Why is my hard drive not performing at the maximum Sata II speed?  MBP mid-2010 (macbook pro 7,1)

Question

I have a question pertaining to the factory hard drive in this Macbook pro mid-2010 that i have.  Currently my system profiler is showing that I am using only 1.5 GB/s of the maximum 3.0 GB/s allowed in the SATA II controller.  below are a couple of copy and pastes of the information on my Apple product.  Any help would be much appreciated before i have to go to the genius bar and battle it out with them.  I am using the operating System: Lion OS X 10.7.2Best,JamesCOMPUTER INFORMATION:Model Name:          MacBook Pro  Model Identifier:          MacBookPro7,1  Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo  Processor Speed:          2.4 GHz  Number of Processors:          1  Total Number of Cores:          2  L2 Cache:          3 MB  Memory:          8 GB  Bus Speed:          1.07 GHz  Boot ROM Version:          MBP71.0039.B0BSerial SATA informationNVidia MCP89 AHCI:  Vendor:          NVidia  Product:          MCP89 AHCI  Link Speed:          3 Gigabit  Negotiated Link Speed:          1.5 Gigabit  Description:          AHCI Version 1.30 SupportedHitachi HTS545025B9SA02:  Capacity:          250.06 GB (250,059,350,016 bytes)  Model:          Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02                   Revision:          PB2AC60W  Serial Number:          100917PBL200CSKTY7TN  Native Command Queuing:          Yes  Queue Depth:          32  Removable Media:          No  Detachable Drive:          No  BSD Name:          disk0  Rotational Rate:          5400  Medium Type:          Rotational  Partition Map Type:          GPT (GUID Partition Table)  S.M.A.R.T. status:          Verified  Volumes:disk0s1:  Capacity:          209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)  BSD Name:          disk0s1  Content:          EFIMachintosh HD:  Capacity:          249.2 GB (249,199,591,424 bytes)  Available:          52.48 GB (52,482,621,440 bytes)  Writable:          Yes  File System:          Journaled HFS+  BSD Name:          disk0s2  Mount Point:          /  Content:          Apple_HFSRecovery HD:  Capacity:          650 MB (650,002,432 bytes)  BSD Name:          disk0s3  Content:          Apple_Boot

edi79 · Answer

I have the same problem:NVidia MCP89 AHCI:  Vendor:          NVidia  Product:          MCP89 AHCI  Link Speed:          3 Gigabit  Negotiated Link Speed:          1.5 Gigabit  Description:          AHCI Version 1.30 SupportedHitachi HTS545025B9SA02:Why Negotiated Link Speed is always 1.5 Gigabit?The is a command to force the link speed?ThanksEdi

sambat · Answer

Any update as to a fix to this?

JoeyR · Answer

Are you using a SATA II (3GB) drive?  If not, the negotiated speed will be 1.5GB.  Unless you are using an SSD, or plan on upgrading to one, 1.5GB is fine.  Even modern hard drives will not saturate the bandwidth of a 1.5GB SATA interface.  Modern SSDs however, can easily surpass this speed.

sambat · Answer

Thanks, figured it out. The Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02 drive is SATA so obviously it can&#x27;t reach 3GB.

bornwell · Answer

That may be the case for you, but I&#x27;ve upgraded my mid 2010 MBP 13" to a SATA III SSD and the link speed is still 1.5 Gigabit. If I do the SMC reset it resets the link speed to 3 Gigabit but after restart it goes back to 1.5 Gigabit. Thats very frustrating. Apple released an EFI update for the mid 2009 MBP regarding this issue. Didn&#x27;t find nothing for the 2010 model.

bornwell · Answer

I&#x27;ve upgraded to an SSD and its still 1.5 Gigabit. Any ideas why?

dolcze · Answer

I have the same problem:NVidia MCP89 AHCI:  Vendor:          NVidia  Product:          MCP89 AHCI  Link Speed:          3 Gigabit  Negotiated Link Speed:          1.5 Gigabit  Description:          AHCI Version 1.30 SupportedTOSHIBA MK2555GSXF:It&#x27;s SATA 2.0, 3Gbps transfer rate.Why Negotiated Link Speed is 1.5 Gigabit?Update to a fix this!

Peter Knox · Answer

Same problem here, but only on the second SATAII, same mid-2010 MBPro1st (HD)NVidia MCP89 AHCI:  Vendor:          NVidia  Product:          MCP89 AHCI  Link Speed:          3 Gigabit  Negotiated Link Speed:          3 Gigabit  Description:          AHCI Version 1.30 SupportedOCZ-AGILITY3:  Capacity:          360.08 GB (360,080,695,296 bytes)  Model:          OCZ-AGILITY3                              Revision:          2.150000  Serial Number:          OCZ-2589034J44O258XZ  Native Command Queuing:          Yes  Queue Depth:          32  Removable Media:          No  Detachable Drive:          No  BSD Name:          disk0  Medium Type:          Solid State  TRIM Support:          No  Partition Map Type:          GPT (GUID Partition Table)  S.M.A.R.T. status:          Verified2nd (Originally Optical Drive)NVidia MCP89 AHCI:  Vendor:          NVidia  Product:          MCP89 AHCI  Link Speed:          3 Gigabit  Negotiated Link Speed:          1.5 Gigabit  Description:          AHCI Version 1.30 SupportedOCZ-AGILITY3:  Capacity:          360.08 GB (360,080,695,296 bytes)  Model:          OCZ-AGILITY3                              Revision:          2.150000  Serial Number:          OCZ-YU4C6H7V6390284T  Native Command Queuing:          Yes  Queue Depth:          32  Removable Media:          No  Detachable Drive:          No  BSD Name:          disk1  Medium Type:          Solid State  TRIM Support:          No  Partition Map Type:          GPT (GUID Partition Table)  S.M.A.R.T. status:          Verified

Patricia Henwood · Answer

I started investigating this yesterday because I am about to replace my original Toshiba 250GB Model No. MK2553GSX with a Western Digital 7,200 rpm 750GB Scorpio Black HDD.  My computer is a late 2008 13 inch unibody MacBook.I wanted to understand why the System Profile information showed that the Link Speed was 3GB but that the Negotiated Link Speed was only 1.5 GB.  I assumed that the Toshiba MK2553GSX must be a Sata 1 and not a Sata 2 HDD.I went to the Toshiba website (link below) and see that it states that the drive is definitely 3GB, so Sata 2.http://storage.toshiba.com/storagesolutions/archived-models/mkxx53gsx#The other odd thing is that the Toshiba website also says that Model No. MK2553GSX is 160GB whereas mine is definitely 250GB - so, I don&#x27;t know why they would put the wrong drive size for that Model in their spec. sheet.Anyhow, my concern is that if I replace the existing 250GB Toshiba (which Toshiba says is 3Gb/s) with the Western Digital 750GB which is definitely SATA 2 (3Gb/s) will it still have a &#x27;Negotiated Link Speed&#x27; of 1.5 Gb/s?I read on another site that it really doesn&#x27;t matter because &#x27;in normal desktop use&#x27; 1.5.Gb/s is more than enough, I&#x27;d just like to know why it doesn&#x27;t run at the speed the HDD is designed to operate at.  Usually this might indicate a limitation in the computer.  Given that my MacBook is now over 4 years old I guess that isn&#x27;t surprising.I also read somewhere that Apple released a Firmware update to allow 2010 MacBook Pros to operate at SATA 2 speeds, so perhaps that&#x27;s why we&#x27;re limited to SATA 1?It would be good to know if someone has investigated this further and has a definitive answer!CheersTricia

Grant Bennet-Alder · Answer

The fastest 7200 RPM full size desktop rotating SATA drives available today (which your MacBook does NOT have) can transfer data off the platters at about 125 MBytes/sec.125 MegaBytes is 125,000,000 bytes/sec or *8 is 1,000,000,000 bits/sec. This is slower than the SATA I speed you are squawking about.The SATA Bus, even if it is running slower than you expected, is NOT a bottleneck. The drive cannot produce data anywhere near that fast!

Patricia Henwood · Answer

Thank you for your response.  I apologise if you consider that I was &#x27;squawking&#x27; - I wonder whether you consider that the other (presumably male) posters were also &#x27;squawking&#x27;? I understand the maths - I also understand that it is not relevant to my query, as I am well aware that I do NOT have the type of drive you&#x27;re referring to.If you read my post you will see that I am interested to know WHY the Negotiated Link Speed is Sata 1 when the Disk is capable of Sata 2 speeds.  If you are capable of answering that question, then your post would be useful, otherwise I fail to see its relevance.

Grant Bennet-Alder · Answer

I did not intend to discriminate against you in any way. You are the original Poster. I carefully read every word of every one who posted here and I replied on your original Query.You appear to be pursuing this as defect in your MacBook. It is completely irrelevant to the performance of your computer. Turning the speed up to SATA 17 will not make the slightest bit of Real-World difference in the performance of your MacBook&#x27;s rotating Hard Drive. The transfer speed of data off the spinning platters is the limiting factor, and the SATA bus (as long as it exceeds about 1 Gigabits/sec) is so much faster that it is not a limiting factor.What makes me crazy is that drive manufacturers are pushing the SATA Bus speeds faster, and making no effort to explain that faster SATA Busses make no difference in the drive&#x27;s performance.If you do not like what I have to say, I recommend you ignore it. My advice is worth every penny you paid for it.