Hard Drive Firmware, Diagnostics & Breaking In

Hi,
Long time reader, first time poster. I've learned so much from these forums, thank you all for participating.
I'm planning to build a new RAID array for data storage, but will also use it as a secondary location for system backups. Before my questions, here's what I'm planning:
1) eSATA ExpressCard/34 using the Silicon Image 3132 chip.
2) RAID array with Port Multiplier and Hardware RAID controller (Silicon Image 4726 chip).
3) Western Digital WD5000YS drives, 500GB a pop.
Ok, so my questions:
1) I understand WD had a firmware issue with their drives back in January and issued a firmware update. If the drives I receive have the old firmware, is it possible for me to flash the new firmware onto these drives using Windows running via Parallels on my MBP? If not, what other way(s) could it be done? I don't have a Windows computer anymore.
2) I've read that it can be a good idea to zero your drives when you receive them new, and that a decent break-in regime and testing is also a good idea, before putting any real data on the new drives. Any software recommendations in this regard? I've heard that zeroing a drive via Disk Utility can be a little time consuming; any other options?
3) Lastly, has anyone had any experience running a Sil-4726 RAID controller (with the Silicon Image application software) on OSX? Any feedback?
Thanks alot for your input!
MacBook Pro CD Mac OS X (10.4.9)

The forum would benefit more from you sharing your
knowledge (about how to update firmware) than from
your snide remarks.
Ah well. Maybe someone else will have a more
constructive attitude toward the question.
As a Canadian from the Greater Toronto Area, I apologize for the downright rude, condescending remarks made by "guytoronto". Not all Torontonians are perfect twits like this one.
MacBook Pro Core II Duo Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Similar Messages

500GB 7200RPM HD - Can't install "Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0"

I installed a 500 GB - 7200 RPM HD and put a fresh install of 10.5.8 and am having the issues described in:
http://www.macrumors.com/2009/08/19/apple-releases-fix-for-macbook-pro-hard-driv e-issues/
The main issue is the periodic freezing. About every 20 minutes (sometimes as often as every 5 min) my computer completely freezes. I get the beach ball and the freezing lasts for anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute. My mouse usually responds, but I am unable to perform any task.
I downloaded the Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0 ( http://support.apple.com/downloads/HardDrive_Firmware_Update_20 ) which looks like it would fix the problem, but when I try to install it - I immediately get an alert of "This computer does not need this update."
I'm guessing that the update checks for a Macbook Pro (which the model I have was later renamed to) - but my computer is reporting itself as a Macbook - so the update doesn't think my computer needs the update.
Has anyone had the same issue - and if so, is there any way I can install this update?

If your hard drive came with its own anti-shock protection, as, for example, Western Digital drives do, then it may well be interfering with Apple's SMS motion-protection system.
More information about the SMS here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1934
If you disable the SMS and the freezes stop, then you know that was the culprit.

How to update Seagate hard drive firmware from DVD drive in G4 Powermac DA

Posted earlier in wrong forum. Apologies if you see this twice.
Short version of story:
Just put Sonnet PCI SATA card in G4 Digital Audio Powermac running Tiger. Have replaced two IDE drives with Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 1 TB hard drive. It's recognized and working fine. EXCEPT: this is the now infamous drive ST31000340AS that WILL most certainly fail if it does not get the firmware update that Seagate has made available. (These drives are failing like crazy-- Google for info, do not buy!) I have the firmware update on CD as an ISO file (of course Seagate makes nothing that it Mac friendly but this has worked for other Mac users). But when I try to flash the firmware by starting from the CD ("C" key held down), nothing happens. The G4 just goes ahead and starts Tiger 10.4.11. I have also tried holding down "O + F + option + control on start up. I'm not getting anywhere.
Since the drive is functional and it's the only drive in the G4, what am I doing wrong? Help!

This is dated January 21st, so I hope it's been updated...
http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/message?board.id=ata_drives&message.id=5692
Also, I found this:
MOST IMPORTANT - If you have a reasonable suspicion that you may have an affected drive - do not power the unit off - make fresh backups immediately. The power-on process is what triggers the failure.
Quoted from http://thedambook.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=e2542559aab0b513be11ac48f7ec3a49&a ction=printpage;topic=3887.0
Sorry about the long second link. The usual shortening method didn't work.

External hard drive FW800 diagnostics

I've got a Lacie d2 Big Disk Extreme 500gb external hard drive hooked up to my Power Mac g5 dual 2.7. I've erased the contents and reinitialized it back to zero. My question is: does anyone know of a good diagnostic application, besides Disk Utility, Disk Warrior, TechTools and Apple Hardware test, that I can use to run the drive through a series of diagnostic tests. I guess I need something along the lines of tech tools(I'll never use another Micromat product again after it made my internal HD go down) that can check the disk speed and other specs. The drive had crapped out before and I used Disk Warrior to recover files before I erased and reinitialized and everything appears to be OK but there I want a program that will run it through a series of tests to be sure because my warranty is about to run out.
Thanks
g5 dual 2.7 Mac OS X (10.4.4) 4.5 GB RAM, ATI Radeon 9650

I've lost over 5 of these drives over the last 2 years. One of them with no warning whatsoever. They are really, really scarey. Everyone I know who had used them has eventually thrown them in the trash.
-s

Hard drive replacement 2010 error

My thinkpad is (ThinkPad T43 1871-4AC), 2gb memory, winxp sp3, BIOS ver 1.29. Trying to install a 160gb Hitachi pata 5400rpm drive. What harm, damage or other issue will result if I continue to ignore the 2010 message. I have been able to downgrade BIOS. Hard drive firmware, states drive is compatible.

charlie_mack wrote:
My thinkpad is (ThinkPad T43 1871-4AC), 2gb memory, winxp sp3, BIOS ver 1.29. Trying to install a 160gb Hitachi pata 5400rpm drive. What harm, damage or other issue will result if I continue to ignore the 2010 message. I have been able to downgrade BIOS. Hard drive firmware, states drive is compatible.
Hi, my name is Ben, I am having the same problem on my IBM T43, but my hard drive is a Hitachi 80GB 2.5 inch 5400rpm8MB PATA. I'm still struggling to solve the ERROR 2010. Have you solved this problem yet? I cannot update my BIOS because of this problem. With this error still on your machine can result in a hard drive failure such as data loss and then hard drive curruption. I agree that the beeps do get annoying don't they. You shouldn't downgrade your BIOS because this can upset the EC and make your keyboard all weird. Also the slightest thing you do wrong in the BIOS can break the BIOS chip, if this happens you will need to replace it otherwise you cannot use your laptop.
Thank You
Ben

Pavilion g6 1378sa Hard drive not detected!!!

Hi all,
Im new on the forum and really need hellp.
Let me explain:
One day my notebook didnt start as normal...kept asking to repair the system,I have tried a few times and it still didnt fix the problem.I have 4 x 360 HDD spare ones at home so I removed the old one and I installed one of the spare ones...turn on and no HDD found ( no boot device found) so I downloaded the HP drivers (Seagate Hard Drive Firmware Update) and installed from USB drive,after restarted the HDD was found..so I started to Install The OS (windows 7 Home Premium x64) and all Installation gone without problems.Have downloaded all drivers from HP website and i have done OS updates...turned it off and back on ... after 5mins the screen froze and blue screen comes on!!! The notebook rebooted and ...NO HDD FOUND!!! OMG yes again.I switch it off and back on..reset the bios to factory and the HDD was found....but after 5min again same problem as above.I tried 4 different HDD and it stops during OS installation or no HDD found.
Basically notebook can find the HDD or if I get to install the OS after several times it will drop the system and is no longer HDD available.
I really dont know what to do...never before I met problem like this.
Hope you will not get too confused on my post.
Please comment or ask more questions if needed will answer as much I can.
Kind Regards
Adrian C.

Hi,
We won't concern about RPM, faster (more rpm) is better. The HDD's are much, much, much, much cheaper now. They were more expensive during a flood in Thailand few yours back. Yes, you can use WD HDD for your computer. You can pick one from the following list:
http://www.newegg.com/Laptop-Hard-Drives/SubCategory/ID-380
My suggestion:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136835
or this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178340
Regards.
BH
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Internal hard drive/repair: SMART status; Disk Utility, Tech Tool & More

machine: 12" PowerBook 1.5 GHz PowerPC G4 (Aluminium) with 80GB internal HD
internal hard drive (original): Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series HTS541080G9AT00
hard drive firmware: MB4AA5AJ
ATA version: 6
ATA standard: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
I have monitored the SMART status etc. of my internal drive with smartmontools for some time. Occasionally, I would see an error or a failed self-test but later testing always succeeded and things did not seem to be problematic.
At the beginning of this week, I started to see a lot of failed self-tests (though some still passed), a rising number of bad ("pending") sectors and reallocation attempts (though no reallocated sectors) and various other errors. The computer seemed to have trouble reading from the disk at times and Carbon Copy Cloner reported two I/O errors when cloning (a later clone succeeded). fsck showed errors although running fsck -fy repeatedly seemed to resolve them.
The Apple hardware tests initially reported an error (2STF/8/3:ATA-100 ata-6-Master) but I hadn't realised I should disconnect peripherals before running it so I did that and repeated the test which found no issues. I ran the extended test a total of three times with no errors.
As I continued to have problems, I booted from my clone and had Disk Utility wipe the drive by writing zeros to it. (I thought trying to get it to write everywhere would either finish the drive off or force it to reallocate the bad blocks. As I understand it, in normal use, the drive won't reallocate the blocks unless it can recover the data in the hopes of reading it at a later time.)
I then continued monitoring the disk using smartmontools. At this point, short self-tests succeed but extended self-tests "disappear". They don't fail, they simply vanish. They begin and smartctl shows the test in progress but then no error or result is logged - it is as if the test was never run. The first time I did this, I got an error saying the SMART attributes could not be read but subsequent tests do not trigger even an error. Short self-tests continue to pass.
There are now (according to SMART) zero bad ("pending") sectors but zero reallocated sectors, which seems odd. The raw read error rate fluctuates (zero one minute, many thousands a while later) although I am not sure it did not do this before.
Disk Utility claims the disk does not support SMART status even though smartctl clearly shows it does. Disk Utility claims the volume is "OK".
I ran Tech Tool Deluxe 3.04 from CD and 3.1.1 from my clone. In both cases, I ran all available tests on the drive. No problems were found.
I am seeing some problems even while booted from my clone - yesterday, the system froze completely and I had to force a shut-down by switching off the power (fsck then found a minor error but repaired it). Just before this happened, I was unable to mount a disk image and was trying to rectify the situation when the system froze. It is possible that the errors fsck corrected were implicated in the freeze, rather than caused by it, since Disk Utility found and repaired similar errors for the other two clones I have (on different partitions of my external drive - yes, I know this is sub-optimal).
Here is some current output from smartmontools:
---output: smartctl -q noserial -a disk0---
smartctl version 5.38 [powerpc-apple-darwin8.11.0] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Hitachi Travelstar 5K100 series
Device Model: Hitachi HTS541080G9AT00
Firmware Version: MB4AA5AJ
User Capacity: 80,026,361,856 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 3a
Local Time is: Sat Jul 3 20:28:52 2010 BST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
was never started.
Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
without error or no self-test has ever
been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection: ( 645) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
Suspend Offline collection upon new
command.
Offline surface scan supported.
Self-test supported.
No Conveyance Self-test supported.
Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
power-saving mode.
Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: ( 55) minutes.
SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
1 RawRead_ErrorRate 0x000b 100 100 062 Pre-fail Always - 0
2 Throughput_Performance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
3 SpinUpTime 0x0007 142 142 033 Pre-fail Always - 2
4 StartStopCount 0x0012 097 097 000 Old_age Always - 5793
5 ReallocatedSectorCt 0x0033 100 100 005 Pre-fail Always - 0
7 SeekErrorRate 0x000b 100 100 067 Pre-fail Always - 0
8 SeekTimePerformance 0x0005 100 100 040 Pre-fail Offline - 0
9 PowerOnHours 0x0012 039 039 000 Old_age Always - 26720
10 SpinRetryCount 0x0013 100 100 060 Pre-fail Always - 0
12 PowerCycleCount 0x0032 098 098 000 Old_age Always - 4168
191 G-SenseErrorRate 0x000a 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
192 Power-OffRetractCount 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 201877487644
193 LoadCycleCount 0x0012 001 001 000 Old_age Always - 2209599
194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0002 141 141 000 Old_age Always - 39 (Lifetime Min/Max 16/46)
196 ReallocatedEventCount 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 194
197 CurrentPendingSector 0x0022 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0008 100 100 000 Old_age Offline - 0
199 UDMACRC_ErrorCount 0x000a 200 200 000 Old_age Always - 0
SMART Error Log Version: 1
ATA Error Count: 2138 (device log contains only the most recent five errors)
CR = Command Register [HEX]
FR = Features Register [HEX]
SC = Sector Count Register [HEX]
SN = Sector Number Register [HEX]
CL = Cylinder Low Register [HEX]
CH = Cylinder High Register [HEX]
DH = Device/Head Register [HEX]
DC = Device Command Register [HEX]
ER = Error register [HEX]
ST = Status register [HEX]
PoweredUpTime is measured from power on, and printed as
DDd+hh:mm:SS.sss where DD=days, hh=hours, mm=minutes,
SS=sec, and sss=millisec. It "wraps" after 49.710 days.
Error 2138 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26716 hours (1113 days + 4 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
10 51 00 09 4f c2 a0 Error: IDNF
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
b0 d6 01 09 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.500 SMART WRITE LOG
b0 d5 01 09 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.300 SMART READ LOG
b0 d1 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART READ ATTRIBUTE THRESHOLDS [OBS-4]
b0 d0 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART READ DATA
b0 da 00 00 4f c2 a0 00 08:30:04.000 SMART RETURN STATUS
Error 2137 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 28 18 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 40 sectors at LBA = 0x04989518 = 77108504
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:37.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:30.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
Error 2136 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 21 1f 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 33 sectors at LBA = 0x0498951f = 77108511
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:30.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
Error 2135 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 22 1e 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 34 sectors at LBA = 0x0498951e = 77108510
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:22.600 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:13.500 READ DMA EXT
Error 2134 occurred at disk power-on lifetime: 26682 hours (1111 days + 18 hours)
When the command that caused the error occurred, the device was active or idle.
After command completion occurred, registers were:
ER ST SC SN CL CH DH
40 51 28 18 95 98 e4 Error: UNC 40 sectors at LBA = 0x04989518 = 77108504
Commands leading to the command that caused the error were:
CR FR SC SN CL CH DH DC PoweredUpTime Command/Feature_Name
25 00 80 c0 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:16.300 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 94 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.700 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:14.100 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 40 93 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:13.500 READ DMA EXT
25 00 80 c0 92 98 e0 00 1d+01:30:12.100 READ DMA EXT
SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num Test_Description Status Remaining LifeTime(hours) LBAof_firsterror
# 1 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 2 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 3 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 4 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26717 -
# 5 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26716 -
# 6 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26715 -
# 7 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26714 -
# 8 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26697 -
# 9 Extended offline Completed: read failure 10% 26692 75071682
#10 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26687 -
#11 Extended offline Completed: read failure 10% 26676 77108511
#12 Short offline Completed: read failure 40% 26663 296917
#13 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26657 -
#14 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26646 296918
#15 Short offline Completed: read failure 70% 26645 296905
#16 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26644 296910
#17 Short offline Completed: read failure 10% 26644 296910
#18 Short offline Completed: read failure 40% 26643 296916
#19 Short offline Completed: read failure 20% 26643 296909
#20 Extended offline Completed without error 00% 26620 -
#21 Short offline Completed without error 00% 26618 -
Warning! SMART Selective Self-Test Log Structure error: invalid SMART checksum.
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENTTESTSTATUS
1 0 0 Not_testing
2 0 0 Not_testing
3 0 0 Not_testing
4 0 0 Not_testing
5 0 0 Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
---end output---
Self-tests 1-8 were all run after I erased the disk. The others were run before I did so. Not listed are the extended self-tests I've started since erasing which, as I say, have simply disappeared.
The checksum error regarding the log is normal for this disk. At least, I've got that error ever since I started using smartmontools for monitoring so I assume it is normal. (I installed this version of the software in about April 2008 and have used it since.) Also, starting offline testing has never succeeded on this disk (I think I checked into this at the time but can't quite remember - this is not new, anyway).
Questions
how should I interpret all this? (Why does Disk Utility say SMART is not supported while smartctl clearly shows it is at the same time? Why do the extended tests simply vanish? Is the drive definitely dying?) I do not want to replace the disk unless I absolutely have to because I understand that replacing disks in 12" PBs is no small matter and cost is an issue. I do not want to replace the machine unless I have to because cost is an issue and, also, I really like this computer and have no idea what I would want in its place, even if expense were no obstacle.
if it isn't clear whether the drive is dying or not, is there some further strategy I can use to establish this?
if the drive is dying, is a machine of this age worth repairing and, if it is, under what circumstances is it worth doing so? For example, it might be worth doing if you can do the job yourself, but that might be quite impractical for non-expert (not to mention, inexpert) users.
if there is a hardware problem (which I obviously think is very, very probable at this point), is it definitely a dying hard drive? (I've seen people write ominous things about disk controllers etc. which I gather are more serious - or less repairable - than a "mere" dying disk.)
what questions should I be asking you and what are the answers to those questions?!
Many thanks for your patience in reading this far.
- cfr

The 12" PB internals are a bit more complex, for PB's. If you don't want to replace the hard drive yourself or pay someone to install it, you could always get an external firewire hard drive, and use it to boot from and for general usage. Would have to be firewire, since the PB won't book from a USB device. One example of what you could get is a 160GB external hard drive: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MS4U5160GB8/ . All the choices with that case are listed here: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go
Have you called any Apple Authorized Service Providers to see what they would charge to install a drive for you? Whether you bought it or they supplied it? You can find a local one in the US at http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/

Hard drive beachball problem for the 17"

Ok, so I know that there is already a few posts about this issue, (including the very large 96 page one) but I wanted to start a post for those of us with a 17" MBP that are having the same issues.
I was on the phone to a senior technician at Apple (Australia) today for about 2 hours trying to sort out this problem. Firstly he was a bit hazy about the issue to begin with assuming it was a RAM paging issue. Seriously, this thing has 4gb of ram, I think you would have to running so much stuff at once for it to legitimately run out of ram. I'm a web developer/designer so I can push the machine reasonable hard sometimes but I get the beachballs even when I only have safari and mail open. This is the fastest (stock) laptop Apple have ever produced, surely it can handle a bit of stick.
So I suggested it could be the hard drive/firmware etc and mentioned about the large amount of people on here with the exact same issue. After looking into some internal documentation he noted that there was indeed similar problems happening around the place but he seemed convinced that this only applied to 13" and 15" models and that the 17" never got the 1.7 firmware update.
After looking at the firmware page: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1237 it seems maybe he's right. I can't see my boot ROM version there anywhere (MBP52.008E.B05) The mid 2009 model 17" isn't on that list.
Whilst my friend at Apple is reasonably sure that my issue is software related and wants me to watch the console when Im having the freezing, I'm positive that I'm having the exact same problem as the 13 and 15s.
Can other people with 17" MBP that are having the same issue please post here so that we can begin to build a case for Apple to acknowledge the problem for our model too? Please add whether you have installed a 3rd party hdd or whether you are having the problem despite only having the stock hdd like me.
Thanks guys.

soniktrooth, count me in. I am experiencing the same problem myself - I just recently posted over in the mega forum here: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10222616#10222616
There is a chance that the hard disk could be at fault I guess, but the symptoms of this problem for me are remarkably similar to what I've read in the 96 page post, and on the macrumors forums. To summarise:
* the problem usually begins when I'm playing iTunes all day, and then I'll go to save something, say in TextMate, and then iTunes stops playing.
* Any app you then try to switch to while the freeze is there will then just beachball itself.
* Like you, I know this is something out of the ordinary, since iTunes rarely stops playing music, and hardly ever did on my 4 year old G5.
* I can make the problem go away by restarting and zapping the PRAM. All day today my computer has been fine, but I suspect that sometime tomorrow it'll probably start all over again.
* My drive is a factory Hitachi 5400 RPM drive... what do you have?
* My boot ROM version is the same as yours too.
* I have 8GB of RAM in this machine, so I'm pretty **** sure it's NOT a paging issue for me. paging issues never last 20-30 seconds though, that's absurd if anyone claims that is the cause... also, the hard disk doesn't really crank noticeably while the freeze is there.
I'm wondering if there was some sort of revision too for this model that may be causing this. Seems unlikely that Apple would have changed the motherboard between the january model and this one, but I'm not sure if this is absolutely confirmed...

Hard drive benchmarking.

Hi,
I have two hard drives, one of which I'd like to use for Arch (/, /boot, /home, ...), so I'm trying to figure out which one would be best suited for the task.
I have the following questions :
-Are these commands an accurate way of ranking them:
dd if=/dev/zero of=tempfile bs=1M count=1024 conv=fdatasync,notrunc
echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
dd if=tempfile of=/dev/null bs=1M count=1024
-Does the fact that one of the disks is mounted as / significantly alter the results ?
-Is the LVM overhead measurable ?
-The rudimentary results I obtained show that one disk is better than reading while the other at writing (R-W : 70MB/s - 57MB/s, R-W : 108MB/s - 38MB/s) ; my intuition tells me that for a root partition, the reading speed matters more than writing, is this correct ? At what "ratio" or absolute value does this stop being the case ? Other factors (e.g. for a system with high swap usage, writing speed should matter more) ?
Feel free to offer links or additional information.
Thank you for reading, and potentially helping (me, and other readers from the future).
Last edited by Resistance (2015-03-11 13:37:18)

Resistance wrote:
Hi,
I have the following questions :
-Are these commands an accurate way of ranking them:
dd if=/dev/zero of=tempfile bs=1M count=1024 conv=fdatasync,notrunc
echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches
dd if=tempfile of=/dev/null bs=1M count=1024
In short, no. Not by a long shot. In order to do precise measurement you'd have to go beyond volume management, let alone the filesystem.
-Does the fact that one of the disks is mounted as / significantly alter the results ?
Most likely yes. Depends on how the box is used during the test.
-Is the LVM overhead measurable ?
No. The testing should be done under LVM, e.g. on the block layer, or even lower (ATA) as long as you're interested in hardware-related numbers and not benchmarking filesystems. But even low-level test results are questionable, see below.
-The rudimentary results I obtained show that one disk is better than reading while the other at writing (R-W : 70MB/s - 57MB/s, R-W : 108MB/s - 38MB/s) ; my intuition tells me that for a root partition, the reading speed matters more than writing, is this correct ? At what "ratio" or absolute value does this stop being the case ? Other factors (e.g. for a system with high swap usage, writing speed should matter more) ?
These results can be biased heavily depending on testing conditions. If you want to measure hard drive's performance, go for more low-level tools. And even when you finish the tests, the results won't tell you which drive will behave better under regular working conditions. Many performance factors are dependent on software, being it the controller firmware, the hard drive firmware or the operating system. Unless the two drives have big differences on the hardware level (like, say, higher RPM, larger cache, etc.), it doesn't make much sense benchmarking them against each other.
Go for reliability, not performance. Run some SMART tests, badblocks, etc. and then choose the worse drive for OS and the better one for data.

Replaced Hard drive with unsupported brand

Hello and thanks in advance for any one's input. I haves done some searching and found topics related to my question, but not exactly. I replaced the 40GB hard drive in my ThinkPad T43 and replaced it with a 250GB Western Digital Scorpio. I imaged the old drive to the new one and I am able to boot successfully and I am encountering no problems so far. (It has only been several hours) All I experience is the error at boot pertaining to my hard drive "may not be compatible" with the system.
I tried the hard drive firmware boot cd, but no firmware updates were available. (This is also when I realized that ThinkPads have "certain" types of supported hard drives.)
Basically I want to know what kind of problems I can expect to run into (if any) by using an unsupported hard drive. Could my drive be compatible and the system thinks it isn't?
Any advice would be helpful. Thanks. =]
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Deedlbug wrote:
Hello and thanks in advance for any one's input. I haves done some searching and found topics related to my question, but not exactly. I replaced the 40GB hard drive in my ThinkPad T43 and replaced it with a 250GB Western Digital Scorpio. I imaged the old drive to the new one and I am able to boot successfully and I am encountering no problems so far. (It has only been several hours) All I experience is the error at boot pertaining to my hard drive "may not be compatible" with the system.
I tried the hard drive firmware boot cd, but no firmware updates were available. (This is also when I realized that ThinkPads have "certain" types of supported hard drives.)
Basically I want to know what kind of problems I can expect to run into (if any) by using an unsupported hard drive. Could my drive be compatible and the system thinks it isn't?
Any advice would be helpful. Thanks. =]
Hi Deedlbug,
what specific 250GB Western Digital Scorpio hard drive did you get? I just did a search and I see several of them.
Is it the WD2500BEVS?
I recently bought a refurbished T43 (1871-FU1) for my little daughter, that came with 40GB. I'd like to upgrade the hard drive.
Thanks very much

Slow Boot after added hard drives in RAID 0

Hi,
My Mac Pro used to boot very fast (from Bong to Login screen).
After installing a RAID0, it takes much longer to boot (x5).
When powering on, after the BONG, the grey screen appears and it seems frozen for a while ~30seconds. While grey screen is still on, I can hear the RAID0 hard drives finally waking up and starting to spin (I believe that they are the RAID0 hard drives because I can hear the startup disk just after the BONG). Once the MacOSX splash screen is displayed, everything goes very fast. Progress bar takes <2s to finally display login screen.
I suspect an incompatibility of the hard drives firmware with the Mac Pro even if those are very popular drives.
The Mac Pro is also sometime very slow to shutdown and when it occurs, I can hear the same sound of the drives waking up and starting to spin again.
I have disabled the hard drive sleep option in the power settings.
Here is my configuration. Disk4 has been added after the RAID0 and hasn't changed the issue. Please help.
Disk1: (Startup Disk)
Capacity: 149.05 GB
Model: ST3160812AS P
Revision: 3.BQH
Disk2: RAID0 - slice1
Capacity: 298.09 GB
Model: ST3320620AS
Revision: 3.AAJ
Disk3: RAID0 - slice2
Capacity: 298.09 GB
Model: ST3320620AS
Revision: 3.AAJ
Disk4:
Capacity: 698.64 GB
Model: ST3750640AS
Revision: 3.AAE
Regards,
Guillaume

I am still booting off of the same drive as before I added the RAID so RAID disk doesn't appear in disk control panel but I went there and reselected my initial MacOSX installation folder on Drive0. It seems to have improved things quite a bit. Was it just looking for other boot partitions on all hard drives on startup? I don't know why this setting would have changed when adding drives into the box.
Thanks.

HT201250 installing a new hard drive in my iMac

Can I restart my iMac using my back up HD after installing a new hard drive. I bought my Mac with a 500 GB drive thinking this would be enough for a long time.
Whoops, Not with high res pictures and downloaded movies at 2 and 4 gigs each. I would like to install a 2 TB hard drive 3.5 instead.

The iMac's hard drive is rather difficult to get to. You can replace it but will have to get through the front panel, which is not a simple task. Additionally, on at least some systems (I believe the iMac is one of them) Apple uses a special hard drive firmware, without which the system fans will blare at full blast.
I'd recommend you get a large external drive (and perhaps consider a multi-disk array like a Drobo or Pegasus, among many others) that can give you expandable storage options. Alternatively, using multiple external drives is another option.

Noobs Diagnostics/Hard Drive questions.....please!

Hi All,
Just got a lovely latest 5G ipod photo video 30GB iPod.
I noticed that I could hear the Hard Drive, Someone told me that it was supposed to be silent, just sounds like a baby Harddrive accessing the data - I would have thought this was normal as it's a mechanical drive - this is normal right?
I thought I'd try the Hard Drive scan in the Diagnostics tool to see if I might have an issue with the hard drive - but it's not there!
the only Options in the Hard Drive diagnostics are the:
HDSpecs
HDSMARTData
whats up with that? I have the latest firmware.......have apple removed the other harddrive tests?
...........and if someone could confirm that the little hard drive noises are normal, I may be able to sleep at night!
Many Thanks,
DrRedD

hi,
It's the internal ipod's diagnostics tests.
acesssing by restarting the unit (menu and select) then when the apple comes up pressing the select and previous buttons and then you get a 'BLEEP' and you're in the diagnostics menu...
http://www.methodshop.com/mp3/ipodsupport/diagnosticmode/index.shtml
the above link talks about the Hard Drive tests and says there are 4 hard drive tests:
HDSpecs
HDScan
HDSMARTData
HDRW
I only have HDSpecs and HDSMARTData listing....I wondered if anyone else had that......so i can't scan the drive to check all is ok...

I have an extensive aperture library on my computer's hard drive and I want to break it up into separate smaller libraries on external hard drives. How do I take projects from one library and add them to another one?

I have an extensive aperture library on my computer's hard drive and I want to break it up into separate smaller libraries on external hard drives. How do I take projects from one library and add them to another one?

Coastal,
Frank gave you the exact answer to your question.
However, I would like to ask if you are indeed asking the right question. Do you really want different libraries? The implications are that you have to "switch" libraries to see what's in the others, and so that your searches don't work across all of your pictures? If so, then you asked the right question. If not, you may be more interested in relocating your masters to multiple hard drives so your library gets smaller, instead of breaking up the library.
nathan

How can I import a movie into iMovie 09 from a hard drive? The movie will open and play in idvd but breaks into separate files that can't be downloaded when I try to import. Can it be done?

How can I import a movie into iMovie 09 from a hard drive? The movie will open and play in idvd but breaks into separate files that can't be downloaded when I try to import. Can it be done? I am trying to create a disc of player highlights for a collegiate coach, and I am using movie files downloaded to my hard drive from a DVD created on a PC.

No unfortunately it won't open in quicktime either. It does the same thing that Imovie does, separates it into two file folders audio and video, and if i select video it opens to reveal 8 files that cannot be selected. VIDEO_TS.BUP, VIDEO_TS.IFO, VIDEO_TS.VOB,VTS_01_0.BUP, VTS_01_0.IFO, VTS_01_1.VOB, VTS_01_2.VB, VTS_01_3.VOB. All of which cannot be opened or selected.
Opening it in Idvd and folllowing your suggestion works and I get a format code of NTSC. Is that the same? Thank you for your time and response.
CaCanuck

Hard Drive Firmware, Diagnostics & Breaking In

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