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

[Gabriel James]

Hi All,

I replaced the stock drive in my mid 2009 Macbook Pro with a Momentus XT 750 GB (ST75LX003 / FWSM12) and have been having problems with partitioning and copying operating system files. The system is intermittently locking and reporting file copy errors. Unable to complete OSX installation for both Leopard and Lion.

Will contact retailer this morning and request replacement drive.

Welcome any support suggestions / comments?

Regards,

Gabriel

[WiseDrive]

Check for loose / bad connectors / ribbon cable, etc.

Place drive in a top of the line (USB 3.0 is a good proxy) late model external casing, if it works... then you know your problem is something else.

[Gabriel James]

Hi All,

The Seagate Momentus XT 750 tested faulty, received the replacement yesterday, started the OSX installation and the same problem is occurring!

I tested the replacement Seagate XT 750 using my Seagate GoFlex USB3.0 controller and the drive seems to be functioning normally for partitioning, formatting and data transfers.

Looking through the Apple Support Communities, there seem to be quite a few references to SATA 1.5 / 3.0 / 6.0 compatibility issues.

My MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.53GHz, Mid 2009, using a NVidia MCP79 AHCI SATA controller, link speed 3 Gb, negotiated link speed 1.5 Gb for both the drives; 250 GB (ST9250315ASG) and DVDRW (GS23N).

Questions:

Will the Seagate XT 750 GB will automatically negotiate to 1.5 Gb?

Can the drive can be jumpered to force 1.5 / 3.0 Gb?

Is there a firmware update for the Seagate XT 750 GB  (SM12)?

The SATA ribbon cable inside the MacBook Pro looks okay and would be very surpassed if that was the cause of the problem.

Please any help or suggestions?

[WiseDrive]

---

Gabriel James wrote:

Hi All,

The Seagate Momentus XT 750 tested faulty, received the replacement yesterday, started the OSX installation and the same problem is occurring!

That suggest that it is not the 750, but your machine.

I tested the replacement Seagate XT 750 using my Seagate GoFlex USB3.0 controller and the drive seems to be functioning normally for partitioning, formatting and data transfers.

How was the USB 3.0 powered? Its own power supply?

Looking through the Apple Support Communities, there seem to be quite a few references to SATA 1.5 / 3.0 / 6.0 compatibility issues.

Seriously don't think that is the issue --- it souds like a power issue.

My MacBook Pro, 15-inch, 2.53GHz, Mid 2009, using a NVidia MCP79 AHCI SATA controller, link speed 3 Gb, negotiated link speed 1.5 Gb for both the drives; 250 GB (ST9250315ASG) and DVDRW (GS23N).

Questions:

Will the Seagate XT 750 GB will automatically negotiate to 1.5 Gb?  

Yes

Can the drive can be jumpered to force 1.5 / 3.0 Gb?

Not that I know of, it is automatic.

Is there a firmware update for the Seagate XT 750 GB  (SM12)?

Not public.

The SATA ribbon cable inside the MacBook Pro looks okay and would be very surpassed if that was the cause of the problem.

Looks do not tell you its electrical properties.

If there is a way to rig up an external power supply to supplement it --- that would be the REAL test.

Please any help or suggestions?

---

If you are the hardware kind of guy, rig up a T tap on the SATA ribbon cable connector --- then add your own +5v power supply to the cable to supplement the connection.

Or remove the ribbon cable and substitute a known good regular ribbon cable (not the thin stuff) that is ribbon only at the very end it needs to plug into the Mac

In any case.. good luck

[Gabriel James]

Thank you for your help and suggestions.

The drive seems to operate normally when connected externally to the MacBook with either: 

- FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Cable — USB 3.0

- FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Cable — FireWire 800

Both of these cables supply the power to drive through the USB or FireWire port.

It seems strange that the original Seagate 250 GB 5400 functions fine on the internal SATA II controller, but the Seagate XT 750 GB 7200 will not operate correctly.  

Would have thought the Seagate XT 750 GB would not be recognised if there was insufficient power being supplied from SATA II controller? 

Looked at the layout in the MacBook and it seems to have a proprietary connector for the SATA II controller. The thin ribbon cable looks like it then splits from the controller to the dvd and hard drive. Not sure how easy it would be bypass this cable with a standard SATA III cable. Have only limited access to spare parts and not sure can easily setup the test you suggested. 

Have an old HP nx6320 laptop which was previously upgarded from the original Seagate 80 GB 5400 SATA I to a Seagate 320 GB 7200 SATA II without any problem.

Will test the Seagate 320 GB 7200 in the MacBook to see if the SATA II controller and cable will support the faster 7200 spindle speed. Hopefully, that will go some way to determining if it is a power supply issue.

Welcome any other suggestions.

[WiseDrive]

---

Gabriel James wrote:

Thank you for your help and suggestions.

The drive seems to operate normally when connected externally to the MacBook with either: 

- FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Cable — USB 3.0

- FreeAgent GoFlex Upgrade Cable — FireWire 800

Both of these cables supply the power to drive through the USB or FireWire port.

The XT 750 is power hungry enough to overload a single USB.

It seems strange that the original Seagate 250 GB 5400 functions fine on the internal SATA II controller, but the Seagate XT 750 GB 7200 will not operate correctly.  

That almost narrow the issue down to power and SATA compatibility (speed etc.) and power management.

Would have thought the Seagate XT 750 GB would not be recognised if there was insufficient power being supplied from SATA II controller? 

Not necessarily.

I once replicated a common failure (very slow read, freezing, etc.) by partially pulling out the drive from the connector in my dual drive machine.

All it took to get it working perfect was reseating the drive properly, and rebooting.

In my case, that was a combo of both bad power and data connection.. but the ECC was so good the drive ... however freezing etc... worked!   Just not to spec.

Looked at the layout in the MacBook and it seems to have a proprietary connector for the SATA II controller. The thin ribbon cable looks like it then splits from the controller to the dvd and hard drive. Not sure how easy it would be bypass this cable with a standard SATA III cable. Have only limited access to spare parts and not sure can easily setup the test you suggested. 

Beg, borrow or steal a spare ribbon cable and see if it makes any difference.

Those cables are real fragile... so are the connectors.

Have an old HP nx6320 laptop which was previously upgarded from the original Seagate 80 GB 5400 SATA I to a Seagate 320 GB 7200 SATA II without any problem.

You risk another problem --- the SATA is suppose to downward negotiate.. but the 750 can be so fast it would flood the older SATA... plus power incompat.. plus BIOS may not recognize that drive capacity.

Will test the Seagate 320 GB 7200 in the MacBook to see if the SATA II controller and cable will support the faster 7200 spindle speed. Hopefully, that will go some way to determining if it is a power supply issue.

Welcome any other suggestions.

---

Good luck!

[Gabriel James]

The Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB (0.7 A) appeared to operate normally when internally connected in my old HP nx6320 laptop, but will not reliably operate in my MacBook Pro.

I do not have access to spare parts needed to try and determine if it is an internal SATA cable problem in the MacBook.  Not prepared to purchase a cable just for diagnostic purposes.

It would be useful if there was a Seagate Diagnostic Utility that would test the power supply to determine if that was the issue, and / or an error log on the Seagate hybrid hard drive where these sorts of events are reported. 

I am dissapointed with Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB and are going to return the hard drive as not compatible with my MacBook.

I will purchase a Seagate ST9750423AS Barracuda 5400 SATA 3Gb/s 750GB hard drive which should not have any of the firmaware or power issues that are clearly associated with the Seagate Momentus XT 750 GB.This will be a big step down in performance, but I need the capacity and reliability.

Thank you for your help suggestions.      

[jeffbo]

I've had the same issues trying to install the 750GB into my MBP. If I install the OS and migrate my user over with the new drive connected via powered USB, it functions fine. But as soon as I then swap the old drive out and install the new one, my computer freezes up after a couple minutes and has to be powered down by holding the power button. If I try to install the OS from a boot disk with the 750GB already installed in my machine, I get an error immediately saying the installation failed. Try again.

It's like my Macbook Pro can't produce enough power to allow the drive to run properly internally. Which is strange, since a coworker has the exact same system with the same specs as me and had no issues whatsoever with his Momentus XT 750GB. Works like a charm.

I'm at a loss...

[WiseDrive]

Check for a bad cable / connector / contacts.

[queenfan]

The only way the Momentus XT will work in a MacBook Pro 2.53GHz (mid 2009) is downgrading EFI form 1.7 to 1.6, i have a momentus XT in my MacBook pro (also a mid 2009 2.53GHz) and after downgrading teh EFI version everything works perfect.

More info: http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=13915069&postcount=708