SSD won’t boot internally but good externally

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Level 1

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SSD won’t boot internally but good externally

Hi everyone. I know it’s been asked so many times but i still can’t get to have my new SSD (Samsung 860 EVO 500gb SSD) to BOOT on my Macbook Pro mid 2012 non retina. I have pretty much done everything i could find over the internet but to no avail.

My mac’s situation is this.

Boots my old Hitachi HDD internally perfectly, but not my SSD.
Installed High Sierra on SSD using usb bootable drive. Worked externally, but won’t boot internally. (several times now)
Formatted it again. Tried APFS format and Mac OS Journaled but same thing.
Did the Internet recovery, Disk Utility and tried make SSD he bootable drive but gives “bless” error.
Tried getting Cloning the HDD to SSD, and even restore Time Machine backup but same thing happened.

i really don’t know what to do now. I’ve been working on it for 2 days now but still no sign of improvement.

And since the HDD works well internally, i don’t think it’s the SATA cable?

Please help. Much appreciated!

MacBook Pro 13", macOS 10.13

Posted on Jul 18, 2019 5:54 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Community+ 2026

Level 9

71,648 points

Jul 18, 2019 8:50 AM in response to jirupu

You've proven the issue is with the internal SATA cable since the SSD boots fine externally, but not when installed internally. The hard drive cable on this specific laptop has an extremely high failure rate. So high in fact that Apple would replace it proactively for free even if the laptop appeared to be Ok whenever the laptop was repaired for another issue. An SSD is able to transmit a lot more data across the cable much faster than any hard drive can do which is why it works with the old hard drive, but not with the SSD.

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Answer 2

Jul 20, 2019 7:54 AM in response to jirupu

There is only the old cable and the new cable available for sale. Unfortunately most places only sell the older style cable. You can get the hard drive cable from OWC.

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Answer 3

jirupu Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 19, 2019 11:47 PM in response to jirupu

Thanks for this. I will definitely do that and replace the SATA cable once i get my hands on one!

Also, are there different brand/speed types of SATA cable? Or are they all generally the same and able to transfer 6gb/sec to my Macbook Pro Mid 2012 non retina? Been browsing online but can’t seem to find a brand/speed rate for them other than the SATA 3 speed of the Mac itself. Thanks a lot!

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Answer 4

leroydouglas

Level 10

201,250 points

Jul 18, 2019 9:13 AM in response to jirupu

Macbook Pro mid 2012 non retina.

Replace the SATA cable:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Apple/8211480/%20%2013%22%20MacBook%20Pro%20SATA

owc/macsales has excellent customer support, for compatibility if in doubt.

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Answer 5

jirupu Author

Level 1

4 points

Jul 19, 2019 11:49 PM in response to HWTech

@HWTech Thanks for this. I will definitely do that and replace the SATA cable once i get my hands on one!

Also, are there different brand/speed types of SATA cable? Or are they all generally the same and able to transfer 6gb/sec to my Macbook Pro Mid 2012 non retina? Been browsing online but can’t seem to find a brand/speed rate for them other than the SATA 3 speed of the Mac itself. Thanks a lot!

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SSD won’t boot internally but good externally

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