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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

Reply
275 replies

Apr 6, 2012 12:57 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

OGELTHORPE wrote:


Does this particular HDD have a Sudden Motion Sensor built in? If so, it may be conflicting with the MBP SMS.


Have you contacted Seagate technical support on this issue?


Ciao.

Yes. They have never heard of this problem before and could not offer any solution.


I was suggested to try to do a fresh install of OS X onto this drive rather than a clone. Also, before that I am going to try to close with SuperDuper, instead of Carbon Copy Cloner.


It does not sound like the Momentus XT drive is compatible with Mac. A real shame as I can't get my money back and the drive so far is useless.

Apr 6, 2012 1:36 PM in response to tomfromchicago

tomfromchicago wrote:


OGELTHORPE wrote:


Does this particular HDD have a Sudden Motion Sensor built in? If so, it may be conflicting with the MBP SMS.


Have you contacted Seagate technical support on this issue?


Ciao.

Yes. They have never heard of this problem before and could not offer any solution.


I was suggested to try to do a fresh install of OS X onto this drive rather than a clone. Also, before that I am going to try to close with SuperDuper, instead of Carbon Copy Cloner.


It does not sound like the Momentus XT drive is compatible with Mac. A real shame as I can't get my money back and the drive so far is useless.

I have 2 MBP 13" (both mid 2009) both fitted with the 500G XT, I have a 2011 MBP 13" fitted with the 750G XT, and I have fitted one or the other XT to several other Macs and and PC's. I have never had a problem with any of them.


But I do my housekeeping which includes ensuring that the drives had the latest firmware (SD28 for a 500 and SM12 for a 750)


You did update your drive before complaining I assume?

Apr 6, 2012 2:38 PM in response to tomfromchicago

tomfromchicago wrote:


No, I did not update the drive firmware. How can I do that? Thank you for the suggestion.

Go to Seagates site (even quicker, Google this phrase 'firmware update momentus XT 500' (or 750 depending on which you have) the firmware comes as an ISO from which you will burn a cd/dvd. Boot from the cd/dvd and let the updater do its thing.


But first check your version by going to Apple>About This Mac>More Info>System Report> scroll down to Serial ATA, select the hard drive and read the Revision version from there.


User uploaded file

(this for a 750, revisions for 500's begin with SD)



I don't know whether you have a 500 or a 750 but on the 500 I had considerable difficulties with SD24 thru 26, skipped 27 and went to 28 and have had no issues since. I even put one in a 2006 MBP where it not only worked well it revitalised what was previously a bit of a slug.

Apr 6, 2012 6:32 PM in response to Csound1

Update here: I cloned my drive using SuperDuper and now have the drive installed in my MacBook Pro. Seems different, as it has not yet crashed. I've only been up 10 minutes or so but usually that is enough to get a crash. Maybe Carbon Copy Cloner doesnt work so well?


I am flying back to China early tomorrow morning so won't be able to update this thread for a day or so. Hopefully I'll have good news to report.


Thanks for all the help so far!


OH by the way, my firmware version for my 750 gig Momentus XT drive is SM12. Seagates web site is useless to find out if this is the most current. Anyone know?


thanks again.

Apr 6, 2012 6:36 PM in response to tomfromchicago

tomfromchicago wrote:


Update here: I cloned my drive using SuperDuper and now have the drive installed in my MacBook Pro. Seems different, as it has not yet crashed. I've only been up 10 minutes or so but usually that is enough to get a crash. Maybe Carbon Copy Cloner doesnt work so well?


I am flying back to China early tomorrow morning so won't be able to update this thread for a day or so. Hopefully I'll have good news to report.


Thanks for all the help so far!


OH by the way, my firmware version for my 750 gig Momentus XT drive is SM12. Seagates web site is useless to find out if this is the most current. Anyone know?


thanks again.

SM12 is the most current as far as I know. If the crashes reappear I would reinstall the OS, you have a backup so point 1 is covered, no changes will be made to your machine other than the OS so you'll be fine.

Apr 6, 2012 7:07 PM in response to Csound1

Csound1 wrote:


tomfromchicago wrote:


Update here: I cloned my drive using SuperDuper and now have the drive installed in my MacBook Pro. Seems different, as it has not yet crashed. I've only been up 10 minutes or so but usually that is enough to get a crash. Maybe Carbon Copy Cloner doesnt work so well?


I am flying back to China early tomorrow morning so won't be able to update this thread for a day or so. Hopefully I'll have good news to report.


Thanks for all the help so far!


OH by the way, my firmware version for my 750 gig Momentus XT drive is SM12. Seagates web site is useless to find out if this is the most current. Anyone know?


thanks again.

SM12 is the most current as far as I know. If the crashes reappear I would reinstall the OS, you have a backup so point 1 is covered, no changes will be made to your machine other than the OS so you'll be fine.


I spoke too soon. My Mac still crashes with the Momentus XT drive, even cloned by SuperDuper.


So much for that theory. My god, the hours and hours I have spent on this Seagate drive. Enormous waste of time.

Seagate Momentus XT Disaster

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