MacBook Pro Won't Boot - Hard drive issues

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Jan 24, 2008
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Macbook Pro 13", 4gb, 500gb, 2.26 Duo. White iPhone 5, White iPad Mini 32gb
Hello,

Just wondering if anyone can help me with a problem I'm having with my 2010 13" MacBook Pro.

The mac started to become slow and sluggish on Friday taking ages to load software and wouldn't allow Firefox to open as it thought it was already open, which it was not! I just thought it was having a blip.

Then on Saturday morning I turned it in and the mac would display a grey progress bar then shut down and repeat the process. After some digging on the Internet the problem seemed to sit with the hard drive. So I swapped it out for a spare one which I had kicking about and installed a fresh copy of lion on it and ordered a new one to replace it. After that it worked perfectly fine until I turned it off. Once I switched it back on it then would just show the apple icon and the spinning animation. It just sticks on the screen.

I then tried to reinstall lion on the hard drive but now it comes up saying it can't unmount it when I try to format it. Therefore the drive is bricked like the previous one?

So i am wondering whether something else in the mac is affecting the hard drives. I don't want to put in my new one when it arrives through fear of it breaking another drive.

Has anyone else had this issue? Thought I would ask before I take it to apple as my nearest store is 40 miles away.

Thanks,

Steve
 
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If the disk will not unmount, are you booting from a DVD or another disk when trying to format it
 
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Macbook Pro 13", 4gb, 500gb, 2.26 Duo. White iPhone 5, White iPad Mini 32gb
Mac is being booted from a USB drive and won't unmount the hard drive through disk utility
 
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Macbook Pro 13", 4gb, 500gb, 2.26 Duo. White iPhone 5, White iPad Mini 32gb
Just thought I would post a quick update for those who may come across this via a search.

Turned out to be the cable from the hard drive to the logic board which explains why it was only recognised sometimes. Managed to pick one up from eBay for £20.
 

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