"Hitachi 2TB OS X report
I recently installed one in my 2009 Mac Pro (8-Core 2.26GHz, 12GB, ATI 4870). It replaced a WD 750GB AAKS model in bay 2. Also present are two 1.5TB Seagate 7200.11 models with the later CC1H Firmware and an Intel X25-M 80GB 2nd generation as a boot & applications drive.

I have my home folder on one of the Seagate 1.5TB drives so the Hitachi drive is mainly for game installs and scratch/temporary storage (EyeTV recordings etc.)

The Hitachi drive makes a little more noise when writing and on large reads (loading levels in games for example) but at idle the overall noise level is similar. The performance seems comparable to the Seagate drives and better than the 750GB drive it replaced although this was expected given the areal density. I consider it excellent value for money as it is much cheaper than the other 7200rpm 2TB models and actually cost less than the "green" WD and Seagate models I have in my Drobo (used for Time machine backups). If we don't see 3TB + drives before I run out of space then I would replace the 1.5TB drives with the same model.
Hope this helps, Matthew"

And a later reply this afternoon:

"Hey Mike, In response to your request for user feedback on Hitachi drives, I simply could not recommend them enough. I work in video production and am constantly transferring extremely large amounts of data to and from everything from an external drive to RAID systems. We have never had a Hitachi drive fail on us. I certainly can't say that about any other drive manufacturer.

About 2 months ago we purchased 4 Rack mount RAID systems from OWC and they all came with the Hitachi 2 TB drives installed. They have worked marvelously (even with SATA card failures we never lost any data).

They are linked to 2.8 GHz quad-core Mac Pros running 10.5.8.

I plan on getting 2 to put into external cases for use in the field. We currently use the 1 TB Hitachi Enterprise Class drives and they have performed flawlessly. I noticed OWC carries the 2 TB in Enterprise configuration as well. I realize this person was choosing the Hitachi for it's cheap price so I understand this is most likely not the route they will go. I just mention it as a important option for those who would be using the 2 TB drive in such important data intensive environments we come across in the video/audio industry.
All to say, I find no reason to be apprehensive about Hitachi and the new 2 TB drive. They have been gold so far.
Cheers, Brook"

I've had several more replies from owners of this drive, I'll add all of these to the drive reports db as soon as I can. (I need to ask them for mac model/OS version used for the db categories.)

"That script needed to be force-quit on my system too. However, this alternative script can be happily quit:

on idle
    do shell script "drutil info"
end idle

The default time for idle is 30 seconds, so it does an almost identical job to the first one, but responds to a quit command where the original does not.

(I sent a copy of the above to the latest 2009 Mac Pro/BDR-205 owner with this problem, however he replied that the compiled script didn't run.)
As I understand "on idle" it only works when saved as an application and run independently. You won't see it do anything from AppleScript Editor, but save as an app and it should work.
Cheers, Iain"

From the comments I assumed he had done that but wrote to confirm.

"Hello Mike, I've just installed a SparkLAN WPEA-110N card (802.11a/b/g/n Dual-Band Mini PCI Express Module, Atheros AR9280) in my (early/core duo) MacBook Pro, it's based on the Atheros 9280 chipset used in the new iMacs.
(Although most N cards in Macs are Broadcom based, some earlier model 802.11N capable Macs (notebooks typically) had Atheros AR5008 based cards (noted some years ago on the Mac 802.11n page here). And back in spring 2007 when the Core Duo MacBook Pro N card upgrade guide here was posted, some readers used Dell 1500 cards bought on ebay - I think they were atheros based also back then. Here's a post from the Feb 13th, 2007 news page on that, noting it was an AR5008 based card. Of course like any mfr, they could have changed chipsets used at any time.-Mike)
It supports both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz modes and is MIMO capable on the original 2 aerials. It is recognised as Apple supplied by Network Utility. Unfortunately my router is 2.4Ghz only at the moment so I cannot test the 5Ghz mode.

Unlike the Broadcom card it is single sided so it doesn't take up any extra space and fits perfectly. Strangely my card is held in place by with a clip from the fan housing not as shown in the guide. Mine came from Oxford Tech here in the UK for a very reasonable £35.97 including postage. Performance seems fine considering my mixed network (Wii and Brother 750 printer on G, iMac and this MacBook on N) and range is excellent, I have a new Sitecom WL-348 300 capable router driving the network.

(He sent a screenshot from Network Utility that showed one transmit and a few recv errors, so asked if that was typical.)
I only get those errors with my Bluetooth mouse and between my Mac and the router so I guess they're related to that. I've always had them.

I had tried a second hand Broadcom card but my 'Book didn't seem to be able to drive it, the throughput was 2mbs at best! I do not know if the card was broken (it was recognised fine) or if there was a quirk with my 'Book which came with an (802.11g) Atheros AR5BXB6 card originally.
-Norman J."

Some other upgraded (core duo) MacBook Pro owners in the past also noted poor 2.4GHz performance, although 5GHz was fine. (Last post on that was Dec. 2008 on the Mac user reports on 802.11n adapters page.)

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