pinakes

Q: SATA SSD is not recognized by the Disk Utility

Hello,

 

I've just purchased my first Mac Mini late 2014 (Core i7 3.0 GHz, 16GB RAM, with Fusion Drive capable hard drive tray) on Ebay.

The seller didn't include the original hard drive, so I purchased a SATA SSD (SanDisk SSD Plus 480GB) and a SATA cable from a SSD upgrade kit.

I tried to fit the SSD on the hard drive tray, but the SATA cable was too short to reach the socket on the logic board, and that I don't plan on using PCIe SSD in the future, so I removed the hard drive tray and installed the SATA SSD with double-sided tape which fits perfectly in the space and was able to connect the SATA cable with the logic board without any problems.

I made a bootable USB memory stick for El Capitan and booted the Mac Mini with Command key pressed.

I went to Disk Utility within the installer, but I found no SSD in the system.

 

Are there any steps that I missed or is this Mac Mini model not compatible with SATA SSD?

 

I'd greatly appreciate your input.

 

Thanks,

 

pinakes

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Jul 30, 2016 10:00 AM

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Q: SATA SSD is not recognized by the Disk Utility

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  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jul 30, 2016 10:51 AM in response to pinakes
    Level 10 (187,749 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 30, 2016 10:51 AM in response to pinakes

    When you boot from the installer is there an About this Mac like there is in OSX?

    If there is can you click on System Report and look to see what is listed under SATA/SATA express?

    I am wondering why the previous seller removed the HD. Maybe the Mac was having problems.

  • by pinakes,

    pinakes pinakes Jul 30, 2016 11:13 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Audio
    Jul 30, 2016 11:13 AM in response to lllaass

    Under Utilities / System Information / Hardware,

    I see SATA/SATA Express, and when I highlight it, it shows the following:

     

    Serial-ATA Device Tree

      Intel 8 Series Chipset

     

     

    Intel 8 Series Chipset:

     

    Vendor:    Intel

    Product:   8 Series Chipset

    Link Speed:  6 Gigabit

    Description:  AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

     

     

    Does it tell anything?

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jul 30, 2016 1:08 PM in response to pinakes
    Level 10 (187,749 points)
    Desktops
    Jul 30, 2016 1:08 PM in response to pinakes

    That would indicate that the SSD is not even seen/detected.

    Are you sure the cable connector to the logic board is still firmly seated?

    Are you sure the cable is not damaged? They can easily be damaged.

     

    Do you know why the person sold the Mac? Maybe they had problems.

    Apple may not help since the Mac was disassembled. Since you do not have the original disk to reinstall Apple will know it has been disassembled.

  • by pinakes,

    pinakes pinakes Jul 30, 2016 2:42 PM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Audio
    Jul 30, 2016 2:42 PM in response to lllaass

    The SATA cable is new and it was snug fit when connected to the logic board, although I don't know which direction is right and I certainly didn't want to yank it in.  I guess I have to open the hood again to double check the connection. 

    I'll report the result later again.

    Thanks

  • by pinakes,

    pinakes pinakes Aug 13, 2016 8:45 AM in response to lllaass
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Audio
    Aug 13, 2016 8:45 AM in response to lllaass

    Thanks Illaass,

     

    I ended up with getting a PCIe SSD as my OS drive and making the SATA SSD as an external drive via USB3.  They both work beautifully now.  I still don't know why the internal SATA SSD was not recognized by mac though.  Ideally, I would like to use the internal SATA SSD as the second internal drive.

     

    Thanks again,