Is the hard drive bad on my (mid) 2009 macbook pro?

First, the problem started when my macbook was stuck on the spinning wheel. I restarted the computer, but the grey apple logo page would appear with a loading bar at the bottom. Once the loading bar got to a certain point, the macbook would automatically turn off. I did some reading on here and tried some things that I thought would help. I erased and partitioned the hard drive, reset PRAM, and then tried to reinstall mountain lion. It successfully downloaded mountain lion, but it wouldn't begin to install it. Then, I tried to install snow leopard from the disc. It seemed to be working until about halfway through when I received an error message that read something about the disk being damaged and not repairable. I then verified the disk and it said HD appeared to be ok. Now, when I restart my computer without the snow leopard disc all that shows up is a grey screen with a folder and question mark. I can't bring up the disk utility page because the command+r isn't working nor holding down the option key. Also, safe mode would never come up before and after I did the erasing and partitioning. Any ideas on what's wrong?

Your HDD or the internal connection cable may have failed. If you have a HDD enclosure, take the internal HHD out and install it into the enclosure. Use the original install disk and see if you can install the OS. If not, the HDD is probably dead and will have to be replaced. If it will accept the OS, then the internal cable is faulty and will have to be replaced.
Ciao.

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Only Apple Branded Hard Drives Work in My Mid-2009 MacBook Pro

My Mid-2009 MacBook Pro (actually, my wife's) experienced a hard-drive failure about a year ago. This was a 500GB 7200RPM drive that came BTO from Apple.
It's easy enough to replace HD's, so, I did it myself with a Seagate 7200RPM 500GB drive, the same model as the one from Apple, but I got this one from Seagate, not from Apple, so it didn't have the Apple logo (and firmware?) on it. The drive did not work. I was able to format the drive using Disk Utility, but when I tried to install Snow Leopard on it, it would fail. I placed the new drive in my other MBP (early 2008), and installed SL, no problems. Booted to it just fine.
I put it back in the 2009 MBP, and it would not boot - it would show the flashing folder with a question mark. I put the drive in a usb enclosure and the MBP booted from it just fine (well, a little slower because the usb speed, I presume).
I bought another Seagate and experienced the same problem. I bought a Hitachi and experienced the same problem. I took it to an authorized Apple repair facility who told me that the HD was bad (which was obviously false, since all 3 HD's I tried worked just fine in my other computer).
So, I took it into Apple and gave them the whole story and they ran overnight hardware diagnostics and were unable to find (or fix) a problem.
So, I played stupid and brought it back again, saying "uh, my hard drive broke, can you fix it?" hoping that they would try to replace the HD and fix the problem or at least diagnose it.
Well, they put an Apple branded HD back in, and it works just fine.
Seemingly, that would be problem solved, and life has been fine for the last year. But, now we bought an OptiBay to ditch the DVD drive and place a 750GB (non-apple) drive in the optical bay. To my surprise, the non-apple drive works, but, it is pretty slow (we put our iPhoto library on there, and it chokes very badly when you ask it to do anything, such as zoom on a picture, play a video, go to full screen, etc. It takes about 30 to 45 seconds of SBOD to perform those tasks.
I am wondering if there was any way we could have damaged the SATA connector or driver? Why would only Apple branded drives work in the main HD bay? I don't know if an Apple branded drive would preform better in the optical bay or not.

I recently saw a similar situation described in another forum and someone directed the OP to look for a jumper on the drive. I raised my eyebrows--that sounded like old PATA technology--but, sure enough, the OP found a jumper, changed it and everything worked. This apparently changed the timing on the drive to match Apple products. I'm leaving town and won't have much time to search myself, but try a forum search for "SATA jumper" and see if something rings a bell.

Windows 8.1 64-bit driver for Coprocessor on Mid 2009 Macbook Pro 5,4

I have successfully installed Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit onto my Mid 2009 Macbook Pro 5,4. The installer from BootCamp 5.0.533.5033 would not run, but I installed one-by-one the files under Apple and then ran the 64-bit nVidia installlers. I have everything present and accounted for except for the 'Coprocessor.'
I have looked through the forums and everything seems to indicated that if you install the nVidia drivers it will install the driver for this but it doesn't. Any thoughts/suggestions/solutions?

For anyone who will find this post in the future, the Device Manager indicates that the 'Device Instance Path' is
pci co-processor pci\ven_10de&dev_0aa3&subsys_cb7910de&rev_b1\3&21436425&0&1d
Searching for that online, it appears that this is the nVidia MCP79 Co processor System.
This driver did not install with version 306.37 that came with the BootCamp drivers. I downloaded the current version from nVidia of 334.89 and that didn't work either. I searched online and found a driver for an Alienware 17x that uses the same co processor and ran the installer which extracted the files for the nVidia chipset v. 15.57 for 64-bit Windows 7 and Vista to c:\dell\drivers\R273039 and pointed the Device Manager to this folder and it was able to successfully install the driver software for the Management Controller (drivers are listed under the SMU folder for the "PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0AA3" device).
NVIDIA nForce System Management Controller
I then proceeded to use Double Driver to backup the drivers in use by the system so that if I install Windows 8 on future systems I can use this rather than the round-about way of getting the driver installed on the system.

Will this hard drive work in my mid 2010 macbook pro 13" ?

Macbook pro 13" Mid 2010
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
8GB 1067 MHz DDR3
Need to upgrade my 250GB harddrive to 1TB, do you know if this one will fit ?
http://www.amazon.com/WD-Blue-Mobile-Hard-Drive/dp/B005DVJJWQ/ref=cm_cr_pr_produ ct_top
WD Blue 1 TB Mobile Hard Drive: 2.5 Inch, 5400 RPM, SATA II, 8 MB Cache
Product Dimensions: 3.9 x 2.8 x 0.4 inches
Any help is much appreciated! Thanks guys n' gals!
(also I am going to want to format it for mountain lion, should I just get the DVD from the store to make it easier?)

Do you have a Snow Leopard DVD? If so then you can use it to prep the drive. You are going to need an external enclosure in order to get everything done:
How to replace or upgrade a drive in a laptop
Step One: Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Repair
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported then click on the Repair Permissions button. When the process is completed, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
Step Two: Remove the old drive and install the new drive. Place the old drive in an external USB enclosure. You can buy one at OWC who is also a good vendor for drives.
Step Three: Boot from the external drive. Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager appears. Select the icon for the external drive then click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Step Four: New Hard Drive Preparation
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your new 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. 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. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended
      (Journaled.) Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to
      GUID then click on the OK button. 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
      Options 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.
Step Five: Clone the old drive to the new drive
1. Open Disk Utility from the Utilities folder.
2. Select the destination volume from the left side list.
3. Click on the Restore tab in the DU main window.
4. Check the box labeled Erase destination.
5. Select the destination volume from the left side list and drag it to the
      Destination entry field.
6. Select the source volume from the left side list and drag it to the
      Source entry field.
7. Double-check you got it right, then click on the Restore button.
Destination means the new internal drive. Source means the old external drive.
Step Six: Open the Startup Disk preferences and select the new internal volume. Click on the Restart button. You should boot from the new drive. Eject the external drive and disconnect it from the computer.

HT1661 My mid-2009 MacBook Pro has just died via a painful (for me) hard drive failure. I backed up a good percentage of files recently but not enough to keep me happy. I need to access the dead drive on the MBP via a 2008 iMac. Best options?

My mid-2009 MacBook Pro has just died via a painful (for me) hard drive failure. I backed up a good percentage of files recently but not enough to keep me happy. I need to access the dead drive on the MBP via a 2008 iMac. Best options?
I have ordered a 800 firewire to 800 firewire cable and am hoping to use the target mode option to copy files from the MBP.
Is this possible?
Hope so!
Any advice and or help would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Neil

Thanks Ogelthorpe.
Just bought an enclosure to try that also.
Hoping the MBP isn't really dead but just feigning death
Fingers crossed.

My mid-2009 MacBook Pro's hard drive is near death. I want to install a new SSD and work from scratch. Please help.

Recently, my mid-2009 MacBook Pro has been crashing when I close the screen ("it's having a problem recognizing when the screen is closed/open and deciding what to do, error overload etc."). It wasn't an SMC issue so I took it to an Apple Store, ran some tests, and decided my hard-drive is failing.
Not wanting to spend an insane amount of money on some "official apple hard-drive," I want to install a new 256GB SSD instead. Hoping to squeeze as much life out of this computer as possible (in January I upgraded from 4 GB RAM to 8 GB), I would like to try and start from scratch, i.e. back-up important folders, music, photos etc. and only take that to the new hard-drive. If someone could explain all the steps I need to take to safely complete this task (or point me in the direction of a guide) I'd appreciate it.
Potentially Important info:
     Model:                mid-2009 13'' MacBook Pro
     Processor:          2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
     Memory:             4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
     Software:            OS X 10.8.4
Some additional questions I have...
     Should I be concerned with making a fully bootable back-up (not sure what that is called) as well? If so, what program should I use to create it?
     How much more life should I try and push out of this computer? I'm an engineering student and really only use it for web-surfing, music, and
          word-processing. The batter was replaced in March, the RAM was upgraded to 8 GB in January. When the battery was swapped, the trackpad went           nuts so that's new too. Only other issues are a slightly loose audio jack and the left side of the screen being slightly wobbly (hinge is worn I'm told).

cwgonzalez1192
     Should I be concerned with making a fully bootable back-up (not sure what that is called) as well? If so, what program should I use to create it?
     How much more life should I try and push out of this computer? I'm an engineering student and really only use it for web-surfing, music, and
          word-processing.
Well there is no "official Apple HD / SSD" in any regard, no worries there.
If as you say youre only using same for surfing and word processing, why the need for a SSD? You would not notice any speed diff. in use on either of those,....in boot times yes, but in word or surfing, not.
You can push it likely a few more years, for mere surfing and word processing,...many many years.   Up TO the point that any major fixes become unrealistic relative to getting a new(ER) machine.
Concerned with a boot clone? yes and no. Its an ideal immediate recovery, since you cannot boot from Time Machine, ....in case of HD crash, recovery takes seconds from boot, or 20 mins or so from removing old and installing a clone. All the prosumers and pros have at least one updated clone of their prime machines.
You can do a "fresh install" if you choose, however if your current drive is FINE, why not merely clone it and save yourself some headache?...., but that is your prerogative of course.    Ideally 2 drives, one to backup your data (you need that regardless of installing a new drive for sake of a backup/archive,...ideally 2 actually, not merely one).
You could clone internal to NEW SSD/HD , ...then offload unnecessary files to an external to free up space and clutter and run off the clone, and this would only take a couple hours......the clone itself takes approx. 40+ mins.
CLONE Apps :
Superduper does not clone the recovery partition, but that is NOT necessary if you keep the original HD as a “backup clone”. Most don’t bother with the recovery partition in a clone, however that is your prerogative.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
(Free superduper APP above)
CCC App
http://www.bombich.com/

Samsung hard drive problems with mid 2009 Macbook Pro

Arghh, this is driving me mad.
I'd like to know if anyone has installed a Samsung HM641JI SATA II hard drive into a mid 2009 Macbook Pro (mine is a 2.8Ghz) and, if so, how they managed it. The drive is 640GB. These are the steps I've taken:
1. Swap out the stock drive for the Samsung
2. Boot from a USB drive which contains a mirror of my system
3. When the system identified the new disk, I formatted it with 2 partitions (GUID table, HFS journaled)
4. Reboot
5. System is very slow. Boots from USB but can't use keyboard to login
6. Switch off and try again
7. Remove Samsung drive
8. Reboot from USB (works perfectly)
9. Downgrade firmware to 1.6
10. Replace samsung drive and try again
11. System boots from USB
12. Verify that drive is running at 1.5Ghz
13. Disk utility and system profiler both crash
14. Disk unmounts by itself and other random weirdness
15. Remove Samsung drive
I've read endless reports about the firmware in this model of Macbook Pro and its issues with SATA II but struggling to find anything current and specific. Two questions:
a. Is there anythign I can do to get this drive to play nicely?
b. What drive should I get if the answer to a is no?
As a bit of background.. my system began playing up last week with lots of spinning beach balls resulting in forced switch offs. Booting from a mirror on a USB drive works perfectly so I concluded that the drive was on its way out. A drive test utility confirmed this. I'm now wondering if it really was the drive or the cable or the logic board.
Any advice appreciated.
Cheers
//A

I'm coming around to the idea that this might be a problem with the SATA cable rather than the drive.
I currently have the stock drive (Hitachi) back in the macbook. It mounted for a while and was then ejected when I tried writing data to it. System profiler reports that "There was an error while scanning for Serial-ATA devices."
I was able to mount the same drive in a USB enclosure this afternoon without any problems. Right now, I seem to be having issues with both the Samsung drive and the Hitachi drive - I wasn't suspicious of thr latter because I thought it was failing.
I found one or two accounts of other people having similar problems that were resolved with a new sata cable.
How does a cable fail? Could this be my problem?
Cheers
//A

Mid-2009 MacBook Pro sees internal SATA hard drive, but will not boot from or format

I inherited a Mid-2009 MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2.53 GHz model) with a very strange issue.
It first presented itself as not being able to boot from the internal SATA hard drive that came with the computer. Nothing I tried could get it to boot, so I assumed the file system was corrupted beyond repair and booted from a CD to try to format the drive. Disk Utility on the CD would not format the drive, giving me strange error messages like "Unable to write to the last block of the device".
At this point I figured the drive itself must be toast, so I pulled it out and put another known-good SATA hard drive in, booted from CD, and attempted to format. Again, same error messages and an unsuccesful format.
So I had the bright idea of formatting one of the drives in an external enclosure and then putting it in the MBP to see if OS X would even install. No dice. Get a cryptic error message before installation even begins.
So I installed OS X on the drive in the external enclosure and put it in the MBP, and it attempts to boot, but never goes anywhere.
So to sum up, the symptoms I'm seeing:
MacBook Pro CAN see internal SATA hard drives.
MacBook Pro WILL NOT boot from any internal SATA hard drive and cannot format or install OS X to any internal SATA hard drive.
MacBook Pro WILL boot from any CD or external device and seems to work properly otherwise.
At this point I'm thinking it's one of two things: the hard drive ribbon cable or the SATA controller on the logic board.
Since the MacBook Pro seems to work completely fine other than this one issue, and will boot properly from both external devices and the CD (also a SATA device), I'm thinking and hoping that it's just the hard drive ribbon cable. From my searches online, I've heard that this batch of MacBook Pros is known to have issues with the hard drive ribbon cable, but it seems in most cases this manifests itself by the Mac not being able to see a drive at all.
I've done quite a bit of troubleshooting to get to this point, but right now I'm just looking for any feedback at all. Specifically I'd love to know a way I can easily test to see whether it's the logic board or the cable.

UPDATE: An interesting development!
I just tried a third known-good SATA hard drive, one which I believe supports SATA I only (but I'm not sure), and unlike the other drives that the Mac sees but cannot properly interact with, the Mac can't even see this one when I put it inside.
Frustrating as this may be, I believe I'm actually getting closer to a solution since my symptoms now appear to be closely aligned with people having SATA ribbon cable issues.
Onward!

My Mid 2009 Macbook pro (Just purchased) will not turn on after hard drive change and ram upgrade

So i purchased a mid 2009 Macbook Pro from a guy with 4 gb of ram and 250gb hard drive. It worked perfectly fine when i booted it with his hard drive and ram installed.
I spilled beer in my old computer (late 2009 15" 500gb hard drive and 8gb ram) but took the hard drive to get tested and it worked fine. i later found out it was from a 2010.
Like an idiot i assumed the pro i just purchased would be able to handle the same upgrades that were in my old computer so i threw in the 500gb hard drive (2010) and the 8gb of ram.
The thing booted up fine, just a bit slow which i chalked up to my hard drive sitting unplugged for a long time.
After about 3 minutes it crashed on me. Confused i replaced the 4gb of original ram back into it. (the 8gb ram was pny i bought from ebay so i thought it could be that) It decided not to turn on or show any lights on the front except for the battery meter.
After this i replaced the original hard drive and still NO LUCK!! im really mad because i am in desperate need of the information on my original 500gb hard drive and im afraid i have destroyed 2 computers and about $1K worth of cash out the window.
HELP please enlighten me on what i have done and if the situation can be fixed.

UPDATE: Problem solved with the old hard drive in it, Now the less pressing issue:
Will the computer run my 500gb hard drive with all my information on it? I need to forward a resume and it is on that hard drive.

I have a mid 2009 macbook pro with a bad dvd drive. Can I use an external drive?

Is there an external CD/DVD drive that will work on a mid 2009 macbook pro with a bad SuperDrive?

Hi parrotdawg,
Please look at this post first:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/25385804#25385804
If that doesn't help, I have a Samsung SE-208AB/TSBS External DVD-Writer that works well with my mid-2007 MBP 15". Note this this drive requires 2 USB ports but doesn't use an external power adapter. Also, the above trick worked for me after I got this drive, so now I use it a Region 2 DVD player.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005KQ0S8S
Regards,
Ira

Where can I buy a larger hard drive for my late 2008, 15" macbook pro? From reviewing questions and answers on the support community it would appear that having Apple remove the old and install the new hard drive is recommended. But how/where?

Where can I buy a larger hard drive for my late 2008, 15" macbook pro? From reviewing questions and answers on the support community it would appear that having Apple remove the old and install the new hard drive is recommended. But how/where?

Welcome to Apple Support Communities
You can install the new hard disk yourself if you want to. You just need a 2'5" SATA II hard drive, which is compatible with your MacBook Pro. You can buy one at OWC > http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/ You can filter hard drives by computer, so press a "Click to view all...", choose your computer in the sidebar and it will give you the compatible hard drives.
There are different brands for the MacBook Pro. The most recommended are HGST and Seagate, which have good reputation. A 7200 rpm hard drive will give you extra performance

I want to upgrade my Hard Drive to 1TB and more. What is the maximun Hard Drive I can install for a MacBook Pro 2009 Yesterday, I tried a SEAGATE SSHD but my screen was always a showing a QUESTION MARK (?). It's not the cable because when I put back

I want to upgrade my Hard Drive to 1TB and more.
What is the maximun Hard Drive I can install for a MacBook Pro 2009
Yesterday, I tried a SEAGATE SSHD but my screen was always a showing a QUESTION MARK (?). It's not the cable because when I put back the old original version, everything works...Any sugestion of brabnding or procédure to upgrade my hard drive?

The largest 2.5" dia SATA drives available are 2 TB in capacity.
Have you tried the Seagate SSHD connected externally to the MBP via USB? The drive itself may be faulty.
Ciao.
Here is a good place to start looking for a replacement drive:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/2.5-Notebook/

HT201250 I run time machine on my iMac using an external hard drive. I just bought a MacBook Pro and want to know if i can run time machine on it using my wireless network on to the iMac external hard drive

I run time machine on my iMac using an external hard drive. I just bought a MacBook Pro and want to know if i can run time machine on it using my wireless network on to the iMac external hard drive

How do I set up Time Machine to a shared drive on another Mac?

What is the largest hard drive I can upgrade to for MacBook Pro A1278 Early '11

What is the largest hard drive I can upgrade to for macbook pro A1278 Early 2011? I have seen 750GB on some websites, but I would like a 1TB I am looking for SATA 6.0GB, 1TB 7200. Is this dependant on the physical size of the hard drive? I have seen a height of 15mm and 9.5 mm. How do I know what will fit??

I have not seen any 7200 rpm 1 TB HDDs. They all are 5400 rpm. I would say that this HDD comes closest to your requirements. Tomorrow, there may be others.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145584
Ciao.

I have destroyed the motherboard of a Mid 2009 MacBook Pro. How do I find out the technical specifications so I can give accurate information to someone who buys it for parts?

I recently had an unfortunate incident with a glass of water and a mid 2009-MacBook Pro. 13 inch screen.
According to the techs at the genius bar, the screen, keyboard, chassis and hard drive (160g) were still all good - as were all components other than the Motherboard.
I just completed the complete erasure of the hard drive, but don't have the technical specifications at my disposal.
Does anyone know how I can get them - the guy at apple said he didn't think he could help?
Serial No. Is available.
Thanks-

http://www.everymac.com/

Is the hard drive bad on my (mid) 2009 macbook pro?

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