Is Hitachi TravelStar 5K1000 1TB compatible with 13" Macbook Pro Unibody 2010

This Toshiba drive that you mentioned, does it come in 1TB?

...and can you confirm. Will the Toshiba be compatible with the macbook Pro Sudden Motion Sensor?

Thank you for your help.

So... to follow up.

It was the hard drive cable. My original hard drive (WD Scorpio Blue 1TB) was producing the 'folder with question mark on startup', which I presumed meant dead hard drive. After installing the TravelStar and not getting the 'folder with question mark', I wrongly deduced that this meant the other hard drive had failed. The TravelStar was producing a number of strange, inconsistent errors, but what was happening was that the (broken) hard drive cable was still able to communicate with the TravelStar to some degree, but not enough for it to function properly

I inserted the original Scorpio Blue into my optibay (which I forgot I had installed some time ago) and was able to boot up, no problems, with all my data intact. I was then able to back it up to the TravelStar (which I had placed in an external USB caddy). I am now running my computer off the TravelStar, which is in the optibay, and am routinely backing it up to the Scorpio Blue (in the USB caddy) with Time Machine.

Not an ideal setup, but I have a new hard drive cable coming in the post and will restore it to regular function soon enough.

Confusing much?

Thank you everybody for your help.

I have installed a new SATA cable and returned the TravelStar to the hard drive slot. Everything is working ok.

The only thing I have noticed is, I cannot hear the Sudden Motion Sensor engaging when I move the computer, does this mean the hard drive is not compatible with the Sudden Motion Sensor, or is it engaging silently? Is there any way to test or confirm this? I recall with the original Hitachi/Toshiba drives that come with the MBP, there was a distinct metallic sound that occurred every time you move or vibrate the computer, which I came to associate with the Sudden Motion Sensor.

Interesting.

Do you have the drive that originally came with your Macbook Pro? or have you replaced it like myself?

The sound that I recall was definately supposed to occur, at least on the '10 models, it also occurred on my girlfriend's computer.

SSD would imply you have a much newer model macbook than myself... this might explain the lack of sound associated with the SMS.

A couple of other observations...

Just before (thanks to the L-shaped magsafe connector 😠), my computer flew off my kitchen table and cartwheeled across the floor. The new hard drive was installed at that point, and hasn't failed, nor is making any sort of noise after the fall, so that's a +1 in favour of both the TravelStar and the Macbook.

I also that while I was running the computer off the hard drive while it was in the optibay, it didn't communicate well with the battery, I rarely recieved low battery warnings when I was supposed to, and the computer usually powered off long before it said it should (often around the 10-15% mark), which often took me by surprise and caused me to lose everything I was working on.

I have also just found that the battery was an isolated issue, it just reached the end of its life and needs replacing. This just happened to coincide with the other issues I mentioned.