Ivan Xiao

Ivan Xiao

Engineer. Father. Cat Lover. Guitarist. Ballroom Dancer. Woodworker.

Replacing SATA cable in Mid 2009 MBP

less than 1 minute read

Replacing MBP cable

Recently, my mid 2009 MBP (Model A1278) fails to recognize the hard drive. My first bet was another disk failure on me, but it was not the case. I took down the hard drive and put it to a mobile hard drive case and it can be read smoothly.

It turns out that it is due to the SATA cable fault, which is a notorious problem for mid 2009 MBP model. See the threads and discussions here, here, here and here.

Luckily, the solution is simple, just go ahead and purchase a replacement cable and replace it. iFixit has a very detailed illustrated document on the procedures. However, Amazon has a cheaper option, and it works fine for me. I didn’t test the infra-red though, since I never and not plan to use it.

There are other common issues for this model, and they can be easily fixed. See my following posts:

If you have similar experience, do not hesitate to let me know. If you find my instruction helpful, leave a comment and share it!

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