Backup successful - unable to boot

[dnanian]

I have to say it's a pretty unusual problem - just not something I've heard of before. It really should boot either way! If anything it's much harder for it to boot externally than internally...

[kahmedsid]

I can't agree with you more, Dave. This is exactly why we're pretty

I think I am going to get the laptop replaced and if the drive fails on the new one too, we'll probably blame the Hitachi Travelstar 320 GB 7200 RPM disk.

[dnanian]

But the drive did work when you just installed Snow Leopard to it, no? So... I just don't get it.

[kahmedsid]

The drive when placed inside the computer acts weird in many ways:
- does not let disk utility erase/partition it (hangs and sometimes errors)
- does not let the OS-X installer install to it (hangs after a minute)
- does not boot up even if it has a fresh copy of OS-X

The same drive when placed outside using USB or Firewire does everything normally.

[dnanian]

Interesting. OK - yeah, sounds like a drive issue. Very weird!

[kahmedsid]

I did get a laptop replacement and after putting in the Hitachi Travelstar 320GB 7200RPM drive in it, the same behavior was observed. I have concluded that the problem is with the drive when placed internally on the Macbook Pro.

The same drive works just fine with the Black Macbook which I am upgrading from.

Dave, thanks for your help!

[dnanian]

It doesn't surprise me that the replacement MBP showed the same behavior - that was a bit of a hail mary pass on the part of the AppleCare guy. Very strange that the drive seems incompatible, though! Maybe it's just that one sample?