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

[GregNYR]

Hey guys,

I have a 15-inch, 2.53GHz, Mid 2009 MacBook Pro that I use with Momentus XT 750gb. As with everycase, it worked great for several weeks then the beach ball and freezing problems started. I've searched online for answers as well as here in this forum and it seams like there is information scattered all over the place.

My solutions that worked:

All I did was install a jumber into the momentus XT hard drive and after that I've had no more beach ball or freezing problems. Make sure you backup your drive before installing a jumber because I had to reformat my drive after doing that!!! This process also eliminates the SSD part and the drive works as a regular hard drive (FYI).

There are also other possible solutions that could work and have worked for other people accoriding to their postings on various forums.

A. Downgrade the EFI firmware version from 1.7 --> 1.6. This seamed to helped a lot of people with their momentux xt problems.

Steps found here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=8416559&postcount=323

File found here: http://hotfile.com/dl/109001076/5dfaf39/aluminum.macbook.pro.recovery.dmg.html

If you get this error

"Image Error:

Could not find any scan information. The source image needs to be imagescanned before it can be restored." 

Click on the image file in the list on the left and then click on Image in the menu and then on Scan Image for Restore. After that, everything should go smoothly.

B. Replace the HDD data cable with a cable from a newer model such as 2010 or 2011 i7 HDD data cable. This seams to eliminate the EFI 1.7 problem and allows for the SSD speed to work on older MBP models.

I personaly have not tried downgrading or replacing the hdd cable but I will try to change the cable and see if it works once I get a new MBP (with retina display hopefuly) and give my 2009 MBP to my parents for use. I will be formating my MBP so this would prob be a good time to test out the HDD problems.

Good luck to all and hope this helps.

Please let me know if any of these solutions work for you!

Thanks, GregNYR

[lifespring]

Thank you! Thank you! for this information. I too was having beachballs and freezes after installing a Momentus 750 in my mid-1999 MacBook Pro. Your suggestion to retrograde the firmware worked after many hours lost trying to determine what in the world was going on! I had also upgraded memory at the same time and thought that might be the cause. So far, the system is stable under EFI 1.6. I'm also looking for a newer SATA cable for my MacBook, but they're hard to come by, and expensive as well. I very much appreciate your very clear and concise post. It helped me tremendously.

[WiseDrive]

Well done! Hey Seagate --- put this into the solutions folder.

[GregNYR]

I'm glad it worked for you. I still didn't get a new mac so I can't try the cable option yet. If anyone tries it please post your results.

Still no problems on my end with the drive yet!