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Eug · Jul 11, 2008, 01:18 AM

I haven't had much luck with Mac notebooks lately. First my GF's iBook went bellyup, and now my MacBook won't boot. I get a folder with a ? in it... and a click-click-click of death.

I ran the Apple Hardware Test, but it doesn't detect anything wrong, even with the extended test. The OS X install disc boots up fine... but it doesn't detect any hard drive at all. Maybe that's why the hardware test didn't report anything wrong with the drive.

So, I'm assuming the drive is toast. It's some sort of Seagate 5400 rpm 80 GB drive. (The MacBook is the original CD 2.0.) Is there any other test I can run to confirm that?

If it's the drive, maybe I'll go pick up a 100 GB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive. Is there anything I need to know about the drives before I get one? Any particular recommendations? How about this one?

Hitachi Travelstar 100GB 2.5" SATA 7200rpm 16MB RoHS

AKcrab · Jul 11, 2008, 01:23 AM

That drive will do fine. Swapping them is a piece of cake.

When you get the seagate out and can see the model/serial we can see if it was a part of a batch of bad drives, just for giggles.

Eug · Jul 11, 2008, 01:34 AM

OK, I removed the drive, and I was wrong, it's not a Seagate.

It's a Fujitsu MHV2080BH PL 80 GB. Is this known to be a problematic drive?

Now I need to find a hex screwdriver that fits the screws for the drive holder.

EDIT:

Hmmm...

The Hitachi 7200 rpm seems to use far more power than the Fujitsu 5400 rpm. I wonder what length of time that means in terms of battery life.

slugslugslug · Jul 11, 2008, 10:14 AM

The screwdriver you need is a Torx T8.

mduell · Jul 11, 2008, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by Eug

The Hitachi 7200 rpm seems to use far more power than the Fujitsu 5400 rpm. I wonder what length of time that means in terms of battery life.

Approximately nothing; it may even improve battery life due to the higher performance.

Eug · Jul 12, 2008, 12:19 AM

OK, I'll get the Hitachi Travelstar then. It seems like it must be popular, cuz it's $20 more than most of the other ones of similar size.

I must have a Torx around somewhere...

Eug · Jul 12, 2008, 08:43 PM

Holy frack!

This drive is FAST. Definitely worth having the extra speed, even though it means less storage for the money.

Here's a review:

kentuckyfried · Jul 20, 2008, 04:39 AM

Originally Posted by Eug

I haven't had much luck with Mac notebooks lately. First my GF's iBook went bellyup, and now my MacBook won't boot. I get a folder with a ? in it... and a click-click-click of death.

I ran the Apple Hardware Test

Is the Apple Hard Test available on the retail disc for Leopard?

My macbook just died a horrible death too....well, maybe not death, but there's something seriously wrong. If I try to login, it takes me to the setup assistant, and after I complete the steps, it looks like its about to login, only it loops back to the setup assistant.... -_-

Trying to repair the permissions (some of which went bad) went OK, so did the hard drive check, but the problem still persists.

Simon · Jul 20, 2008, 04:43 AM

Originally Posted by kentuckyfried

Is the Apple Hard Test available on the retail disc for Leopard?

No it comes on the install DVD you get when you buy a Mac (boot holding d). I you don't have yours anymore just borrow one from somebody who has recently bought a Mac.

kentuckyfried · Jul 20, 2008, 05:40 AM

Thanks Simon...sorry for the dbl post. I'll give that a shot.

seanc · Jul 20, 2008, 09:10 AM

If you Google the setup assistant loop issue, you may find a fix for it. I've heard of it affecting some people after an installation of Leopard, it's strange that it suddenly decided to appear on you though.

kentuckyfried · Jul 20, 2008, 06:25 PM

Originally Posted by seanc

If you Google the setup assistant loop issue, you may find a fix for it. I've heard of it affecting some people after an installation of Leopard, it's strange that it suddenly decided to appear on you though.

I'm really can't make odds or ends up what happened...but the problem mysteriously fixed itself early this morning.

I was busy trying to boot off of the Leopard disc and perhaps see if I could at least get the Mac to start in Windows (yeah, I know, that's blasphemy but I wanted to at least be able to search the web with something). Anyhow, I chose the wrong start-up volume for that task and instead just ending up re-starting the mac. This time around, the system as it was re-booting wanted to do a bunch of system updates, so I let the laptop run its course.
Then my desktop re-appeared as normal.

The thing here is, I have no idea how the macbook detected and started queuing those system updates. Secondly, I didn't interrupt any in the preceding days leading up to Friday's debacle with the whole looping set-up assistant thing. So I am completely thankful and baffled as to what has happened.

I have a thread I'm going to start about a new mac...nicer to have two computers whenever money's available for redundancy reasons.