Mid 2009 MacBook Pro will not boot to internal Samsung EVO 850 SSD

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Level 1

20 points

Mid 2009 MacBook Pro will not boot to internal Samsung EVO 850 SSD

Another hard drive failed on my MacBook Pro (15 inch, 2.53 GHz, Mid 2009). I purchased a 1 TB Samsung EVO 850 to replace it.

I installed the EVO, booted to a Yosemite installer USB thumb drive, used Disk Utility to format the EVO, restored from Time Machine, booted to the internal EVO drive and all was well. I used it for a few hours and noticed I was only getting SATA I speeds, so I ran the MacBook firmware update (from EFI 1.6 to EFI 1.7). After the firmware update completed, the computer would not boot to the internal EVO drive (screen displays a grey circle with slash through).

I removed the EVO, connected it to the MacBook Pro with a SATA/USB adapter, booted to a Yosemite installer thumb drive, used Disk Utility to partition the EVO, and did a "clean" install of Yosemite to the EVO drive. The computer now boots if the EVO is connected via USB, but not if it is connected via SATA inside the computer.

If the EVO is attached via USB, I can copy large files from it to other attached drives without error. If the EVO is attached via internal SATA and I boot to a thumb drive, I can use Terminal to explore the EVO drive and read text files, but it errors out when I try to copy large files to other attached drives.

There are no firmware updates available for the 1 TB EVO 850 SSD drive on Samsung's website.

What is wrong and how can I fix this?

MacBook Pro (15-inch 2.4/2.2 GHz), OS X Yosemite (10.10.5)

Posted on Aug 19, 2015 12:17 AM

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Answer 1

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Aug 19, 2015 2:57 AM in response to tinpan

Replace the internal SSD/HHD connecting SATA cable.

These forums have many discussions documenting difficulties with Samsung EVO 850 SSDs. Samsung does not indicate Mac compatibility on their web site for these models. There have been success stories but based on the number of problems, I cannot recommend them for Macs. If possible, I would return the SSD. At the present time, OWC and Crucial SSDs get my nod of approval.

Ciao.

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Answer 2

tinpan Author

Level 1

20 points

Aug 31, 2015 2:35 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

I ordered a replacement internal hard drive cable for a 15" 2010 MacBook Pro and a Crucial SSD (Crucial BX100 1TB SATA).

After replacing the cable, the MacBook would sometimes boot to the internal SSD and sometimes not boot to the internal SSD. It did not matter if I used the Samsung EVO 850 or the Crucial BX100).

The replacement cable is a used cable, so I removed it, cleaned it's metal contact/connector points, put it back in the MacBook Pro, and now it boots well to either SSD drive.

Samsung EVO 850 versus Crucial BX100 was a red herring. I will be returning the Crucial.

The cable was the problem.

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