MacBook Pros get fixes for Bluetooth, hard drive noises
MacBook Pro owners can look forward to fewer bugs when using Apple’s wireless keyboard and mouse, as well as less noise coming from their hard drives, thanks to the latest updates from Apple. The company released Bluetooth Firmware Update 2.0.1 and Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0 Wednesday evening, and both should be available via Software Update for affected users.
The Bluetooth update provides “bug fixes and better compatibility with the Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse and Apple Wireless Keyboard.” This affects all Macs with Bluetooth based on the Broadcom chipset, so there isn’t one specific MacBook Pro model that this applies to.
The hard drive update, on the other hand, only applies to drives shipped with the June 2009 version of the MacBook Pro. These machines, equipped with 7200rpm drives, emitted “infrequent noises” that were not only alarming to users, but also somewhat annoying. The update aims to reduce those noises, allowing MacBook Pro owners to sleep better at night once again.
MacBook Pros get fixes for Bluetooth, hard drive noises
MacBook Pro owners can look forward to fewer bugs when using Apple’s wireless keyboard and mouse, as well as less noise coming from their hard drives, thanks to the latest updates from Apple. The company released Bluetooth Firmware Update 2.0.1 and Hard Drive Firmware Update 2.0 Wednesday evening, and both should be available via Software Update for affected users.
The Bluetooth update provides “bug fixes and better compatibility with the Apple Wireless Mighty Mouse and Apple Wireless Keyboard.” This affects all Macs with Bluetooth based on the Broadcom chipset, so there isn’t one specific MacBook Pro model that this applies to.
The hard drive update, on the other hand, only applies to drives shipped with the June 2009 version of the MacBook Pro. These machines, equipped with 7200rpm drives, emitted “infrequent noises” that were not only alarming to users, but also somewhat annoying. The update aims to reduce those noises, allowing MacBook Pro owners to sleep better at night once again.
Apple working on fix for unusual MacBook Pro drive issue
Unusual clicking and beeping sounds, followed by a brief period of unresponsiveness, have plagued MacBook Pro owners that have a Seagate 500GB 7200RPM drive installed. The good news is that Apple believes the issue can be fixed with a software update.
Apparently, MacBook Pros with a build-to-order option for a 500GB 7200RPM drive have a model from Seagate that has its own anti-shock protection mechanism. This mechanism can conflict with Apple’s own Sudden Motion Sensor, which will park the drive heads if it detects that an Apple notebook is falling. Parking the drive heads prevents a possible head crash, which would permanently damage the drive and result in data loss. Whatever conflict exists between Seagate’s and Apple’s systems will cause the heads to park unexpectedly, effectively freezing the affected MacBook Pro for a short while, around 10 seconds. When this happens, the Seagate drive will emit a short beeping sound.
Apple working on fix for unusual MacBook Pro drive issue
Unusual clicking and beeping sounds, followed by a brief period of unresponsiveness, have plagued MacBook Pro owners that have a Seagate 500GB 7200RPM drive installed. The good news is that Apple believes the issue can be fixed with a software update.
Apparently, MacBook Pros with a build-to-order option for a 500GB 7200RPM drive have a model from Seagate that has its own anti-shock protection mechanism. This mechanism can conflict with Apple’s own Sudden Motion Sensor, which will park the drive heads if it detects that an Apple notebook is falling. Parking the drive heads prevents a possible head crash, which would permanently damage the drive and result in data loss. Whatever conflict exists between Seagate’s and Apple’s systems will cause the heads to park unexpectedly, effectively freezing the affected MacBook Pro for a short while, around 10 seconds. When this happens, the Seagate drive will emit a short beeping sound.
A house for your homeless 2.5" SATA drive
Filed under: Accessories, Hardware, Peripherals, Odds and ends
Are you wondering what to do with the 2.5″ SATA drive that you yanked out of your MacBook or Mac mini so you could replace it with a SATA Solid State Drive? For $19.99, the OWC Express USB 2.0 bus-powered enclosure provides a new home for that old drive so you can use it as a backup or spare drive.
The Express enclosure is just slightly larger than an iPhone at 3.07″ x 5.12″ x .55″ (78mm x 130mm x 14mm), and weighs just 2 ounces (56g) empty. Just toss in your old 2.5″ SATA drive and you have a bus-powered USB 2.0 drive that easily fits in your pocket. You can also shop around for new bare SATA drives; a 500GB, 5400 RPM drive can be had for as low as US$97 (I’m sure you can find them for less!), making for a low-cost and portable backup solution.
There are other similar USB 2.0 enclosures out there; MacAlly’s PHR-250A (US$19) and StarTech SAT2510U2 Infosafe (US$17.96) are about the same size and weight as the Express, while the Vantec NexStar SX NST-285S2-BK (US$22.02) and Sabrent EC-UST25 (US$14.97) are larger and heavier.
What’s your favorite use for disk drives that you’ve pulled out of your Macs? Leave a comment below.
TUAWA house for your homeless 2.5″ SATA drive originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 19 May 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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TUAW Tip: Wipe down an old Mac with Target Disk Mode
Filed under: Hardware, Software, How-tos, TUAW Tips
A reader recently contacted us with a question regarding her decision to recycle an older iMac computer. She wanted to know how she could clear/reformat the hard drive, but didn’t have the disks that came with the system. So, we thought we would take a minute to tell you how you can cleanse your hard drives before getting rid of your computer. I’m going to show you how to wipe the hard drive using Target Disk Mode, since this will work even if you don’t have the install disks.
Step 1: Get a FireWire Cable
Both of the Macs will need to have FireWire, which means everything between the iMac DV and the current lineup (except for the MacBook Air and unibody MacBook) is eligible. You will also need a FireWire 400 cable so you can connect one end to the old Mac, and the other end to another Mac. If you don’t have one of these cables, you can easily pick up one online or at a retail store. If both of the Macs support FireWire 800, you can use one of those cables as an alternative to 400; it will be faster. If one has only a 400 port and the other has only an 800 port, a converter cable (available online for less than $10) is what you need. Once you have the FireWire cable, just simply connect the two computers together.
Step 2: Boot into Target Disk Mode on the old Mac
Shut down the old Mac that will be receiving the hard drive cleaning, and reboot it while holding down the “T” key on your keyboard. After a few moments, you should see a FireWire symbol appear on the screen — when you see this, you are in FireWire Disk Mode (FDM). When in FDM, your old Mac’s hard drive should show up on the new Mac as a connected external FireWire drive.
Step 3: Do some Disk Utility magic
Open Disk Utility.app on your new Mac (located in /Applications/Utilities), and click on your old Mac hard drive in the selection area on the left. Note that you should click on the drive, and not the partition (often called “Macintosh HD”) to ensure a complete disk wipe. The disk drive will most likely have a FireWire icon to denote that it is connected as an external disk. Once you select the drive, click the Erase tab, and click Security options.
In this section of Disk Utility, you will be able to select a few different erase options that will also add security to the standard disk erase. First, lets specify a name for the drive — in the name field type what you would like the drive to show up as when it is erased, otherwise it will default to “Untitled.”
Continue reading to learn about security options and how to fully erase the hard drive on an old Mac.
Continue reading TUAW Tip: Wipe down an old Mac with Target Disk Mode
TUAWTUAW Tip: Wipe down an old Mac with Target Disk Mode originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 27 Apr 2009 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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TUAW Tip: Swap out your laptop’s hard disk for a spiffy new SSD
Filed under: Hardware, How-tos, TUAW Tips, MacBook
If you’re looking for a significant performance boost for your middle-aged laptop, replacing your aging hard disk with a solid state disk (SSD) could give your computer a new lease on life.
Solid-state disks (pictured, bottom) differ from traditional hard disks (top) in that they’re not constructed with platters and heads. Instead, they’re more like giant thumb drives, containing memory chips designed to be written and re-written without wearing out. The upside to this is that SSDs are much, much faster to read and write to, making booting and starting applications lightning-quick.
I recently installed an Intel X25-M SSD, a 160GB drive, as a replacement for a 120GB Toshiba hard disk for my 2006-vintage black MacBook. Spendy, for sure, but for the performance increase and the extra life it adds to my MacBook, well worth it. Plus, I had my state tax refund burning a hole in my pocket.
The performance is phenomenal. The old disk booted in a respectable one minute, 49 seconds. The new disk booted in a blazing 31 seconds. Ridiculous. Windows also boots in less than half the time it took before. Photoshop CS3 launches in five seconds, Illustrator CS3 in nine seconds.
Getting the drive was simple: It’s moving the data that takes time. Read on to see how you can migrate your data like I did — including a Boot Camp partition — with little fuss.
Continue reading TUAW Tip: Swap out your laptop’s hard disk for a spiffy new SSD
TUAWTUAW Tip: Swap out your laptop’s hard disk for a spiffy new SSD originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Jam an extra internal hard drive in your MacBook via OptiBay
If you’re the kind of power user who could use an extra internal hard drive in your laptop, then you’ll be thrilled to hear about the new OptiBay from MCE Technologies. The OptiBay allows you to replace the optical drive in your PowerBook or MacBook with an additional internal hard drive of your choosing.
There was a time in the not-too-distant past (well, eons in Internet time) when Apple’s PowerBooks had an expansion bay that could accommodate an extra battery, optical drive, Zip drive, and even an extra hard drive. But starting with the PowerBook G4, all of Apple’s notebooks only supported one internal drive. If you can live without an internal optical drive—heck, MacBook Air users do it all the time—MCE’s OptiBay lets you install practically any 2.5″ hard drive in the space it’s currently occupying inside your laptop’s casing.
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Jam an extra internal hard drive in your MacBook via OptiBay
If you’re the kind of power user who could use an extra internal hard drive in your laptop, then you’ll be thrilled to hear about the new OptiBay from MCE Technologies. The OptiBay allows you to replace the optical drive in your PowerBook or MacBook with an additional internal hard drive of your choosing.
There was a time in the not-too-distant past (well, eons in Internet time) when Apple’s PowerBooks had an expansion bay that could accommodate an extra battery, optical drive, Zip drive, and even an extra hard drive. But starting with the PowerBook G4, all of Apple’s notebooks only supported one internal drive. If you can live without an internal optical drive—heck, MacBook Air users do it all the time—MCE’s OptiBay lets you install practically any 2.5″ hard drive in the space it’s currently occupying inside your laptop’s casing.
Click here to read the rest of this article
240GB of iPod Storage, But Not From Apple
If you’re feeling cramped by the iPod Classic’s 120GB of storage space, and you’re willing to either get your hands dirty or let others do the work and reward them handsomely for it, then you can double that capacity and get an iPod with 240 gigs of music and video holding goodness. There is another catch, though. You have to have held on to an older model iPod Video to get this to work, which means I’m glad I resisted the urge to sell mine when I bought my 1G iPod Touch.
There is yet another catch. You’ll need to fork over nearly $300 for a new 1.8″ Toshiba hard drive, which makes it essentially like buying a brand new iPod. Still, it was an intriguing prospect, and I always like to try to refurbish or repurpose old hardware rather than throw it out or let it lie idle. The mod, offered by Rapid Repair, does involve some prodding and prying, though, something which I’m not often keen to take on myself, being all thumbs.
Adding the Rapid Repair installation option to the order didn’t seem to change the price, although I didn’t actually complete the purchase, so I can’t be sure that some kind of cost isn’t incurred. The drive actually comes with a free iPod disassembly tool, although I would have to pay an extra $10.00 to get the thicker backing, since my iPod Video is only a 30GB model. Rapid Repair plans to extend the mod to newer iPod Classic models as well.
If you’re a braver man or woman than me, and are planning on trying this, let us here at TAB know how things went.
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