Upgrading HDD on 13" MBP (2009)

Hello, everyone.

There are 3 hard drives. For easy reference, let me list them here:-
S - Seagate Momentus 160G pre-installed
H - Hitachi External Drive
W - Western Digital WD3200BEVT (the disk I intend to install)

Problem:
Disk S of my MBP (late 2009) was dead, and I installed Snow Leopard onto H. Transfer of data from S to H was successful, and I bought a new disk, W, in an attempt to install it and use it as the main drive.

However, when I boot to CD installer, W cannot be detected. Booting from H, W cannot be found in both Disk Utility and System Profiler. However, the drive works properly when I put it into a Windows desktop. I am sure that the cables are connected properly.

I formatted W once in Windows (to ensure that there is nothing in W to affect the installation). It was sure that the drive is partitioned by GUID mode. Still, W is not detected.

I read some information from the Internet:
Apple - Support - Discussions - Installer can't find new hard drive ...
Apple - Support - Discussions - Firmware update and SATA II hard drive ...
Apple - Support - Discussions - Firmware update and SATA II hard drive ...

However, my problem is different from them:-
- I don't have another mac on hand
- They can find the hard disk in System Profiler, but I couldn't

Does anyone have an idea in how to get it working? Thanks.

Sounds like you need to reformat the disck for Mac in disk utility.

osxx said:

Sounds like you need to reformat the disck for Mac in disk utility.

Click to expand...

Tried. Still the same

volumes suentems

Sorry for bumping the post.

I persuaded the shop to let me exchange to a Hitachi Travelstar 500GB 5400rpm HDD. However the system still doesn't detect my hard drive. I found lots of information online that it is caused by the EFI 1.7 firmware update (which was pre-installed on my computer).

Downgrading it is still not effective in solving my problem.

I phoned Apple and they said it was not their problem, though they are willing (of course, because of the price!) to inspect it for HK$600 (around US$77). It is really disappointing.

I should have re-considered it before I get another Apple product in the future. This Macbook Pro always overheated and I had sent it to service 3 times in the first year! I cannot imagine that Apple products can be that unreliable.

Two new hard drives not being detected leads me to believe you have a bad hard drive cable or connector. Another possibility is that the insulators along the side of the hard disk cavity are out of place. That prevents the drive from fitting to the connector.

Most of the time these problems are user caused by improperly removing and replacing the drive. I'm not saying that's what you did, I'm merely pointing out what the causes are from a history of the same problem you're experiencing.