Replacing SSD in 2011 Macbook Pro

[Annon2255]

A friend's Macbook Pro started booting to a screen with a folder and a question mark. He decided it was the hard drive and wanted to replace it with an SSD, but he wasn't comfortable installing it. Now, I've never worked with a Mac but figured it couldn't be that complicated (famous last words).

So we got a new Samsung EVO 840, installed it (this was extremely easy).
Now, I thought I might be able to boot from the online recovery. When I start it up the new SSD isn't recognized in the disk manager. After doing some reading I realized it needs to be formatted before it will be recognized.

So I tried to make a USB recovery from the Mavericks installer from a different Macbook. I formatted it journaled, restored with the Mac OSX Install ESO (From InstallESD.dmg). Now, I plug the USB drive in, hold the command key upon boot, and no USB drive is detected.

Soooo... I obviously haven't figured out how to do this. Can anyone give me any guidance on this?

 

[CA19100]

Not sure if it's the solution to your problem, by try holding the Option key during boot. That's the key (not Command) that'll bring up the list of available boot volumes. May take a few extra seconds for a USB or optical disc to show up.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

When you boot from online recovery, you should be able to launch Disk Utility and format it. The only caveat is that it needs to be formatted GPT and not MBR.

 

[TheStu]

Yea, Recovery is designed to work with a completely blank drive, if it didn't it wouldn't be very good at its job.

 

[Annon2255]

Ah, okay. So then could the SATA cable be what is messed up? Can I just tell my friend to take it to the Apple store to get that replaced?

 

[C_A_S]

There is no obvious sign you have a SATA cable issue. There is an issue with recognising your USB drive (thumb drive or USB external?).

Sometimes I've found certain brands of USB drives (like WD for one) do not play well with becoming bootable drives for OSX.

But, I'm assuming that is not the case for this one. You just need to hold down the Option key as mentioned above, then select the external recovery partition, then proceed with formatting the new SSD.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4848?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

 

[Annon2255]

Yeah, I've been holding the option key. When I do that nothing comes up, just Internet Recovery option after it spins its wheels for a few minutes. When in recovery my USB drive is recognized, so I don't know if it's the drive's fault. And I've reformatted it several times just in case.


So, just going into the recovery I should be able to see and format the new SSD I installed. Is that correct? Then if this new drive isn't even being seen in the disk utility could that mean the SATA cable is bad? I've read several instances where that has been the case which is why I bring it up.


Thanks for everyone's help so far. I'm a total Apple noob.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

So, just going into the recovery I should be able to see and format the new SSD I installed. Is that correct?

Yes

Then if this new drive isn't even being seen in the disk utility could that mean the SATA cable is bad? I've read several instances where that has been the case which is why I bring it up.

Could be the cable. Could be the drive. Could be the HDD wasn't what was wrong with the machine in the first place. (In which case, like most laptops, you'd need a new motherboard.)

As far as your USB stick not being recognized as bootable but being seen later, you probably partitioned it wrong. Or the clone utility didn't work right when you restored the InstallESD.dmg file to it. No judgement there - I know what I'm doing and I still only get an OS X USB stick to work about 2/3rds of the time. It's just finicky. Carbon Copy Cloner seems to work better than Disk Utility.

 

[ViRGE]

As far as your USB stick not being recognized as bootable but being seen later, you probably partitioned it wrong. Or the clone utility didn't work right when you restored the InstallESD.dmg file to it. No judgement there - I know what I'm doing and I still only get an OS X USB stick to work about 2/3rds of the time. It's just finicky. Carbon Copy Cloner seems to work better than Disk Utility.

If you're going to play around with USB recovery drives, there are better tools for the job, IMHO:

http://liondiskmaker.com/

 

[dave_the_nerd]

If you're going to play around with USB recovery drives, there are better tools for the job, IMHO:

http://liondiskmaker.com/

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll give it a try next time around.

Hackintoshes and old MacBooks don't do the Internet Recovery thing very well. Or at all, really. ()

 

[Annon2255]

If you're going to play around with USB recovery drives, there are better tools for the job, IMHO:

http://liondiskmaker.com/

Hey, thanks so much for this suggestion. Using that I got the USB drive to work.

However, the SSD still isn't recognized the disk utility. I tested this SSD in another PC and it was recognized, so I know it works. Any other ideas? Should I just tell my friend to take his MBP to the Apple store and see what they can figure out?

 

[C_A_S]

Why not just take the SSD back out, use that little sata to usb cable it comes with or an external enclosure, plug it in via USB, and see if the MBP recognises the disc to format then? If it doesn't, see if you can use another mac (not pc) to format the drive (as an external disk).

If it is visible and formatted, replace it back into the mac. If it still shows up as a question mark, you may indeed have a SATA cable issue. These are replaceable.

Check out http://www.ifixit.com for detailed guides

 

[Annon2255]

Why not just take the SSD back out, use that little sata to usb cable it comes with or an external enclosure, plug it in via USB, and see if the MBP recognises the disc to format then? If it doesn't, see if you can use another mac (not pc) to format the drive (as an external disk).

If it is visible and formatted, replace it back into the mac. If it still shows up as a question mark, you may indeed have a SATA cable issue. These are replaceable.

Check out http://www.ifixit.com for detailed guides

I'll see if I can pick up a SATA to USB adapter and format it that way. Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[C_A_S]

I'll see if I can pick up a SATA to USB adapter and format it that way. Thanks for the suggestion!

When I bought my Samsung 830s, they came with a cheap little plastic sata to usb cable in the box, check and see if you didn't get one with the drives

 

[Annon2255]

When I bought my Samsung 830s, they came with a cheap little plastic sata to usb cable in the box, check and see if you didn't get one with the drives

Nah, this didn't. Just Drive, CD, Warranty info, and guide.

 

[Koing]

When I bought my Samsung 830s, they came with a cheap little plastic sata to usb cable in the box, check and see if you didn't get one with the drives

That SATA to USB cable came in my 830 Pro as well. It's because you got a full retail or full retail and laptop kit.

OP once you format it I'm sure it'll work.

Koing

 

[sa7an1]

MBP HDD cables are notorious for failing

 

[C_A_S]

Check out ifixit.com for lots of resources, even the part.

First, the troubleshooting process.

http://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/MacBook_Pro_15%22_Troubleshooting

Run a hardware test, by pressing D while booting from your usb

If its not a logic board/north bridge chip issue, its just the SATA cable. Ifixit will have a guide, and its not a difficult repair.

Yes, its a known problem, this SATA cable one.

http://www.hardmac.com/news/2011/03/17/about-the-ssd-sata-iii-problem-in-the-2011-macbook-pro

 

[secretanchitman]

Might be the actual sata/ribbon cable. Helped a friend install an SSD in her 13" 2011 MBP and using Diskmaker X/Lion Diskmaker to boot into an install of 10.9.2, the SSD just would not detect internally but when put into an external it was fine.

She went to the Apple Store, the genius bar replaced the cable and the drive was detected once inside the computer. What was weird was that the stock 500GB drive that came with the computer worked perfectly but when the SSD was installed it simply refused to be detected. Didn't realize that the ribbon/sata cable can be so picky.

 

[C_A_S]

Might be the actual sata/ribbon cable. Helped a friend install an SSD in her 13" 2011 MBP and using Diskmaker X/Lion Diskmaker to boot into an install of 10.9.2, the SSD just would not detect internally but when put into an external it was fine.

She went to the Apple Store, the genius bar replaced the cable and the drive was detected once inside the computer. What was weird was that the stock 500GB drive that came with the computer worked perfectly but when the SSD was installed it simply refused to be detected. Didn't realize that the ribbon/sata cable can be so picky.

Its been a known issue, putting SATA III drives in these 2011 MBP and having issues. I'm not sure its a pure hardware issue, but here's some background

http://blog.macsales.com/10433-macbook-pro-2011-models-and-sata-3-0-6-0gbs-update-5272011