Boot progress-bar stops halfway after SSD upgrade.

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Boot progress-bar stops halfway after SSD upgrade.

I upgraded my late 2008 Macbook Pro 15" with a new OCZ Trion 100 SSD, but I cannot get it to boot correctly afterwards.

First I tried booting from the recovery-partition on my old hard-drive (connected via a SATA->USB adapter) and running a clean install of OS X on the SSD. After about 1h the machine rebooted. I got to the normal gray screen with apple-logo and progress-bar and everything seemed fine, except, the progress-bar wont move past the halfway point no mater how long I leave it there.

I thought I had ****** something up during the install, so I redid it, but same problem.

Then I swapped back to my old hard-drive, which booted fine, and cloned the old install to the SSD by using SuperDuper!. Swapped the drives back, and still get the same error.

I tried resetting NVRAM, no dice. Tried booting safe-mode, no dice.

So I removed the SSD again, and connected it via my external SATA->USB adapter, and lo and behold, it boots fine from that.

Anyone got any idea why I can't boot with the SSD connected internally?

The drive seems to work fine since it works when connected via USB, and the SATA-connector in the computer works with the old hard-drive.

OCZ states that the drive should work with OS X, but I'm thinking compatibility issue with my old as Macbook?

Any tips that I can try? Other then getting another brand SSD.

Thanks'.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jul 12, 2015 3:40 AM

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Answer 1

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Jul 12, 2015 3:51 AM in response to tofen

I have seen on these forums where the installation of a SSD requires a new internal SATA cable, especially on an older MBP. I will not say that this will solve your problem, but all the symptoms that you have posted suggest that the internal connection is the problem.

Ciao.

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Answer 2

tofen Author

Level 1

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Jul 12, 2015 4:25 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Is there a new version of the SATA-cable? Or is it just that the cables gets old and worn?

Since my other hard-drive works fine, I'm inclined to believe that my current cable is working just fine.

If it is a new version of the cable that is needed, how do one find out the correct part-number necessary?

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Answer 3

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Jul 12, 2015 6:51 AM in response to tofen

tofen wrote:

Is there a new version of the SATA-cable? Or is it just that the cables gets old and worn?

I do not know.

Since my other hard-drive works fine, I'm inclined to believe that my current cable is working just fine.

It is working fine for the HDD but not the SSD. That is essentially the point. I am not providing you with a guaranteed solution, rather an avenue that I feel you should investigate based on what I have observed on these forums.

Ciao.

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Answer 4

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Jul 12, 2015 7:22 AM in response to tofen

Change the cable, this is a known issue. While the old cable may work with your old (slow) HDD it often will not with a drive that has 10 times the bandwidth requirements.

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Answer 5

tofen Author

Level 1

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Jul 12, 2015 7:29 AM in response to Csound1

OK. Thanks' for the help guys!

I'll see if I can get hold of a new cable then.

Hopefully it's not to expensive. The upgrade was already questionable if it was worth it.

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Answer 6

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Jul 12, 2015 7:32 AM in response to tofen

iFixit is a good source, the cable is (approx) $40

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Answer 7

Sep 1, 2015 11:19 AM in response to Csound1

We had this problem when attempting to swap in a new OCZ Trion 120GB SSD. The old Hitachi 5400RPM drive worked just fine but the computer could not even see the new SSD within Disk Utility when installed as a replacement, although we could see the drive fine when connecting using a SATA to USB adapter. I swapped in a new HDD cable and had no issues afterward.

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Answer 8

ranger81

Level 1

4 points

Nov 27, 2015 11:07 AM in response to Computer Cellar

Hi,

Just to let you all know. This issue is not caused by the cable. There is a support thread on the OCZ forums and the manufacturer confirmed, that the Trion 100 series SSD is incompatible with the Nvidia Chipset used in older MacBooks... The suggest to get in contact with the OCZ support to get this fixed (I'm interested in how they will do this since there is no Firmware upgrade available)...

here is the thread: Problem with installing OS X to the new SSD (Known incompatibility ...

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