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Late 2011 model, A1278 / 2.4 GHz i5 or 2.8 GHz i7 processor.

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Disk utility will not see drive

Hi,

I have a 13" late 2011 MacBook Pro. It would boot to the flashing question mark so I thought I had a bad hard drive which I got. I installed it and my my install disk could not see the drive. Also disk utility could not see it. Did a little research and many people have had cables fail, got one and installed it and nada. The machine boots fine off of a USB enclosure with the original drive. Have reset pram too. Anything else I can do?

Thanks,

D

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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The only thing I can think of here is the replacement cable is also bad.

Apple's supplier had a bad run of cable assembles which Apple and other parts suppliers got. From what you state, there is little else here other than the cable.

The fact the original drive works externally proves the drive is OK and the systems logic is working from the USB port to the controller hub which is the same logic the SATA drive interface uses via a different set of lines to it. So that only leaves the logic board SATA/power connector and the connection to the controller hub chip as being bad. If that is the case you'll need to repair or replace the logic board.

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Is there any way to test the logic board STAT/power connector? I have run the apple hardware test several times and it comes back with nothing wrong.

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If you had a second like system you could swap parts around. But, you've already proved the HD is OK. So, the only thing here is to test the cable in the other system. Then if that works, that leaves the logic board connector and the pathway to the controller hub as suspect you really can't test the connector via software you would need to use an Ohm meter and trace out each line out (working from a schematic). I still think you got a bum cable and I would work it though that way.

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