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Seagate Momentus XT Disaster

Not really looking for solutions here, just trying to warn people to stay away from this Seagate drive. It has been an unmitigated nightmare for me. And a very strange one. I cloned the drive and booted up on it externally with NO problems at all. Many times. The drive simply works when mounted externally. Once installed inside my MacBook Pro, all **** breaks loose. The computer will not stay stable for more than 5 mins. Crash after crash after crash. Complete disaster. Pull the drive and mount my old internal drive (99% full), and it runs no problem. Mount the Seagate Momentus externally again, no problem. I can run for hours. Put it back into the laptop? Crash city.

What a waste of time and money.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 8 gigs of RAM, 15: Matte screen

Posted on Apr 6, 2012 7:07 AM

275 replies

TechND

Level 1

0 points

Sep 29, 2012 4:54 PM in response to bresmi

Now I'm puzzled. My Macbook Pro is a mid-2009 Model A1286 (June 2009 - April 2012). This is the 2nd generation of the unibody Macs. It should have the newer cable. I wonder how I can verify this information without spending $30 to find out?

Sep 29, 2012 6:00 PM in response to tomfromchicago

This is a great and evolving thread, thanks everyone. I got a very good price from Amazon for the 500, and the reviews there for the 500 were much kinder than the 750. They also indicated it was a compatible replacement for the PlayStation 3 which is actually my impetus for getting a 2.5" drive. Still, I have plenty of external storage needs and am just as happy to try this out for my day-to-day working/scratch drive.

bresmi

Level 1

0 points

Sep 29, 2012 11:59 PM in response to TechND

That's the same model as mine (assuming it's a 13"). Not sure why or how Apple overlooked this detail, but definitely glad to have my computer up and running. I've had the new cable in for about a week now with no problems to report. Enjoying the Momentus as well. Noticeably quicker than the stock drive.

Sep 30, 2012 2:35 AM in response to TechND

If you go inside "About this Mac", click on "More Info", then "System Report", then Serial-ATA, you will see your speed. Attached is the info from my 15"

Late 2011 MBP with the 750 Momentus XT drive. You will see my link speed and negotiated link speed are both 6 Gigabit.

My understanding is the 750 XT is MUCH faster than the 500GB version, and doesn't have all the problems.

My 15" Late 2011 MBP 2.2 boots up from completely off in 31 seconds. Not sure what others are getting. I know before the drive it took close to double that.

Sep 30, 2012 4:04 AM in response to bresmi

How can you tell that this is a 2.0 cable? Is there an easy way to differentiate this from a 1.0?

bresmi wrote:

Here's a link to the one that I purchased.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/270993571227?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m143 9.l2649

It ***** having to spend $30 more on a fix, but well worth it to have a working hybrid drive and upped transfer speeds.

Let me know if it works!

Best,

Brett

bresmi

Level 1

0 points

Sep 30, 2012 3:08 PM in response to tomfromchicago

Not quite sure. I just know it works. One thing though is that I just checked the internal speed in my system report and it says that my drive is transferring at 3GB/s, which is half of what the drive is capable of I think, and from what I've read is half of what the board is capable of handling.

bresmi

Level 1

0 points

Sep 30, 2012 3:09 PM in response to nathanphotographer

I actually have the 750 XT, so the problems were seem to be present with that one as well, at least in my case.

Csound1

Level 9

60,033 points

Sep 30, 2012 3:14 PM in response to bresmi

bresmi wrote:

Not quite sure. I just know it works. One thing though is that I just checked the internal speed in my system report and it says that my drive is transferring at 3GB/s, which is half of what the drive is capable of I think, and from what I've read is half of what the board is capable of handling.

Your drive is capable of 0.12 to 0.25GB/s, nowhere near the interface capacity of 3GB/s. You would need to connect 15 to 30 of them at once to overrun the interface rate.

http://techreport.com/review/22057/seagate-momentus-xt-750gb-hybrid-hard-drive/3

TechND

Level 1

0 points

Sep 30, 2012 3:16 PM in response to bresmi

Except that the model cable you purchased is for an A1278 which is the Mid-2008 MacBook. Mine is a 1286 which is for the Mid-2009. This should have been past the initial cable snafu period. I suppose I will have to take the cable out, find the model number and see if I can identify the cables properties. My unit its a 15" MBPro.

I'll be installing the Seagate Momentus in a Mid 2010 Mac Mini today or tomorrow and I'll be seeing how that goes.

TechND

Level 1

0 points

Sep 30, 2012 3:22 PM in response to bresmi

According to the free application Mactracker, the A1278 13" Macbook has an internal transfer rate of 3.0gbps.

Hard Drive Interface	3.0 Gbps Serial ATA (SATA)

bresmi

Level 1

0 points

Sep 30, 2012 3:22 PM in response to Csound1

Just double checked, the Seagate drive is capable of 6GB/s, but the link speed for the NVidia is what limits it.

NVidia MCP79 AHCI:

Vendor: NVidia

Product: MCP79 AHCI

Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported

Csound1

Level 9

60,033 points

Sep 30, 2012 3:25 PM in response to bresmi

bresmi wrote:

Just double checked, the Seagate drive is capable of 6GB/s, but the link speed for the NVidia is what limits it.

NVidia MCP79 AHCI:

Vendor: NVidia

Product: MCP79 AHCI

Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

Negotiated Link Speed: 3 Gigabit

Description: AHCI Version 1.20 Supported

That is the interface speed, it is NOT the drive speed.

Sep 30, 2012 3:42 PM in response to Csound1

I am not following this at all. Has a solution been technically identified? Can someone please confirm?

bresmi

Level 1

0 points

Sep 30, 2012 3:48 PM in response to tomfromchicago

Yes. If you have the same model mac I do (13in MBP mid-2009), then getting a new cable, the one I lnked to previously, will fix it. It fixed it for me and it fixed it for other people who had the same problem. I got the information/solution confirmed from multiple threads.

Sep 30, 2012 3:53 PM in response to bresmi

bresmi wrote:

Yes. If you have the same model mac I do (13in MBP mid-2009), then getting a new cable, the one I lnked to previously, will fix it. It fixed it for me and it fixed it for other people who had the same problem. I got the information/solution confirmed from multiple threads.

I dont have the same Mac. I have a 15" MacBook Pro. So I am not clear if this solution works for me and also if it does, I dont know how to buy the right cable. I live in China and need very accurate directions on what to buy.

Seagate Momentus XT Disaster