Internal hard drive is not recognized anymore

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Level 1

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Internal hard drive is not recognized anymore

Hi,

I have a problem with my MacBook Pro 13' from September 2009. I have recently changed my internal disk to a WD scorpio 7200rpm 750gb. Everything worked fine after installing Snow Leopard from scratch.

Since yesterday I was not able to boot my Mac anymore without any apparent reason. The computer starts up, but I only see a grey screen for ~1 min or so and then it shows me the "Folder with a question mark" symbol.

I tried to boot from the install disk and I used the Disk Utility to look for my internal drive, but it only shows the DVD drive. I pressed "alt" at startup to choose ma startup drive, but I only have the option to start from DVD or USB (if I have the install disc in or a copy of the install disc on USB). I tried resent of PRAM, NVRAM and SMU. Nothing helped.

I even changed back to my old disk, but even my old disk does not apear in the list of the disk utility or is found at startup.

The new drive is ok, because I can use it as an external USB disk and boot from it. This is of course very inconvenient to work with.

Has anyone had similar problems? I checked the cables and the installation of the new disk again, but I don't see anything obvious. As I said, the drive worked and still works, but suddenly my Mac does not seem to recognize any internal drives anymore.

Thanks

Duc

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7)

Posted on May 21, 2011 7:28 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

tjk

Level 9

51,116 points

May 21, 2011 7:32 AM in response to duc bao

Hi D,

It sounds like it may be the HD cable or connection. These can have internal breaks/issues without being apparent on the outside.

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Answer 2

May 21, 2011 7:32 AM in response to duc bao

Sounds like you may have hardware problems with your Mac. Try running AHT to check it out.

Allan

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Answer 3

Eric Ross

Level 6

11,807 points

May 21, 2011 7:34 AM in response to duc bao

That sounds like a problem with your hard drive data cable or your hard drive power cable. Do you hear the drive spin up when you hit the power button. if so then I would say it's the data cable, clean the contacts on both the cable and the logic board and see if that will solve the problem.

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Answer 4

duc bao Author

Level 1

0 points

May 26, 2011 4:51 AM in response to Eric Ross

Hi all,

thanks for your answers. I did check the connector and my drive still powered up. After booting from my disk externally I started the system profiler and the controller was still visible. This was a strong hint for me that it must be the cable.

Now I got a new cable and it works again. I wasn't aware that these cables are so easy to break. I just changed my drive for the third time and most of the cable is glued to the body anyway. Even the new, working one I got, it was a used one that someone removed from an old MacBook.

Thanks again for your help.

Duc

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Answer 5

m7teen

Level 1

0 points

May 27, 2011 9:06 PM in response to duc bao

I have the same problem, and i have almost given up completly.

Im so glad to finally c some help.

I have one question however, as my standby light still glows and flashes, did urs?

I have a WD 320 Hard Drive, that i am now using it extranally through the usb port. And it is not recognized in the disk utility when its pluged internaly to the logic board.

The same 13" macbook pro 2009 model.

🙂

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Answer 6

duc bao Author

Level 1

0 points

May 28, 2011 3:06 AM in response to m7teen

Hi,

I did not pay attention to it, but I think I would have noticed. Also the power to my drive was ok, I could hear it spinning up when I switched on the my MacBook. I would go for a cable exchange. It was costly though, something like 50EUR here in France. Maybe in the US it is a bit cheaper like on ifixit.

Good Luck!

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