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User profile for user: Seethinggit
Seethinggit Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

How do I format my new SSD properly

I have Mac Mini, late 2012, OS X Yosemite Version 10.10.4 2.5 Ghz Intel Core i5, 16Gb Ram, Intel HD Graphics 4000


I've recently added a 240Gb SSD to the machine.


It's booting up fine to the original drive, but I'm struggling to get the SSD to mount.


I've tried to reformat it - then realised that there was a problem that appear to be that the disk had a MBR boot record, rather than the GUID that it needs, I download Gdisk which let me sort this - but when I get it partitioned it only seems to mount momentarily and never verifies correctly - I've had a disk filing system Error 8 more than once.


I've tried doing this in Recovery mode - no real difference, and in Internet Recovery mode (which won't let me do anything other than reformat both drives as a hybrid drive - which ideally I would like, but I'd like to be sure that my new drive works before I take the plunge of deleting my existing drive)


I've also booted into single user mode and used fsck -fy - which appears to check that the original drive is OK, rather than the new one (presumably because it's still booting to the old one)


Any suggestions. It's a SanDisk SSD btw - I've not had any problems with their stuff before, so I'm guessing it's OK, also it is visible from the disk utility app, and the SMART monitoring shows it as verified.


Suggestions please ?

Mac mini, OS X Yosemite (10.10.4), Late 2012

Posted on Jul 18, 2015 1:06 PM

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User profile for user: Kappy
Kappy
User level: Level 10
361,741 points

Posted on Jul 18, 2015 1:08 PM

Drive Partition and Format


1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.


2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.


3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to one. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.


4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.


5. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Security button, check the button for Zero Data and click on OK to return to the Erase window.


6. Click on the Erase button. The format process can take up to several hours depending upon the drive size.

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User profile for user: Hedegaard8
Hedegaard8
User level: Level 1
4 points

Aug 3, 2016 12:34 PM in response to lllaass

Thank you for listening.

It is a Macbook Pro mid 2012.

Works great with old HDD.

Replaced with SSD (Sandisk III) and the system "hanged" on "waiting for drive" when doing an Erase.

Tried several ways to format, eraseDisk in Terminal and whole lot of things back & forth from different internet sources.

I installed the SSD on an external USB hub and it works fine, reformatted and installed OSX Capitan on it without problems.

Now I put it back into the Macbook and it just shows flashing folder.

The old HDD works fine in the Mac.


Just at a total loss now.

Tried ALT+CMD+P+R reset e.t.c. nothing helped.

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How do I format my new SSD properly

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