Fix Your Stuff Community Store

2.26 or 2.4 GHz / White plastic unibody enclosure

645 Questions View all

Options

MacBook won't recognise new SSD?

Having a weird problem with an old 2010 Unibody that I’m looking to restore. Device came with no HD so I bought a new SSD which I formatted and installed Mojave on (via terminal non-interactive steps) using a SSD > USB adapter.

My MBP recognises the device just fine, both when booted and when launching into Disc Utility mode. But when I connect the device to the Macbook via the SSD ribbon, nothing. When I also connect using the USB adapter, same. If I drop a random USB drive, it recognises it so I think that rules out the USB connectors being an issue.

Am I missing something simple here, or should I backup to an earlier version of MacOS?

Thanks for any advice!

Answer this question I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Yes No
Score 0
5 Comments

Did you already try plugging another hard drive into the internal ribbon cable to rule out a faulty cable/port ?

by

I haven't, no. Just don't have a spare to hand atm. But, the odd thing for me is the USB. Faulty cable I can understand and replace, but no clue why the drive isn't being recognised via USB (especially when it's fine on my MBP).

I'll hunt around and see if I can find another drive try. Tnx

by

I've got the 2.4 GHz model (mid 2010)

by

Same specs other than the CPU

by

Add a comment

1 Answer

Filter by:
Most Helpful Newest Oldest
Most Helpful Answer

Options

You have a few different issues here!

First your system really can’t support Mojave. While your systems BIOS (EFI) is 64bit clean. The limits of 8 GB of RAM does limit you on what you can run on it. I would stick with Sierra as the highest version for this system. Read on Why!

High Sierra & Mojave introduced a new file system for SSD’s APFS. Your systems BIOS does not know how to use it! It can only handle the older HFS+ file system.

During a normal OS install the installer updates the systems firmware (EFI) as you didn’t (nor can you) run the OS installer directly on your MacBook you didn’t update the systems firmware. Basically, you hit a catch22 problem! The drive is now APFS which the system can’t read! As you can’t run the OS installer on your system you can’t upgrade the systems firmware and besides the installer doesn’t have the needed firmware code to update so you’re stuck!

The last issue is the limit of your systems SATA ports. Both ports only support SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) drives. Depending on the SSD you installed it may not be able to match up with the SATA II data rate. More and more drives are moving to a fixed SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) which won’t run in SATA II systems. There are still a few multi-speed (Auto sense) drives like the Samsung EVO 860

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 2

3 Comments:

Oh goodness, rookie error! I didn't even think about Mojave being the source of the problem! My my SATA drive is meant to be backwards compatible, but I'll get another drive to rule that out as well.

I'll report back once I do both. Thanks very much for your help!

by

FYI this is the drive I got, which claims to be compatible w/SATA II

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B075...

I think I'll try Sierra first - then try a new drive next. Again I'm very thankful for your help

by

Sorry I don't see compatibility for SATA II (2 bars) I only see SATA III (3 bars) support.

What can confuse people is the data rate 3.0 Gb/s is SATA II not SATA III which has a data rate of 6.0 Gb/s.

by

Add a comment

Add your answer

Geoffrey McCaleb will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 0

Past 7 Days: 0

Past 30 Days: 1

All Time: 101