New SSD will not boot internally, only from USB.

One user on youtube posted their fix for internal drive problems. The theory was that the SATA cable scrubbed against the machined interior surface of the MacBook, and it disturbed the insulation on the SATA cable, then shorted some of the signals. Their solution was to apply electrical tape, one strip to the chassis, one strip to the underside of the cable itself:

Drive removed for photographic clarity.

screen grab from a YouTube video by Brue computing.

The use of RED electrical tape is very important, because RED is associated with high speeds, so it will keep the high speed bits from spilling into the inside of your MacBook and clogging it up.😝

(OGELTHORPE makes me say that last part.)

Hi, I have a late 2011 Macbook pro as well. Had an employee at Micro Center store try to install a internal SSD into my computer and it wasn't able to work. Currently I am running Yosemite OS X and apparently they said that it had something to do with that. Not sure exactly what it was. Did you happen to figure out how to successfully install a SSD into your system? Any help, advice, workarounds would be much appreciated. Thanks

There is no reason why it did not work (unless it's defective) I suspect that the person who fitted it did not know what he was doing.

Exactly what 'doesn't work' (the least useful description) does it show up in Disk Utility?

And how is it formatted

Thanks for replies. I actually returned the drive that the employee tried installing so i don't have an SSD currently. I am planning on purchasing a crucial drive and attempting to install it successfully with my engineer. All i can remember the employee saying about it not working is that the OS didn't boot up, I believe. Doesn't help that i don't understand exactly what he said the issue was, but that is why Im investigating what workarounds others have successfully used to install an SSD into there late 2011 system in preparation for trying it again once I purchase the drive...So, I imagine there are only so many reasons why it was unsuccessful and that there are ways to make it work after the fact. Thanks for any info on this regardless. Just want to be prepared with some options if/when a standard approach to the install fails again...

Hi All,

I have the same issue here with ssd drives and it cannot be the drive as i am now on my fourth, Crucial MX300, then a Samsung, PNY and now a Sandisk, so i am also presuming the cable is at fault.

any other thoughts appreciated

ta

I know this is an old post, but I would like to say that you are correct.

I have had a nightmare trying to get my partners 2009 model macbook pro updated, would run snow lion no problem but if I changed the HDD to any brand and tried to install a newer OS, I would just get either a folder with a question mark or a prohibited sign when trying to boot. I could use any HDD via USB and boot to the new OS.

Replacing the internal SATA cable worked for me.

Last night in Sweden

The following happened last night in Sweden. I found and read this thread on this discussion topic and your most appreciated comments and stamina, clintonfrombirmingham.

Well at home I collected the two identical internal SATA flat ribbon cables I´d ordered from a bay for the macbook pro late 2011, 13", A1278. An hour later the first cable was luckily exchanged and fully functioning direct upon start. Six months of fiddling and frustration was over. No more USB! So, having in mind that dealing with these components is a delicate issue of being careful, the sensmoral of what You and others adviced is that the first thing to do if such problems occur is the following.

Listen to clintonfrombirmingham. Seriously.

Analyse, assume, conclude whatever you want. But then.. remember what clintonfrombirmingham adviced to start with.

Identify your cable components and order two of them. The problem will probably occur again. It´s a weak spot in design. As is the wi-fi cabling for instance.

Relax until you get them.

Change them or let someone help you with that. Visit iFixit for instructions for instance. Be very very cautious with bending and fitting the new cable. The less sharp the bending is, the longer it will resist failure due to thermal and mechanical fatigue. Bending it means permanent deformation and stress concentrations. Imagine what dynamic heat loading will do. It´s almost bound to fail, sooner or later. Insulating them further from the cooling aluminum body is questionable.

Test the internal SATA function for your HDD. Hopefully you are up and running again!

If not. Don´t rule out the possibility of multiple problems, both hardware and software. They can be induced and created during the troubleshooting only by ordinary touching and pressing the components and the weak and fragile connectors.

The cost of a cable is like 10 GBP. It´s a sound approach and conclusion to start there on these most cunning problems...

Then, when you are happy again, take a look at the old flat cable, and the second new one with a magnifying glass.

You will probably see and feel the premade dents, marks and deformations across the ribbon cable where it is supposed to bend. The most obvious thing to avoid, namely mechanically damaging and deforming the thin cable wiring is there from the beginning on some cables! After high tech production. Of course it will statistically fail after some time.

I would rather have spent my time and money on perhaps buying a new component, device or peripheral instead of loosing it on troubleshooting and I hope Companys understand that this is crucial to goodwill and reputation and revenue.

The intermittent Wi-Fi problems et al reported and discussed are many times of the same reason. The cables are very fragile and fall apart by merely pushing them when fitted even those who are not bent at all. The good thing is that the solution start is the same. Order two. Relax. Listen to clintonfrombirmingham et al. Be gentle. Hope for the best. Continue. Best wishes.

Thanks a lot all of you helpies.

Last night in Sweden

The following happened last night in Sweden. I found and read this thread on this discussion topic and your most appreciated comments and stamina, Csound1, clintonfrombirmingham et al.

Well at home I collected the two identical internal SATA flat ribbon cables I´d ordered from a bay for the macbook pro late 2011, 13", A1278. An hour later the first cable was luckily exchanged and fully functioning direct upon start. Six months of fiddling and frustration was over. No more USB! So, having in mind that dealing with these components is a delicate issue of being careful, the sensmoral of what You and others adviced is that the first thing to do if such problems occur is the following.

Listen to clintonfrombirmingham and Csound1. Seriously.

Analyse, assume, conclude whatever you want. But then.. remember what Csound1, clintonfrombirmingham et al adviced to start with.

Identify your cable components and order two of them. The problem will probably occur again. It´s a weak spot in design. As is the wi-fi cabling for instance.

Relax until you get them.

Change them or let someone help you with that. Visit iFixit for instructions for instance. Be very very cautious with bending and fitting the new cable. The less sharp the bending is, the longer it will resist failure due to thermal and mechanical fatigue. Bending it means permanent deformation and stress concentrations. Imagine what dynamic heat loading will do. It´s almost bound to fail, sooner or later. Insulating them further from the cooling aluminum body is questionable.

Test the internal SATA function for your HDD. Hopefully you are up and running again!

If not. Don´t rule out the possibility of multiple problems, both hardware and software. They can be induced and created during the troubleshooting only by ordinary touching and pressing the components and the weak and fragile connectors.

The cost of a cable is like 10 GBP. It´s a sound approach and conclusion to start there on these most cunning problems...

Then, when you are happy again, take a look at the old flat cable, and the second new one with a magnifying glass.

You will probably see and feel the premade dents, marks and deformations across the ribbon cable where it is supposed to bend. The most obvious thing to avoid, namely mechanically damaging and deforming the thin cable wiring is there from the beginning on some cables! After high tech production. Of course it will statistically fail after some time.

I would rather have spent my time and money on perhaps buying a new component, device or peripheral instead of loosing it on troubleshooting and I hope Companies understand that this is crucial to goodwill and reputation and revenue.

The intermittent Wi-Fi problems etc. reported and discussed are many times of the same reason. The cables are very fragile and fall apart by merely pushing them when fitted even those who are not bent at all. The good thing is that the solution start is the same. Order two. Relax. Listen to Csound1, clintonfrombirmingham et al. Be gentle. Hope for the best. Continue. Best wishes.

Thanks a lot all of you helpies.

Glad to hear it's fixed, and just to give Apple the benefit of some doubt please remember that when these machines were designed SSD's did not exist, nothing existed that had the bandwidth demands that SSD's place on the associated components, and the cable does not fail when an HDD is in use, times change, current Apple designs use different mounting and connecting methods for their SSD's. Things wear out and using an SSD there is little headroom left.

Thanks again Csound1

My remark is that this also happened under warranty with the mechanical OEM HDD

the first time and the faulty cable which was replaced the other day was the second one, installed by Apple´s

accredited repair shop, is the one that failed again, so I can´t agree on that.

The symptoms where even more severe and cunning back then, years ago, when they first appeared with

the original HDD; spinning ball suddenly... and then good bye and good luck with troubleshooting...

Since it was exchanged and functioning after that, I didn´t assume that the problem this time, with the second Samsung, a 850 PRO 256 GB SSD, could be the same, until I inspected the 2 new ones and the second repair shop-exchanged flat ribbon cable SATA 821-1312-A in my mac yesterday, all in all 3 of them, and saw that mechanical damaging across the ribbon, deformations, guiding scratches and pre denting was there from the start!

That may explain why some here have pointed out that non original cables for a few bucks sometimes function better in that aspect. That is the most frustrating and annoying thing. All this fiddling, time spent and efforts all in vain for this massive Repair Shop filler around the world.

Thanks again.

That may be so but it is far less common with an HDD than an SSD for reasons that are very simple to understand, SSD's take the cable to the maximum transfer rate it can accommodate, unlike HDD's which use just a fraction of the bandwidth. The cable can still fail for reasons not connected to bandwidth in use, but it is rare. (rarer than when maximum bandwidth is required)

Certainly, I´m obliged to agree, when you inform me on the different ways of specific disc operation transfers and that must be why the mechanical HDD is far more cunning to troubleshoot.

The ageing cable starts to wear out and slowly dismember, but nevertheless functions intermittently most of the time,

and one suspects some software issues being the main root of the problem boot.

I think that squishing the cable between a hot, vibrating device. like the hard drive and a slightly abrasive, hard surface, like the inside of the case, is a big part of the problem. That and expecting the cable to perform at its absolute limits after some years of wear. Fortunately it is a simple and cheap fix.

Software plays no part in this issue.

I have an strange instance of this. My 2012 MBP that had an SSD in it for over a year failed to boot last week, with the question mark on folder. Disk Utility did not see that there was a drive attached. However when plugged into USB, it worked fine.

The interesting thing is that I swapped out the "failed" Patriot SSD for a Samsung SSD from another MBP and it runs fine! I then put the "failed" Patriot SSD in my other 2011 MBP, and it boots fine.

So I've ordered another drive cable just to see if it makes a difference. But this does seem strange. I think there is something in the Patriot firmware that isn't able to handle this issue correctly. It may be related to a failing cable, but it is still SSD related.

I have the same problem with my MacBook Pro late 2012, although my OS was still running (with a lot of beachballs).

I found a different discussion where someone brought his MacBook to the AppleStore and got it repaired with a simple new SATA-Connector:

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/99521/macbook-pro-boots-successfully-wh en-using-hard-drive-in-usb-enclosure-but-doesn

This may or may not help. I will either try this or replace the SuperDrive and install the SSD via that connection and hope it will fix the problem.