MBP internal HD issue

pcbscott

Hi,

Long story short - my MBP crashed last week and when I tried to reboot all I got was the loading screen and nothing else.

I figured this was a dying harddrive so I bought a new one, I had to partition it as an external drive in my hd caddy as I was getting errors doing it as an internal disk.

Managed to install osx on to the new drive (again as an external drive as I was getting errors doing it normally)

OSX will load when it plugged in as an external drive but not when I put the drive back inside the computer.

This would lead me to belive it could be a motherboard problem or indeed a problem with the ribbon between the mother board and the harddrive, however when I put another harddrive in to the computer and boot from external I can see the internal drive is there and browse the contents.

I just cant load from it!!

Its a 13' macbook pro, core2 duo 4g ram, late 2011 model.

Any suggestions as to whats causing this would be really appreciated!!

thanks.

pcbscott

Resolved this issue, not really sure what did it,

updated all software on new boot drive reset of SMU.

?Very confused but glad its working 200 quid later and I have all my data!:D

pcbscott

Okay so having got the macbook up and running again I now have a strange new problem.

Twice today I have wanted to move a file from one location to another, like desktop to a folder, but I get an error, have restarted since then so lost the copy and paste of the error, but if it comes up again I will post it here.

On top of that the macbook have just become completly unresponsive forcing me to force power it off to reset it. I got a really wierd message from firefox which looked like it was rendering the html as text at the same time as finder refusing to do anything... something aint right there!

Also when I tried dimming the screen or backlit keyboard, instead of the opaque volume like image all I got was a white box.

Will post again if anything else, its a brand new HD so I hope I can rule that out, really hope its nothing to do with the MB, could be a RAM problem?

Any suggestions on what to do next?

pcbscott

Back to square one! Osx hanging and unresponsive and after restarting not getting any further than the spinning loafing screen.

One angry call to apple / compub I. The morning, is this a problem Anyone else has had? I suspect a hardware issue,

Talisman

Do you have the original software discs that came with the computer?

If you do put disc 1 in the optical drive and boot the computer holding the D key to run the hardware test diagnostics tool.

For more precise detail see the Apple Knowledgebase Article

pcbscott

Hardware test showed up nothing.

It has been suggested to me that the cable between the MB and HD could be the problem.

Currently booted up through my external HD, which is flashing up an error for the internal HD.

I suppose the new HD could be faulty sods law if it is.

Going to try a fresh install of osx on the new HD and see how I get on.

muggyog

pcbscott wrote: »

Currently booted up through my external HD, which is flashing up an error for the internal HD.

What error exactly? Have you the external drive GUID partitioned? If you startup with the 'alt' key pressed how many os'es do you see? Are you ACTUALLY booting from the external drive?

pcbscott

You are correct I was booting from an external HD. The error I was getting was once osx had loaded saying the internal hd could not be repaired. (I had not even asked disk utility to check the hd)

Now have done a fresh install on the new internal disk. Up and running, just hoping it stays like this, gonna give it a day or two before reinstating my data to the internal disk.

Have used AFAIK the correct partition etc

At this point I do suspect the cable is faulty, just think its strange that it would be working at all if there is a fault..

Reading online I see that the 13' mbp is prone to having a faulty hd cable so perhaps I have fallen fowl of this.

Have deadlines for monday so hoping it will pull through and I can get this out of the way.

pcbscott

So cheapest place to buy a replacement cable? Found one from book yard @ around 56 sterling seems a little pricy for a tiny little cable!

pcbscott

Update for anyone whos intrested, been running off an external HD all evening, managed to install my copy of office and cs5, no complaints from the computer so far, hopefully ruling out RAM and MB issues...

Mondays mission to track down an inexpensive replacement hd cable.

MiniNukinfuts

I had this exact problem, I went through every step you've mentioned above, and the only fix that i found that helped me was to insert the HDD into the MBP and do a clean install there, rather than performing the install whilst the HDD is in the external case.

I was convinced that it was a static discharge that messed up my motherboard/ RAM, but i was wrong, it is just a corrupt install of OSX. (it could be you install disc with OSX on it)

It is a weird problem, cus as you said, the drive works fine while running in an external case. I had 3 HDD replaceds before i realised my OSX was corrupting the install.

So just do a fresh install with the HDD in the MBP, it should fix the problem.

Have you tried resetting the PRAM? It's holding: CMD + Option + P + R on boot

pcbscott

Hey thanks for your input, had not considered that it could be a corrupt version of OSX will look in to that tomorrow, and see if I cant find another set of Disks from somewhere, and give that a go.

Its strange and im not sure that is the case here, as the most recent failed attempt today was done while the HD was inside the machine, it worked for about an hour and then gave up.

Also I used the same disks to install OSX on to my external HD, which im running off right now with no problems. Indeed I have started setting up base of this external HD as I cant afford to loose the time sorting this out right now, and am resigned to having to use it until I find a fix.

Im due a trip to Belfast soon, so will visit the apple store there and hopefully get the cheapest parts I can if need be, already down 200 euro on buying 2 new HD's, looking online for a cable anyway, im very hands on so reluctant to be paying someone else to do things like hard drive change overs!

Have tried PRAM reset and SMU, neither seemed to cause any big changes except once when I first installed the new internal drive and I was still getting the same problem and an SMU reset seemed to get it going again, but that was the only time it worked!

Hardware test of the install disks came up clean also.

Shocked at apples costumer care I chose not to get Apple Care, but I dont expect a machine that costs over a grand to develop a fault in a cable, reading online im not the only person having problems with this and apple seem to be choosing to ignore it!

pcbscott

Apologies rereading my initial post its a late 2010 model not 2011 so core2duo

pcbscott

re reading your post, I will defiantly get another disk and try that, have a choice of hard drives to try in on now anyway!

Greentree_uk

sounds like the HDD cable, this is pretty common.

Talisman

The most likely reason is the cable is dodgy which is expensive piece of kit to replace. If the cable is the issue then you have two options:

1 - Buy a replacement (821-0814-A on Ebay for £18.21 + Delivery)

2 - Replace the optical drive with a hard drive. This will mean buying an enclosure to slot the hard drive into the bay.

MiniNukinfuts

The optical bay replacement is easy enough to do and it would identify the error. I've done the optical bay replacement myself. I've posted in this thread where I linked the OP to the eBay page where i bought my optical bay HDD replacement and the superdrive enclosure.

But before you do anything, i'd recommend doing a clean install with the HDD in the standard internal bay.

pcbscott

Im not keen to go down the optical drive route, not that I use CDs much it is nice to have the option when I want it, and besides the space allocated for the internal HDD should do whats its supposed to!

I havent had a chance to do a fresh install of the OSX from different disks but I have already done it about three times straight to the internal drive and still the same error. I used the disks about 6 months ago to restore the system (similar problem to now but a fresh install fixed it, and I never thought anymore about it) the disks have lived in their plastic cases for as long as I have owned them!

Back to the Future on Camden street quoted 60 euro for a replacement cable, at least it would be a genuine part I would be wary of getting something from hongkong on ebay as its probably not a genuine part.

thebookyard.com would cost more than that after I include delivery so Back to the Future looks like an affordable option right not.

Spoke to the apple store in Belfast, who wouldn't quote me for a part with out looking at it!

Will phone round a few other apple retailers to see if I can get a better price, paid 120 for a 250g harddrive from back to the future because I was desperate to get up and running, not happy at having to pay so much!

Running of the external HD is tedious but im not getting any errors been browsing the web, using word and photoshop all day and no problems so at least im not completely out of action.

Greentree_uk

back from the future aren't an apple service provider, so not sure how you can be sure it's a genuine part. Aside from someone telling me they had a explanation of a 3rd generation explosion in an iMac G5, from them I have no 1st hand experience of them. of course, the iMac had blown capacitors, a common issue in the old iMac G5 I nearly fell off seat laughing btw.

pcbscott

That is a fair point, will def be giving the other suppliers in Dublin a call, If I can hold out until my next visit to belfast I will do that, have read a report online of the apple store doing this for someone out of warranty for about 15 quid.

Talisman

If you are concerned that your install disc is the issue then try to make a disk image of it using Disk Utility. If there is an issue with reading the disc then Disk Utility will encounter it.

MiniNukinfuts

If you downloaded OSX Lion from the app store, just try to redownload it, and make a copy of the file to a disc or USB. Make it bootable too. Here's a guide

mathepac

If you still want HDD cables, check here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=hard+drive+cables&tag=googiehydra-21&index=aps&hvadid=5519096910&ref=pd_sl_42we28k856_b

Then MAPLIN or Peats or one of the authorised Apple Repair Centres.

pcbscott

To conclude the story, I took it to the Apple shop in Belfast, where for £40 they replaced the HD cable and were able to tell me that the original Harddrive was in perfect working order.

So after spending circa 200 euro on a replacement 2.5 Sata Drive and an external drive at least I have plenty of options for backup!

Makes me think the Dublin really needs to have an Apple Store....

Greentree_uk

My assessment was not unfounded