SSD will not boot in HD bay, but will over USB

[XboxMySocks]

It will boot successfully over USB whenever I put it into an external bay.

File system check exit code is 8.

That is what happens when I try to repair it on Disk Utility on another computer - through the recovery partition, it tries and repairs it successfully. The drive appears as Read Only (or won't mount) and it also says "problems were found with the partition map which may prevent booting."

 

[DeltaMac]

Be sure (if you are running El Capitan) that you do the repair on a system that is also running El Capitan. (Not booted to Mavericks, for example.) Disk Repair running on a different system version may report an incorrect response.

If you can boot from external USB, but not in the internal bus, then you may have a bad internal SATA cable. I have read about those working with a hard drive, but not an SSD - who knows what the technical reason is for that! But, replacing the SATA cable should fix your issue.

 

[XboxMySocks]

Be sure (if you are running El Capitan) that you do the repair on a system that is also running El Capitan. (Not booted to Mavericks, for example.) Disk Repair running on a different system version may report an incorrect response.

If you can boot from external USB, but not in the internal bus, then you may have a bad internal SATA cable. I have read about those working with a hard drive, but not an SSD - who knows what the technical reason is for that! But, replacing the SATA cable should fix your issue.

Damn okay, it does work with an HDD. Should I try it on another macbook that I have available?

EDIT: Jeez, this is weird. It does work internally when I use it over the disk drive's SATA port. :/

 

[matreya]

What make/model of SSD are you using? And how old is the macbook?

 

[XboxMySocks]

Samsung 840 on a 2013 MacBook Pro.

 

[DeltaMac]

Samsung 840 on a 2013 MacBook Pro.

...

Damn okay, it does work with an HDD. Should I try it on another macbook that I have available?
EDIT: Jeez, this is weird. It does work internally when I use it over the disk drive's SATA port. :/

Ehh? I'm guessing you mean a 2012 model. All 2013 and later are blade SSDs and no internal optical drive.
And, using the (optical) disk port would mean that you used a different connection, even thought it is still internal.
Another proof that the SATA ribbon cable should be replaced.

 

[XboxMySocks]

Sorry, it is a 2012 bought in 2013.

And yeah, must be the SATA cable. I'm debating whether or not it's even worth replacing. The throughput isn't quite the same but it's nearly unnoticeable from the HD bay to the optical drive bay, no?

 

[DeltaMac]

No, both bays on a 2012 support 6 Gbps, and both should negotiate to the same speed, subject to the speed of the devices on each connector, of course.

 

[XboxMySocks]

No, both bays on a 2012 support 6 Gbps, and both should negotiate to the same speed, subject to the speed of the devices on each connector, of course.

Ah okay awesome, thank you very much for your help my friend. Appreciate it immensely.

 

[RaNdOm]

I'll just throw in that I replaced my internal drive with an SSD on my 2012 Macbook Pro that was working fine with an HDD, but when I put in a SSD it wouldn't boot. It would boot fine from an external USB cable though. Like stated above it WAS the SATA cable inside the the computer that had gone bad. I ordered one from Amazon for $25, replaced it, (really easy) and installed the SSD back inside. The computer works perfectly and is faster than using the USB 3 interface. So I suggest either getting a new cable, which is cheap, or swapping out the disk drive. Hope you get it all working.

 

[XboxMySocks]

I'll just throw in that I replaced my internal drive with an SSD on my 2012 Macbook Pro that was working fine with an HDD, but when I put in a SSD it wouldn't boot. It would boot fine from an external USB cable though. Like stated above it WAS the SATA cable inside the the computer that had gone bad. I ordered one from Amazon for $25, replaced it, (really easy) and installed the SSD back inside. The computer works perfectly and is faster than using the USB 3 interface. So I suggest either getting a new cable, which is cheap, or swapping out the disk drive. Hope you get it all working.

That is indeed what I am doing right now! SSD is in the disk drive and the regular HDD is in the HD bay. Cheers!