SSD suddenly won't mount

SSD not recognized

dolphin842 said:

Hi all,

I've been booting my Mac mini off of an external SSD. It's worked fine up until today... it won't boot or even show up in Disk Utility. I've tried a variety of enclosures and even hooked it up directly via SATA on an old MacBook, but it never shows up.

At this point I'm assuming the drive is dead, but I just wanted to check here to see if I should try any other troubleshooting methods before getting warranty service.

Click to expand...

What you can try to do is power cycle the drive. When you start your system hold the OPTION key and let it sit there for 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes shut down the computer and wait 30 seconds. Than turn the system back on and hold the OPTION key again and wait another 30 minutes. After these steps are complete than you can try the drive again to see if it will be seen by the system. If it still isn't seen by the system than I would suggest getting it replaced. If it comes up ensure that you update the firmware on the drive to the latest version. It is a good thing to stay up to date with the SSD firmware updates.

What is the point of leaving the computer at the boot menu for 30 minutes?

ezramoore said:

What is the point of leaving the computer at the boot menu for 30 minutes?

Click to expand...

If the drive isn't being detected than it is possible that there is an issue with the firmware on the drive. By performing the steps you are power cycling the drive and trying to correct any firmware issues.

dolphin842 said:

Hi all,

I've been booting my Mac mini off of an external SSD. It's worked fine up until today... it won't boot or even show up in Disk Utility. I've tried a variety of enclosures and even hooked it up directly via SATA on an old MacBook, but it never shows up.

At this point I'm assuming the drive is dead, but I just wanted to check here to see if I should try any other troubleshooting methods before getting warranty service.

Click to expand...

Could you give us more information, what's the brand and model of the SSD?

DanTheCru said:

If the drive isn't being detected than it is possible that there is an issue with the firmware on the drive. By performing the steps you are power cycling the drive and trying to correct any firmware issues.

Click to expand...

Fascinating. Are you saying that the Mac will power cycle the device on the SATA bus or are you saying that the drive power cycles itself if you leave it powered up for 30 mins.?

dolphin842 said:

Hi all,

I've been booting my Mac mini off of an external SSD. It's worked fine up until today... it won't boot or even show up in Disk Utility. I've tried a variety of enclosures and even hooked it up directly via SATA on an old MacBook, but it never shows up.

At this point I'm assuming the drive is dead, but I just wanted to check here to see if I should try any other troubleshooting methods before getting warranty service.

Click to expand...

I have got the same problem with my MacBook Pro. The SSD is in the main SATA drive location and the original HD is in the optical bay. I am using a 120 GB OWC SSD.