Internal Hard Drive Issue

I'm having an issue that I can't quite understand.
After inserting the install disk and rebooting, I select the language, and I go to select the hard drive to install to. Unfortunately, the only drives that show up are the external drives. I don't have an issue with doing a clean install, I have enough room on the external drives to backup everything, but I don't understand why my current startup disk is not showing up so I can upgrade or do a clean install.
Would this be caused by one of the known software compatibility issues? I've already removed APE, is there anything else I should be looking for?
When I quit the installer, the only startup disks I can choose from are the 10.5 DVD or Network disk. I have to hold D during startup and change the startup disk back to my hard drive after it finally reboots.
Please help? (Also, if there's any other important info missing in this post, let me know and I'll post whatever info that'll help)

I had the same problem. Running Disk Utility did nothing -- the internal HD didn't show there, either.
Here's how I fixed it -- I left it alone for about 10 minutes -- and it magically showed up right next to the external HDs that were showing all along.
So, try it again but when you see the icons for your external drives -- go make a sandwich and then come back and see if it's there. =:)
Jay Jennings

Similar Messages

Incredibly slow MacBook, Internal Hard Drive issues...

Good morning everybody! I'm apologize if this post is extremely wordy...
I am extremely baffled by a particular issue with a MacBook 2.0GHz C2D which belongs to a friend of mine. The warranty is expired.
_Brief history:_
Several months ago, this MacBook could not find a bootable volume. The drive would not mount when booting from an external FireWire hard drive. It would not mount when the MacBook was put in Target Disk Mode and connected to another Mac. When booting from an external USB hard drive or with my MacBook Pro connected to the MacBook via Target Disk Mode, the MacBook booted up quickly. I came to the conclusion that the internal hard drive must have failed and needed to be replaced. Ultimately, the data was not recoverable from this drive.
I then proceeded to swap out the defective Apple OEM Seagate hard drive with a known working Apple OEM Fujitsu hard drive. When booting from the Leopard Install DVD, the MacBook would boot incredibly slow, but would finally reach the Installer Language screen. When proceeding to install Leopard, the drive would take a very long time to have data written to it, and ultimately the install failed. I removed the new hard drive from the MacBook and placed it in an external USB enclosure, attached it to the MacBook and booted from the Leopard Install DVD. Leopard would install successfully. I removed the hard drive from the enclosure and reinstalled it the MacBook. When booting from the freshly installed OS, the MacBook would take a very long time to boot. The MacBook is extremely slow!!!
I checked the Activity Monitor to ensure CPU & System Memory Usage was not going crazy. All Processes where normal with adequate CPU & Memory headroom.
I took the MacBook apart thinking that the SATA Controller Cable might be loose. No, it was firmly in place. I reassembled the MacBook and booted it up again. Still incredibly slow!
Finally, after several reboot attempts, the MacBook would book up quickly and operation was perfect. I applied all updates and continued testing the MacBook with great success. Gave my friend his MacBook back and he was grateful.
_Now for the kicker..._
My friend brought me his MacBook a week ago complaining that the MacBook was operating extremely slow (much like when I was initially testing it before). I verified the MacBook was slow when I tried using it. I tried several reboots and then it would get stuck on the gray Apple with spinning gear.
I tried booting into Single User Mode, but it gets stuck on "Waiting for root device"
I put the MacBook in Target Disk Mode and connected it to my G5 2.0GHz Dual Core. The hard drive would mount quickly on the G5 and I used Disk Utility to create a Restore Image. The disk operation would perform normally and the image would be created successfully.
I then partitioned the MacBook's hard drive when connected to the G5, ejected and proceeded to attempt OS reinstall. No dice! The hard drive is not even detected by the Disk Utility on the Leopard Install DVD.
Finally after several reattempts, the hard drive is recognized, but is extremely slow when trying to reinstall...and again, ultimately install fails. Using Disk Utility from Leopard Install DVD, the hard drive fails to unmount when I try formatting.
I don't have Apple Hardware Test disc for the MacBook or Apple Service Diagnostics disc for this model. Running TechTool Pro shows hardware to be okay, disk controller onboard the Fujitsu drive is okay, but running SMART & Surface Scan takes a long, long time (which I'm certain will ultimately error out). Running Drive Genius takes a long, long time as well.
Conclusion:
I think the SATA Controller Cable is defective. I can't think of anything else that would cause disk errors or performance issues like this. Your input is truly appreciated!

Even though no one responded to my post, I thought I'd share the resolution with the entire Apple community. I hope this information will be helpful to some of you with MacBooks or MacBook Pros that may be running painfully slow or may be exhibiting hard drive issues because your machine won't recognize the boot drive or fails to properly boot on a perfectly healthy S.M.A.R.T. verified hard drive. It just might be the hard drive connector/cable. Here it goes...
I visited my local Apple Retail Store and asked a "Genius" at the Genius Bar about this issue and told him my thoughts about a possible failed hard drive connector/cable. First, he didn't even know what a hard drive connector was! Then, he arrogantly stated that he never heard of such a thing and that these cables never fail. Finally, he blatantly dispelled this as a possibility.
On the contrary with my experience, I have had many failed PATA controller cables that required replacement when supporting the desktop PC's at work. I have personally owned and supported many Apple manufactured laptops and desktops and have never encountered this issue on a Mac...until this MacBook!
So, after looking at the Service Manual for the MacBook, I went over to my local Apple Authorized Service Provider and purchased the Hard Drive Connector Apple Part #922-7579. I replaced the original cable, reassembled and proceeded to boot the MacBook with the Leopard DVD installer. The Fujitsu drive was immediately recognized and was able to be formatted and Leopard installed without incident. The MacBook boots off the internal hard drive as normal again and works nice and fast again.
Thank you all for your time!
:D

Internal hard drive issue with Mac Pro

I work for two office that share information through a VPN. Each office has one Mac Pro being used as a server for data storage. The Pros have four internal hard drives (1TB each).
Hard drives in the Pro for OFFICE 1 were configured like so:
HD1 - OS/Boot drive
HD2 - Time Machine backup of HD1/DATA1/DATA2
DATA1 - Data storage
DATA2 - Data storage
Three weeks ago: Time Machine could not find HD2 and could not backup. I rebooted the machine and HD2 reappeared. However, after the reboot, DATA1 did not mount. I was unable to find DATA1 in Disk Utility. However, the drive could be accessed by all other Macs on the network. This machine was taken to the local Apple Store and we were told that HD2 was a bad drive and need to be replaced. We opted not to replaced the drive at this time and turned Time Machine backups off. We haven't had any problems with DATA1 since. (NOTE: During the weeks prior, the client machines intermittently lost connection with DATA1 and would have to reconnect)
Last week: OFFICE 2 - Mac Pro hard drives configured the same as OFFICE 1; however, HD2 was not used for TM backups. TM was turned on and set to backup HD1/DATA1/DATA2 to HD2 (exactly like OFFICE 1). The next day, TM could not find HD2 and backups stopped running. I rebooted the machine, HD2 reappeared, but we did not restart the TM backups.
Today: OFFICE 2 client machines have experienced intermittent disconnecting of DATA1.
I wasn't extremely concerned with the situation at OFFICE 1 as these Pros are almost five years old and in constant use. We plan on purchasing an external drive for the TM backups. HOWEVER, with a similar situation now being experienced in OFFICE 2, I am perplexed.
Could both machine be experiencing hard drive failures weeks apart? They were both purchased and installed at the same time.
Is there a known issue with TM and internal drives?
One difference between the two machines: OFFICE 1 is running OS X 10.8.5; OFFICE 2 runs 10.6.8
Any suggestions/help is appreciated. Thanks!

Relying on TimeMachine has some issues, along with only having one, I use at least two swapping TimeMachine so that they rotate AND I clone every drive (volume actually) so I can swap drives if need be, especially useful for t he system but good for any drive.
Power issues in t he buildings?
There are some programs that will scan for and report and./or attempt to reassign a failing sector ("fail" is qualitative, is 10 write failures a fail? then the 9th is not but it is a "weak sector.") Some run in the background.
Mirror can be 2 or 3 ( I prefer 3, that way if one fails I STILL have a mirror array in place) where any failure is not acceptable, AND where the array data is backed up usually - less important when using a three-drive configurations.
How old, when last initialized (zero), and is it showing spare blocks being used? that last is the most indicative of failed drive.
Rare but a bad SATA cable or power (seeing how the cables are tucked away) is only way generally for multiple failures in same drive bay or computer. Note: early on in 2006-7 there were reports of some customers having motherboard and trouble with a drive bay , and t he problems showed up early.
Often though it is NVRAM or SMC related issue trigged by something else, a USB cable or device that is faulty, even a PCIe controller that is the culprit. And replacing cable, keyboard, device, and resetting SMC and NVRAM (often NVRAM needed to be done multiple times, but never keep resetting SMC) - unplugged and when you connect back up, do not install anything other than system, keyboard and mouse and see if that helps.
With a drive, likely the drive in 85% or more, is fine, but the directory is not, or it needs to be erased to rebuild all the system partitions.
1TB is small for TimeMachine. 350% of the amount of data, and always have free space for a full backup set of all the data. T.M. will try and prefers to automatically backup any and everything plugged in and connected, rather than my preference which is ASK FIRST to add a drive to TM backup set, otherwise leave it out. 600GB of data and system would mean 2.5TB drive, maybe 2TB minimum.

IMac Internal Hard Drive Issues

Here's the story thus far:
I've experienced random system freezes/lock-ups infrequently over the past month or so. I would have to do a hard reset and everything would be back to normal. I didn't really think any major issues were occurring.
Tuesday night my iMac booted to my SuperDuper bootable clone external HD. Upon loading of the desktop, I was greeted with an error message about the disk not loading, and I was presented with options to 'Initialize' 'Ignore' or 'Eject'. I was able to restart and everything was fine.
Yesterday, the same thing occurred again. When I restarted and disconnected my external HD that was being booted from, I was greeted with the ominous flashing question mark folder icon. I shut the computer down for the night, presuming the HD dead or on its way out.
This morning, I was able to boot up the computer normally, but it randomly froze/locked-up, forcing me to restart and the same issues would occur. I performed all of the normal housekeeping chores. I verified/repaired the disk through Disk Utility (when I could boot from it), also through booting into safe mode (which performed successfully), resetting the PRAM, disconnecting all peripherals, and running Disk Utility through the OS X install disk.
I spoke with AppleCare on and off throughout the day. 2 representatives I spoke with seemed to believe it was some sort of directory corruption. So we erased the HD through the OS X install disk and reinstalled Snow Leopard. I restored everything from the latest Time Machine backup, and everything appeared fine.
A few hours ago, upon waking up the computer from sleep, it froze up with the spinning beach ball, forcing me to hard reset. It then booted onto the external HD again. I immediately called AppleCare and the representative said it seems like it's on its way out. I agreed, and we scheduled an appointment at an Apple store. I wanted to know the procedure because, like most people, I absolutely cannot live without the computer for long. I'm a freelance web designer and I need it ASAP. She got me the numbers for a few Authorized Apple Service Providers in my area, and I will be contacting them in the morning because she said that is the quicker path.
Mainly, I'm looking for advice on the best, and quickest, way to ascertain the problem and remedy it. I also want to know if these are signs of a failing hard drive, or just corruption that leads to a need for replacement. Am I taking the correct path to get everything fixed?
Side note: I turned it on about an hour ago while holding the option key, and the main, internal HD did indeed show up. Is this stuff normal (the back and forth mounting/booting and then not)?
Sorry for the rant, and the ambiguous questions (or lack thereof). Let me know if you need more clarification.
Thanks in advance.

Start up from the clone and run Disk Utility.
First, select the internal drive in the sidebar and right (control) click on it. Select Information from the menu. Check the S.M.A.R.T status. It should say Verified.
If you don't mind erasing your internal drive again, you can run a sort of +stress test+ on it. Select the drive in the sidebar (select the drive and not the volume indented under the drive). Go to the Erase tab. Click on +Security Options+. Select to do a +Zero Out Data+ erase. This will write zeros to every sector of the hard drive, and doing so is a good way to test the drive for reliability. If it is having problems related to hardware, it is likely that this procedure will error or stall out. Even when working normally, it does take a long time to complete (even a few hours depending on the drive capacity), but you should see steady progress on the bar.
If it completes successfully, you should try starting up from the installation disc and running another standard installation in it. +Zero Out Data+ will also map out bad sectors, so if the numbers were manageable, it is possible that the drive will now work more reliably. But you may not want to trust it completely (do more backups).
Since it sounds like the iMac runs reliably off your clone, I think the problem is related to the internal drive.

Internal Hard Drive Free Space Issue

Hey,
I recently upgraded my 17" MacBook Pro from Tiger to Snow Leopard but the upgrade seems to have created a number of problems, the most notable being the lack of free space now available on my internal hard drive.
I also had to install a trial version of Aperture 3.0.3 in order to access my aperture library as the older version of Aperture is not compatible with Snow Leopard.
At this point the free space available on my internal hard drive was 36GB and my aperture library was 39GB. I had to uninstall Photoshop Elements 9 in order to create enough free space to open this library.
I bought an external hard drive and after some organising (importing and exporting to and from external hard drive), I eventually moved all photo files/folders, projects and libraries onto this external drive, leaving only one in-progress project (about 3GB) left on the internal volume.
I also exported my iTunes library and any other files to this external drive.
All trashes have been emptied.
The problem is that, despite all this clear-out, I now only have 2GB of free space on the internal hard drive.
I ran Disk Inventory X and it shows that my home folder is using 155GB of space, which seems ridiculous considering there is in effect nothing left on my laptop save for the application programs and the one remaining project.
I have manually checked through this folder and all its subfolders and have found nothing that would accumulate to this amount of space.
I have repaired an issue with the internal volume, but it is now showing a “minor” problem with the volume header.
If someone can provide and explanation/solution to this I would be very grateful as it is severely slowing my workflow at the moment.
Thanks

Baresi:
I suggest that you begin with Repair Disk
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel, and report if it says anything but Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
If DU reports errors it cannot repair you will need to use a utility like Tech Tool Pro or Disk Warrior
I recommend that you make sure that you make a bootable clone of your entire volume using a utility like SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner.
You should also seriously consider installing a larger capacity drive.
cornelius

Internal Hard Drive replacement issue?

Hi,
Last night, I upgraded my internal hard drive from 20Gig to 80Gig, and I added a DVD ROM drive so I can watch movies (instead of playing CD's only). I ran the hardware test disc and everything passed.
In addition, last week, I installed 512MB of additional RAM. The physical installations of everything was really a lot easier than people in the forum would have you believe, but Pismos are definitely easier and a lot more user friendly when it comes to upgrading.
The problem is I don't have any iBook installation discs. I DO have the 4 original restore discs, but when I attempt to do a restore, the restore option is grayed out and inaccessible. The eject and switch disc option only shuffle between image and disc. The HD icon won't come up. Startup without the restore discs only boots up to the question mark.
Obviously, I didn't know that I was supposed to back up the original 20Gig drive before removing it. I guess I can put it back in, back it up, and take it out again. My question is, before I remove the 80Gig and reinstall the 20gig, does anyone know of another option to get the restore option to not be grayed out?
If not, then I have another question. How can I back up the original iBook drive on my Pismo's external 300 Gig Firewire Seagate without destroying all the data I've backed up from the Pismo.
It is partitioned into 2, but one of them is only 10Gigs large as a mirror of 1 of my Pismo's 10Gig HD? If it isn't possible, then I guess I can destroy everything on my Seagate and reinstall it again when I'm done upgrading the iBook. I would rather not do that though.
Thank you in advance for any ideas you may have on the subject,
A Little Fish in the BigMac Pond

Check Apple's Knowledge Base article on restoring your Apple software for links to the proper instructions for your model (which depends upon which software came with it). Most likely, the Restore discs are not startup CD's, so you can't use them until OS X is installed on the computer.
You need the installation disc to initialize the drive and format it as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).
I haven't used it, but DiskStudio is supposed to allow you to partition without erasing the hard drive.

HT203322 Still having issues with installing Yosemite after deleting "Backups.backupdb" on the internal hard drive. I have restarted multiple times and cannot find any other back up files, yet I still receive the same error message during installation.

I am using a 2011 iMac on 10.6.8. I recently downloaded the Yosemite upgrade and during the installation process ran into the "this disk is used for time machine backups". I ejected the external drive I use for time machine backups and turned off time machine in the application. I then followed the instructions of the help article (OS X: Cannot install on a volume used by Time Machine for backups - Apple Support) by moving the folder "Backups.backupdb" that I was able to find on my internal hard drive to the trash. I have restarted several times after completing this process. I am still running into the same error during the installation process. I have searched the hard drive for any other backups and I cannot find any. I searched the hard drive using the command cmd-shift-g and searched for “backups.backupdb” and was unable to find any folders or files. Any other suggestions?

I have resolved the problem - I did not actually delete the "backups.backupdb" folder, I only deleted the contents of the folder. I must have only searched on the user account for the folder after I thought I had deleted it. Thank you for the assistance everyone and I apologize for the inconvenience!

How to move an iTunes library from the internal hard drive to another bootable disk.

         I got two Mac OS X installations on my i Mac system. One on the internal hard drive (320 Gb), that has been there since the iMac was bought 3 years ago, upgraded to Lion on 2 August. (call that INT) . I have a USB external drive, and recently bought a firewire Lacie external drive (2Tb), so to boot from there when I can, with hard drive space getting tight this year. I successfully installed another copy of Lion on LACIE.
         Then I went to work to transfer my iTunes library, which the media files were optioned to store on the USB drive. Intending to transfer both the music and video files, and the megadata ( playlists, ratings, playcounts ) I found the media files and the iTunes library file and the .xml document in my iTunes folder from INT. I made a new folder in the USB drive, and copied the contents from the old iTunes folder to that new folder. I re-started in LACIE, and found my empty iTunes folder. I copied over to the new iTunes folder, then opened iTunes. My eyes saw the music library to the same number of items, with the playlists etc showing.
        However, I tried to sync an iPod Nano, and a window came up saying 100 songs could not be copied to the iPod because they could not be found. After ejecting the iPod I tried to play a song from iTunes, and the screen filled with exclamation points. A small window came up, asking for a password to open "sparsebundle" and my name. I entered my password for the administrator's log-in and it said try again with the password. Without knowing what password to put in, I clicked Cancel, and got another small window asking to locate the file. Then clicked Cancel again, not knowing where to search. All the media folders were showing after quitting iTunes and opening Finder .
      I re-booted into INT, and opened iTunes. The library was still there. I synced my iPod again, ejected it, played 3 songs on the iPod, synced again, ejected it again, and opened the playlist "Recently Played". It showed up okay with no problems. So my iTunes library in INT is alright.
      Has anyone got any idea how to make the transfer into LACIE and get it running alright, or what went wrong with what I did ?
      In the meantime I will empty my LACIE iTunes library folder's contents to the trash, and securily empty the trash .

Solved the issue without using the trash . I tried to consolidate the library in LACIE, then clicked on any exclamation-mark song and tried to locate the file. Repeating those steps 3 or 4 times cleared it up. That was confirmed when I synced the entire library on a iPod Classic, and showed up no problems after syncing the Nano.
     What went wrong was perhaps to fail to consolidate the library at first .

How do I recover files from an internal hard drive that is no longer recognized?

Hi there,
Any help on this problem is greatly appreciated! I have a MacBook Pro (late 2009) running Snow Leopard. Over the last few years, after having brought the computer in to get checked, it seems that the RAM cards have gotten loose (or the bottom cover of the computer gets loose) and occasionally a grey curtain will come down from the top of the screen and everything stops working. Restarting the computer is often fine but sometimes it can't be restarted and I have to take the cover off, reset the RAM cards in their slots, and retighten the cover. The computer usually works fine after that, but verifying the disk using Disk Utility will sometimes indicate there is an error and the disk needs to be repaired. Repairing it in Disk Utility is usually fine.
Last year this happened but the disk could not be repaired. The operating system could still be run, and after making a backup of all my files I reinstalled the operating system from the installation DVD, which didn't delete any of my files on the hard drive anyway.
A few days ago the same grey curtain issue happened, however upon resetting the RAM and back cover and restarting the computer, the apple logo appeared which was quickly replaced by a prohibitory sign, which stayed on the screen indefinitely. After putting in the installation DVD and trying to reinstall the operating system, when the option comes up to choose which disk to install OS X on, the internal hard drive does not appear as an option. Going to Disk Utility from the DVD, the internal hard drive appears on the left but the text is greyed out. Attempting to repair the disk gives the following error message:
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Invalid key length
Invalid record count
Catalog file entry not found for extent
The volume could not be verified completely.
Error: Disk Utility can't repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.
While I know I could completely erase and reformat the disk, I really don't want to lose any of my files (ideally). If I erase the disk but select "Don't Erase Data" from the "Security Options..." in the "Erase" tab in Disk Utility, will this keep all my files in tact and will I be able to access them later? Are there third party applications that can recover my files so I can make a back up before I delete and reformat the hard drive? I am currently running the computer through an external hard drive connected by USB, but the internal hard drive still doesn't show up in Finder (only in Disk Utility as greyed out text).
Can I recover my files?
Thanks so much!

Try using a data recovery product such as the ones listed here. Don't erase the drive or write anything else to it until the files are recovered or you choose not to recover them.
(117246)

Installing internal hard drive on an old iMac

I am an absolute novice when it comes to taking apart a computer and know nothing about any technical terms or parts. I was able to install a new battery when the original died, so when the "genius" at the Apple Store said I could install an additional internal hard drive, I gave it a whirl. Before I try to return the hard drive, I thought I would give this a shot.
My iMac is a 400 MHz PowerPC G3, one of the early generations, if the not the first (see-through cobalt blue exterier). I am running with 256 MB of memory and the CPU type is PowerPC 750 (83.0). I have Mac OS X Tiger, version 10.4.6 and this machine had been working great until we recently purchased our first iPod. Now with all the music being loaded in iTunes, the iMac has slowed down and even frozen when trying to use a few applications at once.
I figured I needed more hard drive space and/or memory and the people at the Apple store suggested I purchase a Seagate 80 GB Barracuda and install it myself.
Well, I got the computer apart and found the old hard drive, but that is about as far as I can go. I read about making the new hard drive the "slave" hooking up the BLUE, BLACK and GRAY connectors on the new cable, but I don't know a motherboard from a jumpdrive and the new connectors do not match up with the old one (the Blue connector is not the same size as the old one that I think was going into the motherboard). There is also something about an unused power cable in the old computer for the new hard drive, (which I did not see) and a suggestion that I get a Y-shaped power cable from an electronics store, which even if I knew what it was, I would not know where to begin connecting it. Not only does the new connector not match up, it is about 10 times as long as the old one, which leads me to the final issue: if I could get this all hooked up and power-supplied, where in the world would I put the new, additional hard drive? There is no room I can see adjacent to the current hard drive. Do I have to take the thing further apart?
I realize this may provide a great laugh for anyone who knows how all this works. If trying to walk someone through this process using Apple Discussions does not make sense, I completely understand. I had nothing to lose (except possibly the cost of the Seagate drive if they won't take it back).
I was able to put everything back together after taking the old hard drive out, so I think I could do this if the parts were all there and matched up....but I would still need to know where to put the new drive!
Any suggestions are appreciated. I have already resigned myself to the fact I may just need a more expensive external drive...I just have few available ports.
Thanks,
Conrad Farner

"...when the "genius" at the Apple Store said I could install an additional internal hard drive, I gave it a whirl... if I could get this all hooked up and power-supplied, where in the world would I put the new, additional hard drive?"
Your iMac has room for one hard drive and the optical drive (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, etc.). Any ribbon cable supplied with the hard drive or a Y-splitter power cable is of no use in the iMac. The new drive must replace the original, because the two can't coexist internally. Additionally, you need to configure the new Seagate as "master," since the optical drive is "slave." Refer to Seagate's accompanying documentation, for instructions on setting the small jumper(s) to designate the drive as "master." The drive may have been factory-configured for "cable select," which isn't supported in your iMac. After you get that straightened out, you'll need to boot the computer from the Tiger installer CD and use "Disk Utility" to format the new drive as a Mac OS Extended (HFS+) volume. You may also want to partition it as well.
Incidentally, you should post any future questions about your iMac in the Forum dedicated to the CRT-style iMacs. You'll receive informative answers to any questions that you might have, from those who are thoroughly familiar with your model iMac.

PLEASE HELP me select new internal hard drive for Macbook Pro 2012 (non-retina)

Good afternoon.
I just bought a Macbook Pro 2012 (non-retina) 15 inch from a friend. I think it is running Mountain Lion (has not been upgraded to Mavericks yet), and has iLife on it. It came with the stock 500 gb 5400 rpm internal hard drive. At home, I only have the Snow Leopard OS installation Cds and a copy of iLife 2011 installation Cds. I am going to buy 16 gb of RAM from Other World Computing to install.
I want to replace the hard drive with a 1 tb hard drive, preferably something that is $100 or less.
I talked to Other World Computing (OWC) and looked at the Data Doubler Option to replace the optical drive with a Solid State drive, but decided that for now I want to keep the optical drive inside the computer for portability issues.
I know that Solid State drives are better, but they are still too small, and I want the ease and portability of a 1 tb size INSIDE my computer.
Initially I was going to order this from Other World Computing: 1.0TB 2.5" HGST Travelstar 7K1000 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 9.5mm Notebook Drive 32MB Cache. *'New' Factory Replacement with 2+ Year HGST Warranty*    As of April 4, 2014 it's on sale for $79
But then I started reading some of the discussions online and thought maybe I should get a hybrid solid state drive?
I saw on Amazon the Seagate 1TB Solid State Hybrid Drive SATA 6Gbps 64MB Cache 2.5-Inch ST1000LM014 It's on sale for $94.
But according to some reviews, this Seagate has a platter that is only 5400rpm, unlike the previous Seagate Momentum that has a platter speed of 7200rpm.
How reliable are the Seagate, versus a Toshiba or Western Digital or Hitachi or something else?
Here are my questions about replacing the hard drive:
1. Is a hybrid solid state drive going to need some kind of special formatting after I put it into the macbook so that I can put the operating system on it?
2. Is a "normal" platter hard drive more reliable than a hybrid solid state drive?
3. Is there any additional driver or special software that I have to install for a hybrid solid state drive?
4. Currently there is no personal data stored on the computer. Can I just put the new hard drive in, and then insert the snow leopard install cd?
5. If I install snow leopard, can I just go to the App store and get the free upgrade to Mavericks?
6. If I want to do the "Data Doubler" option in the future and add a normal Solid State drive into my computer, will it have trouble interacting with the 1 tb hybrid solid state drive?
I would love to get some recommendations about the smartest option to upgrade my hard drive with something that will be fast (I edit lots of photos) and large (1 tb) that isn't going to cost too much. I don't know much about the different brands or options (and there are so many listed in tons of online reviews), that I got really overwhelmed and confused by the info out there.
I would really appreciate any help and advice. I've never switched out a hard drive before.
PLEASE HELP !!! Thanks!
Here is the "About this Mac" Info:
Macbook Pro 15-in Mid 2012
Model Identifier: MacBookPro9,1
Processor: 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 4 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Software: OS x 10.8.5
Storage (Hard drive): APPLE HDD ST500LM012 Media, Rotational, SATA, GPT (GUID Partition Table)

1. Is a hybrid solid state drive going to need some kind of special formatting after I put it into the macbook so that I can put the operating system on it?
The boot drive, regardless of what it is, needs to be formatted as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). This is standard with OS X.
2. Is a "normal" platter hard drive more reliable than a hybrid solid state drive?
There are arguments pro and con. Bottom line, SSD's and hybrid drives are still quite expensive per GB than standard hard drives. If you have the bucks and are a speed demon, go ahead.   I have better use for my money.   Standard hard drives are mechanical and may wear out over time. But even though SSDs are not mechancial, they can still go bad and ultimately they even have a limit to their write capacity. The jury is still out on this debate.
3. Is there any additional driver or special software that I have to install for a hybrid solid state drive?
No
4. Currently there is no personal data stored on the computer. Can I just put the new hard drive in, and then insert the snow leopard install cd?
You can physically put the hard drive in but probably not install Snow Leopard on this MBP.
The mid-2012 MacBookPro9,1 models came with Lion 10.7.3 (11D2097) preinstalled.   It is very unlikely you would be able to install Snow Leopard on it. Historically you cannot install a version of OS X that is earlier than the version that came with your Mac (even if you replace the hard drive).
5. If I install snow leopard, can I just go to the App store and get the free upgrade to Mavericks?
Not via Snow Leopard on this MBP. See my response to #4.
6. If I want to do the "Data Doubler" option in the future and add a normal Solid State drive into my computer, will it have trouble interacting with the 1 tb hybrid solid state drive?
No. They are completely independent of each other; they are just independent storage units (drives) and their RAM does not interact.

Why does dying internal hard drive stop you booting from external hd

Why do I need an internal hard drive if I am booting from an external drive? Doesnt make sense,
Disk Utility warned me that the internal hard drive is failing. I have managed to change start up disks. I have an external bootable drive and even have an empty partition on it, "just in case" I need to install a brand new OS, but here I am waiting for local disks, and I cant access my back-up OS.
Why doesnt OSX just move past the dying faulty hard drive and get to work on the bootable disk? Basically here I am supposedly doing all the right things to cover for an emergency - I may as well have no backup strategy.
Am I missing a step, or is this how OSX works. Perhaps if you read the steps and outcomes below, you can see if there is more I need to do?
If I press "option" at start up, it only shows the internal drive, not recognising the external bootable drive.
fsck -f produced a looping "missing thread" message that went on for an hour or more so I stopped that.
I tried the dvd and command-c at start up, got through to the installer window and when I selected disk utility it hung, but no spinning ball, just nothing was happening.
The next attempt with th DVD i changed start up disk, this time it saw the external bootable drive and I thought I was in business again.
And here I am full circle, waiting for local disks.
Any thoughts most welcome.
btw, does the SMART issue a warning of a failing drive because a drive is definitely unsalvagable due to a mechanical fault? or is there a chance my drive is physiclly healthy but shows as Failing because it has unbelievable directory issues that Apple tools cannot solve - but DW could?
PB Ti 867MHz 768MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9)
PB Ti 867MHz 768MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9)

The Bombich forums have helped me troubleshoot the integrity of the bootable volumes on my external hard drive which I made using Carbon Copy Cloner. The clones are fine ie after I reset nvram after booting up via command-alt-o-f, the clones are now recognised when I boot up-alt. So it seems that there was nothing wrong with the bootable volumes on the external drive per se.
However, the Powerbook will still not boot up past "Waiting for local disks".
As it stands now, nobody seems to be able to give a reason why I cannot bypass the failed internal hard drive. I found a Knowledge base article from Apple saying Cmd-Alt-shift-delete at start-up should skip you to the next working volume hitched up to your computer, but that didn't work either.
I have a new internal HDD coming, so prior to installing it, the final part of the troubleshoot will be to reboot the PB without an internal HDD. I will see what happens and see what conclusions can be drawn from that. Unless anyone has a clue now from what I have posted?
PB Ti 867MHz 768MB RAM Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Hard drive issues after update 10.10.3

Question also posted here:Hard Drive Issues (Both new and old)
I'm trapped in a HDD nightmare with my MacBook Pro mid-2012.
I updated to Yosemite 10.10.3 (with the Photos app). A couple of days after the update, I was watching a movie on my TV screen via HDMI. In the middle of the movie I removed the HDMI cable from the MacBook Pro and everything freezes. I forced shut down (Note: My HDD was encrypted). After I forced shut down, I tried to turn on and the loading screen would never stop loading - like, 14 hours stuck with the progress bar. Since I have backups, I decided to access DU and format my HDD. I tried everything. For real. Every command line I could type on Terminal to format, repair, erase and/or partition. I read almost every issue-related questions on the forums and stack exchange groups for a week (even posted my issue here: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/181090/erasing-and-partitioning-hard-dr ive-from-internet-recovery?noredirect=1#comment215695_181090).
So, I decided that it was a HDD failure and bought a new one.
I bought the Seagate 1TB SSHD Hybrid - ST1000LM014. Installed the new fresh disk and guess what? All those same problems again. I´m not able to restore from Time Machine because it doesn't recognize the disk in the restore page. But the disk is recognized in the DU. When I try to erase or partition the new SSHD, the same old errors: File system formatter failed. Yes, I tired GUID Partition Table, all of the security options, etc.
Please. Any light that you can throw at this issue, I'll be very grateful for. BTW, the new SSHD is recognized and the SMART Status says: Verified.
Any ideas on *** is going on?
Thanks in advance!
MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), i7, 8GB RAM

After I erase the hard drive (I assume one pass of writing zeros is good enough, 7 passes not needed?) do I turn off the laptop, then turn on and insert the Install Disk? Will there be a prompt telling me when to put in the disk? Or do I put in the disc right after erasing?
One pass is fine. If you've previously backed up your hard drive to an external hard drive using SuperDuper!, which is what I use and recommend, or another program, if it created a bootable drive, you want to boot off of it, bring up SuperDuper! and copy the drive back to the internal hard drive. SuperDuper also makes the drive bootable. When done, reboot, and you should be all set. If you're using Time Machine, you'll want to install the operating system, then restore the Time Machine backup. SuperDuper! is available from http://www.shirt-pocket.com/superduper/superduperdescription.html
Finally- should I update the OS? Is there a problem with the newest update that caused this crash, or was it just a spurious glitch/bad luck?
I've been running 10.5.8 for awhile with no issues, and would recommend moving to it.

What is max internal hard drive transfer rate compatible with a 2007 MacBook Pro?

In attempt to upgrade my mid-2007 MacBook Pro (Intel Core 2 Duo), I bought a Seagate 750GB listed as compatible with my computer on MacSales.com . . .
Seagate Momentus XT ST750LX003 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache 2.5" SATA 6.0Gb/s Solid State Hybrid Drive -Bare Drive
Installation appeared to go well and I ran an extended hardware test with no issues found. However, the drive is listed at 5.46 TB (would be nice) and I get an input/output error when attempting to partition. I can initiate an erase, but after the time I would suspect it would take to erase the drive, I get an input/output error - it seems to appear after the first 750 GB of the '5.5 TB' was erased. At all times, the drive is not recognized when I attempt to install OS X from original discs.
I suspect the 6.0 GB/s transfer capacity of the hard drive is not compatible with the MacBook Pro. The drive came with 4 jumper pins but no jumper and no label diagram to set a slower transfer rate. I called Seagate, Newegg, OWC, and Apple, but no one has compatibility info for my MacBook Pro. To them, it appears I am running the first tests of this new technology with an 'older' MacBook Pro.
My MBP has had no issues - I'd like to keep her going with the optimum internal hard drive capacity, but don't necessarily want to set up a test bench in my house (though my kids would enjoy destroying it) and pay several shipping and restocking fees to test new hard drives.
The original drive had a 1.5 GB/s transfer rate. Does anyone know the maximum transfer rate compatible with a 2007 MacBook Pro? 3.0 GB/s? 1.5 GB/s? Thank you.

No spinning hard drive will transfer data faster then 60-80MB a second. The XT models have a flash storage area that is used when reading and writing data that can make it Appear faster in some situations. That flash memory if only 8 or 16GBs in side, I forget which one.
The drie is rated to work on 6GB SATA bus but it certainly can not transfer data that fast. It should be backword compatible to work on slower buses.
Your drive is 750GBs in size. Not wure where you are getting this 5.5TB (that is 5.5 Tera Bytes which is 5500 Giga Bytes. Your drive is under 1TB)
What are you using to partition the drive? Disk Utilities from the original install DVD?
You need to install on your old drive, Update it from the Apple Website then clone it to the new drive. The version of OSX you are using may not function correctly with that large of a drive. Or get yourself a copy of Snow Leopard, retail disk for $29 from Apple, and do all the partitioning and installing with that version od OSX.

2009 MBP can't see internal hard drive - for the second time!

Well, my 2009 13" MBP is at Applecare for the second time because it cannot recognize _any_ internal hard drive.
The first repair came at 9 months (purchased new), now 16 months later I have the same issue.
Swap in a known good drive, it can't see it, boot from DVD, and run Disk Utility, it can't see it either (optical drive shows up fine)
My first repair only said they replaced the original hard drive, has anyone else had the issue of losing access to your internal hard drive?
Ugh, I will be out of the 3 year Applecare next summer, and don't want to get stuck with another iBook G3, if you know what I mean.
Thanks for any feedback!

Hi
I have the same issue, I have a Vodafone branded Huawei HG556a with an external drive connected. I have found that it isn't possible to connect via Finder and that SMB doesn't work either. The only way I could connect to it was via FTP using Cyberduck (or Filezilla), but no use as I can't add my media files from the drive to iTunes, so unfortunately disappointing. I'm still looking, but here's the document I was referred too from another forum.
broadband.vodafone.ie/download/files/storage_mac.pdf
Although not an answer to your question, hopefully this will give you an idea why you are getting the password and username errors when you know they are correct. In the end when I entered the FTP details into Cyberduck I was able to connect.
I know this doesn't help solve the problem (as I'm still looking too), but at leas you know why (ish).
Cheers
Topes

Internal Hard Drive Issue

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