Will an APFS SSD from my dead Mac boot up in another machine?

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Will an APFS SSD from my dead Mac boot up in another machine?

2011 MBP17" joined the ranks of multiple logic board failures. You know the feeling.

I had already installed an SSD, and it worked great. Formatted APFS and running High Sierra.

Can I remove this SSD from my now non-working MBP and boot from it in another machine without formatting it? I really need to trim it down in size so it can fit on a newer machine with less storage.

I DO have a Time Machine backup, but don't really want to erase this SSD leaving me with ONLY that TM data.

Can I pop it into a 2010 MBP13" and expect it to just fire right up? Can I put this SSD in a dock and expect other Macs to mount it?

Posted on Mar 12, 2018 2:19 PM

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Answer 1

Groves Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 13, 2018 8:29 AM in response to y_p_w

It's an Orico drive dock.

I'm plugging it into a 2016 MBP running High Sierra.

Here is Disk Utility showing the greyed out volume. It says unmounted, but will not mount when I control-click and select mount.

It was a working system in my 2011 MBP before the board failure.

ALSO, I have put this SSD into a 2010 MBP and instead of booting, it gives me the flashing folder with question mark.

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Answer 2

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 12, 2018 2:44 PM in response to Groves

Yes. The 2.5" drive format will fit in any model the does not currently use PCIe flash SSDs. It will work in your 2010 MBP. It can also be installed in an external enclosure supporting Firewire 800 or USB 3.0. However, your older models only supported USB 2.0 which is too slow for SSDs.

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Answer 3

Groves Author

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Mar 12, 2018 2:48 PM in response to Kappy

I have pulled the SSD, but when I put it into a dock connected to a 2016 MBP Touch Bar, it doesn't mount.

Disk Utility shows it, but it says "uninitialized".

Is there any issue with APFS formatted drives being used in docks?

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Answer 4

y_p_w

Level 6

17,642 points

Mar 12, 2018 3:21 PM in response to Groves

Groves wrote:

I have pulled the SSD, but when I put it into a dock connected to a 2016 MBP Touch Bar, it doesn't mount.

Disk Utility shows it, but it says "uninitialized".

Is there any issue with APFS formatted drives being used in docks?

Do you mean a USB or Thunderbolt enclosure? There shouldn't be as long as it's running High Sierra. I think even Sierra is supposed to be able to read APFS volumes. I had an APFS volume on an external exclosure and my mid-2012 MBP running High Sierra mounted it just fine.

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Answer 5

Mar 13, 2018 8:41 AM in response to Groves

Your Mac can support MANY additional drives as data drives, whether they contain any version of MacOS or not.

Booting from a drive is MUCH more complex than mounting that same drive as a data drive.

Only Sierra (sometimes) and High Sierra (more reliably) can read APFS-format drives.

Your Backup is not in APFS format, and can be restored to either HFS+ extended (the older Mac drive format) or APFS (the newer Mac drive format).

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Answer 6

y_p_w

Level 6

17,642 points

Mar 13, 2018 8:59 AM in response to Groves

It's not going to reliably boot in another machine, even if there was nothing wrong with it. People have tried it. Sometimes it works somewhat, but then they find that there's something off about it like no audio.

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Answer 7

Groves Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 13, 2018 12:23 PM in response to y_p_w

I can understand not booting when shoved into the 2010MBP.

I thought for sure it would mount as a data drive when used in the dock connected to the 2016MBP running high Sierra.

I don't really want to format the SSD until I'm sure my TM backup will work.

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Answer 8

y_p_w

Level 6

17,642 points

Mar 13, 2018 3:18 PM in response to Groves

Groves wrote:

I don't really want to format the SSD until I'm sure my TM backup will work.

Have you thought of maybe getting/borrowing a hard drive to test if you can get a working OS out of your TM backup?

I hear a lot from people here who have corrupted drives, and I usually say that if the data is more important than the cost of a drive, don't reformat the drive and get a new one. Then save the old drive for future attempts at recovery. How old is the drive? New ones are getting cheaper and cheaper to the point where it might make sense to just get a new one rather than trying to salvage an old one via reformatting.

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Answer 9

Kappy

Level 10

361,741 points

Mar 12, 2018 3:21 PM in response to Groves

The dock you are using may have trouble with an APFS formatted SSD. I think the safest way to try it is to replace the one in your computer.

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Will an APFS SSD from my dead Mac boot up in another machine?

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