I went through a similar issue with a Seagate Momentus 750GB HDD/8GB SSD with my late-2011 MBP. No matter what I tried, the machine would not recognize the drive.
To test it, I installed the drive in an old ThinkPad, and it worked fine. Then I tried installing it in my PS3, and the drive worked fine there, too. It was only the MBP which had issues.
I don't *think* Macs have a BIOS to update. But I know my MBP has issues with certain HDD's (including another external which works fine on other Macs and all Windows machines).
You might be able to find my thread by searching under my username, perhaps something in there will offer a tip. Otherwise, you might have to go the same route I did: install a WD Scorpio Black instead. Or upgrade to an SSD.
Good luck to you-