2nd Internal Drive Doesn't Mount

Question

2nd Internal Drive Doesn't Mount

Hello.

I own an early 2011 MacBook Pro where I've installed a 500GB Samsung SSD in the primary hard drive slot, and a 1TB HGST drive in place of the optical disk drive, which has been working wonderfully for my needs.

However, I recently had to send in my mac for a repair (after replacing all the original parts of course) and now I'm finding it impossible to get my second drive to mount after installing it in the optical disk drive bay. Here's what Disk Utility looks like after attempting to verify the disk:

The drive is recognized in Disk Utility, but the 2 partitions on the drive will not mount. When starting my mac holding alt, the partitions do appear, however, with the correct names, but cannot be booted into (prohibitory sign appears). I have successfully mounted the drive via USB, so I know nothing's wrong with it. I've also tried installing other hard drives, and none are recognized. Finally, the internal optical disk drive will read CDs, DVDs, and boot the OSX install disk, so I assume that the SATA connection is working fine.

During the repair, Apple replaced the Logic board, display, and bottom case.

I have 3 theories:

1. The new logic board has a faulty SATA port such that the optical disk drive will function, but a hard drive will not.

2. The new logic board is somehow wired to not accept a second hard drive specifically.

3. The hard drive caddy I'm using is damaged.

Does anyone have any experience with this issue or can offer any suggestions?

MacBook Pro (15-inch Early 2011), OS X Mavericks (10.9.2), 2.2 Ghz Intel Core i7

Posted on Jun 14, 2014 7:01 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 23, 2017 11:54 PM in response to friendly_flame

I had the same issue, i owned 2 macbook pros (2011 and 2012) 2011 has a UNIVERSAL HDD Caddy with a 1tb toshiba hdd inside, while the 2012 has a "DESIGNED for Mac" HDD Caddy with a samsung 1tb hdd.

now, my 2011 MBP works just fine, i reformated my 2nd hdd as eXfat format, then i decided to go to HFS+ and all worked fine.

I did the same to my 2012 MBP and none of the process imade to my 2011 worked to the 2012. I thought my HDD is broken so i bought an enclosure. After installed, i plugged it in to my macs and it worked on all formats. I tried in a windows laptop too and it worked too. After series of trials i found out that the "DESIGNED for Mac" HDD Caddy doesnt support HFS+ and eXfat formarts, only NTFs. So i bought a universal caddy and it worked!

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Answer 2

Jun 19, 2014 11:48 AM in response to friendly_flame

Hey it's me again.

I ordered and installed a new hard drive caddy, but the problem persists. I also ran the apple Hardware Test, which came back with no problems. I don't know what to do beyond going to the Apple Store and admitting to breaking warranty. Does anyone have any ideas?

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Answer 3

Jul 20, 2014 10:43 PM in response to friendly_flame

bump

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Answer 4

Jul 21, 2014 1:15 AM in response to friendly_flame

Hi,

Try initially:

Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

and : About NVRAM and PRAM

after rechecking internally for firm connections and no proximity issues with the caddy.

Reboot to working Startup Disk and check within System Information : Apple menu + hold Option key -> System Information -> Hardware that the drive information and partitions are correct.

If the problem persists, try : Using Apple Hardware Test

Not sure whether AHT will detect the cradle correctly but worth a check.

See how you go, Cheers

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Answer 5

Jul 26, 2014 2:08 PM in response to dwbrecovery

I reset my SCM and PRAM, but I'm still having the same problem.

When I opened System Information >> Hardware >> SATA/SATA Express, the main window only shows:

"The plug-in did not respond quickly enough while gathering this information."

after about 5 minutes of attempting to load the information.

I then opened my console and saw these lines:

7/26/14 2:14:09.968 PM System Information[329]: Terminating '/usr/sbin/system_profiler -nospawn -xml SPSerialATADataType -detailLevel full' because it did not respond.

7/26/14 2:17:35.706 PM System Information[329]: Non-zero termination status from '/usr/sbin/system_profiler -nospawn -xml SPSerialATADataType -detailLevel full', termination status: 15

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Answer 6

Jul 26, 2014 4:45 PM in response to friendly_flame

I restarted System Information and it was able to load:

HGST HTS721010A9E630:

Capacity: 1 TB (1,000,204,886,016 bytes)

Model: HGST HTS721010A9E630

Revision: JB0OA3J0

Serial Number: JR10006PH0Z7ZF

Native Command Queuing: Yes

Queue Depth: 32

Removable Media: No

Detachable Drive: No

BSD Name: disk1

Rotational Rate: 7200

Medium Type: Rotational

Partition Map Type: MBR (Master Boot Record)

S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported

Volumes:

disk1s1:

Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,735,168 bytes)

BSD Name: disk1s1

Content: 0xEE

disk1s2:

Capacity: 799.35 GB (799,345,127,424 bytes)

File System: HFS+

BSD Name: disk1s2

Content: Apple_HFS

disk1s3:

Capacity: 650 MB (650,002,432 bytes)

BSD Name: disk1s3

Content: Apple_Boot

disk1s4:

Capacity: 200 GB (199,999,094,784 bytes)

File System: ExFAT

BSD Name: disk1s4

Content: Windows_NTFS

Looks about right to me. Mountain Lion on one partition, Windows XP on another.

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Answer 7

Jul 26, 2014 5:08 PM in response to friendly_flame

You didn't happen to use Windows Utilities to re-size the Windows partition did you? Or use Windows to modify the partition Map in any way?

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Answer 8

Jul 26, 2014 5:27 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

No. The drive works perfectly fine when mounted via USB. It's only when I attach it internally via SATA that it won't mount.

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Answer 9

Jul 26, 2014 6:15 PM in response to friendly_flame

Your suggestion that the drive works perfectly in an enclosure reminds me...

There have been anecdotes about bad SATA cables, but they referred to the cables to the regular drive. I suppose it is possible to have a bad cable to the optical drive bay.

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Answer 10

Jul 26, 2014 6:37 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

That would be my guess, too, although the optical disk drive operates normally when attached to the SATA bay.

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Answer 11

Jul 26, 2014 9:52 PM in response to friendly_flame

- System Information wasn't able to report the Volume names, similar to Disk Utility ( assuming that connected to USB Volume names appear )

- The report indicates SMART status not supported, but it should with an internal connection to SATA. ( based on getting SMART status on SATA drives on the internal SATA optical bays of a Mac Pro )

So agree, appears to be the SATA cable

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Answer 12

Jul 27, 2014 8:14 AM in response to dwbrecovery

Is there any way of catching this hardware problem while the original hardware is installed? Otherwise I don't think Apple will replace the part. The optical disk drive seems to be working fine when it's installed.

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Answer 13

Jul 27, 2014 8:32 AM in response to friendly_flame

I expect you will have to buy a used one and try it yourself. This is not exactly a defect in original materials and workmanship if it works OK for its originally-intended purpose.

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Answer 14

Jul 27, 2014 8:28 PM in response to friendly_flame

- The machine would have had a few diagnostics run after its repair and before it was picked up.

- The SATA connector for the optical bay is available from ifixit. It may be worth trying.

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Answer 15

Jul 30, 2014 5:19 PM in response to dwbrecovery

I ordered the SATA cable and installed it, but there's no change. My disk still isn't mounting. So it must be a faulty logic board right?

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