Seagate Momentus XT Disaster

Csound. From what you're saying, does it mean that there's something wrong with my speeds as stock then?

A 2009 MBP supports Sata and Sata II

The 500XT is a Sata II (3GB/s)

The 750XT is a Sata III (6GB/s)

What is your negotiated link speed.

Hi Guys,

I just bought 2 Seagate XT 750Gb drives for my mid 2010 and my wifes mid 2009 Macbook Pro's.

I was reluctant at first seeing forums like this with so many people having problems but the 2009 only had a 250Gb drive and was complaining it was full so... I backed up both laptops with Time Machine after ensuring they were up to date software wise (both on mountain lion 10.8.2) then replaced the drives very carefully, especially with the very flimsy SATA cable. I then formatted the new drives by inserting the original OSX insallation disc (snow leopard) Mac OSX Extended Journaled HFS+, then used the option to 'Restore System from backup".

After a couple of hours each it finished.

Well, all went well and has been for nearly a week.....no problems encountered at all yet and with the SSD function in the XT drive I have noticed a speed increase when loading.

Both laptops were 'up to date' software and firmware wise, both show the Link and Negotiated speeds as 3 Gigabit

The drives both show:

ST750LX003-AC154 Revision SM12

So anyway I hope this gives you people with issues some glimmer of hope, I guess after owning quite a few laptops over the years I've learnt to be very careful with the 'innards' of them after changing drives, optical drives and memory. Maybe some issues are due to the flimsy cable, Seagate website forums indicate how to check by using normal SATA cables.....look there.

Good luck!😉

Glad it worked out for you on the first go but that doesn't mean most 2009 MBPs have good cables to start with. You seem to have had one. But then there are a lot of posts for peoplpe that have the 2009 model that seem to have HDD problems and changing the drives don't fix them. That is because the cable has finally failed and only after changing the cable do they find their original drive was still good.

So good luck and if your wifes Mac starts to have problems it is Not the Seagate XT but the cable.

Yes that's pretty much my point, people have to be very careful with the insides of any high tech device as static electricity, sweat, dropped bit of conducting material or in this case most likely damage to the, as I stated, flimsy SATA cable, will cause failures.

This post is about people changing their drives so I assume they had to open the case and physically remove and replace the drive. As I said I've been doing this for well over 10 years and I am very careful with anything I do after opening the case, with this in mind, when I removed the cable from the old drive, I held the cable in place and gently wiggled the drive from the cable as opposed to most people pulling the cable from the drive thereby stressing the 'flimsy' cable.

To sum up, my point is the same as yours, the cable is most likely the culprit, maybe the Apple 'tech' in some sweatshop stressed the cable while the machine was first assembled could also be a contributing factor, or the cable manufacturer or or or or........

Oh one more thing for you all, I ensured the original drive was error free before its final backup so any problems were not transferred to the new drive, this can be done by using Disk Utility and verifying disk and permissions.

I also use the free app 'Onyx'

I don't think that my cable was stressed! And I am not here to bragg BUT, I have an electronics background ( assembled and repaird Aircraft instraments which had lots of surface mount parts ), I also have A+ Certific and my partner has a Computer Engineering Diploma. We both think that the problem with my unit was that Apple didn't have a Sata 2 cable installed my Mid 2009 15" pro in the 1st place. I think that is what has happened with others as well. 😟

Well I'm not here to finger blame, my ONLY reason is to help....

So please..... google sata 1 and sata 2 cables....there is no difference, look on ehow.com techpowerup, wiki, they all say no difference.

Apple is a very secretive company just like many companies, and if they had a bad batch of cables very few would know. I had an HP laptop previously, had a known problem with the video card overheating but was not public knowledge (secretive) until a class action suit was to be filed. I didn't hear about it until after the last date but found on the web a fix where you re-solder the nvidia connections as the over heating caused the solder to crystallize and therefore intermittent electron flow, no screen....I did the fix but lasted only 6 months. Called HP and Nvidia they both blamed each other and as the laptop was over 2 years old I decided to 'trade up' to an Apple.

So i reiterate I'm only here to help by sharing my experience and thoughts so that people with problems can say "if that's not the problem and this isn't either then the only thing left is....." deduction.

BTW I'm an Airline Pilot, flown from Cessna150 up to B747-400 they have a wide variety of instruments.....

Ola

So im running the following:

I also have a Seagate ST750LX003 Momentus XT 750GB SATA III SSD/HDD hybrid drive installed via an optibay. I can see the drive fine, disk utility tells me the drive is good with no issues but too have that error code -36 issue. I also have issues transferring via Terminal. The Optic drive worked fine before I installed the Hard drive so I dont see how it can be a cable issue. Any ideas guys, its driving me nuts!

I can transfer ok to the drive but it just doesnt seem to like large files.

Sorry not trying to lay blame, An ya gotta wonder about that cable, as when I put the original drive back it worked fine but not the new Momentus! The only way I could get Momentus drive to work was by changing the cable. I like the 150 such a sweet little plane to fly!

where can I buy these cables?

Hi CSound. It looks like negotiated link speed is 1.5gigabit.

I have a mid 2009 MBP 5.5 I think and this seems to be the one that people are having issues with...Do you think I should stay away from this drive? I really want to get it, but only if it works obviously. lol
If this doesn't work out for me, do you recommend any other drives?

Thanks again!

NVidia MCP79 AHCI:

Vendor: NVidia

Product: MCP79 AHCI

Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

Negotiated Link Speed: 1.5 Gigabit

Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported

I have a 5,5 and link at 3Gb, I would suspct th cable (if you have not replaced it) there are numerous reports of cable issues.

Only an SSD wil match and exceed the Seagate.

I got mine from e-bay, BUT did email the seller 1st to verify that it is a SATA 2.. I hope it helps.

Do you think that if I replace the cable and get the 750gb Momentus, it would work?
and don't worry I won't sue you even if you're wrong. lol

You may or may not need to replace the SATA cable. If you've a 2009 MBP, those seem to have the worst luck with the SATA cable. Just to play it safe, you may want to order a new SATA cable along with the 750GB Momentus... but your own cable may work.

Clinton