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The Mac mini family was first introduced in January of 2005.

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SATA cable part # clarification

Hello,

I'd just like some consensus on this part number.

The SATA cable for my upper bay in my Late 2012 Mac Mini (running ML 10.8.5) has part number 821-1347-A, which is not working.

I have a 250 GB Samsung EVO as my systems boot drive in the lower bay, which is working, using the original cable (part # 821-1501)

The drive in my upper bay is a 500 GB Samsung EVO drive.

I had prepped it using a USB enclosure, so it was the proper format before I even installed it. It has only shown up *sometimes* when I start up my computer, saying it is unreadable. When I try to initialize it, it either can't unmount the drive, or won't partition and loses connection. I can provide the specific error messages later but at the moment the drive is not showing up in disk utility after a few restarts (and shutting down, then powering back on if that makes any difference)

I have tried several different things, so many that I can't recall any of them specifically. I know I booted into partedmagic and did a secure erase of the SSD to no avail.

What I am hoping is that there is a simple fix, such as a different cable? I have seen some kits that have a cable with part # 821-1501-A, that are supposed to be used for the same purpose as 821-1347-A.

Long story short: Is there a way to get a Dual SSD setup to work in a Late 2012 Mac Mini?

Is this Fusion Drive business perhaps messing it up? As it doesn't know what to do with 2 SSD's? Maybe updating to Mavericks will help?

Thanks in advance,

Chris

Update

The 821-1347-A cable works with HDD's, but not my Samsung EVO SSD!

Update

I ordered a cable from OWC and it works. Two SSD's in my mac mini!

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Can you give us the last four digits of your systems serial number so we can correctly identify which exact model you have. Apple has made quite a few different versions of the Mac mini all of which look very similar.

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Hey sorry I am located in Sweden, hence the late reply due to time differences.

It is a Mac Mini 6,2, seen here:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ma...

Since my post I have determined it is a faulty cable. I switched the drives places, and the other drive does not work with the cable either. The original cable works when connected to both sata connectors, ruling out that it was a bad sata port, whereas the faulty cable works on neither (i was starting up the mini while opened up so i could finagle the connection with both cables on both ports).

When the faulty cable actually does recognize the drive, the partition(s) on it are greyed out, and can't be mounted.

But, in essence, a cable is a cable, right? 821-1347-a and 821-1501-a should be and do the same exact thing shouldn't they? As long as they are the correct size to match up to the upper bay.

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Apple Mac mini "Core i7" 2.3 (Late 2012) Two SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) ports

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The only difference the 821-1347-A has the folding marks and is the newer part.

The issue here is the construction of the cable. Remember the older system offered a SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) interface while the newer model offered a SATA III (6.0 Gb/s).

Given your symptoms I suspect the cable is in fact the older part 821-1501-A (no fold markings) and does not have the needed shielding to support the higher data rate or it is defective.

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Oh wow so I definitely should not be getting 821-1501-A as a replacement then. Thank you for the great info, I was almost going to get that one after becoming wary of the 821-1347-A not working. But after my tests it is apparent it is a defective cable.

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Well, I just tried something I should have done a while ago, but didn't think to because I had already put the original spinning drive in an external enclosure.

But the cable works with that drive. So the cable 821-1347-A does not work with SSD's (at least samsung evo's) for me, but does just fine with HDD's. I noticed some others saying the same thing here:

Dual Hard Drive kit with Samsung Pro 840 256

Now I'm just wondering whyyyyy :(

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I would first see if the EFI is at the latest for the system. Checkout this Apple TN: EFI & SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs Then try reversing the drives. Let us know what happens.

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Thanks for the reply, I had tried that some number of days ago. On that page there is only Mac Mini 6,1 listed, mine is 6,2. But I had downloaded the installer anyways and it said everything was already up to date. I have also already tried switching the drives.

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