Momentus XT, Momentus, Momentus Thin, MobileMax, and other notebook drives

[bguaitanele]

There is some solution to this problem already? 

I've bought a momentus XT 750gb and tried to install on my macbook pro early-2011, but my mac dont recognize the HD on the boot screen . I've tried all the things on this topic (clean install, carbon copy) but my problem was the same of the others. It works well when connect throught the usb, but it's dead when plugged directly on the mac.

I want to know if someone has already found a solution, or if the seagate released a firmware fixing this problem?

Thanks.

[Protagonist0]

I finally got my Momentus XT working. I sent it back to New Egg a second time, and they finally sent me a drive that works. Looks like it was defective the whole time.

Thanks!

[bguaitanele]

I finally solve my problem. Actually was pretty simple and wasn't hw problem at all. I simply made a mountain lion bootable usb and runned this pendrive. I used the disk utility, where i saw that my HD was umounted. I mounted and formatted. After that was just install the OS.

[Hokyfan]

Good suggestion. Booted from install - mounted drive - now works. Have to see what happens in long run.

[rajmataj]

I went through the exact same thing you did and finally found a solution that worked. It was not about a 'bad' drive, underpowered ribbon cable, etc. Read through the steps I took and hopefully it will help some other soul out there.

[codefish4]

... or your adapter is creating the issue. Bet that's it.

[augiealexander]

Hi All, 

I have a success story, and then an unsuccessful story. First the success. 

I just bought a refurb late 2011 Macbook Pro from a guy on ebay (apple4you) who souped it up with a the Momentus XT 750GB 7200. And he also installed a regular old 1TB 5400 drive where the superdrive used to be. I asked him to downgrade it to Snow Leopard. I use a ton of software and everything worked perfectly on my late 2010 MacBook Pro under snow leopard, so I didn't want any hassels. In fact, I discovered this modification because I bought a brand new 2013 MacBook pro, and it wouldn't boot the external Snow Leopard clone I set up for what I thought would be a seemless hardware upgrade, so I sent it back to Apple and bought the refurb. 

So the Late 2011 Macbook Pro with the Momentus XT boots up lightening fast. I've never seen such a speedy boot, ever. It's noticible faster then my old Late 2010 MacBook Pro which has a 500GB 7200 drive in it. My new refurb machine also has 16GB of RAM and my old has 8GB. That should be noted and likely helps performance. I've had it for a month, and no problems to speak of. 

Now for the not so successful story. I was kicking myself because the 5400RPM drive in the optical port is clearly not as fast as when I was working on an external 7200 Lacie Rugged. The last thing I wanted to do was open up my new macbook and start fiddleing with stuff, although I am good with things like that, it's just not worth the risk to me. But I did it anyway, and I was glad I did. I didn't think it was that difficult to swap out the optical drive. Just a little unfamiliar at first. 

However, my excitment soon wore off when I booted up the Macbook and tried to format the new 750XT in the optical port. It came up in the Disk Utility, but then after watching a spinning gear for 10 minutes, it finally said it couldn't unmount it. I then switched into troubleshooting mode swaping out the little cable and trying all sorts of things. the 750XT worked just fine when put in a Glyph enclosure. And when I reinstalled the original 5400RPM drive back in the optical port, everything is just as it was before I set out on this mission. So, So, So weird. I don't have any knowledge of programming code or the hardware, I just know how to follow instructions, and how to troubleshoot by trying to isolate the problem. I realy have no idea here. I'm totally bummed. I lost the better part of a day trying to make it work, and now I'm just left with this drive that I now have no use for. I'm very thankful that I was able to revert to the configuration that the independent contractor set up for me. Although, in theory, I was hoping that this would eliminate me having to lug around an external 7200 drive all the time. Logic, FCP7, and Pro-Tools all work best for me when the projects are on a seperate Hard Drive, and the app is running off the boot drive. In a sense, now I'm out the optical drive, and I still have to lug around an external. But the 750XT in the boot position is still a godsend. I hope it lasts.