After using Carbon Copy Cloner, Wi-Fi doesn't work. "Wi-Fi: No hardware installed"

[JTToft]

So I just did my first Carbon Copy Cloner backup. Not a great experience so far. Configuring and performing the backup went perfectly fine. I went to verify that it was functioning by booting into it, which it was. However, when then booting back into my primary system (the source of the clone), Wi-Fi no longer works, giving the message "Wi-Fi: No hardware installed" in the menu bar.

Things tried: Multiple SMC and NVRAM resets, following this guide, as well as this guide, creating a new user account, and running Disk Utility First Aid via Recovery Mode. I also went to System Preferences and removed the Wi-Fi service, thinking I might be able to reset it by then adding it back. But there's no option for Wi-Fi in the "Create a new service" dialog box.

I know it isn't a hardware fault, as Wi-Fi continues to work in the cloned system as well as in OS X Recovery, and I even successfully booted into Internet Recovery.
I could probably restore from either the CCC backup or my Time Machine backup, or reinstall OS X to remedy the situation, but I'd really prefer a solution within my system if possible.

Ideas on causes or solutions?
Thanks!

(Latest OS X 10.11.3, CCC backup on hard drive via OWC Data Doubler)

 

[Weaselboy]

However, when then booting back into my primary system (the source of the clone), Wi-Fi no longer works, giving the message "Wi-Fi: No hardware installed" in the menu bar.

That is really odd. So in CCC you just selected the internal as the source and the external as the destination and cloned? I can't think of any way possible that could have caused this issue, and I'm thinking it is a coincidence.

It sounds like somehow the wifi driver got borked. I would just command-r to recovery and reinstall over top of the existing install (without erasing anything) to get the wifi driver back. This won't erase your data at all.

 

[JTToft]

That is really odd. So in CCC you just selected the internal as the source and the external as the destination and cloned? I can't think of any way possible that could have caused this issue, and I'm thinking it is a coincidence.

It sounds like somehow the wifi driver got borked. I would just command-r to recovery and reinstall over top of the existing install (without erasing anything) to get the wifi driver back. This won't erase your data at all.

- Exactly, yes. Except it's not an external drive I'm using but a second internal in my optical bay.
I don't understand it, either. But CCC is a first for me, so I don't really know the ins and outs that well. A coincidence just seems a little bit too incredible to me.

I probably will end up doing just such a reinstall. I'm just perplexed as to how this happened. I've literally never seen it before.

 

[treekram]

There are problems with SATA3 drives in the optical bay of the 2011 MBP's, which your signature indicates you have. (Do a web search if you're interested in knowing more.) If you have a SATA2 drive in the HDD position and the SSD in the optical (Samsung 830? - which is SATA3), you might try switching them around and re-doing the clone.

 

[JTToft]

There are problems with SATA3 drives in the optical bay of the 2011 MBP's, which your signature indicates you have. (Do a web search if you're interested in knowing more.) If you have a SATA2 drive in the HDD position and the SSD in the optical (Samsung 830? - which is SATA3), you might try switching them around and re-doing the clone.

- Thanks for the suggestion. I have taken my precautions, though, and have the SATA III 830 in the main bay (where it's been rock solid for more than three years) and a SATA II hard drive in the optical bay.

But I decided to just do the reinstallation from Recovery Mode. Went smoothly and Wi-Fi is up and running.

Still a bizarre issue, though. Sort of feel like booting into the clone again to see if the same thing happens again, but I'm not really sure it's worth the hassle if it does.

 

[simon lefisch]

I had a similar issue a couple days ago. To fix it, I downloaded the 10.11.2 combo update from the Apple site and reinstalled, wifi came back perfectly. Didn't have to do a clean install. Might help to try that first if it happens next time.

Edit: must have missed the part about reinstalling from recovery.

 

[Weaselboy]

I had a similar issue a couple days ago. To fix it, I downloaded the 10.11.2 combo update from the Apple site and reinstalled, wifi came back perfectly. Didn't have to do a clean install. Might help to try that first if it happens next time.

Edit: must have missed the part about reinstalling from recovery.

Just to be clear... you had this issue occur after a CCC clone, or you just had this issue period?

CCC is essentially a GUI for the rsync command, and I still cannot fathom any way that would cause a file on the source drive to be corrupted.

 

[simon lefisch]

Just to be clear... you had this issue occur after a CCC clone, or you just had this issue period?

My issue had nothing to do with CCC.

I had installed drivers for a USB > Serial adapter to connect to some Cisco equipment. After the reboot, my wifi icon was grayed out with an X thru it. Apparently the drivers I installed were old and I'm thinking that's what caused the issue. That's when I downloaded/installed the combo update and wifi came back.

 

[Weaselboy]

My issue had nothing to do with CCC.

I had installed drivers for a USB > Serial adapter to connect to some Cisco equipment. After the reboot, my wifi icon was grayed out with an X thru it. Apparently the drivers I installed were old and I'm thinking that's what caused the issue. That's when I downloaded/installed the combo update and wifi came back.

Ah gotcha... thanks. OP seems like he just ran a CCC clone and had this issue and I'm just baffled how CCC could cause this.

OP>> You might shoot a support inquiry to Mike Bombich the CCC developer. He is normally very quick to respond and he may have some insight as to what happened here.

 

[TechZeke]

Ah gotcha... thanks. OP seems like he just ran a CCC clone and had this issue and I'm just baffled how CCC could cause this.

OP>> You might shoot a support inquiry to Mike Bombich the CCC developer. He is normally very quick to respond and he may have some insight as to what happened here.

I've been using CCC for years - both for myself, friends, and "clients" (I've gotten paid to upgrade HDD to SSDs on MacBooks in various places) and CCC worked perfectly each time. If CCC is the cause, the OP must've discovered the one-in-a-million fluke somehow.

 

[JTToft]

Ah gotcha... thanks. OP seems like he just ran a CCC clone and had this issue and I'm just baffled how CCC could cause this.

OP>> You might shoot a support inquiry to Mike Bombich the CCC developer. He is normally very quick to respond and he may have some insight as to what happened here.

- I'm not really thinking the cloning itself caused the issue. Rather some sort of conflict between the two systems which causes Wi-Fi to only work on one of them... Not sure how that would occur, either, though.

I did submit a support ticket from within CCC on Saturday. Seeing as the day is only just beginning in the US now, I'm expecting a reply later.

And just an update: I couldn't quite contain my curiosity about this issue, so I booted into the clone again (still the original clone, hasn't been updated since I performed it first). And now Wi-Fi is gone within the cloned system with as far as I can make out the exact same symptoms as I had on my primary system and the same menu bar message.
Rebooting to the primary system again, Wi-Fi is still working fine there.

It's as if it'll only work on one system at a time. I'm betting if I reinstalled OS X on the cloned drive, it'd work there but stop working on the primary system at the same time.
Puzzling...

 

[bombich]

Closing the loop on this one... OP and I discussed this one after looking at the logs. We couldn't definitively determine what led to this -- more specifically we don't know why it happened *when* it happened, but we didn't attempt to reproduce it. Airport wasn't working because the Airport kernel extension had been (intentionally) modified. Due to having an invalid code signature, OS X was refusing to load that kernel extension. Reinstalling OS X replaced that kernel extension and that's what resolved the problem.

Mike
Bombich Software
https://bombich.com