Help with SSD and Yosemite.

[crjackson2134]

But could it be the SATA Cable is going bad? I don't want to buy a new drive and have the same problem..... Does anyone know how to test?

You already tested it when you put back the original drive.

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The SATA cable is just fine. If it was going bad, your original Hard Drive would not work either.

^^^^^^^ This ^^^^^^^^^^

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I understand , but if you can return it then do so and buy one from those I listed.

I agree....

 

[kslingo]

Im just going to return it and get my money back... Thanks for all your help...

 

[tonycooper]

Hi, sorry to gate crash, but I am about to install a new SSD in my late 2008 MacBook Pro, like you were attempting to do, but I do not have the original hard drive.

You mentioned that you used a bootable USB, any chance you could explain the steps to create a Yosemite one please? I assume this would work with a brand new hard drive? I have access to another MacBook.

Thanks very much

 

[deviant]

Hi, sorry to gate crash, but I am about to install a new SSD in my late 2008 MacBook Pro, like you were attempting to do, but I do not have the original hard drive.

You mentioned that you used a bootable USB, any chance you could explain the steps to create a Yosemite one please? I assume this would work with a brand new hard drive? I have access to another MacBook.

Thanks very much

Download Yosemite, download http://liondiskmaker.com this, insert any empty USB drive be it flash or Hdd or whatever and dismaker will do everything then reboot holding alt and install from there

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Im just going to return it and get my money back... Thanks for all your help...

If you want to saturate sata 2 speeds take the 840 Evo (read write +-260) m500 is read 250 write 130, mx100 is a little faster then m500 in writes. Anyway, whatever you put inside you will not likely feel any difference as read speed is what more important so go with whatever you prefer. 840 evo is the most expensive (80$ on Amazon), m500 is the oldest, mx100 is the unofficial update to m500. I went with 840 and m500 but mx100 wasn't yet released at that point. If you want to save a few Bucks mx100 is the most balanced choice. Those 3 are the most reliable and probably best SSDs you can buy

 

[tonycooper]

Download Yosemite, download http://liondiskmaker.com this, insert any empty USB drive be it flash or Hdd or whatever and dismaker will do everything then reboot holding alt and install from there

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If you want to saturate sata 2 speeds take the 840 Evo (read write +-260) m500 is read 250 write 130, mx100 is a little faster then m500 in writes. Anyway, whatever you put inside you will not likely feel any difference as read speed is what more important so go with whatever you prefer. 840 evo is the
most expensive (80$ on Amazon), m500 is the oldest, mx100 is the unofficial update to m500. I went with 840 and m500 but mx100 wasn't yet released at that point. If you want to save a few Bucks mx100 is the most balanced choice. Those 3 are the most reliable and probably best SSDs you can buy

Thanks very much.
Is this software free? Easy to use? Am slightly concerned that with a blank hard drive fitted, but no bootable USB drive, holding Alt key does not bring up the boot menu..... Should it?

Thanks again

 

[benji888]

Another question I have is could it be that the system doesn't like the sata 3 drive because it is only compatible with sata 2?

I have heard of issues like this, but with 2008 machines, so probably not the problem.

If you haven't taken it back yet, I'm thinking it may be the formatting. Try this:

boot from your HDD that works, wherever that is, it doesn't matter. Connect the SSD, either way, external, internal, doesn't matter, just as long as you boot from the HDD, but have both drives connected.

use Apple's Disk Utility to Format the SSD, go to the "Partition" tab, be sure to use "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)", click on "Options" and select "GUID Partition Table", and partition the drive. Install Yosemite on the SSD and you should now be able to boot from it. If not, then, yeah, the drive is the problem.

EDIT: I'm 99% sure any drive needs to have the "GUID Partition Table" in order to boot Yosemite. ...just formatting as "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" may not be enough.

 

[deviant]

I have heard of issues like this, but with 2008 machines, so probably not the problem.

These issues were on 2009 late mac mini and if i remember correctly 2008 MacBooks, but it was different because they had nvidia sata controllers and these controllers (despite being sata 2) saw any sata3 sandforce drive as sata1, which killed the purpose of SSDs