If the AHT previously passed and it failed this time, then it is possible the hard drive SATA Cable is bad. I've heard this cable does go bad on these older models especially when using an SSD, but I've never personally seen it happen on any of our organization's 2011 laptops (although it is very common specifically on the MBPro 13" mid-2012 model).
Normally would suggest creating a bootable Parted Magic USB drive using the last free version since it has a custom easy to use app, but I was unable to get the free version of Parted Magic to boot a few months ago for some reason (perhaps a later laptop system firmware update broke it?). Unfortunately I haven't had time to investigate.
It is possible to create a bootable Knoppix Linux USB drive to perform the hardware reset of the SSD, but it does require using the command line. You can use the downloaded Knoppix .iso file as a source for Etcher which will "burn" the Knoppix .iso file to a USB stick. Make sure to grab the v8.6.1 Knoppix with the "EN" in the file name for ENglish. Option Boot the Knoppix USB drive and select the orange icon labeled. "EFI". The Mac may appear to be frozen on the Apple boot picker menu while Knoppix is booting so make sure to give Knoppix lots of time to finish booting.
Once Knoppix boots to the desktop you need to acquire the drive identifier for the Crucial SSD. You can get this information by clicking on the "Start" menu icon on the lower left corner of the Taskbar and navigate the menus to "System Tools --> GSmartControl". Within the GSmartControl app it should provide you the drive identifier which will likely be "sda" or something similar.
You can also get the drive identifier using the command line using one of the multiple Terminal apps and using the following command:
sudo lsblk -f | grep -i 'sd'
In each of the following commands make sure to replace "sdX" with the correct drive identifier.
Once you have a drive identifier you can verify you have correct drive identifier for the Crucial SSD by using this command:
sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdX | grep -i 'model'
Now that you have the correct drive identifier for the Crucial SSD you need to sleep and wake the laptop to "unfreeze" the SSD. It is best to do this by clicking the "Start" menu icon and selecting "Logout" followed by "Suspend". Then wake the laptop up and run the following command to make sure the SSD is not "frozen":
sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdX | grep -iE '^security' -A5
The output should look something like:
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
not enabled
not locked
not frozen
Now you must enable security mode on the SSD:
sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-set-pass Eins /dev/sdX
Followed by the command to initiate the SSD's built-in hardware secure erase feature:
sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase Eins /dev/sdX
This last command can take anywhere from 15 seconds to several minutes to complete (sometimes longer -- up to 20 minutes). If the secure erase completes successfully, then it automatically disables the SSD's security mode set earlier in these instructions. If the secure erase command fails or is interrupted for any reason, then you will need to issue this command to disable the security mode previously set so you can use the SSD normally:
sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-disable Eins /dev/sdX
You can confirm the SSD's security mode is disabled by running this command again and making sure "not locked" is listed:
sudo hdparm -I /dev/sdX | grep -iE '^security' -A5
Make sure the laptop is using the charger so the SSD is not damaged if the battery fails.
I know this seems like a lot, but as long as you remember to replace "sdX" with the proper drive identifier in each command line, then there should be no problems.
