Mac Mini internal SSD is missing

[cwagner1]

I run tech support for our small (6 people) office. It's not really my job, I just happen to be the only one that works here that can phrase a Google search. Anyway one of the employees has a 2014 Mac Mini as her computer. The Mini has had a additional SSD in it on which OS X Sierra was installed. This was the start up drive. When she came in on Tuesday and booted the computer the computer booted from the original hard drive instead of the SSD. The original HD had El Capitan installed on it. I could not see the SSD in Disk Utility. Reset the P-RAM, tried booting from recovery mode, nothing would make the SSD show up. Is it a pretty safe assumption to make that the SSD just died? Anything else I should look for?

 

[Longkeg]

I’m pretty sure that a second internal drive was not done by Apple. It’s a fairly involved mod requiring a special kit from a third party vendor. Aside from the drive itself, I’d also check any internal cables or other hardware that connect the drive to the mother board.

 

[Fishrrman]

It could very well be a failed SSD.

When SSDs "fail", they often just "go dark" -- as if they "weren't even there."

I had that happen to one of mine.
It was as if it had completely "disappeared" -- wouldn't show up in any utility at all.
I eventually just threw it out.

 

[Cordorb]

take it out use a SATA to USB adapter and connect to the USB port of a working machine.
Internal cables to disk units have been a problem in the past.

I am sure you already tried a ALT key mac boot ? and DIAG mode boot.

Viewing the SMART data from a SSD is some help before it dies but as said above SSD can fail all at once.

You can always try a NEW system on an external Drive and see what that system can see.