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The March 2015 update of Apple's 13" MacBook Pro Retina Display, model A1502, features fifth-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and introduces the Force Touch trackpad.

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Can't read internal SSD

Please help me with this issue, With Internal Drive in, the machine seems to be having issues booting and/or recognizing the drive, I only hear the startup sound and that’s all. When the internal drive is out that’s when it’s will show the question mark(?) which I know it means it can’t find the startup drive, Booting from external works fine only when the internal drive is disconnected, with the internal drive connected it can’t even boot or see the external drive.

What might be causing this issue to happen and how to sort it out.

Thank you in advanced..

Juelm

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It sounds like your SSD is bad. Lets try this and if it fails to work then you’ll need a new drive.

Press and hold the Command (⌘) & R Keys to get into recovery mode. There are two versions one onboard in a hidden partition and the other is the internet recovery. If you go to the internet recovery then the drive is more likely gone. Even still see if you can get to Disk Utility to try to reformat and re-install the OS.

Do keep in mind Internet recovery is a slow process so you should try to connect over a fast WiFi or if you can, over an Ethernet connection to your networks hub/router and hopefully a fast Internet connection.

Reference: Mac startup key combinations

Let us know how it goes. If the drive is gone we can guide you to a replacement.

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6 Comments:

Hello Dan, The drive doesn't show in Disk Utility. When the drive is installed/connected the machine cant do anything past the startup chim, For me to go past the startup Chim I have to disconnect the Drive first, go into Disk Utility and connect it after I've inter the Disk Utility. I've tried different Drive that are working in different machine. This drive is working fine on different machines

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Did you get in to Recovery Mode at all? Did you update the OS to High Sierra on the drive? If you did you likely have a messed up boot loader as your systems firmware won't recognize the newer APFS file system. This is where you could be stuck if you loaded/updated the OS from a second system onto this SSD, as the OS installer will update your systems EFI with the needed firmware but only if you run the OS installed from the system its self.

Create a USB thumb drive installer following this guide: How to create a bootable macOS High Sierra installer drive. Then reboot your system holding down the Option (⌥) key to get to the boot manager if the system won't boot up under the USB drive by its self.

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I have an external HD with Mac OS High Siera installed, I can boot into this external only if there is no internal Drive connected. Once the internal Drive is connected I only go up to the startup chim, I can't even get the option to select boot drive. I'll press the [alt] key until i give up or until I remove this internal drive.

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Lets give this a try restart your system with the SSD drive installed. As soon as you turn on the system press and hold the Command (⌘) & R Keys, keep holding them until the system responds with the Apple Logo. That will get you to the recovery option you have to start there.

The {alt} key won't help you here.

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Hello Dan,

Tried that still no luck, Pressing Command & R only takes me to internal install, it's currently running at the moment. Not sure if it will work.

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The issue may be due to a bad install of Mac OS. Have you tried re-installing the OS?

If you need the files you will need to connect the SSD to another system using an adapter.

If the issue is not due to a bad install, you may need to replace the drive entirely. You can purchase a drive from iFixit here: [linked product missing or disabled: IF123-123] I assume you already know how to replace the drive as you said you removed it previously, so I won’t bother posting a link to an iFixit guide.

Either of these solutions will require eventually re-installing the OS. You can easily find .iso files for Mac OS online so with a quick google search you should be able to start re-installing Mac OS on a new drive.

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Joel Mooke will be eternally grateful.
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