Seagate Momentus XT Disaster

I am sorry but it is NOT the Seagate drive. I have the 500GB version installed in my late 2011 MBP and it runs flawlessly.

It is your Mac that is the problem, Not the drive. There are many that are using these same exact drives in Mac's and PCs without problems.

Did you repartition the drive before using it?

Affirmative. It's been reformatted/partitioned a number of times. If time permits this weekend I'm going to install it internally in a Mac Mini, and see how it runs inside of a Mac Mini. If it does well there, I'll put it back in the MacBook Pro and see how it works there this time. Hopefully that will narrow things down and I'll have my answer.

Shootist007 - There are at least some reports of others having problems with the Momentus 500 in laptops, so I do not see how you can categorically say with certainty that it is the MBP that is the source of the problem. Can you explain why other drives run fine in these MBP's where the Momentus fails? Are you able to pinpoint what the problem with the MBP using a Momentus drive would be given the facts? That would be very useful and helpful information.

TechND wrote:

Shootist007 - There are at least some reports of others having problems with the Momentus 500 in laptops, so I do not see how you can categorically say with certainty that it is the MBP that is the source of the problem. Can you explain why other drives run fine in these MBP's where the Momentus fails? Are you able to pinpoint what the problem with the MBP using a Momentus drive would be given the facts? That would be very useful and helpful information.

There are reports of problems with drives other than the Seagate XT series as well, these drives work in Macs, does that mean every Mac will always work? unlikely, but the issue is in your Mac or your installation.

Csound1 - the main differentiation in this instance being that at least two other known good hard drives, being the original 250gb which shipped with the unit, and a new Hitachi 500gb Desktar, have both run flawlessly in the MBP, and continue to do so under testing, that is to say with no problems whatsoever of any kind. Major failures only appear, and in short order, when the momentous XT is installed internally in the MBP. It is also possible that there is a defect in this particular momentous XT drive.

No differences, every machine I installed an XT in had a good working drive in it before the replacement, why yours is not working I can't say, but by now I would have exchanged it for another example.

I remember the day when returning a drive to Seagate was easy to do. Essentiallly you filled out a form online and sent the drive in. That was it! Now they have an RMA system and the device musf fail one of the Seatools test to get a failure code. Is there another method to return a hard disk to Seagate that you use or are aware of? Becuase I would sure like to exchange this unit for another one.

I have used the online method, it is quite easy, I would invest a little time and do it.

But if you really don't want to invest your time,

Here are the error codes:

Pick one that is appropriate.

tomfromchicago wrote:

Csound1 wrote:

No differences, every machine I installed an XT in had a good working drive in it before the replacement, why yours is not working I can't say, but by now I would have exchanged it for another example.

Seagate would not take my disk back because in their view, nothing was wrong with it. It passed all their tests.

That's between you and Seagate, I have returned 2 drives (not XT's) without any problems, pick up the phone and argue about it or go back to your retailer and exchange it.

tomfromchicago wrote:

Csound1 wrote:

tomfromchicago wrote:

Csound1 wrote:

No differences, every machine I installed an XT in had a good working drive in it before the replacement, why yours is not working I can't say, but by now I would have exchanged it for another example.

Seagate would not take my disk back because in their view, nothing was wrong with it. It passed all their tests.

That's between you and Seagate, I have returned 2 drives (not XT's) without any problems, pick up the phone and argue about it or go back to your retailer and exchange it.

Retailer said to call Seagate, and Seagate said the drive is fine. This was months ago.

Sounds like the retailer slid neatly out of his obligations, it may be too late now but call your credit card provider (if you used a credit card) and dispute the charge on the grounds that the goods are not fit for the purpose intended (ie: being an internal drive), you may get a refund from them, no guarantees, a few months is a bit long.

Yo, TomfromChicago:

On our mid-2009 Macbook Pro, 15" screen, 8 GB RAM, 2.53 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo machine, we just had a nervously similar experience. The machine was transported while shut off, and 10-15 minutes after boot it froze. A decent tech looked at it and determined the problem to be the hard drive, an XT 500 SSD hybrid. At the time when the computer was delivered for repair, he said the disposition of the drive wouldn't be predictable until he retrieved the data from it and tested the drive.

Today after he recovered the data from it, he suggested not using the old 500 GB drive and instead swapping in a new 750 GB version. Not real scientific, unless he knows something else he didn't want to discuss. To me, it's kinda suspicious that he recommended the upgrade, so I'm glad to have found your thread.