before even opening my MacBook, but you're right, I won't blame Apple for that, these things just happen, I almost never turned my MacBook off, most of the time it was just closed, or suspended, so it may have damaged the cable... But let's wait until I find out what's really going on here!

 

[simonsi]

Well, actually I only changed the HDD because it was already failing, so, the cable could possibly be damaged before even opening my MacBook, but you're right, I won't blame Apple for that, these things just happen, I almost never turned my MacBook off, most of the time it was just closed, or suspended, so it may have damaged the cable... But let's wait until I find out what's really going on here!

Ah cool, hadn't appreciated that, the cables (or their connectors), seem a tad fragile when disturbed. Good luck!