Firmware update and SATA II hard drive (continued)

yayaasd... You'll want to start a separate thread for your problem. The hardware in your machine is somewhat different from the current machines. The firmware which is being discussed here does not apply to your machine. Also, your machine only supports SATA 1.5GB. The problems you are experiencing are caused by something else. A separate thread will get your problem the appropriate attention.

I, as well, have this problem. I have been a PC user since Windows 3.0, and this is my first new Mac. It will more than likely be my last Mac, as even my $500 Lenovo Y710 can run 2 SATA II drives without a problem. I have a late 2009 15" MacBook Pro. Struggled heavily trying to get it to work and finally found this thread on the day I was going to exchange the laptop. I am trying to install a WD Scorpio Blue 640 gig. I ended up going with the Optibay just to get this thing going. Works very well, but I would like to put my optical drive back! Just wanted Apple to have a +1 on this topic.

Nate

My new MBP 15" was built the last week of 09, should I expect this same problem if I try to put a large 7200 drive in it? (which is my immediate plan) Any suggestions on the best 500 or 750 7200 RPM drive to do this with?

Tried the WD 500GB Scorpio Blue in MBP 13 inch and had slowing problems especially in MS Office with cursor jerky - Changed to Hitachi 500GB (Hitachi 250 GB factory installed inn MBP) worked normally and silent as well. I have latest SL OSX and all updates - ended using the 500 GB WD drive as an external drive so not lost but strange it works OK this way rather than internally in MBP ??

+*ended using the 500 GB WD drive as an external drive so not lost but strange it works OK this way rather than internally in MBP ?*+

That's a fairly common way to determine that you are having the same problem that this (and the much longer previous) thread is discussing. The problem is with the SATA interface (or SATA cable) in the MacBook. When you connect your drive externally, you are no longer using the MacBook's SATA interface but rather the firewire or USB interface (whichever you're using).

concerning the really lengthy thread, is there any chance of having this issue fixed any time soon?
I am using a:
Modell: WDC WD3200BEKT
on my 13" MacBookPro5,5 2,53 GHz
and don't know what to do.
The very same harddisk ran just fine (and fast) in my old 15" Core Duo Macbook Pro.
Another MBP without SATA II as well , this is kind of a show stopper...

The Xbench results for sequential write:
Sequential 13.56
Uncached Write 22.64 13.90 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 9.70 5.49 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 10.49 3.07 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 19.09 9.59 MB/sec [256K blocks]

Hello,

I have the following setup:
MacBook Pro 17'' Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06 June 2009
4GB RAM 1067 Mhz DDR3
ST9500420ASG:
Capacity: 500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 bytes)
Model: ST9500420ASG
Revision: 0007APM2
Serial Number: XXXXXXX
Native Command Queuing: Yes
Queue Depth: 32
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Rotational Rate: 7200
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified

Boot ROM Version: MBP52.008E.B05
SMC Version (system): 1.42f4

Any ideas if I will be affected by the issues described in this thread if I try upgrading to a SSD Crucial 256GB?

Shall I expect huge performance improvements? I run Matlab, Eclipse, Parallels Windows XP many times all these at the same time. With my current setup I get the notorious volleyball beach waiting thingie more often than not ... is it worth the SSD upgrade given that I already have this 7200rpm drive?

Many thanks in advance,
Best regards,
Giovanni

I really like my Macbook Pro. But I don't like that I can't use Sata II. Of course I've had the machine a few months now - what's Apple going to tell me when I want to return it? Too bad? Likely. What, do I need to go to small claims court or something to get them to take the machine back?

Is there a summary of this thread somewhere describing what makes this issue specific to newish MBs?

In June (right after my Apple Care contract expired, yay) the "beach ball" problem and "kernel[0]: disk0s2: 0xe0030005 (UNDEFINED)" errors in system.log started. I finally bought a new drive last week and I'm getting still getting those disk errors plus now sometimes "hfs_clonefile: cluster_read failed - 5". It seems unlikely to me that the new disk would be flaky right out of the box, so I found this thread while questioning whether it could be the drive controller or something. I have an '06 13" MB but the drive and the system board were both replaced at some point after I bought it...

After getting a late 2009 15" MBP for work i no longer used my mac mini with its crucial 128gb SSD drive. So last week i removed the drive from the mini (which worked perfectly i might add) and placed it in my MBP after i had made a clone of the internal HD. After installing the SSD the system was very unstable and so i put the old drive back in.. I then installed a clean copy of OSX 10.6 using a external USB housing and the SSD drive.

This was many times more stable but i would get random beachballs, and i would often have to hard reset. Today i put my original drive back in the machine and its running perfectly again..

I guess i'm facing the same problem....

THANKS APPLE>

Just to add to the mix:

I am seeing this same problem with the stock 500 gig 7200 RPM ST9500420ASG drive, and the old, never-upgraded 1.6 firmware. Pauses, beachballs, unresponsive apps. Especially likely to happen when the drive is being hit hard. Lots of warnings from a variety of things in the ASL, including hidd complaining that it can't enqueue new events (which implies a series hard interrupts that take far longer than expected, since IIRC that thing has just about the highest priority you can give something).

No I/O errors in the logs. No indications of any problems

Thinking of trying an upgrade to 1.7 to see if it makes things any better.

Ok, so I am new to this forum and Macs in general, but not computers. My Fiance has a Macbook Pro with the 1.83 Ghz processor. Her laptop failed (verified by Genius bar; bad sector) and I just bought a new hard drive to replace her old one.

I actually came to this forum for a how-to on HDD install in her laptop and this thread caught my attention. Now I am worried that I will run into the same issue as in this thread. I bought her a WD Caviar Black Scorpio 320GB with 7200 RPM speed. Is this issue an OS X issue or physical limitation issue (IE the SATA cable)?

Before her hard drive failed on the OS update she was having a severe freezing issue. We suspect this was from either upgraded RAM (Mushkin 2GB) or now the bad hard drive. It was the OEM 80GB drive.

Will her model 1.83Ghz have this freezing issue with the new hard drive? Is there anythign I can do to alleviate the issue if so? The computer is getting a backup and we are starting from a blank drive on the OS X discs.

Ohh, nevermind. 1.) I read this is for mid 09 models; after a serial decoder I realized mine was made 2006. 2.) Ontop of that, it only supports SATA 1.

+*Ontop of that, it only supports SATA 1*+

According to Apple... the mid-2009 machines only support SATA 1 as well... so don't feel bad. 🙂

wow, i thought apple fixed this problem? i have the same mbp and hd as you michee (320gb WD Black w/o free fall right?) and have noticed nothing but great speed improvements. i used to get beachballs on the stock 250gb hitachi, but the black is just a godsend with no beachballs.

the only problem is the noise level. sounds like my mbp fans when they are at like 4000rpm.