Macbook pro internal hard drive repair

cjg95 wrote:

So I have 2010 or 12 macbook pro,not sure the serial number will be in the pics posted along withI had windows 10 installed on it, and somehow or another, the windows got corrupted, and ended up writie protecting the drive, and when I go into the cmd it says that the volume which is now boot drive x: is write protected, and it says that I can't format it due to this issue. I know that there has got to be someway to resolve this issue, as this is a software issue, and not a hardware issue. If someone could please help me I'd greatly appreciate it. I have attached what I am seeing in windows for the hard drive, when it comes to the option of attempting to format the drive.

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/e6a17035-e106-45b2-a8f7-1cb3d2e25173

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/1bd40e40-67e1-4a7d-ba9b-91a3a333888c

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/98d4d0a6-7225-4489-8cf9-2361f61af22e

Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac

Erase and reformat a storage device in Disk Utility on Mac - Apple Support

How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility

How to repair a Mac disk with Disk Utility - Apple Support

Boot into " Recovery" ( Command R) and from the dropdown menu: Utilities>  Disk Utility> run the First Aid on your Macintosh HD (and the "Macintosh HD-Data" volume as well if Catalina/Big Sur/Monterey) If errors are found and repaired, run again until no errors reported.

Disk Utility>View>Show All Devices The best sequence is —

• Volume level

• Container level

• Parent drive

[Link Edited by Moderator]

FYI, the one picture you had of Disk Utility showed the highlighted 500GB hard drive with a "SMART status failing" in red at the bottom right side. This means that drive is bad, although I don't see that error on your other pictures although it is hard to make sense of exactly what is what especially with the rotated pictures. You can easily rotate your pictures on your iPhone/iPad by clicking the "..." on the picture to edit the picture in order to rotate it.

While the Crucial MX500 series SSD is good, make sure to avoid the Crucial BX500 SSD which is a low end budget economy model that is as slow as a hard drive, tends to overheat easily, and has a high rate of early failure. The MX500 series is the good model.

As stated, you might have a better chance of having Disk Utility in Internet Recovery reformat. Other than that, a new hard drive can be really cheap and fairly simple to install. And for something of your vintage, maybe a solid-state drive instead. The price has gone down so much in recent years and is possibly the best performance upgrade for any computer that previously used a hard drive.

I know you're determined to do this, but seriously I would suggest simply getting a new drive rather than trying to recycle an old drive that just isn't working. You're going to go crazy trying to do this. A new drive will probably perform better - even a newer hard drive since newer ones write faster (even the same rotational speed) because of increased data density (each revolution will have more data). And an SSD will be considerably faster.

In non-Retina Unibody models made from 2009 through 2012, especially the 13-inch versions, the hard drive CABLE can wear after 3-6 years of normal use and transport. That may produce symptoms that mimic a failing hard drive. For most models in that class, cables are available, cheap, and easy to install.

Best practice: ALWAYS change the cable with you replace the hard drive.

I have a 2012 Unibody 13-inch non-Retina that shipped with a slow 5400 rpm, SATA 3GB roto hard drive. Changing that for a inexpensive, fast 6GB solid-state drive (SSD) and the computer runs as well and many current computers.

I could be a truly unrepairable drive. I had one that I thought was corrupted, but once I could get it to where I thought it was reformatting, I got the click of death.

In any case, a new drive is cheap these days. You could probably find a 1 TB hard drive for less than $40 (US). A 500 GB SSD might be less than $70. I personally don't think it's worth trying to save a drive like yours since there's a good chance that the hardware really is damaged.

If its a unibody: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/macbook-pro-unibody-faq/macbook-pro-13-15-17-mid-2009-how-to-upgrade-hard-drive-ssd.html

If you want a good SSD, either SanDisk or Crucial are good brands. I've heard Samsung is good, too, but I don't have any experience with them myself.

SanDisk 500GB Internal SSD - $62.00

Crucial 500GB Internal SSD - $60.00

___Bubba___ wrote:

If you want a good SSD, either SanDisk or Crucial are good brands. I've heard Samsung is good, too, but I don't have any experience with them myself.

SanDisk 500GB Internal SSD - $62.00

Crucial 500GB Internal SSD - $60.00

The ones backed up by an actual flash memory manufacturer are usually the ones most recommended, although a lot of people here like OWC because of their commitment to Macs.

SanDisk was purchased by Western Digital, and the WD Blue series (formerly labelled as WD Blue 3D) is supposed to be functionally identical to the SanDisk Ultra 3D, and I've got one of each. I just got SanDisk SSD Plus as a backup drive (placed in an enclosure) but I would have spent more for an Ultra 3D or WD Blue if I could have. I think the SSD Plus and WD Green models are pretty close to equivalent. But for a Time Machine backup I don't think it's that critical and I was able to buy it same day close to home.

SK Hynix has its own branded SSDs.

HWTech wrote:

While the Crucial MX500 series SSD is good, make sure to avoid the Crucial BX500 SSD which is a low end budget economy model that is as slow as a hard drive, tends to overheat easily, and has a high rate of early failure. The MX500 series is the good model.

I agree- I believe I did link to the MX500 :)