HD replacement on MBP... DOES NOT WORK..

I

IvoV

Registered
Hi all,

I just bought a new 500 Go Western Digital internal HD for my old MacBook Pro (intel & Tiger, 2006). The disk works fine when plugged via a USB adapter, but doesn't when plugged through SATA.

I have the following problems:

- When booting from the Tiger install disk, the HD is not detected as an install destination.
- Disk Utility does detect it, but does not detect the right size (is 3,6 TB instead of 500 GB).
- The repair option is not clicable
- When I try to format it, Disk Utility says: "Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue"

At some point, I also had a Input/Output error with the 500GB disk. The wire are fine though because there is no problem when the 120GB disk is inside and running Tiger.

When I bought this MBP, it had a 120GB disk and could get a 160 in option. Is it possible that it cannot support more than 160 as internal drive ?

I formatted it with Ubuntu and with Tiger and with Leopard.. didn't change anything. Maybe I do something wrong with formatting ?

Any idea someone ? A hero has a solution ?

Thanks
 
Your MBPro would support any SATA hard drive that will physically fit inside. 500GB should be no problem.
The fact that the hard drive is showing as wrong capacity, and you have tried using several different operating systems, then, unfortunately, your hard drive is defective. Return the hard drive for a replacement.
 
Would be defective even though it works fine via USB ? Is there any free app on Leopard, Tiger, XP or Ubuntu that can identify if disk is broken ?

Thanks for the quick reply !
 
Have you actually installed OS X on that hard drive while attached to the USB port?
You can run Disk Utility, and click the Repair Disk button. That will help you decide if there are problems with the drive. You said that the drive size was reported incorrectly. Is that only when installed in the MBPro? Or, even when connected through USB?
If you can install OS X, and boot to that disk while it is attached through USB (and the drive size is reported properly), then - yes - the hard drive is likely OK, and something inside the MacBook is the problem. The hard drive cable connects to the hard drive, and the logic board. Or, the SATA chip may have failed (requiring replacement of the logic board.
 
When I tried to install OS X via USB, there was an error and it failed.

When booting from install disc with HD connected to SATA, drive is not visible as destination during intallation procedure, but is visible with Disk Utility, which reports wrong disk size. Cannot clic repair. When try to partition, I get this error: "Disk Utility has lost its connection with the Disk Management Tool and cannot continue".

Disk size is only wrong when connected via SATA. But the older HD (120GB) works fine via SATA, so the problem is not with the computer.

When disk is plugged via USB, disk utility sees nothing wrong (size, repair, etc.). (But there is no S.M.A.R.T. status available (maybe there's something there? I don't know..??). Only when it's plugged via SATA that there is a problem.

Hope it's not too confusing..
 
Return the 500GB hard drive for replacement. You need to try a different one.
If you get an install error when trying to install through a USB connection, I need to know what that exact error is, including what the error icon looks like.
May be related to installing Tiger. Have you ever upgraded to Leopard, or Snow Leopard? Might be worth trying a newer OS X version, if you have it already.
But, you should definitely try a different hard drive.
 
IvoV said:
When I tried to install OS X via USB, there was an error and it failed.
Click to expand...

Obviously, its not fine through usb either. Just because its not showing the exact same symptoms through the usb bus as the sata bus doesn't mean the drive is fine. Obviously there is still a problem. Just like Delta said, that drive is either flaky or something was damaged while attempting the swap.
 
I would be hesitant to recommend someone pay for an engineer to take a look at a hard drive that is still under warranty and can be replaced for free.

Why would someone pay someone else to do something they themselves could do for free?
 
Of course. This guy just wanted to drop a link to his site..

I wouldn't be wasting time here if I were willing to pay for someone else to take care of my business. First, I had the screen of death on my mac (with the 120Gb HD) with the folder and question mark. Went to Apple Store and the guy offered me to replace the disk for 300$ !! I spent hours on it trying different things and finally managed to access my drive with Ubuntu. Drive is fine, it was a permissions problem (I think..?) Whatever...

I think people need to drop links to their sites here and there on the internet in order to increase their ranking with the google search engine.. right ?

Anyways, I sent the 500Gb drive back today. Will see what happens next. It's a bit annoying. I save money by buying through Newegg, but have to pay shipping for return. Hopefully they won't charge me the shipping of the second drive... If that one doesn't work either... all I can do is scream my anger.. :)
 
I received the replacement HD today. Is there anything special I should do with it ?

I was planning to plug via SATA, boot with the Tiger install disc and then install Tiger.
Anything wrong or incomplete with that procedure ?
 
Ok, I plugged it in, booted from install disc. It show 3,6To size and when I want to partition, says input/output error. Same as the first drive I bought.

What do you mean by install ?

Should I update something with the motherboard ?

Thanks for helping. :)
 
Do you have access to another instalation disk? Something may be real goofy with that installer you are using or your superdrive. If I were you I'd drop $30 for a retail snow leopard and give it a shot. Worse case scenario it won't solve your problem but at least you'll have 10.6 when you get things working.
 
Install disc is fine because I installed on the old 120Gb drive and it works fine...

I'll try to clone the 120Gb on the 500 (through USB) and then put the 500 in the computer... (?).

I'll try with snow leopard too, never know... I do have it at home.
 
I just booted with snow leopard (from my new MBP 13inch) and snow leopard recognizes it correctly. I formatted, but can't install. It says: Mac OS X can't be installed on this computer. If you want to restore your system from a Time Machine backup, click "Restore from Backup"". I guess it's because the install disc is supposed to work only with the machine it came with.

So, I'll go buy Snow Leopard. Can someone confirm me that I don't need Leopard installed before ? If it doesn't work, I guess I won't be able to return it... ?

It's still bugging me though ! Why would Snow Leopard recongnize the drive and Tiger wouldn't (but would via USB) ?!?!?! This is making my brain crazy !
 
Hi.

Sorry to barge in on this thread but I've been having exactly the same problem.

Did you find a solution?
 
Hey buddy,

Am not really sure what you are referring to as it's been a while since I opened this thread and especially, I had multiple issues coming on to screw my days at the time. It was one problem after another.

It's been a while since I solved the issue. Seems like the new HD was not compatible with Tiger due to some new technology that was on the HD. Buying an NEW SAME HD did not solve, but buying a NEW DIFFERENT HD did solve the issue. The first HD did work with later OS versions though (Leopard and Snow Leopard at the time). So it seem slike it was just a compatibility issue.

My initial screen of death issue had to do with permissions if I remember well, but more importantly it was caused due to lack of free space. My advice would be to run regularly the permission verify and repair. But most of all, do NOT allow you HD to go under 1Gb of free space as this is what caused my problem if I remember well. At the time, I plugged my HD in external mode, deleted some files and then it worked again. Anyways, it was definitely a software issue as the drive is still in my hands and works pretty well still. ...and that Apple guy suggested to replace my HD for 300 bucks ! Haha !

Again, it's been a while since then, so sorry I can't provide more precise details. The 1Gb of free space is definitely a best practice I would recommend.

Not sure if this helps, but you need to share more info and I might be able to assist...
 
Last edited:
Sorry I should've included more details.

I've just replaced the HD in my 1.83Ghz Macbook with a Western Digital 500GB scorpio blue SATAII (internal). When I try to partition and format the drive using OSX tiger disks it thinks the drive is 3.6TB and returns the error messages you described in your post.

However, when I use disk utility from a snow leopard disk (locked to a differnt mac so I can do a full install) it sees the new drive correctly as 500GB. However partioning the Leopard disks doesn't help when I try to do the Tiger install.

So I've come to the same conclusion that this must be a compatibility thing with OSX tiger.

Do you know if this problem can be resolved by doing a clean install of OSX Leopard and does it mean that I'll need to buy the leopard install rather than using the snow leopard update?

Many thanks for your advice.
 
Hey,

I think at the time I managed to install Leopard of Snow Leopard. Really, if you don't want to buy a more recent OS (last one being Lion btw), you should just exchange your disc with a different one.

Tell me how it goes !
 
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