No recognition of internal hard drive, USB, RAM DIMM1

Hi folks, HOPING you can help me. I fear that I've suffered a logic board failure on my 2011 15" MBP.
I bought an external blu-ray drive from Amazon, hoping to rip my blu-ray collection to my network-shared home server (a Windows 7 desktop PC, in case that matters).
When I received the external blu-ray drive, I plugged it in to the USB port on my MBP. The Macbook froze for a few seconds, then shut down. When I tried to re-start, I got a "Flashing Folder". I tried all the tricks I knew to *awaken* the Crucial M4 that I use as the internal drive in this system. No luck. I did PRAM reset, SMC reset, booted from Internet Recovery, booted from the Mavericks Recovery DVD I had made for just such a situation, ran Apple Hardware Test from my original install DVDs.
But no matter what, the computer recognized nothing (including various other hard drives) plugged into the internal HDD SATA connection, nor anything (including various HDDs) plugged in via USB. I have confirmed that these drives are functional on other computers.
Also, I have no function from RAM DIMM1. DIMM0 works fine, with both sticks of RAM that I have. But if i place a stick in DIMM1, I get the *3 beeps* at startup. Place a stick in DIMM0 only it attempts to boot up fine.
I am certain that the issue is - NO POWER TO THE USB and NO POWER TO THE HDD SATA -
In my efforts to isolate the issue, I found an extra 16GB SD card i had in my parts bin. I confirmed that the SD card slot still had functionality. Confirmed that the optical drive still had functionality. So I attempted to use my Mavericks Recovery DVD to install OSX onto the SD card.
*AND IT WORKED*
After installing OSX onto the SD Card, I opened System Profiler to have a look at my ports. Sure enough, optical drive was recognized, as was SD card, firewire, Thunderbold port (which I confirmed by connecting the computer via Thunderbolt and HDMI adaptor to my TV). The computer takes a charge no problem. Sound still works. Remote control works. Firewire works. Wireless network connection works. Keyboard works. Screen functions normally.
In all my testing, the only non-functional components I've found are the two USB ports, the HDD SATA, and RAM DIMM1.
PLEASE! If anyone knows of any methods to help me resurrect this thing, share them with me. I suspect that the blu-ray drive fried portions of my logic board. but the fact that everything else still works leaves me with the hope of being able to salvage it. Any pointers you can offer are GREATLY APPRECIATED! thank you!!

Hi rwbainc,
It does sound like you have a bad HD, but you also said
Using the Apple hardware test disc, no problems were detected, yet when I restarted from that disc, I get gray screen with a blue folder in the center flashing alternatively the Mac face icon and a question mark.
Normally a bad HD will not prevent startup from a CD/DVD, but there have been reports here that it has happened. I would remove the HD and try to boot to the AHT or an installer disc and see if you can boot. If not, it means there are issues beyond the HD, possibly/probably the logic board.

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Replacing Hard Driver and RAM

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Hello Jason Castellani -Usually best to do one major change at a time in case something goes wrong. That said I can see where you are going here once you got your MBP apart. If you are a gambling man go for both, esp if you have done the procedures before and comfortable with the operation.
See this knowledge base article for your migration question.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1177
Hope this helps
Message was edited by: leroydouglas

My internal hard drive no longer boots. Boots just fine in external usb enclosure.

My internal hard drive no longer boots when inside my laptop. The drive boots just fine in external usb enclosure. It is also fully recognized when internal (as seen in single user mode, recovery mode or while booting from another drive).
I have tried:
with disk utilities
•fixing permissions
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in single user mode
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Can't believe I spent days reformating my hard drive, restoring it, getting another hard drive... and it was all a cable that failed. I wonder what can make an internal cable like that fail (seems like the least likely part of all to fail).
Thanks PlotinusVeritas
Thanks to ifixit:
bit.ly/1q0EnOx
If you can't fix it, you don't own it!

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Best regards,
Alvaro.

I suspect a failed HD, in that case I'd recommend Apple Hardware Test in Extended Mode at least 3x. You will need the original install discs that shipped with the computer, if you do not have them any longer you will need to order a replacement set from Apple by calling AppleCare. You will need a credit card and the serial number of the machine. The cost should be nominal.

HT1948 Can I install OS X on a usb drive connected to an imac with a dead internal hard drive?

Can I install OS X on a usb drive connected to an imac with a dead internal hard drive?

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After a startup problem with my macbook pro i put it as slave and formatted the internal Hard drive. Now i want to install OS X Mavericks from USB
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What did you "put as slave?" What Mac model do you have, exactly?

I'm trying to clone a internal hard drive from another mac using a usb connection.

I'm trying to clone a internal hard drive from another mac using a usb connection to an external drive so that I don't lose the file before reinstalling the software but I keep on getting a message:
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Any advice on how to make a copy of this internal drive?
Thanks!
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I've had my Maxtor external OneTouch 250GB for about 18 months now and it hasn't skipped a beat. I have hear of people having their Maxtor drive just up and die but you will probably find that goes for all manufacturers.
By the way, Maxtor is, amongst others, an OEM supplier to Apple.

I need RAM and Internal Hard Drive help Macbook Pro 17inch

It's about time for me to max out the ram and buy another internal hard drive for my 17 inch Macbook Pro. I use photoshop and final cut pro X on a regular basis and my Macbook is starting to slow down and is low on memory. These were the two recommendations that I got from a live chat agent on OWC. Just wondering were these recommendations good...if so I'll go ahead and purchase them now. Any help is appreciated.
Specs for my Macbook Pro
2.66hz
4GB Ram
250GB HD
Model Identifier is MacBook Pro5,2
Mac OSX Maverick
Recommendations from Agent:
HD
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Seagate/ST1000LM014/
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Toshiba/MQ01ABD100H/
Ram
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/8566DDR3S8GP/

Good choices, though a true SSD would be faster overall, though more expensive. That same drive is a lot cheaper on Amazon though.
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Solid-Hybrid-2-5-Inch-ST1000LM014/dp/B00B99JUBQ/re f=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395060904&sr=8-1&keywords=seagate+1tb+hybrid

Is iBook G3 (Dual USB) Internal Hard Drive Replaceable?

The internal hard drive capacity on my iBook G3 700 (Dual USB) is 20 GB. Is it possible to swap that out in favor of a newer larger-capacity, internal hard drive? Or are these internal hard drives not upgradeable? Thanks in advance for your replies!
iBook G3 700 (Dual USB) Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Apple does not consider the hard drive to be user-upgradeable. Some people have done it themselves, but it's very complicated. You have to dismantle the iBook.
Make sure that it is a SuperSlim (or 9.5 mm high) drive, if you are going to try to do it yourself. Mention has been made of incompatibility with some Toshiba drives, so it would be wise to keep that in mind.
Online instructions (in case you want to try to do it yourself):
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/50.12.0.html
http://www.powerbooktech.com/knowledge,name-Hard-Drive,type-6.htm
Some places that will do it for you:
MacService
DT & T Computer Services
MCE Technologies
Or maybe you'd rather put that money toward a new MacBook? Apple has made the MacBook so that the hard drive is easily upgraded by the user when that 60 GB (or bigger) hard drive starts feeling as cramped as your 20 GB one does now.
If you can afford to upgrade, it is a marvelous computer. I'm looking hard, myself.

Can I boot an internal hard drive through USB?

I have an old 2008 Mac Pro running Snow Leopard 10.6.8 that just quit on me. When I boot up, I get to the apple logo and then the screen turns white and stays that way until I power off my machine. I have a few hard drives with operating systems installed and a boot partition. When I hold option on start up, I'm able to pick a hard drive to boot from, but I get the same problem. This leads me to believe that the issue lies with my computer, not the disks.
I've also tried booting in safe mode and get the same problem.
So I'm looking at purchasing one of these bad boys:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0099TX7O4/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pd_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&coli d=169XE2BWHBJ2P&coliid=I1JKOUV0BWEUFR
So here's my question:
I have an early 2013 Macbook Pro running Yosemite 10.10 that I want to use to boot my Mac Pro internal hard drives from. Is it possible to do so? I figure I can access it through pressing the option key during start up.
Thanks!
Jon

I'm sorry, but that won't work because your MP only has Firewire ports and no Thunderbolt ports while your new MBP has Thunderbolt ports but no Firewire ports. Therefore, you cannot connect the two together except using Ethernet or Wi-Fi from which neither can be booted. If you use the device from Amazon, then you need to remove one of the drives to insert in it. Then you could boot from it provided the drive is actually bootable in the other machine. Snow Leopard is not capable of booting a 2013 MBP.

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).
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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)

Internal Hard Drives Disappeared, Finder Memory Problem

Hello Helpful Folks,
I recently installed an addional internal Hard Drive, and an additional 1GB SDRAM. This worked great for a day, but the next morning, after powering up, system was extremely sluggish, and after much deadline-induced impatient problem solving, has gone from bad to worse (system refuses to acknowledge existence of internal Hard Drives). I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but as
the devil is in the details, I figure too much info is better than not enough.
Following is a breakdown of my system: AS IT LAST WORKED; RECENT UPGRADES; and MY LAME ATTEMPTS AT PROBLEM SOLVING THAT HAVE MADE THINGS WORSE. Please don't interpret my all caps as shouting, just trying to organize this post for better clarity.
System is dedicated to Video Editing with FCP 3, running under OS 9.2.2. System is "off the Grid", i.e. no network, no internet, no printer, no gaming devices. System was purchased new in July 2001, by a friend. At one point I know this system had an Airport card, which was removed prior to my purchase in 2003. I can't remember what else it may have had installed in its history, but here's what it has now:
SYSTEM AS IT LAST WORKED:
**bold items are upgrades Original Owner or I installed with no apparent problems**
Power Mac G4 "Quicksilver" 2001
867 PowerPC G4, 256 L2, 2MB L3
-1 Stick "ValueRAM - KVR 133 x 64 C3/512" in PC 133 DIMM slot **
- "Virtual Memory" was turned off years ago due to conflict with FCP 3
-2 empty DIMM slots
-1 60 GB internal HD (Maxtor Ultra ATA/100), 1 partition, formatted HFS+, jumpered as "Master" on Internal ATA 2 ID=0 (which as I understand it is ATA/66 speed)
-1 Pioneer "Superdrive" DVD-R/W/CD-R/W on Internal ATA 0 ID=0
-NVIDIA GeForce2 MX with 32MB SDRAM in AGP Slot, feeding a 17" Apple Studio Display.
-PCI Display Card "formacGA7" - not attached to any external device, not sure what its intended purpose is.**
-3 Empty PCI Slots
-OEM Keyboard attached to Monitor's rear USB port.
-Microsoft 3 Button Wheel mouse with "IntelliEye" (wheel is 3rd Button) connected to Keyboard USB port (right side).**
-2 OEM FireWire (400) ports
-2 OEM USB (1) ports
Peripherals that have worked in various configurations with this system over the past 3 years:
-3 OWC Mercury Elite ("Oxford Chipset") Externally powered, External FireWire(400) 200GB Hard Drives, 1 partition each, formatted HFS+, daisy-chained to either of the FireWire ports.
-1 Canon GL1 MiniDV camera, attached either to the other FireWire port, or to the last drive in the chain, depending on my urgency/laziness factor. BTW, FCP 3 has worked flawlessly controlling this Cam for logging and Batch Capturing.
Applications on System Hard Drive that I have OEM CDs for:
-OS 9.2 - (I think I remember that OS X was removed from system due to conflicts shortly after original purchase)
-FCP 3
-DiskWarrior (version unknown, purchased from Alsoft in 2003)
-OWC Intech Hard Disk SpeedTools ver 3.5
Other CDs I have:
OEM CDs for Power Mac G4:
-Software Install, OS 9.2, CD vers 1
-Software Install, OS 10.0.4, CD vers 1
-Software Restore, OS 9.2 & 10.0.4 CDs vers 1, Discs 1-4 of 4.
-OEM Apple Hardware Test; Power Mac G4, SW vers 1.2.1
Applications on system Hard Drive that I don't have CDs for, that I rarely use, but I'd like to keep:
-After Effects 5.0
-QuickTime Player 6.0.2
-Toast Audio Extractor 1.1
-Toast Titanium 5.0.2
Applications on system Hard Drive I use if my wife is busy on our Windows XP machine:
-Photshop 6.0
-Microsoft Word & Excel
# of other Applications on System Hard Drive I either don't use or may be integral to the system: 260
# of Control Panels:
-Enabled: 34
-Disabled: 0
# of Extensions:
-Enabled: 174
-Disabled: 0
note: a number of the applications and extensions are for AOL, Quickbooks, Microsoft Money and the like, as well as other things I don't use (Airport, USB printers, Networking, etc.)
Smart things I did:
-Regularly made backup copies of my FCP projects to the external drives.
-Bought a copy of MacDrive so I can see what's on my External Drives on the XP machine.
-Printed out System Profile before I installed upgrades.
-Thoroughly searched this discussion board for and gathered as much info as I could before upgrading.
Dumb things I did:
-Made a copy, but not a clone, of my System Folder to one of the external drives when I first got it.
-Didn't keep any sort of separate log of what's on the External Drives.
-Never ran any sort of Disk Maintenance, even after one of the Externals crashed (DiskWarrior saved my butt on that).
-Ignored some of the advice on this discussion board.
Really dumb thing I did without even realizing it:
Captured all media for a rush job onto my internal system Hard Drive, as well as storing and using massive jpgs for the same job on that same drive...
Which led to painfully slow rendering times, and crashes caused by "Error: Out of Memory", which I interpreted as "Must buy more memory" and not "must make sure I'm not trying to edit media stored on system drive, especially with massive jpgs that I should reduce"
RECENT UPGRADES:
Here's what I did, and how I did it:
Turned off system, disconnected all External FireWire Devices, disconnected Monitor, opened case, touched various metal parts of case and power supply to discharge any Static, unplugged power cable.
-Installed 2 512MB sticks of "Lifetime" PC 133 SDRAM; total System RAM is now 1.5GB, all 3 DIMM slots now occupied.
-Installed 1 Maxtor "DiamondMax" Ultra ATA/133 100GB Hard Drive (8 MB buffer) as "Slave" (no jumper) in top of U-Carrier above System Hard Drive; attached to middle of original Apple ribbon cable, attached available power plug.
Taped spare jumper to inside of empty drive bay, noting origin and date. Did NOT push PMU button. Carefully closed case. Reconnected Monitor, did NOT reconnect any FireWire devices. Powered System on, but did NOT perform PRAM reset.
I don't remember the exact order of what happened next, but I think: System booted up normally, a window popped up saying a new drive had been found, would I like to intitialize it?, which I did as Mac OS extended, and then named. If I was instructed to restart, I did so, otherwise did not. Clicked on "about this Mac" and saw that it now showed 1.5GB RAM. I then went about moving Media/Render files off the System drive (and one of the Externals) onto the Internal Drive, with a combination of FCP's Media Manager, and dragging from the Finder. After files had copied, dragged Media/Render files from System Drive to Trash. Opened FCP project, had FCP re-link to new locations of missing files. Saved, closed, and re-opened project, set Capture/Scratch disc to new internal Drive. At some point I changed FCP's Memory Allocation from whatever it was to 512000KB Minimum, and 900000KB Prefered (and I hope I got all those zeroes right). Did NOT restart after changing Memory Allocation, unless a window popped up instructing me to do so, in which case I did. Re-opened my project, rendered a few thing at a noticeably increased speed, saved everything, emptied the Trash, shut everything down, and called it a night as it was 4:30 am.
A few hours later, I plugged the MiniDV and an External Drive into the FW ports and powered up the System. It was behaving extremely sluggishly. I would click on something, the pointer would turn into a wristwatch (sometimes with the minute-hand moving, sometimes not) and like an actual minute later, what I'd clicked on would open. All three drives were on the desktop, still had their files, and "About this Mac" still showed 1.5GB total Memory. So I powered down, disconnected the FW devices, waited a bit, and powered back up. Same sluggish response. I tried to open my FCP project file, and instead got a Window that said something to the effect of "The Application associated with this document could not be found". I think I tried to open FCP from the Applications folder on the System Drive and got the same message (I'd only had 3 hours sleep, no coffee, my client had died, and his family was coming for whatever I had in a few hours).
LAME ATTEMPTS AT PROBLEM SOLVING THAT HAVE MADE THINGS WORSE
Panic had set in, which never solves anything, so I don't remember what order I performed which tasks, between searching for clues in this forum, and convincing myself that that would be faster than trying to compose a question, waiting for a response, etc.
The first two things I did, and I can't remember which I did first (both from Keyboard Commands during Restart):
Rebuild Desktop
PRAM Reset
Neither of those solved the problem, so I continued.
I tried restarting without extensions.
I would get errors that said something like "Not Enough Memory to Open Finder".
I tried booting from Disc 1 of the Software Restore Disk, which only wanted to destroy my data.
I tried booting from the OS 10 disk, with the same result.
I was finally able to boot from the OS 9.2 Software Install Disk, and actually saw both internal drives on the desktop, and the 1.5GB RAM in About this Mac. I tried to allocate more memory to Finder, but was informed that "Cannot Perform Requested Operation. This operation requires versions above 8.0".
I think at this point I decided that I must have too many extensions, and started disabling ones I thought irrelevent to my cause (mostly anything that said "AOL", "Airport", "Ethernet", "Printer", "Modem", "Speakable", and a couple things called "Open TPT".
It gets worse. Then I decided to turn off some "unnecessary" things via the control panels, but somehow managed to disable the control panels themselves: AppleTalk, DialAssist, File Sharing, Modem, Mouse (as I saw that Microsoft Mouse was among the others), Remote Access, Speech, USB Printer Sharing, and possibly TCP/IP.
That certainly didn't help anything (though upon restarting from the OS 9.2 Disc I was able to see the extensions and control panels in their respective "Disabled" folders in the System Folder). But I still wasn't able to get more Memory to Finder.
So, I decided a few more PRAM resets might help, which succeeded in making both Internal Hard Drives disappear. I tried booting up from the DiskWarrior disc, but even the Mighty DiskWarrior couldn't find the drives. I performed the longer, in depth version of the Apple Hardware Tools tests, which reported that everything's fine (including the new RAM), but made no mention of the Hard Drives at all. The deadline having long passed, I shut the system down. I read through more posts and tech articles, etc.
I searched my External drives with MacDrive on my XP, and found the drive that has the copy of my System Folder (which shows all extensions and control panels as enabled); not sure if the Quicksilver will boot from that, I don't know what the Keyboard command for booting from a FireWire drive is (if there is one) and the drive itself only has 900MB of free space.
I can't find any reference to Internal ATA drives anywhere in the MacDrive documentation; if it was possible I'd put them into the XP, get the files off the Mac drives, reformat them and install OS9 from the Discs.
This is where I am now:
The Quick Silver is still powered down. I removed the Microsft mouse and replaced it with the OEM Apple mouse. I opened the case, and removed the PRAM/Backup battery (manufacture date: July 2001). Couldn't find my voltmeter, so took the bat to Radio Shack and bought a new one. Had the Radio Shack guy test the old one: it showed 3.69 volts still. Have not installed the new battery yet. The case is still open, waiting for any advice any of you might have to offer.
Thank you all so much for your patience in perusing and pursuing this.
Sincerely,
Patterson
Power Mac G4 Quicksilver 867 Mac OS 9.2.x 17" Studio Display, 512MB RAM

Thank you Rodney and John,
The jumpers are correct for both Maxtor Drives.
Rodney, you are correct in that the initial problem (slow rendering/"out of Memory" crashes) was caused by my not realizing I'd stupidly captured several GBs of media to my system drive, and not checking which drives those files were on (as I'd assumed I'd put them on one of my external media drives) once that problem presented itself.
Before I'd determined what I'd done, I bought the extra RAM. After I'd found the media files on the System Drive, and saw that my dedicated media drives were too full to easily move them, I decided to buy an additional Internal drive so that I could:
-Move the Media onto it relatively quickly and finish my urgent project.
-Juggle all my media into a more organized fashion for archiving (as most of my projects are on-going long-term affairs)
-Wipe it, Partition it, and clone my System Drive onto it, as a spare bootable drive in case my OEM System Drive failed.
Copying the Media files onto the New Drive and moving the System Drive's Media files into the Trash worked great: huge improvement in Rendering, etc.
Before shutting down for the night I Emptied the Trash, and was pleased with the amount of space I'd freed up on the System Drive.
My guess is that the System Drive was terribly fragmented, having been subjected to intense use over the past 5 years without any sort of Drive Maintainence, and deleting that massive amount from it in one shot caused my extreme system sluggishness upon Startup the next day.
My subsequent lame attempts to solve the sluggishnes ultimately resulted in my losing access to both drives.
Today, I replaced the Backup Battery, pushed the PMU, re-attached the AC, and Powered Up with the case open as per your suggestion.
It was trying for a few minutes (the gray screen went black at one point, and then returned to gray) before presenting me with the flashing question mark.
There was, however, a quiet but distinct "buzzing" sound that would alternate: 1 sec "buzz", one second silence, one second "buzz", one second silence, etc. coming from the drives, even after the "?" appeared.
I powered down, removed the Ribbon and Power Cables from the new "Slave" drive, and powered up again, with the exact same results.
I powered down, removed the Ribbon and Power cables from the original "Master" drive, reinstalled the Jumper on the New Drive as "Master", plugged the End of the Ribbon and the Power cables into the New "Master" drive and powered up. The screen went to the "?" within 20 seconds instead of 4+ minutes, and no more "buzzing".
I put the Apple Hardware Tools Disk in, ran the "long" test, and everything came out fine.
I have to abandon this for now, but thanks again for your previous advice, and any more you may have!
Cheers,
Patterson

Can I replace the internal hard drive if my old one died?

I guess the questions should be should I replace it? My iMac's (early 2006 model) internal hard drive is totally dead, but I think if I install a new internal hard drive it will work again. If I get it up and running, I will use it in my classroom. Would this work? Can I put Tiger on an external hard drive and run the machine from there? (I am thinking the answer is no to the last question but thought I would ask. LOL!) I have already upgraded the RAM to 1 gigabyte (easy to do).

jolly....
I had mine open last week and removed the faulty hd (160GB) and put it in a USB drive adapter. I was able to see it on a linux machine so I put it back in my iMac and it worked just fine for about a week. I was able to make a bootable copy on a 160GB usb drive and save all my data. Good thing too since it just died again (clicking a whirring sounds).
Any way... to answer your question. I recall that once you get to see the drive there is a clip and catch type connection where the drive and a metal plate come out as a single unit. It has 2 pins that fit into holes toward the bottom of the case and the catch is on the top. Once you pop the catch you can take the drive out with the plate. The pins screw out of the mounting holes on the drive and so does the metal plate.
Hope this helps. I'll take some pictures of mine when I take it apart again since I have to get a new drive soon myself.

Will not recognize internal hard drive

I have a strange problem with a 2009 MacBookPro. It started acting "strange" for the user over the past few months. By "strange" I mean it would freeze, or fail to boot, or sometimes even restart without any reason. Now, it gets even stranger. Tried the standard things, RAM reseat, replace, check for loose connectors etc. It would fail to boot when the hard drive was connected internally. Then it would give a kernal panic and fail to even recognize a hard drive as being installed. Did a PRam reset, SMC reset and even the power off/control key to try to reset the open firmware. No sucess with anything. This is a suystem with an internal battery.
Yet, when using this exact same hard drive on an external USB drive connection, it would boot fine. Next tried it in Terminal mode to boot up another MBP. Failed to boot. When the 2nd MBP was booted from its internal drive and the suspect machine was plugged in as a Firewire (Terminal mode on "strange" computer) an External Firewire Drive appeared on the desktop, then a few seconds later, an identical copy of the first Ext FW drive appeared. This went on with evenbtually six copies of the one single Terminal booted hard drive appearing on the desktop of the second computer. None of the six drives would open or even allow any indiccation of what they contained.
Tried to partition the hard drive when it was put back into the internal slot but it would not unmount and failed to partition. The same thinmg happened when trying to erase it. Connected the hard drive via USB to a Windows 7 machine and used it to erase both the Recovery and Main partitions from the ard drive. Both were erased but the EFI partition could not be erased or cleaned. Put this same hard drive, as an external USB, into a very old XP machine and there the EFI partition was removed when a "Clean" command was sent via command line.
I then took the, now totally erased hard drive, and put it back into the computer as an internal drive and booted the computer from a 10.8 USB stick so I could partition the now empty hard drive. The drive was not even recognized as being present. Did the same thing, but using the USB external connection for that same hard drive. It partitioned and then formatted with 10.8.1 (what was on the USB stick). After the OS was installed, the computer would boot using this newly created OS when connected as an external USB drive. Put the drive back in as the internal drive. Got a Kernal Panic. Forced shutdown and retried. Noi kernal Panic but drive was not even recognized. Pulled the drive from internal and put it back into the external USB and tried booting. System would not recognize the drive as even being present.
I then erased and cleaned the drive in the XP machine again and then, using the USB connection on the second computer reinstalled 10.8 from the USB. When I tried the now newly created software again, the same thing happened as listed above. 2nd machine booted fine on the drive as a USB, "Strange" machine booted fine using the drive as an external USB, Kernal Panicked then would not be recognized in the "Strange" machine.
It appears that when the drive is connected internally. it not only does not have the OS software recognized but will rewrite something in the drive that makes it impossible to be recognized by any Apple. My first thought was that the EFI partition was corrupted somehow so that was why I tried cleaning the EFI partition along with the other two partitions. But even with a new EFI and other partitions, the drive was not useable once it was used to try to boot as an internal drive in the suspect computer.
Now here I am dropping into speculation mode. My guess is that something in the very basic ROM (Pram?) that recognizes a hard drive is in the internal slot and tries to get to the EFI instead fails and in the process it screws up the EFI (or maybe even an address table?) in the hard drive. If it recognizes that there is no internal hard drive, it will happily boot from either a USB stick, a USB connected external hard drive or a Firewire/Terminal mode computer connected to it.
Sounds like a motherboard problem but I am wondering if it is possible to "flash" the very basic ROM that is at the start of the process back to factory default or maybe just replace the chip if it is the same one used as part of the Firmware password protection system.
Anyone have any other ideas or thoughts about possible solutions or at least a way to definitely identify what the problem's cause?

Answer has been found. The internal drive SATA cable was replaced and the system is now working correctly.

Can I boot mac from an external hard drive (internal hard drive hard drive closure)

Model: Macbook Pro 2010 mid
OS: OSX 10.9 Hard Drive: WD5000BPKT 500GB
For some reason I need to change my perfectly working internal bootable drive to external bootable drive.
I took out my internal hard drive, put it into closure, and then connected it to mbp with USB. But my mac cannot even recognize my external hard drive. It displays a folder with a question mark with grey background, which means it cannot find executable boot drive. I tried pressing option key during start up and nothing showed. Also, I tried resetting parameter RAM but still no luck. Any help will be appreciated.

The reason is somehow complicated and most likely be related to the question itself, so I did not write it down. But here is the situation.
I bought a new SSD to update my HDD. I found a software called carbon copy cloner, which could do a bootable clone. I tried to clone my original hard drive to SSD and turned out the SSD only worked when it was connected externally. After I seeking a while, I found a solution from CCC website: do the clone again with putting my original drive externally and the SSD internally (I think it is a bug of CCC.)
You may say, "why not use time machine" instead of using a third party software. My answer is time machine is too slow, and I have to reinstall the OS. My focus is why my internal hard drive does not work externally since it should work.

No recognition of internal hard drive, USB, RAM DIMM1

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