Problem with WD5000BEVT and Macbook

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Hello, I would appreciate some opinions and advice from you good people out there. I recently bought a replacement HDD for my Macbook (White) Late 2008, as the original 120GB was getting a bit full. Decided to go for the Western Digital 500GB 5400rpm (WD5000BEVT) as I had read good reviews from Macbook owners. After installing it and with a fresh install of Leopard, however, I immediately noticed hanging and freezing with the simplest of tasks, including scrolling through web pages or documents. Sometimes there is a delay of up to 30 seconds before the Macbook would respond, which it would do with a click and whirr as the HDD woke up. It seems like it just wants to park the heads and sleep all the time. When playing video or audio files there are similar pauses or freezes and I get the spinning beachball.

I hadn't read of any compatability issues with these drives and Macbooks so do I just have a faulty drive with lazy access issues or has anyone else heard of such freezing and hanging with these drives? It's virtually unusable as it is.

Cheers

[Pappabello]

Hi! I have the exact same problem; exchanged the original 80 GB HDD in an older Mac Mini in favour of a WD5000BEVT. I use the Mac for EyeTV and after the HDD change the TV picture freezes for 1-2 seconds every 30 seconds or so. At first I suspected some incompatibility between the old SATA-I controller and the SATA-II interface on the new HDD, but as I understand it, the SATA standard is backward compatible and if there were such a problem, the Mac shouldn't even find the HDD. Anyways, I guess your Macbook Pro has a SATA-II interface and since you're experiencing a similar problem, there must be something else that's fishy. Suggestions anyone? /Bjorn

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Hi Pappabello

Have a look on the label of your drive and see when and where it was manufactured. I have now received my replacement  WD5000BEVT but this one was manufactured in December 2009 in Thailand while my previous freezing, hanging, sleeping  one was October 2009 from Malaysia.

Cloned my old HDD to this new one and everything is working well. Fast access, no hangs, no freezes, smooth as you like - just as it should be. The only difference is a constant quiet whirring coming from the drive, as though it is working continuously, even when the system is apparently idle. Well I can put up with that (it's not very loud) if it means I have a good HDD at last with bags of extra space. Just hope it lasts!

So I am thinking that this later built WD has some new firmware that stops it sleeping and pausing all the time in Macbooks. I didn't change anything in my installation so for now I'm happy.

By the way, my Mac is a plain old white Macbook, late 2008 with SATA-l controller so the same as yours. I recommend you ask to exchange your drive for a later build (with the later firmware) and hopefully your problems should all go away like mine did. Good luck.