Late-2013 Mac 14,2 SSD replacement for internal HD

[WhiteHatPhil]

Good day everyone. I have just joined this forum and after unsuccessfully searching for an answer to my question, I have posted it here. If this is the wrong forum, please move it to the correct one

I have a late-2013 27-inch iMac14.2 which had a 3TB Fusion Drive (the SSD Blade was/is 128GB). It is i7, 4-core, and has 32GB RAM.

I decided to replace the HD with a Western Digital WD Green 1TB SSD and the replacement process was fine. I used the OWC SATA cable with Temperature Sensor, even though I'd read that the 14,2 doesn't need it.

On first use the SSD was problematic in that it kept getting rejected and eventually it was not recognised by Disk Utility in normal or recovery mode. I took the plunge and reopened the Mac, took out the SSD and reformatted it (APFS) using my MacBook and a drive enclosure.

Put the drove back in, sealed up the machine and everything was fine. At first.

Then it started getting rejected again.

I got the “Disk not ejected properly message” about 3 or 4 times every day. I had to reset the SMC for the Mac to recognise the drive. And I went through the same process of mounting, erasing etc etc.

Then the Mac started doing the same thing with an EXTERNAL SSD (Western Digital WD Blue 512GB) that I use for TM backup.

I then had the mad idea of recreating a Fusion Drive from the two internal SSDs. Yes, I know..... Anyway, everything was fine again, and I reinstalled Catalina.

Then the next day, my Mac would not boot, even after resetting the SMC again. I went into recovery mode, and reformatted the internal (Fusion) drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) again, and reinstalled Catalina (which formatted the volumes as APFS).

I then rebooted into Safe Mode and left it alone for 24 hours. No errors shown. Rebooted into normal mode and straightaway had a problem with the External SSD. It would not pass first aid and it would not erase. BUT - it was fine on my MacBook and I was able to erase and reformat with no problem.

Tried first aid again on internal drives (Recovery mode, Disk Utility) and it failed on the WD Green 1TB. Had to reset SMC again and then went into Recovery mode again to try and reinstall Catalina AGAIN.

The OS was installed and everything looked GREAT. Until I discovered that it had been installed onto the Blade 128GB SSD. The 1TB WD Green was nowhere to be seen! And the External WD Blue Backup has been running for 2 days now without issue.

Obviously I could chose to leave well alone but 1), 128GB isn't much to live on and 2) I am pissed off that I went through all that trouble and now, around a month later, i am worse off than before. There are options of course to reuse the 3TB spinner externally or even buy yet another SSD to use externally, but I am a stubborn old git, and I want an internal SSD like I planned lol!

I guess the bottom line is, do I take the plunge and buy another (NOT A WD) SSD and put it in? How can I determine if it was the drive that was the cause of the trouble, or was it the logic board not liking an internal SSD (and it would do the same to the next one).

Any advice, thoughts or insights would be most gratefully received! Thank you.

 

[lastargo]

Based on everything you’ve tried, I’d say the WD Green SSD is the most likely culprit. Those drives are generally not the best for Macs—I've seen plenty of issues with them, especially in older iMacs.

If you’re willing to open it up again, I’d go for a Crucial MX500 or a Samsung 870 EVO—both are much more reliable with macOS. Before you buy another SSD, though, you might want to test if the SATA connection itself is stable. Try plugging in a different known-working SATA SSD (even temporarily, from an external enclosure) and see if it stays recognized.

Another thing: since your external SSD works fine now, it makes me wonder if there’s a power delivery issue on the SATA port. The WD Green might be more sensitive to voltage drops than other drives. If you have a spare 2.5” SSD lying around, testing it internally could confirm if it's the drive or the logic board.

If it turns out to be a logic board issue, your best bet might be running macOS off an external SSD instead of dealing with more internal swaps. Not ideal, but at least you’d get stability.

I totally get the stubbornness—I’d want to make it work too.

 

[WhiteHatPhil]

Based on everything you’ve tried, I’d say the WD Green SSD is the most likely culprit. Those drives are generally not the best for Macs—I've seen plenty of issues with them, especially in older iMacs.

If you’re willing to open it up again, I’d go for a Crucial MX500 or a Samsung 870 EVO—both are much more reliable with macOS. Before you buy another SSD, though, you might want to test if the SATA connection itself is stable. Try plugging in a different known-working SATA SSD (even temporarily, from an external enclosure) and see if it stays recognized.

Another thing: since your external SSD works fine now, it makes me wonder if there’s a power delivery issue on the SATA port. The WD Green might be more sensitive to voltage drops than other drives. If you have a spare 2.5” SSD lying around, testing it internally could confirm if it's the drive or the logic board.

If it turns out to be a logic board issue, your best bet might be running macOS off an external SSD instead of dealing with more internal swaps. Not ideal, but at least you’d get stability.

I totally get the stubbornness—I’d want to make it work too.

Thank you very much for your insightful response.

My gut also tells me that it is the WD Green SSD that is the culprit, and the fact that I will have to open up the mac for the third time means I will probably never trust a Western Digital Drive again.

Having said that the WD Blue has been running perfectly as a TM Backup drive, running from an enclosure. So I will also try this in the internal SATA slot, as you suggest.

I have (hopefully not prematurely) ordered a Samsung EVO 870 1TB (as well as yet another set of screen adhesives!) and will install as soon as it arrives. However, I will somehow secure the screen in place and use for a good few days before I reseal it this time.

I would not relish the thought of running the OS from an External SSD, but I could live with it. The machine is too good for eWaste. It is running Ventura 13.7.3 happily courtesy of OCLP and I think it has a good few years left in it.


UPDATE:
Opened up the Mac again and replaced the WD Green with the Samsung EVO SSD.

Put the WD Green into a USB enclosure but had to grant Disk Utility Full Disk Access to format it. No idea if that is connected to the issues I had with it, but it is now set up as a TM drive, along with the the other WD Blue (518GB) SSD.

I installed OCLP/Ventura onto the new Samsung SSD and then migrated everything across from the Apple Blade.

Everything is working as it should be and according to Black Magic Speed Test, it is EXTREMELY fast compared to the old setup (Original Apple Fusion) so I am very pleased, but I am not counting my chickens! Especially as the Mac "ejected" both external SSDs once today. I will leave the screen taped to the body for a while yet before i seal it up!