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Need help with choosing a SATA cable for SSD installation

Miscellaneous

Miscellaneous

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 30, 2014
167
19
London, UK
Hey Peeps!

Will try to keep this short and sweet, I need to order a second SATA cable to install a SSD into my Mac Mini Core i5 MB387B/A Late 2012.

Here's what I can see...

The Mac Mini is upside down and open with the RAM compartment on the right.
The Hard Drive already fitted is at the bottom, furthest away from the AirPort antenna grate with a SATA connector fitted into the SATA port to the right (closest to the RAM compartment).
I want to install a SSD on top of this HD with a cable that will allow me to connect to the SATA port on the left furthest away from the RAM compartment.

Anyone got any ideas or links to where I can buy such a cable? I'm based in the UK so would prefer to buy from over here if possible.

Thanks :)
 
Miscellaneous said:
The Mac Mini is upside down and open with the RAM compartment on the right.
The Hard Drive already fitted is at the bottom
Click to expand...

It looks like you have a rarer Mini with the drive shipped in the upper bay - you need to get the terms right - it's upper (nearest to the top when the Mini is right way up) and lower is the one nearest to you when you take the bottom off. To be absolutely sure go to About this Mac>System report>SATA

Miscellaneous said:
I want to install a SSD on top of this HD with a cable that will allow me to connect to the SATA port on the left furthest away from the RAM compartment. Anyone got any ideas or links to where I can buy such a cable? I'm based in the UK so would prefer to buy from over here if possible.
Click to expand...

You can get one for the lower bay here but it's pricey – I'd look around for a cheaper one or try twisting an upper bay one to fit. I think there is one you can fold to either but I'm not sure.

http://applemacupgrades.co.uk/shop/cables/owcdidimm11d2b

M.
 
Cheers!

Thank you very much for your reply and providing the link. I did find one on eBay but it shipped from Europe and would take a while to get here. I bought the last one in stock from the link you posted. Very expensive indeed but at least it's a more reputable brand and will hopefully be here by the weekend so I can continue my installation.

Cheers M8! All the best ;-)
 
Update On Situation

I received the cable yesterday and completed the physical installation of the SSD in the lower bay, turned on my Mini and formatted the SSD.

I then ran a basic Apple Hardware Test on the machine and it returned with 'No trouble found'. I then booted into internet recovery and formatted both drives and installed OS X Mavericks onto the SSD. After the initial set up of OS X 10.9.5, I updated to OS X 10.10.3 and installed all of the latest updates.

I then installed Windows 8.1 on the SSD via BootCamp. Everything is working and performing very well as expected. Since this is my first ever Mini upgrade I thought it would be a good idea to run the Extended Apple Hardware Test just to make sure everything was OK.

The test took around 2 hours to complete and to my disappointment returned the following error;

4HDD/11/0000000: SATA(0,0)

I am presuming that this error is related to the SSD or SATA connection as when I removed the SSD and ran the test again it returned 'No trouble found'.

Can anyone help me out with this? Maybe shed some light as to what may be causing the error?
 
hfg said:
Any chance that the AHT attempted to test the SSD drive and it failed due to the NTFS Windows formatting?
Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for reading :) I also thought that BootCamp could be the culprit so I removed it and restored the SSD to a single OS X partition. I ran the test again and it still shows the same error.

Do you think its safe to say that I can rule out the new SATA cable as being the cause, seeing as I can see the SSD in Disk Utility and seems to be working correctly despite this error in AHT?
 
Miscellaneous said:
Hi, thanks for reading :) I also thought that BootCamp could be the culprit so I removed it and restored the SSD to a single OS X partition. I ran the test again and it still shows the same error.

Do you think its safe to say that I can rule out the new SATA cable as being the cause, seeing as I can see the SSD in Disk Utility and seems to be working correctly despite this error in AHT?
Click to expand...

Long shot here ... but did you do a PRAM reset after you added the additional cable and drive, but before you ran the AHT on the system?

I guess if it were mine ... since it seems to be working fine, I wouldn't be too concerned about the AHT error, although I would probably continue to look for a definition of that error code.
 
hfg said:
Long shot here ... but did you do a PRAM reset after you added the additional cable and drive, but before you ran the AHT on the system?

I guess if it were mine ... since it seems to be working fine, I wouldn't be too concerned about the AHT error, although I would probably continue to look for a definition of that error code.
Click to expand...

I physically installed the SSD, powered on my Mini and formatted the SSD, Repaired Disk Permissions and performed a PRAM reset before the first basic AHT test which returned with 'No trouble found'. Hope I haven't done something stupid!?!

Once everything was installed it was working fine, I just wish I could narrow it down to why I get this error.
 
Miscellaneous said:
I just wish I could narrow it down to why I get this error.
Click to expand...

You could try swapping the new SATA cable to the HDD to test it and also put the SSD on the original cable.

But if it's working I wouldn't worry - it's probably some kind of code that just says there are foreign bodies about.

When I get a chance I'll run the hardware test on mine - I didn't bother after putting in an SSD and new SATA cable in addition to the original HDD.

I have however just run into a problem - I can't do a pram reset and there are no chimes on start-up so i can't run the test until I work that out.

M.
 
marclondon said:
You could try swapping the new SATA cable to the HDD to test it and also put the SSD on the original cable.

But if it's working I wouldn't worry - it's probably some kind of code that just says there are foreign bodies about.

When I get a chance I'll run the hardware test on mine - I didn't bother after putting in an SSD and new SATA cable in addition to the original HDD.

I have however just run into a problem - I can't do a pram reset and there are no chimes on start-up so i can't run the test until I work that out.

M.
Click to expand...

I'm not confident enough to take the original SATA cable off the original HD in the Upper bay as I believe I would have to completely disassemble the Mac Mini, which to be quite honest, is beyond my capabilities.

It did also cross my mind that it could be just the fact that it is a foreign SSD and cable however I would love to hear from you if you manage to run the test.

What model Mac Mini do you have? I have a Samsung 850 EVO as my SSD, just bought it from Amazon UK. I also upgraded the RAM to 16GB of Crucial memory.

I saw a video on YouTube a while back where a Mac Mini user was able to perform SMC reset which resolved his issue with the startup chime. You've probably already tried it but if not you could give it a go.
 
Miscellaneous said:
What model Mac Mini do you have? I have a Samsung 850 EVO as my SSD, just bought it from Amazon UK. I also upgraded the RAM to 16GB of Crucial memory.

I saw a video on YouTube a while back where a Mac Mini user was able to perform SMC reset which resolved his issue with the startup chime. You've probably already tried it but if not you could give it a go.
Click to expand...

I've got a 2012 i7 2.3Ghz quad mini - I've put a 500GB Crucial SSD in the upper bay (it wasn't too hard but I'm a very long standing computer fiddler) and kept the 1TB HDD in the lower bay. I've also put 16 GB of Crucial ram in.

Thanks - I should have thought of Youtube will have a look.

Whereabouts in London are you? i'm in Dalston.

M.
 
marclondon said:
I've got a 2012 i7 2.3Ghz quad mini - I've put a 500GB Crucial SSD in the upper bay (it wasn't too hard but I'm a very long standing computer fiddler) and kept the 1TB HDD in the lower bay. I've also put 16 GB of Crucial ram in.

Thanks - I should have thought of Youtube will have a look.

Whereabouts in London are you? i'm in Dalston.

M.
Click to expand...

I'm based around Kingston, hope you get it sorted out m8! I'm a complete novice, just following the OWC video on YouTube.
 
It was because I'd plugged the keyboard into a monitor - connecting it directly to the Mini allows the startup keys to function.

I've run the extended hardware test and no errors. My best guess on your fault would be firmware on the Evo 850 and to look out for an update from Samsung.

I always buy Crucial SSDs and memory simply because they specify compatibility.

M.
 
marclondon said:
It was because I'd plugged the keyboard into a monitor - connecting it directly to the Mini allows the startup keys to function.

I've run the extended hardware test and no errors. My best guess on your fault would be firmware on the Evo 850 and to look out for an update from Samsung.

I always buy Crucial SSDs and memory simply because they specify compatibility.

M.
Click to expand...

Great to hear you got it sorted and was able to run the test. I was thinking about getting a Crucial SSD as I've heard nothing but praise about them and they specify/guarantee compatibility.

I've had a quick look for Samsung firmware updates and wasn't able to find any, so maybe I would be better off with a Crucial SSD as it would work straight out of the box?

Can you recommend any specific Crucial 250GB drive or should I just use the compatibility checker? I will order it from Crucial rather than Amazon so I can get assistance should I need it.

Thanks :)
 
I bought the 500GB MX100 - the MX200 is a later range but I believe the MX200 has not got as good reviews as the MX100s, but there are also differences in performance of the various sizes (in GB).

M.
 
marclondon said:
I bought the 500GB MX100 - the MX200 is a later range but I believe the MX200 has not got as good reviews as the MX100s, but there are also differences in performance of the various sizes (in GB).

M.
Click to expand...

I went ahead and ordered a MX200 250GB SSD from Crucial UK, I'll update the thread in a couple of days when I hopefully get to install it.
 
Update On Situation...

I got the Crucial MX200 earlier today and physically installed it into the Mac Mini. I then booted into internet recovery and formatted the new SSD (non-fusion). I then booted into internet AHT and performed the basic test which returned with no 'No trouble found'.

I then booted into internet recovery again and installed Mavericks onto the new SSD, set up the computer and ran the basic AHT test again which returned the same error I have been getting.

Any thoughts or suggestions to what may be happening here? I think it's safe to say that it's not a faulty SSD drive as I have tried 2 brand new disks of different manufacturers. But how about the cable? If it was a faulty cable I would think that the SSD drive would not boot as there would be no connection?

Could it be just as Marc said that it is just AHT detecting a foreign SSD drive?
 
Are you saying it was ok just as an extra blank formatted drive but returned the error when you put Mavericks on and booted from that? I would have thought that rules out the SATA flex connector.

You could try Yosemite - no need to use Mavericks anyway.

M.
 
marclondon said:
Are you saying it was ok just as an extra blank formatted drive but returned the error when you put Mavericks on and booted from that? I would have thought that rules out the SATA flex connector.

You could try Yosemite - no need to use Mavericks anyway.

M.
Click to expand...

Yes exactly! Sorry I'm kinda new to all this so just trying to figure things out. So you think that the cable is fine seeing as it did not return the error while it was just an extra blank formatted internal drive?

I'm updating to Yosemite at the moment, almost done, hopefully it will sort out the error.
 
I'm still getting the error after upgrading to Yosemite and just been chatting to a Crucial representative who couldn't help much but he did reassure me that if the drive fails I can get a replacement free of charge.

Anyone got any ideas?!? Any advice on what I should do?
 
Well you've proved that it isn't really a hardware fault but something to do with the OS on the disk although I can't think what that would do at the hardware level.

There's a note below from Apple - the Mini has similar hardware and this is about a similar code. I wouldn't worry - if you hadn't run the test you'd be none the wiser. The only way you'll find out for sure is getting hold of a diagnostic manual or technician I think. But if the basic test is fine and the extended test is fine on a blank formatted drive I wouldn't lose any sleep on this. The only other thing you can do is replace the flex cable. But try disabling looping as described below.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mac notebooks: Apple Hardware Test may report "HDD" alert
When you test your Mac notebook using an SSD or Flash storage drive with Apple Hardware Test (AHT) diagnostics, you may see alert "4HDD/11/40000000:SATA" if the test is looped multiple times.

The alert is erroneous and generally takes multiple loops of Apple Hardware Test to induce.
Before starting Apple Hardware Test, looping can be enabled or disabled by pressing the L key on the keyboard. If the message appears in addition to other issues with the computer that are related to the solid state drive (SSD) or Flash storage drive, schedule an appointment at an Apple Retail Store or contact an Apple Service Provider.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203648
 
Hey Marc! Thanks for all of your support with this! I believe looping is disabled by default. Just curious, do you have your drives set up as a fusion drive?

Everytime I boot into internet recovery it highlights both drives in red font within Disk Utility and asks me if I want to create/fix a fusion drive or ignore. Could that have anything to do with the error code?

I'm gonna leave things as they are for a while and see how it goes.
 
Miscellaneous said:
Hey Marc! Thanks for all of your support with this! I believe looping is disabled by default. Just curious, do you have your drives set up as a fusion drive?

Everytime I boot into internet recovery it highlights both drives in red font within Disk Utility and asks me if I want to create/fix a fusion drive or ignore. Could that have anything to do with the error code?
Click to expand...

I don't understand why you're using Internet recovery. What I would do is erase and reformat the SSD and then do a fresh install of Yosemite on it, and then configure it with the apps and data you want.

I do not have fusion set up – I just did what I just said although I set up the SSD with Yosemite in an external enclosure first before putting it in the Mini (in the upper bay).

M.
 
I'm using internet recovery as I don't have an external enclosure to create a boot drive. I read on OWC that there are 3 main methods of performing this upgrade and using Internet Recovery was one of them. After some further reading I have discovered that when using Disk Utility in internet recovery it is normal for it to prompt you to create a fusion drive from the SSD and traditional HD setup. I also have my drives setup as 2 separate drives rather than a fusion drive.

I will keep a close eye on things and update the thread with anything relevant.
 
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