Mac Mini SSD Upgrade Issues

[CombatCadillac]

Just picked up a mid 2011 Mac Mini with the 2.3gHz i5 processor and 8gb of memory. Decided the first upgrade that needed to happen was an SSD drive. I picked up a 250gb Samsung 850 EVO and hooked it up through a usb connection to my MacBook Pro to image the SSD I have installed in it.
After a good 4 hour wait, the image was finally done. I reinstalled the drive back into the Mini and started it up. It loaded find and got me to the log in screen. After logging in, it froze up and restarted and continuously did that. I first booted into disk repair mode and verified the disk with no issues. It continued to freeze up and restart.
I reformatted the drive and installed the original OS and rebooted. It seemed to work fine in Lion. I went to the App Store and downloaded Yosemite. After the restart and the installation of Yosemite, it would get to 15%, freeze up and restart.
I decided to restart into disk repair mode and reinstall Yosemite which finally did fix the install. After the install, I logged in and began experiencing the same freezing and restarting issue. After it did this a couple times, it would only boot half way and either freeze or restart. I once again went back to the disk utility and tried to repair disk but this time it failed.
My hopeful guess was a bad drive from the beginning so I opened up a return request from Amazon and have a replacement on its way.
I would really like to hear your opinions/experiences/suggestions on this issue. Many thanks for your input!

Cheers,
Jared

 

[marclondon]

I picked up a 250gb Samsung 850 EVO and hooked it up through a usb connection to my MacBook Pro to image the SSD I have installed in it.

How did you do this - did you use a clone program such as SuperDuper? And what did you mount the new SSD in?

One thing you should have done is boot the Mini from the SSD in whatever external setup you have, via USB. If you have created a proper bootable clone and it works OK that narrows thing down to a problem with the install in the Mini.

From what you say Lion works OK?

You can of course test the SSD in your MBP too if the latter is an upgradeable model.

M.

 

[yjchua95]

Just picked up a mid 2011 Mac Mini with the 2.3gHz i5 processor and 8gb of memory. Decided the first upgrade that needed to happen was an SSD drive. I picked up a 250gb Samsung 850 EVO and hooked it up through a usb connection to my MacBook Pro to image the SSD I have installed in it.
After a good 4 hour wait, the image was finally done. I reinstalled the drive back into the Mini and started it up. It loaded find and got me to the log in screen. After logging in, it froze up and restarted and continuously did that. I first booted into disk repair mode and verified the disk with no issues. It continued to freeze up and restart.
I reformatted the drive and installed the original OS and rebooted. It seemed to work fine in Lion. I went to the App Store and downloaded Yosemite. After the restart and the installation of Yosemite, it would get to 15%, freeze up and restart.
I decided to restart into disk repair mode and reinstall Yosemite which finally did fix the install. After the install, I logged in and began experiencing the same freezing and restarting issue. After it did this a couple times, it would only boot half way and either freeze or restart. I once again went back to the disk utility and tried to repair disk but this time it failed.
My hopeful guess was a bad drive from the beginning so I opened up a return request from Amazon and have a replacement on its way.
I would really like to hear your opinions/experiences/suggestions on this issue. Many thanks for your input!

Cheers,
Jared

I'm more inclined to think that it's your SATA cable that's dying.

 

[CombatCadillac]

How did you do this - did you use a clone program such as SuperDuper? And what did you mount the new SSD in?

One thing you should have done is boot the Mini from the SSD in whatever external setup you have, via USB. If you have created a proper bootable clone and it works OK that narrows thing down to a problem with the install in the Mini.

From what you say Lion works OK?

You can of course test the SSD in your MBP too if the latter is an upgradeable model.

M.

I booted the MBP into the disk repair utility and used it to do a restore from the MBP SSD to the new SSD. I just used a SATA to usb cable that I've used to do quite a few other clones without any issues. The short time I did use Lion, it did work.

----------

I'm more inclined to think that it's your SATA cable that's dying.

It shouldn't be. There were no kinks, cuts, or broken ends on it and the connection was secure on both ends.

 

[marclondon]

I booted the MBP into the disk repair utility and used it to do a restore from the MBP SSD to the new SSD. I just used a SATA to usb cable that I've used to do quite a few other clones without any issues. The short time I did use Lion, it did work.

I don't think you are supposed to use this restore process on anything apart from your original disk.

But you say you did a clean install of Yosemite on the SSD? Can you boot the Mini or the MBP from it using your SATA-USB cable? Can you put the SSD into the MBP to test it?

If you're sure the SATA-USB cable works in exactly the same way as mounting the SSD in an external enclosure or a dock (such as a Winstars, which I use) you should be able to create a bootable external disk running a clean Yosemite that will eliminate any problems with the SSD. I would forget about doing the image restore - if you want a proper bootable clone you'll need something like SuperDuper.

M.