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Unibody MacBook Pro models with 13" displays produced from 2009-2012.

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MacBook Pro will only recognize one specific internal hard drive

I'm working on a friend's MacBook Pro that would start to a flashing folder with a question mark. The directory was out of whack, so I repaired that. Then found out the hard drive is physically failing, so I cloned everything over to a new drive. I still had problems with drives being recognized internally, so I replaced the hard drive flex cable. Still no go.

Here's the situation I'm facing at the moment:

  • I have four bootable hard drives to play with: the old and new drives that belong to this computer and two of my own.
  • All four of the drives boot via USB.
  • Only one of the drives (one of my own) is recognized when installed internally (Disk Utility doesn't see the others). That drive works consistently. The others aren't recognized at all.
  • I've tested three of the drives in another computer (installed internally) and they all work fine. I didn't bother to test the one that's failing.
  • Internal hard drives are getting power.

The drive that works has Sierra installed on it. The others have Mavericks or Yosemite. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that shouldn't be an issue, especially considering Disk Utility won't even see the other drives.

The new hard drive cable could be a dud, but then why would one drive work consistently? The only other thing I can think of is a bad logic board. But again, why would one drive work consistently?

Answer this question I have this problem too

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2 Answers

A flashing folder with a question mark does not indicate any issue with the Logic board, so you're clear on that. If the disk is physically failing you cannot use the disk as a startup disk. Use Smart Utility to check the health, don't forget to install the SAT smart driver.

1: In my experience "Repairing" a directory never really helps, it's only good for a data transfer to a healthly disk. You need to clean install the OS, then manually transfer the data over to the new OS/drive. You will loose the apps but reinstate iCloud to download any apps purchased on App store.

2: Where did you get the replacement HDD cable? If it's used it may not be good. You may need to replace it with a new one. You can get them on Amazon for cheap.

3: It could be a combination of 1 & 2. Don't forget to reset the SMC every time you switch out each drive, I've had a few scenarios where an SMC triggered a flashing folder.

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Thanks for the comment. Apple's service manual does suggest replacing the logic board as a last step. If there's a problem with the HDD connector on the logic board, that can cause the computer to not find a bootable disk.

Repairing the directory did help in this case. It got the drive in good enough shape that I could keep it mounted long enough to clone it. I would have preferred to do a clean install, but didn't have that version of the OS available, and Apple wouldn't let me download it via the recovery partition. The user would prefer not to upgrade.

The HDD cable is new, through Amazon.

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Cool your cable should be good then. I would make an OS install disk of an older OS via Disk Maker X using a 16 GB flash drive. Once Installed and update transfer the data back to the source disk.

http://diskmakerx.com/

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Thanks for the resource. I didn't know about Disk Maker X before. I can give it a shot, but the part that makes me question if it will work, though, is that other disks with clean installs don't work either. It's not just that the OS isn't working, it's that the entire disk isn't recognized.

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No, sorry, I take that back. I looked at what Disk Maker X does, and it will help 0% in this case. As my earlier comment states, I can't download the original OS from the through the recovery partition (meaning I can't get it through the App store, either), which Disk Maker X needs to create an install drive. Also, it's really easy to create an install drive without third party software, so I wouldn't need Disk Maker X in the first place.

I know you're trying to help, and I appreciate that, but the suggestions sound like you aren't reading closely. I can't do a clean install of the original OS because A) no original OS and B) the computer won't even recognize the disk (not the volume; the disk) to do a clean install. And also, the cloned disk works just fine as a bootable volume, just not when installed internally in that computer. So "do a clean install" can't be the answer.

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Hi @doubleohkevin

Were your able to fix the issue?! Now I'm having the same problem and no idea how to fix it. Appreciate it if you can share your experience.

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I'm really sorry, I can't remember what became of that one. I think the solution ended up being "you should probably get a new computer," but I can't say for sure.

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Kevin Cull will be eternally grateful.
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