8,2 Macbook Pro - Second bay HDD

8,3 Macbook Pro - Second bay HDD

Hey guys,


I was having quite a bit of trouble with my 8,3 macbook after installing Mountain Lion. I'll start from the beginning:


(Primer link on unstability of 6.0 gbps sata port)
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDAMBS0GB/#comp_notes


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Initial HW Config
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Macbook 8,3
128GB SSD (Primary Bay)
500GB 7200 rpm HDD (Optical Bay)
OS - Snow Leopard






I upgraded from snow leopard to Mountain Lion and updated EFI firmware - 500GB drive no longer readable - but it is seen by disk util. Attempted various repair utilities - believe it's a legit failed HDD. (Still need to test failed drive in PC)


I attempted to install a replacement drive WD Black at 6.0gbps as well as 3.0gbps and neither worked. Oddly, if I installed the original Hitachi drive, it still sees the model connected to the SATA bus just can't do anything with it.


In order for the machine to recognize the WD drives, I had to put in the hitachi, shut down, install the WD, bring back up and it would recognize. After I shut down again, doesn't see a device attached to that SATA bus.


After going through the WD spindle drives, I even ordered a drive from OWC with modified 3.0gbps firmware that should have worked with my configuration. Same result.


Since I have just purchased a crucial m500 480GB SSD and installed mountain lion on there only to have it perform worse than on Snow Leopard. Boot times are ~5-7x longer than snow leopard on a faster SSD than the stock apple Toshiba SSD.


WTF is up with this?


Questions to you guys -
- Could the EFI firmware update cause the second SATA controller to **** the bed?
- Does anyone know what EFI firmware/have a copy of it to restore my computer to original FW?
- Is Mountain Lion really that much worse boot speed wise than Snow Leopard or is there a host of tweaks to get it back to proper performance?


Sorry for the crazy long post and thanks in advance for any help!

Have you tried resetting the PRAM? (Hold the command, P and R keys during the chime, do not let go until the machine restarts 3 times.

that usually makes macs see newly installed drives / able to access them if they don't show up.

And yes absolutely the Firmware update could have taken out the chipset if not successfully done. I would also try checking the multibay and connections, with the amount of times you've swapped drives something might have gone bad physically.

just my 1.5 cents..

Kermit1219