Is my SATA cable broken?

Hello
Recently bought a SSD to replace my factory HDD because it seemed to stop working. I had trouble installing Mountain Lion via the Internet Recovery Tool because even though i could see the drive in the disk utility the reinstall step did not. My friend was able to install the OS onto the SSD via his Mac. I used a SATA to USB adapter and connected it to the MBP via USB to avoid having to open it again if it doesnt work. So it loaded the OS and i was able to get to my desktop. I then shut it down and installed it back into my MBP, screwed the back cover and started it up. It went back to the flashing ? folder icon. I went back to the Internet Recovery Tool and checked the disk utility but the SSD is still there but with a different name (dsk101 something something). Try to select startup disk but it does not show up. I remove it and connect it again via USB and it loads up normally. Not sure what could be wrong. HELLP!

It will make it easier to help you w/ your problem to know the exact model, size, year built, RAM installed and OS you're running.
Find your model here:
https://www.ifixit.com/Device/MacBook_Pro
and replace your internal SATA cable.

Similar Messages

Logic board or SATA cable broken?

Hello guys,
I recently had a problem with my macbook pro, which could come from 2 different things. (See title)
How can I know which part is broken? I can't test anything using another mac's parts, and I can't start the broken mac.

No the SSD is more then like OK. the problem is the Optical bay on your model Mac doesn't support the SATA 3 specs, 6GBs. Even if it says it does in the Specifications Apple has limited it. your not the only person that has had problems getting a SATA 3 SSD to work in the optical bay of a Mac notebook.
But Yes the main bay cable is bad. Once you replace that cable the SSD should work in the main bay without problem.
Check with Intel for an updated firmware for that SSD. Problem with that is I don't think they have a way to update it on a Mac. You would need a Windows PC as the firmware is included in the Intel SSD Toolbox program.

Broken SATA cable or logic board?

Hi.
Today I received my replaced intel 520 series harddisk (I sent one in, because I thought it was dead).
Today, this new SSD didn't show up in disk utilities, although it shows up on another laptop (booting into linux dvd).
I've placed the new SSD in the maindrive of my MacBook Pro 13" early 2011, and i've placed my old HDD in an obtibay in the superdrive's place. The HDD works fine, and i've installed the system onto there, since i can't use my SSD.
Could this be a dead SSD (remember, it showed in Linux), a dead SATA-cable (which i could fix), or a dead logic board connector (which i don't have the balls to fix)?
Regards, Magnus.

No the SSD is more then like OK. the problem is the Optical bay on your model Mac doesn't support the SATA 3 specs, 6GBs. Even if it says it does in the Specifications Apple has limited it. your not the only person that has had problems getting a SATA 3 SSD to work in the optical bay of a Mac notebook.
But Yes the main bay cable is bad. Once you replace that cable the SSD should work in the main bay without problem.
Check with Intel for an updated firmware for that SSD. Problem with that is I don't think they have a way to update it on a Mac. You would need a Windows PC as the firmware is included in the Intel SSD Toolbox program.

T430u need the part number for the Sata cable

I have a t430u where the Sata cable is broken, i need the part number, I have searched around, called lenovo support (they said it was under warrenty, the say it was a bad hard drive and want $600 to replace a board) I know it is the Sata cable that clearly has 2 broken wires. how do i know, if i hold the two loose wires to the posts, the machine boots and runs, but it is way too small to solder. any help would be appreciated.
t430u, and it is the mini-sata on one end an a right angled non-sata end. I don't have a picture until i get the laptop returned from IBM.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

I believe 04W4436 is correct. In the U.S. IBM does the parts distribution.
http://www-304.ibm.com/shop/americas/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/default/TopCategoriesDisplay?cntrfnbr...

Replacment SATA cable

Hello!
My macbook pro 2010 doesn't recognize the hard drive and I was planning to replace the SATA cable. I tried to disconnect it to have a look at it but I ran into some trouble. The end part is connected to som kind of yellow flap (marked by "1" in the picture). I tried to gently loosen the plug but unfortunately the yellow thing broke. It had a little black part at the end which was connected to the plug in some way. That part fell off.
When I'm looking for a new cable on the Internet I can see in some of the sellers pictures that the whole plastic part ("2" in the picture) is included but in most pictures it isn't.
Does anyone of you know what the broken yellow flap means? Can I still buy a new cable or do I need more replacment parts now?

Depending on the Card Reader you purchased, I suspect it is using a USB header connection, rather than SATA. If the existing card reader is still connected to the motherboard, just plug the new one to an empty USB header connection. A picure of the motherboard can be found HERE. Just verify yours looks similar. The USB header connections are along the lower edge of the motherboard ( in the picture ). I see your motherboard may have a special connctor for the card reader
just above the SATA ports, labeled Mini Card on the picture, I have not actually seen that .before
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Problem with SATA hard discs and MSI motherboards (could it be the SATA cable)

I have two systems with a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250620AS 250GB Serial ATA (3.0Gb/s)
hard disk.
One system has a P965 Neo and the other has a PN6 SLI motherboard.
I am having issues in that the OS seems to install properly but after a few days the users gets on hd type problems.
One users workstation the hard drive would not boot. Tried everything to get it to work from F8 but it would get stuck in the window flash screen with the bottom moving accross the screen.
The other just kept giving the user disk type errors with blue screens.
I since have replaced P965 mobos hd with a pata. Its only been running for a day not sure if that solved it.
The other machine I put the drive into another machine I was building and it found errors and fixed them and booted up. This same hd would not work at all in the prior system so I am RMAing that board. Even a PATA would not finish xp installation with that MOBO.
I am not sure but I have a feeling that the SATA cables may be the cause of this type of problem. These are SATA2 drives. I tend to think you have to use better quality drive cables when using these.
Those things are so flimsy as they are. I think some cables are better then others. Whos the idiot that designed those things?
MSI only gives you one sata cable. My dvd uses one as well.
Has anyone else had issues using the newer faster drives?
I build a lot of machines but have only been building SATA drives for the past 6 months. These are the first to use this seagate 16 mb drive. When SATA first came out I had these types of issues so avoided using them for over a year. Now I would like to continue using them. But these cables appear to have connection issues.

Its happening to two different computers with 2 alike drives. I have 2 other drives not even opened yet. It does appear to be a cable issue however, I don't think I will take the chance and keep the 2 unopened drives as that would be even more risky. I am already stuck with 2.
These drives seem to be very fast at least. But those cheap sata cables are not too comforting.

My new HDD for Macbook pro 13" unibody is not recognized and I am using a new SATA cable

Hey everyone,
I have a particular problem that I cannot seem to find an answer to. My new 500gb internal drive for my Macbook Pro 13" unibody is not recognized. The old HDD broke on me so I bought a new one but my macbook pro would not recognize it. To troubleshoot that issue I purchased the SATA cable and replaced the old with the new. The new HDD still will not show up in disk utility.
Please let me know what you think I may have missed or should do.
Thank you

jc1388,
Bring it to an Apple store Genius bar (make an appointment, so you don,t have to wait around forever) they will diagnose it for free and tell you your options/pricing. They have more extensive testing tools, maybe your logic board is failing/failed.
best of luck

SATA cable - cause hard drive errors?

Hi,
Apologies for yet another post...I've been inundating you with questions in the past week!
My iMac is in for repair, after having the flashing question mark appear and not being able to see the drive in disk utility. Tech Tools scan also showed about 30 errors on the surface scan of the drive. The repair place has just called and left a message that the problem was the SATA cable, and that they've fixed it with a new cable. My question is - would a faulty SATA cable cause errors on the drive? I'm guessing they haven't even checked that, they've just got the drive communicating again....I have very little faith in this place, I must admit.... but just thought I'd ask the question here..
Thanks in advance.

If you already replaced the hard drive you should know where the cables are and where they go. One is the SATA power cable that goes directly to the power supply and the other is the SATA data cable that goes to the motherboard.
So disconnect the data cable from the HDD and from the motherboard and buy the same length cable at any PC shop or web site. SATA data cables are standard and nothing unique. Just remember where the motherboard connector is.
Freezes can be caused by lots of different things and I'd investigate those before replacing the data cable.
Have you run the diagnostics on the RAM, which is a frequent cause of freezes? Have you reseated the RAM modules in their slots? Do you have the latest drivers, eg video driver, for your hardware?
Are there any updates to your apps and software?
Do the freezes happen when you're running a specific app? Since this seems to happen on the Linux partition is something not fully compatible with Linux..?

I have new hard drive in macbook pro(08) and have SATA cable with external power source to old hard drive (10.5.8)via. USB port and newer drive(10.6.8) will not recognize older drive..Do I need to partition newer drive with older disk to recover data?

I have new HD 750GB Hybrid in 2008 Macbook Pro 17" w/ Snow Leopard 10.6.8 connected to old Hard drive(250GB that had 10.5.8 on it at time of failure) via SATA cable to USB port with external power source.. Computer not acknowledging old HD at all in Disk Utility or otherwise (that I'm aware of)..Do I need to partition New HD and load old(10.5.8) onto partition to recognize older drive for data recovery? Thanks Wayno08

You do not need to load 10.5.8 onto your new drive in order for a 10.6.8 system to see the contents of a 10.5.8 system.
You might want to check out the hard drive troubleshooting bootk in the downloads section of this web site:
http://scsc-online.com
They also sell a product named Phoenix that can do OS extraction and volume copying/cloning, but to be honest I don't know if it's appropriate in this case.
I would suggest the following:
Open up Terminal.app (under utilities) and type "diskutil list" without the quotes. This is the command line version of Disk Utility. If the external drive doesn't show up at all, then it's likely not connected properly, not getting power, or just plain dead. If it shows up with only a devce name like disk0s16 but no volume it means the drive is seen, the OS just can't make sense of it.
Assuming the drive shows up, I would try to boot off the original installl disks for the system and run Disk Utility from that. I'm assuming the drive will show up. You'll want to select the option to repair the drive and then perform the option to repair the permissions.
If the unit isn't showing up, as per step 1, try a different USB port. More importantly with your unit, try it on another side of the unit if possible. If you read the book I referenced above, some of those units have I/O boards that are separated from the logic board. If the cable from the logic board to the I/O card goes bad or has problems, which isn't all that uncommon, some or all of the ports on the I/O card may appear to be bad as well. If you use a USB port on another side, it would be routing out of a completely different I/O path, so that's a potential problem.
If the drive is only seen with a device name such as disk0s16, it's likely either the index files are corrupt beyond Disk Utility's ability to see them. The only thing that I think would help would be a product named DIsk Warrior, but I can't guarantee that.
Disk Warrior can be found at:
http://www.alsoft.com/diskwarrior/
The company that I linked in the first link above also makes a product named Scannerz that does HD and system testing. The Scannerz/Disk Warrior combination make a good pair because the complement each other....Scannerz does what Disk Warriror can't and Disk Warrior does what Scannerz can't. However, at this point I'm not too sure getting a tool like Scannerz would be of much use because it sounds like the damage has already been done.
Let us know what happens.

Can I use a SATA cable from a 2007 MacBook Pro for an SSD in a 2011 MacBook Pro?

Trying to replace the optical drive on my MacBook Pro with an SSD. The only SATA cable I have is from a 2007 model. Will that work? Also, I can't find a good sled for the drive... Will literally taping it in place suffice until I find such a sled?

An 85 watt charger will be fine. Generally, you can use a higher-powered charger than the one that came with your MBP - but using a lower-powered charger is not recommended.
Matt

Computer keeps getting folder with a question mark (?) I changed the HD and the SATA cable, now what?

The problem started when my computer was having problems reading the HD by slowing down and freezing. The Apple Genius told me the computer needed a new HD, and that it would cost $228 to replace it through them. I opted out and purchased a Hd myself and installed it. Everything was good for about two months until one day the screen went black and I smelled something burning on my Mac, yes like fire. Upon inspection I found the burning smell came from the middle of the SATA cable and that it shorted. I ordered a new cable from Hong Kong that took 22 days to get here. It still does not read the HD. I tried a SATA cable from a 2011 MacBook that still works (had to stretch it a little but still connected) I also tried the previous HD that was in there and two other HD from 2 different MacBooks that are still functional. Nothing worked. Is my motherboard toast as a result of the SATA cable dying? The computer reads an external drive, however, and can boot into time machine. The cable, btw had been receiving physical damage from the case when the MacBook lost its little black feet. This is where it fried as the section that had marks from the case melted the plastic right underneath.

Prep your new drive:
Drive Preparation
1. Boot from your OS X Installer Disc. After the installer loads select your language and click on the Continue button. When the menu bar appears select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Note the SMART status of the drive in DU's status area. If it does not say "Verified" then the drive is failing or has failed and will need replacing. SMART info will not be reported on external drives. Otherwise, click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID (for Intel Macs) or APM (for PPC Macs,) then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Partition button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.
6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.
After formatting has completed quit DU and return to the installer. Install OS X.

Sata cable for macbook pro

Purchased a blue-ray writer to back up pictures with. It came with a usb 2.0 cable and a sata cable. Is there a way to use the sata cable with my macbook pro?

I was focused on the lightning port. Instead I found the eSata cable I needed that would connect to the USB 3.0 port.

Unable to boot up, not sure if it's the OSX, HDD, or maybe the SATA cable

So my Macbook pro takes up to 10 tries to boot up. What happens is itll turn on, apple logo will show up and progress bar gets to about 1/3. Then the screen turns gray and stays gray and then it restarts. However, once it is on i have no problems whats so ever. What ends up happening is if put the computer in sleep and wake it up it will freeze and i have to force restart and i back at the problem. I can not even boot up in safe mode. When i try to boot up with safe mode and verbose, after the intial screen with all the readings the screen turns gray and its the same problem. I have tried reinstalling Yosemite (clean install and just a reinstall) I have tried resetting SMC and PRAM. In verbose mode i noticed that it says it was unable to find bootcache.playlist so i tried this http://hkexperts.net/barry/fix-unable-to-open-vardbbootcache-playlist-for-osx/ but i get an error saying that there was no such file. It is also worth noting that i have bootcamp with windows 7 and I can boot in safe mode but if i try a regular boot i get stuck trying to boot or i get a blue screen. At this point i am ready to replace my HDD but i have heard that the SATA cable might also be an issue. Is there a way for me to be sure?
Macbook pro Late 2011 OSX yosemite

Take out the HDD and install it into an enclosure. Connect it to the MBP via USB and use startup manager to boot the MBP:
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204417
If the boot(s) shows no problems, the it points to an internal connection problem, the SATA cable.
Ciao.

Which SATA cables do I need?

Recently I tried installing a 2.5" SSD in a 3.5" enclosure (Icy Dock) in one of the internal drive bays in my Mac Pro. The enclosure was defective, apparently, because the SATA ports on the enclosure didn't quite line up with the internal SATA ports in the MP drive bay. Unfortunately, I pushed a little too hard to get it in and I ended up bending the metal brackets that the black plastic SATA port is screwed on to in the Mac Pro.
The result is that the SATA port is now bend down at about a 10% angle, which is enough to prevent me from sliding a hard drive in and connecting it. I've tried to bend it back to the normal angle, but I wasn't successful.
I'd hate to lose the use of that bay, so I was thinking I could just get a SATA cable to connect the drive to the drive bay. I guess I'd have to have both the SATA to SATA connector and the SATA to SATA power cable. Unfortunately, I can't find a cable like that. Any ideas?

Something like this:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/22-Pin-SATA-Male-Female-Extension-Cable-/290394275128
- or shorter, if you can find it?
Not sure where/how you're going to mount the drive though! I suppose, if you're only trying to fit a 2.5" drive in a 3.5" bay, it'll fit, and you can coil up the "unused" extension cable round it.

Replacement macbook pro 13" SATA cable

I recently had my macbook pro 13" mid 2009 unibody crash on me randomly and fail to boot i had a Momentus XT installed and it worked fine for around 2 years with not one single problem. I was curious as i had not had prior warning via SMART that there was any errors. I panicked and bought a new Momentus 500GB 7200 drive and cloned the old drive and attempted to boot and this failed also. I removed the hard drive and attempted to troubleshoot by connecting the HDD via a caddy and USB. To my suprise, it booted fine. In actual fact, both HDD booted fine, the old and new.
I therefore think its the SATA cable, where would i get a new one? bearing in mind i live in the UK. I have searched the net and they are hard to find.
Thanks
Neil

hi neilyboy,
how did you fix the problem? I have exactly the same problem. I too have a mid 2009 unibody MBP but 15"
Thanks!
Marten

Is my SATA cable broken?

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