Help! New 1TB Seagate SSHD won't boot in my 2010 MBP

TAKE IT BACK TO WHERE YOU GOT IT ASAP AND SAVE YOURSELF THE TROUBLE

Similar problems here. I have a mid '09 MBP with 256 gb running Mtn Lion or whatever the latest is. I upgraded to the Seagate 1TB SSHD and got all kinds of weird errors. I've seen a Kernl error on startup, numerous hangs and spinning pinwheel cursors, and an odd error where I couldn't transfer files to another drive. I also see the Apple logo switch back and forth between it and the circle slash icon that looks like the Ghostbusters logo without the ghost. I'm sorry I did not document the specific errors or know what these things are actually called.

So I decided to do a fresh install of the OS. The latest disc I have is for Snow Leopard. So I booted to that startup CD, zeroed out the SSHD via Disc Utility, and installed Snow Leopard. Everything seemed fine with startup. But I got the pinwheel cursor during some light Internet surfing. I update the software to the latest Snow Leopard. No change. Then I upgrade to Lion via the App Store. Upon reboot, I get the Kernl error I had seen before and my cursor's been pinwheeling since before I began to type this on my iPhone.

I wish I had known all of this would have happened 2-3 months ago when I began this process. My next step is to crack the shell back open and reinstall the original HD. I'll just use the SSHD as an external drive.

I'm sorry I couldn't provide anything to help you get this working. But knowing that it WON'T WORK might prevent you from throwing it out the window or at the dog.

"I also see the Apple logo switch back and forth between it and the circle slash icon that looks like the Ghostbusters logo without the ghost."

To clarify, this is what happens on startup

Can you tell me more about what this is and how to do it? I just swapped my original HD for the SSHD, but I'd still like to get this thing to work. Thanks

Oh well I guess there's something else going on then. Thanks anyway.

seanfrommobile,

Did you ever figure out what was going on? It looks like I'm have the same problem with my macbook 13-inch 2011 with the seagate 1tb sshd.

No I'm still just using it as an external backup drive.

I'm having the exact same problem. Cloned the drive and will not boot up. I just get the question mark. When i install the original drive, computer boots up just fine.

The OP is correct, you need to partition your new drive using GPT in order to solve your problem. This can be done using Disk Utility. You cannot boot any Intel Mac using a drive that does not have a GUID Partition Table. I just purchased this drive for my elderly Macbook 4,1 and it works great, no problems.

you dont have to partition anything when making a boot clone.

Just format it, then clone internal to target (external), ....then install. 😊

You do need to create a GUID Partition Table if you want to boot from this drive--the bare drive I received yesterday did not come with that (Intel-Mac standard) partition map scheme in place. This can be easily done using the 'Partition' tab of Disk Utility (click 'Options' select GPT).

For what it's worth, after the fact...

I have a late-2008 MBP running 10.6.8. I had replaced the original HD with a Seagate Momentus 750 GB hybrid and was fairly well satisfied with that; boot times were generally pretty good, though it seemed I had to endure the occasional beachball, freeze, etc. I put those down to a couple of PPC apps I'm still running. Then I discovered the Seagate 1 TB hybrid would fit physically with its 9.5 mm height, and jumped at that - always looking for more space, as my MBP is literally my home/travel office. (I was willing to trade the speed loss of a 5400 rpm drive for the speed gain of the SSD part of it.) The minute I installed it, I started having all the glitches mentioned by many in this thread - mostly long spinning beachball pauses, a couple of freezes, etc. I finally, after reading up as much as I could stand, decided to try a purely traditional spinning-disk HD again and found the 1 TB Travelstar by HGST. Plain and simple, and it spins at 7200 rpm. I put that in, and for the past 24 hours the MBP has been running like a champ, nary a beachball in sight. I have no solid idea why the Seagate SSHD hybrid(s) hiccup they way they did, but I'm sticking with ol' tried and true.

I am expecting to receive my Seagate SSHD tomorrow, along with 16 GB Ram upgrade from amazon. I found this link, which details the install and software cloning. Mid 2012 MBP 13". Hopefully it works, I have not found a similar explanation or instructions during my search:

http://blog.laptopmag.com/how-to-replace-your-macbook-pros-hard-drive-with-an-ss d

I will re-post how it went in a few days for anyone interested.

Success! To boot into recovery mode (I have Mavricks), hold down Command-R (not the Option key). After you install Mac OS, you have the option to restore via a Time Machine backup, which I did. After complete I rebooted and held down the Option key to boot from the external containing the new drive and it worked like a charm. I then swapped out the hard drives. Works great. Also upgraded the RAM to 16 GB. One difference from the directions in the link, I didn't have the option verify disk permissions, or to repair disk permissions (option was greyed out). But I did verify disk and repair disk.

Overall extremely pleased. I hope this helps.