New SSD will not boot internally, only from USB.

It's a very common situation. read this forum you'll find many examples.

I believe it has something to do with the EFI partition.

Macbook 1 has working boot drive.

Macbook 2 has new SSD, cloned, clean install, everything .

connect them with a firewire cable

Boot Macbook 2 holding T to get to target firewire mode, Boot macbook 1 with option key ( at this point I'm guessing its using its internal drive's efi) choose the macbook 2 SSD and it boots fine!

The first time I ran in to this problem It was with an older intel 40gb SSD, I replaced the sata cable, no luck. I found a firmware update for the intel ssd, and it worked. (but I wonder if upgrading the firmware somehow refreshed the EFI partition) I am now trying to put a Crucial BX200 480gb in the same macbook, and I am running in to the exact same problem.

After a successful clone with super duper I mounted the EFI partition and it was empty! I am not sure when the EFI partition gets created/populated.

So far no luck with the crucial BX200 and the Macbook Pro 7.1. When I boot the computer via USB, and check system profiler, under SATA the BX200 is listed and its smart status is verified. The BX200 does not show up in disk utility. Or when I run diskutil list in terminal.

I had the same problem.

Bought a new Samsung ssd 850 evo, to replace my original hdd in my all original Late 2009 MacBook: cloned the internal hdd using SuperDuper, tested via USB and all worked just fine, but ….

-When connected internally (SATA connector) the SSD, it did not work.

- Both, Original HDD via USB and internally SSD, it didn’t work.

- Back to, Original HDD internally, it works.

- Original HDD internally and SSD via USB, worked.

And in either, on the faulty combinations, hold any of the next keys : Option, command + c, command + r, or c, worked.

I’d been in many forums and the universal accepted answer was, that you have to buy an expensive cable, but for me, it doesn’t make any sense, due to the symptoms of the problem. So after many tries what really solve the problem was this:

-I formatted the SSD, GUID Partition and everything, through disk utility in El Capitan.

-Connected the SSD Internally through the SATA connector.

-Insert my old MacBook OS X install DVD (Snow Leopard), an error message appear.... then I choose disk utility and since I didn’t see any GUID format choose the default option and formatted my disk.

-Then a message, "You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume..." . Went to disk utility again, and GUID format was then an option.

-After the final format, the hard drive was recognized, and the installation process starts…. a few minutes later I end up with an early version of snow leopard and a new SSD hard drive installed, new cables, NOT needed!!!!!!

From there, I updated to El Capitan, and used migration assistant from a Time Machine external disk backup, to get my old computer back.

Now, the old Mac is back to life and better than ever.

I hope it Helps!!!

You didn't replace the internal cable (the cable that connects the drive) do it now.

Just wanted to recount my issue in case it helps anyone else. I was tearing my hair out and was finding it hard to believe my SATA cable could have died given it's a non moving part inside the laptop.

I have a mid 2010 Macbook Pro and a few months ago I replaced the original spinning hard drive with a 1TB SanDisk SSD which made an astonishing difference. Then, a few days ago, the laptop hung and would not boot - would get part way through the boot process and then die. I still had my old hard disk, and could boot from that externally and then ran Disk Utility to check the SSD. It reported terminal issues with the drive which couldn't be fixed. After research, I booted into single user mode and ran fsck -fy which again reported terminal issues. I got onto the supplier who sent me a new drive which I mounted externally all fine, formatted, and did a full Time Machine restore, and could then boot from it externally.

I then put the drive back in the internal bay and it wouldn't boot. Some people report a folder and question mark icon but mine would just hang during boot - the progress bar would get half way very quickly then take much longer to get to the end and then nothing. Mounted the SSD externally again and it worked fine, so I knew the drive was ok and the issue was almost certainly the SATA cable. Ordered an original one, and followed the instructions on ifixit.co.uk and in short, it all worked perfectly first time! I couldn't believe it.

I never realised that a cable which is never touched or moved could fail but allegedly SSDs are harder on the cables than spinning drives. It was the fiddliest job I've ever done, and you need tiny Philips screwdrivers, plus something plastic to lever bits out (I sharpened the end of a plastic kids paint brush) and an earthing wrist band and ideally a magnifying glass. There are comments on ifixit.co.uk about step 11 and removing and re-attaching a tiny orange ribbon - this thing is impossibly small and takes some fiddling so beware.

That cable is folded under the drive, where it is hot, and vibrating, and SSD's transfer data at 10 times the rate of the drive it was designed for.. Failures are common (read this forum) but fixing it is easier than complaining about it it. As fixes go this is a simple one. Once you start believing it.

Mauricio R wrote:

I had the same problem.

Bought a new Samsung ssd 850 evo, to replace my original hdd in my all original Late 2009 MacBook: cloned the internal hdd using SuperDuper, tested via USB and all worked just fine, but ….

-When connected internally (SATA connector) the SSD, it did not work.

- Both, Original HDD via USB and internally SSD, it didn’t work.

- Back to, Original HDD internally, it works.

- Original HDD internally and SSD via USB, worked.

And in either, on the faulty combinations, hold any of the next keys : Option, command + c, command + r, or c, worked.

I’d been in many forums and the universal accepted answer was, that you have to buy an expensive cable, but for me, it doesn’t make any sense, due to the symptoms of the problem. So after many tries what really solve the problem was this:

-I formatted the SSD, GUID Partition and everything, through disk utility in El Capitan.

-Connected the SSD Internally through the SATA connector.

-Insert my old MacBook OS X install DVD (Snow Leopard), an error message appear.... then I choose disk utility and since I didn’t see any GUID format choose the default option and formatted my disk.

-Then a message, "You cannot install Mac OS X on this volume..." . Went to disk utility again, and GUID format was then an option.

-After the final format, the hard drive was recognized, and the installation process starts…. a few minutes later I end up with an early version of snow leopard and a new SSD hard drive installed, new cables, NOT needed!!!!!!

From there, I updated to El Capitan, and used migration assistant from a Time Machine external disk backup, to get my old computer back.

Now, the old Mac is back to life and better than ever.

I hope it Helps!!!

The cable is less than $50, hardly expensive at all. Your mistake was not changing it in the first place.

Had the same issue. Replacing the internal sata cable worked for me. Ordered it from ifixit. I have 2012 pro and sandisk uttra ii 480 GB ssd.

Man oh man, it’s been a while since I’ve been on this forum. Seems like nothing has changed - I gave up on this issue almost 2 years ago but decided to try again... Maybe a mistake and wasting two days thus far. I thought a new OS release might solve my problem, but nope.

Background:

Trying to replace faulty internal OEM HDD with Crucial M500 SSD. Completely wiped SSD, reformatted as GUIDE. Downloaded OS X El Capitan, installed it on Crucial SSD in an external USB enclosure. Once El Capitan was installed on SSD, I was able to boot externally via USB enclosure to SSD - everything worked great. Fast as lightening, even using a USB cable as a conduit.

Removed SSD from enclosure; swapped internal HDD with new SSD. Boot up - disk not recognizable... It (still) makes no sense... I can’t even boot into single-user mode. But as soon as I pop the SSD back into the external enclosure (even leaving the internal SATA cable disconnected from anything), everything seems like it’s working great. Can boot into El Capitan no problem from external SSD.

Thoughts? I’ve already tried disabling and enabling TRIM via cmd prompts, didn’t have any effect.

EDIT: forgot to include that I already had an Apple “Genius...” replace my SATA cable a year ago. Was an ineffective solution.

try my solution, it may help you.

its written 6 posts before.

Requires an old OS X install disk, correct? Does it matter which OS as long as it’s pre Maverick?

yes it requires an install disk. I'm not sure about if it has to be old, but i will give it a shot with the one you have on hand. Because I'm sure it is not a hardware problem (at least in my case). good luck.

It will require the same version that came with the Mac, (all of which will be pre Maverick), they will probably have to be Snow Leopard 10.6.3

Know any good freeware sites where I can download the disk image? The chances of me finding a snow leopard disk are pretty low...

You can buy Snow Leopard at this link, it will come on disk. You can not buy a disk image at all.

http://www.apple.com/shop/product/MC573Z/A/mac-os-x-106-snow-leopard