New SSD will not boot internally, only from USB.

Suspect Linc's analysis correct. I have one MacPro3,1 2x2.8GHz Quad Core (8 cores) 14GB Ram (HD 5770) at home, and very very similar issues. Can't yet afford/justify new MacPro. I have another identical machine at work (RAIDed M500 Crucial 480GB) which works perfectly however. Both using M500 Crucials cos cheapest price point to vaste amounts of SSD storage, for making these video editing beasties. I've tried quite a few configurations trust me. Taking out graphics cards, 2560x1440 monitors, eSata adaptors, de-duping Font Book and validating fonts, repairing permissions etc. The 960GB Crucial M500 at home was working fine, until suddenly (maybe Mavericks only) started dying in sleep. Turned off sleep mode and it was fine. It wouldn't reboot when died in sleep. Was running 10.6 & 10.9 on two partitions. Thought maybe partitions problem with a 10.9.3 update or something. So got a new Samsung Pro 840 256GB for 10.6 . Put in an old 1TB HD to SuperDuper across the 960GB SSD. Then single partitioned 960GB (in case that was problem - KISS approach, minimise problem opportunities - log was giving me AHCI storage things). Cloned it back (SuperDuper). Anyway, she's now at least always able to boot up!!! 😉

But I have 3 system drives in there now! 256GB Samsung 840 Pro (spare no expense - the thing has to boot and if top of the range drive doesn't work, then nothing will, if u read widely you see Transcend and other cheap SSDs get this folder with question mark business). Just an hour or two ago had the non-booting issue from the 960GB again, so computer launched from my 1TB but could see Samsung but NOT 960GB at all. Changed Icy Dock adaptor cos had a spare one - updated to newer version in case it's that. I'll try and keep thread updated in case i come to any firm conclusions. My tentative conclusion is not perhaps to depend on a Crucial SSD to boot from. Can't return cos it's many months old before displayed this problem and i still love the vast space it gives me, and cos I've got 4 drive bays (good thing about old Mac Pro's) I'm fine. But all SSDs (even Samsung) seem to get some grumbles, so maybe it's just a batch thing with this modern technology and Mavericks is more twitchy? Apple give their approval only to a few drives, cos of this very thing. Trim has to be bodged via Groths (big up!), but it'll do. Who can afford Apple SSDs. Who would buy Pegasus RAIDs when they can get similar speeds for half the price by my set up above.

Peace to all, increase the knowledge, tis a fine machine. I'm running 10.9.4 and 10.6.8 now. Overall very happy with what i've got for speed. But i've nearly cried and banged my head against wall quite a few times, but as I say same set up at work has caused no problem at all, and never frozen, does a lot more work too - indicating individual drive or system set up - not clean install at home).

T

Awesome , thanks for the tip. Putting the SSD in the Macbook Pro before cloning solved the issue for me

I'm having similar problems.

MacBook Pro 13" early 2011, model ID 8,1.

Tried cloning original internal HDD to USB mounted Crucial M550 1 TB SSD using CCC.

After successful clone installed SSD and on boot question mark in folder icon.

Using USB memory stick installed from a 10.7.5 disk image (existing OS version on HDD).

Successful install and on boot used Setup Assistant to pull the data from the now USB mounted HDD.

Over the next week erratic behaviour on the MBP. Kernel panics, crashes and weird unexpected results where user input resulted in strange interface and output results.

Ordered and replaced SATA cable with Apple branded part. (Some early versions of the cable had soldering issues which resulted in faults, this new part was not one of those.)

Ran DriveDX which reported a UDMA CRC error the details of which suggested cable fault due to errors in communication or power.

Replaced SSD with the HDD.

Ran DriveDX which reported no faults.

Have returned SSD for replacement but am wondering if there is a systemic fault as opposed to individual unit failure because of the number of comments on this and other threads..

simon2010,

I monitor the Crucial user forum religiously and I've read of no systemic failures of the M550 1TB drives (I myself have a 960GB M500) so I think that you actually received a faulty unit. Please let us know the outcome when you replace the drive.

Good luck,

Clinton

Thank you clintonfrom.birmingham.

Installed replacement M550 1 TB.

Formatted, and installed clean version of 10.9.4

Ran DriveDX which reported the identical problem with previous returned M550, a UDMA CRC fault, with 205 errors.

Ran Volitans S.M.A.R.T app which returned a failing flag on the drive with CRC errors, 207 this time.

Installed a 256 GB M4 from a 2012 MBP 15" into the problem machine, the 13" MBP 2011, 8,1, i7, 2.7 GHz.

Ran DriveDX which reported no faults.

Spoke to Crucial who have taken details. Have returned the second M550 and am going to try an M500 986 GB which I have ordered.

My view is that because the SMART apps return no fault with both a mechanical and M4 drive the cable and power connections are good.

BTW ran Apple Hardware Test just to verify RAM ok. No fault returned.

Currently my view is that there must be some kind of issue with the way the M550 communicates with the motherboard given that the replacement drive exhibited the exact same fault with the same number of CRC errors. It's highly unlikely that the two M550's would be defective. (Firmware issue?)

What is strange is after speaking to Crucial it appears that only this specific model has a problem, they have no reports of issues from other users.

I have previously installed an M500 480 GB in a similar MBP, i.e. 2011, 13", 8,1 without apparent problems.

Simon,

You can usually find folks around here!

Actually, yes, most people are 'over it' and just gaining their own free pad (it doesn't seem that high price!). I don't know what I'll do, that, because the family is usually where your powerful finr drive.

fieriments

The initial test could be (and some here are older than others and some haven't Alander, time sharing, things like that! You really can't but help other's - they'll find out come.

Talk soon - call back if you have!

Clinton

I had the exact same problem, and a SATA cable ordered from Amazon (this one http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KR5QIEU/ref=pe_385040_128020140_TE_3p_dp_1) solved the problem. A cheap solution to a potentially expensive problem.

In my case, my system booted from an external USB, demonstrating that the drive was fine. If you can't do this, then your drive is likely broken.

The SATA cable I replaced looks fine, and I wonder if anyone reading has the equipment to test it and identify the fault. Would be quite interesting.

Hi. I ran into this problem myself, with my MacBook Pro (late 2011) and an MX200 SSD by Crucial (500Gb).

After several iterations of being able to see the disc when connected via USB, and then getting nothing but the question-marked-folder when attempting to boot from the same disc now installed via SATA within the laptop, I found a post on the Crucial Community that, although far fetched but easy, worked perfectly.

Again, I wasn't able to get the MBP to recognize the SSD when installed via SATA... but when, with the same configuration (new SSD connected via the internal SATA cable within the MBP), I started my MBP with the addition of my original HD connected externally via USB, and another backup disk also connected via FireWire800, the MBP booted from the SATA-SSD like if nothing had ever been wrong.

It really makes no sense to me (fair to say, I am quite illiterate in the internal works of computers) BUT IT WORKS!

I'm going to try booting from the original externally to set up the ssd internally. This issue has had me ripping out my hair all day. Working with a mbp 13 mid 2010 on 10.6.8. When ever I try to upgrade it fails at download.

cronenberg wrote:

I had the exact same problem, and a SATA cable ordered from Amazon (this one http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KR5QIEU/ref=pe_385040_128020140_TE_3p_dp_1) solved the problem. A cheap solution to a potentially expensive problem.

In my case, my system booted from an external USB, demonstrating that the drive was fine. If you can't do this, then your drive is likely broken.

The SATA cable I replaced looks fine, and I wonder if anyone reading has the equipment to test it and identify the fault. Would be quite interesting.

No formal testing but it's a slender ribbon, bent in several places and then compressed by having a hot, rotating, vibrating, drive sitting on it. And then it gets a drive 10 times faster than the one it's been used to for years.

It's cheap to replace

I have a similar issue but have some additional hiccups to add:

MacbookPro 13-inch, Late 2011 (MacBookPro8,1)

2.8ghz i7

OSX 10.9.5

Crucial MX200 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" Internal SSD (purchased based on Crucial Website 100% compatibility with this model)

Like others: Connect SSD as external, cloned, booted fine as external. Connected internal, get the "?" folder.

Extra information:

1) In my case as soon as I connect the SSD internally, the system NO LONGER RECOGNIZES the original hard drive connected via USB. Once the SSD is connected, Neither the SSD on the internal nor the original HDD on USB are available as an option boot and system sees both as having an invalid file format (see below). So those who suggested cloning by connecting their original drive externally and cloning to ssd internal, this doesn't work for me.

2) If I connect the SSD internally and the original HDD via USB and then do a recovery boot, when i go into disk utility the system SEES THE SSD DRIVE CONNECTED INTERNALLY (challenging the 'bad cable' solution) it also SEES THE HDD CONNECTED EXTERNALLY, but both show a generic disk identification (not the partition name I assigned) and when attempting to verify either drive it says the drive doesn't have a valid file system. Again, as soon as the SSD is inside the drive bay in the macbook, disk utility is able to see both drives are connected--- but it not longer recognizes either as formatted despite the fact I can boot to either when connected the other way around (HDD on internal, SDD on USB external).

So not only does the SSD drive not work as a bootable drive when mounted inside the macbook (when it works fine mounted externally) BUT IT ALSO cause the system to see the original bootable drive as invalid-- essentially it breaks everything just by being connected. I would not recommend Crucial to anyone despite their 100% compatibility guarantee. I assume they'll refund my money, but I've wasted days messing with this.

Replace the internal SATA cable.

See, I'm gonna say I find the SATA cable thing hard to swallow... As I mentioned, when I boot to the recovery mode- Disk utility sees the SSD drive just fine, just doesn't understand the partition I made on it via the disk cloning process. This makes me wonder about incompatibilities between what the 2011 system expects to see on a drive (it boots to a Lion Era version of recovery mode) versus how a drive is formatted under Mavericks.

And to prove the point; I went ahead and booted to the recovery mode, let disk utility re-partition and re-format the SSD drive and installed LION on it via internet recovery. It works fine. I'm typing this response right now from the LION OS running off the SSD drive which boots flawlessly.

If the SATA cable were faulty; how does the SSD drive partition, format, install and run this 10.7.5 OS? I really think my case the flaw has something to do with the clone format. I'm going to try to update to Mavericks now and see if I can just then migrate from the old drive, as opposed to trying a clone.

You can do as you please, I gave advice, follow it or not.

Thank you guys, replacing the SATA cable solved my Problem. Couldn't believe it!

My Problem:

Macbook Pro mid 2012 with orig. HDD was terribly slow. Replaced it with a new Crucial MX200 SSD. Wasn't able to install/clone OS X, receiving errors like "Filesystem formatting failed" (not the real error message, translated it).

Took me a week to find out what the problem is. I thought it was a software issue. The old cable looks perfectly fine.

Thanks!!!