Is Intel SSD 480GB compatible with iMac?

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Is Intel SSD 480GB compatible with iMac?

I am trying to install an Intel SSD DC S3500 series model SSDSC2BB480G4 on my iMac Late 2015 (2.8GHz MK442LL/A - iMac16,2 - A1418 - EMC2889). The problem I am having is that Disk Utility has the partition button grayed out on this SSD, so I formatted it for Mac (OS X Entered - Journaled).

As a result, Carbon Copy Cloner gives me message that at heart this ssd is not fully compatible with Mac. Should I go ahead with the cloning process? I tried copying a test file to the SSD and it worked. But I am not sure if CCC's message is a warning that I should ignore.

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Jul 28, 2016 4:31 PM

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Answer 1

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,726 points

Jul 28, 2016 4:33 PM in response to Paul Santos

Check the partition map scheme. It may not be GUID, which is required for OS X and Time Machine.

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Answer 2

babowa

Level 9

78,568 points

Jul 28, 2016 4:40 PM in response to Paul Santos

Just out of curiosity, you installed this SSD inside your iMac? Or is this just an external?

And, unless your formatted it GUID partition scheme, a clone would not be bootable.

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Answer 3

Paul Santos Author

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17 points

Jul 28, 2016 5:04 PM in response to Kurt Lang

I used terminal and found that the partition is FDisk, which is wrong! In the forum I found some threads talking about a bug in diskutil in El Capitan: same problem as mine, partition button is grayed out. But I found the solution there: Erase it with GUID/HFS+. After that I got the GUID partition scheme transferred. So I am doing the cloning now.

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Answer 4

Paul Santos Author

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17 points

Jul 28, 2016 5:06 PM in response to babowa

I am making it bootable now through cloning. Will test it and if everything is fine I will put it inside the iMac. Correct I have GUID through terminal. There is definitely a bug in diskutil.

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Answer 5

babowa

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78,568 points

Jul 28, 2016 5:22 PM in response to Paul Santos

I see - depending on your iMac's age, do you realize that you will void your warranty if it's less than a year old?

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Answer 6

Paul Santos Author

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Jul 28, 2016 5:36 PM in response to babowa

I rather have my SSD and no warranty than a useless 5400 rpm drive. Frankly, it is an insult to sell us such crappy drive.

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Answer 7

Kurt Lang

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68,726 points

Jul 28, 2016 6:58 PM in response to Paul Santos

Not sure what you mean by FDisk as a drive type. Fdisk is a Microsoft command line function to create, change, add, or remove existing partitions. It's not a type of partition. Common partition map schemes are Apple's old Apple Partition Map, Microsoft's old Master Boot Record, and GUID.

GUID has become the defacto for all modern computers. Even MS finally dumped MBR as Windows 10 also requires GUID.

Anyway, you did what I suggested and repartioned the drive as GUID.

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Answer 8

Paul Santos Author

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17 points

Jul 29, 2016 6:59 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Must have been something similar to FD... then. First time around did not work, so I have to create recovery HD on the SSD first, then the cloning worked. The drive works well, bought it for 100 bucks from someone who didn't care, and brand new by the way. Black magic score near to 500 read and write, but I'm happy. The world is a better place now.

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Answer 9

Kurt Lang

Level 9

68,726 points

Jul 29, 2016 7:24 AM in response to Paul Santos

While some of the newest drives are all coming from the factory as GUID, most are still defaulting to Master Boot Record, and the format as NTFS in the assumption you are installing it in a Windows computer. Nothing "wrong" with either SSD drive you purchased, they just needed to have a GUID partition map created before you could use them.

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Answer 10

Paul Santos Author

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17 points

Jul 29, 2016 7:29 AM in response to Kurt Lang

Exactly, thanks for posting a nice conclusion to it.

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