Resolved Mac Mini 2007 doesn't recognise SSD after upgrade

[searchbeest]

I just upgraded my 2007 Mac Mini with a new Crucial M500 240GB SSD. Problem is that the Mini won't recognise the drive when it boots up.

To run through everything I've tried:

• the new drive has been formatted and restored from the old HDD
• if I put the SSD in an enclosure, the Mini will boot from it no problem
• I tried putting the old HDD back in, it won't recognise it either...

...which tells me I'm not assembling it properly, but for the life of me I can't see anything wrong. I'm not new to this, I've already upgraded the RAM without issue.

Any suggestions as to what I should be looking for? Thanks.

 

[Intell]

You either are not putting the drive caddy back on properly of the SATA cable is damaged.

 

[searchbeest]

There is no SATA cable as the drive plugs directly on to the interconnect board. There's no obvious visual damage to any cables.

Possibly I'm not plugging the interconnect board properly into the motherboard, but it seems fine. When I boot with an external drive, it recognises the Superdrive, which suggests that the interconnect board is working ok.

 

[Intell]

The cable is integrated with the SATA connector. Damage to either of them can cause it to not work properly anymore.

 

[drsox]

I just upgraded my 2007 Mac Mini with a new Crucial M500 240GB SSD. Problem is that the Mini won't recognise the drive when it boots up.

To run through everything I've tried:

• the new drive has been formatted and restored from the old HDD
• if I put the SSD in an enclosure, the Mini will boot from it no problem
• I tried putting the old HDD back in, it won't recognise it either...

...which tells me I'm not assembling it properly, but for the life of me I can't see anything wrong. I'm not new to this, I've already upgraded the RAM without issue.

Any suggestions as to what I should be looking for? Thanks.

Make sure the SATA connector is fully depressed into the socket. On these connectors there's no room for any gap. I had the same problem with a memory upgrade - the memory wasn't pushed in far enough.

 

[searchbeest]

I seem to have fixed it. I *think* I may have slightly bent the SATA connector on the interconnect board; it wasn't quite perpendicular. After applying some very cautious pressure to correct it, it's booted with the new SSD in place.