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Mid 2010 Model A1278 / 2.4 or 2.66 GHz Core 2 Duo processor

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ssd detected but cannot be used in finder/disk utility

Hi guys,

I bought a new SSD drive (Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500GB) last year. I replaced the HD in my MacBook by this SSD and I replaced the CD-drive by the HD. So I have one SSD and one HD in my mac. I formatted everything, I chose the SSD as my main drive and everything was working well... until my laptop froze last week and shut down. When I turned it on, I couldn't do anything (stuck on the first page when you have the apple logo and it's loading). So I used the recovery mode and used my HD as boot disk. I had a look at Disk Utility and I could see my SSD but it's in gray... So I cannot access it or repair anything. The data is still in it because I scanned it with a software and all my files are on it... I tried to repair permissions but I still cannot access it.

It's weird because it feels like my laptop detects the SSD but cannot use it

What's wrong?

thanks

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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This is a classic case of a drive cable failure!

You'll need to follow this IFIXIT guide: MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2010 Hard Drive Cable Replacement and this is the part you should put in: MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable. Yes, this is a newer models part which is better than the original part.

Sadly you are likely going to need to reformat your SSD. You might want to try to save what you have on it by using a SATA to USB adapter like this one: Startech 2.5" SATA to USB adapter

Update (05/11/2017)

The best way I can answer this is think it like water going though a pipe. If the pipe is leaking some water still gets though, just not all of the water you expected.

Thats the case here as the data pressure is the water so a low pressure (low rate of data) will get though the weak connection but as soon as you over pressurize the connection you start loosing too much.

We continually replace them in our systems. My users are hard on their gear banging the system around. The SATA cable flexes so over time the thin copper lines weaken. Often people will throw a HD back in and tell me its working now so how could it be the cable! This gets into the ability of the SSD being able to move more data across the connection. For reference:

  • Samsung Spinpoint 2 TB HD SATA III (6.0 Gb/s)
    • Write - 250 MB/s (2.0 Gb/s)
    • Read - 300 MB/s (2.4 Gb/s)
  • Samsung 850 EVO 2 TB SSD SATA III (6.0 Gb/s)
    • Write - 452.3 MB/s (3.62 Gb/s)
    • Read - 512.7 MB/s (4.1 Gb/s)

As you can see the SSD can move more data in or out Vs the HD

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable Image

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MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable

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15 Comments:

Thank you. I just have one question regarding your answer. How is it possible that I can see my SSD drive in disk utility (even if it's in grey) and how can a software scan my SSD and see the files inside if the cable is the problem?

If it's a cable failure I shouldn't see anything no?

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Baptiste - See my update above.

by

Dan, where can I get that hard drive? That is really fast.

by

@pccheese - Here's the full description of the HD: Samsung Seagate Spinpoint M9T 2TB 2.5-Inch SATA 6Gb/s 32MB Cache Internal Hard Drive (ST2000LM003).

I'm about ready to swap out mine to a still faster drive a Samsung 4 TB 850 EVO SSD!

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thank you so much

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Baptiste Poirault will be eternally grateful.
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