Did Apple introduce a white list of hard drives (for MacBook Pro A1278)?

I have here a very strange case...

I have a MacBook Pro 13" (A1278) from 2010. Inside it is a 1TB FireCuda SSHD (ST1000LX015) hybrid hard drive.

The MacBook was working perfectly until a recent system update.

Suddenly, the hard drive became totally undetected when within the MacBook: the system cannot boot and the hard drive is totally unvisible; it does not show when holding down the Alt key at start (just after powering the MacBook on).

However:

• The hard drive is physically in perfect condition, with all SMART values checked OK.

• The volume is in perfect condition. (checked with OS X disk utility)

• The partition table is in perfect condition (checked with the disk utility from another MacBook, with the drive in an external enclosure)

• The system loads perfectly if the hard drive is put in an external enclosure and the MacBook booted from there.

So, I first suspected the SATA cable (altough looked in perfect condition), but:

• Some hard drives with the Apple logo are detected.

• Other hard drives from all brands (Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, Hitachi), but with non-Apple firmware, are not detected. By "not detected" I mean that the drive is not listed when holding down the Alt button at start.

I tried several times to make sure that the problem was not coming from the cable.

The Apple Store told the problem was coming from the hard drive, but it is wrong as thus is in perfect condition.

Conclusion:

• I suspect some white list of hard drives was introduced at BIOS level by some upgrade of the system, possibly to attract customers into Apple stores.

• I don't know yet if there is a firmware white list or a hard drive model white list.

• I would like to hear if some of you experience similar cases.

• Apart from using Apple-branded hard drives, any solution to solve this issue is welcome.

Note: holding down Cmd + Alt + P + R did not solve anything.

Solution 1:

No, there is no white list of acceptable replacements for storage disks held in firmware.

Apple doesn't make their own drives. Hard drives are made for Apple by Toshiba and Seagate, and the supplied drives are not 'custom built': they just meet a certain spec.

I've replaced the hard drive on hundreds of Macs and never had a problem of this sort.

You say that the SATA cable "looked in perfect condition" and you "tried to make sure that the problem was not the cable". You can't tell by looking at it if the cable is faulty. What did you do to test the cable?

I would definitely try replacing the SATA cable, as they are a well-known point of failure on those models. The fact that the drive works externally but not internally would suggest that.

(Though to be honest, I would recommend getting a 1TB SSD, as this would significantly improve your Mac's speed.)

Solution 2:

• The problem was coming from the SATA cable. Replacing it solved the problem.
• The failure was difficult to diagnose because intermittent.
• Beware of the cable length. One MacBook Pro A1278 from other year could provide a similar compatible cable, but the cable length was different: ok for testing purposes, but not for a replacement.
• According to other posts, MacBook Pro from 2012 experience similar failures.