EFI Firmware update 2.7 killed my SSD

[saundersbd]

I have an early 2011 Macbook Pro (2.2Ghz quad core i7) that I outfitted with an SSD from Other World Computing (115GB OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 3G). I have Lion installed on that drive and boot from it. I use the optical drive for storage. The system has been great. It was easy to install and I've had no technical difficulties.

Last week software update prompted me to upgrade to EFI firmware version 2.7. I did so (with the power adaptor plugged in). When the computer attempted to reboot I was met with a folder icon and a question mark on the blue screen, which I take to mean that the machine can no longer find a bootable drive.

What I've done so far:
-successfully booted into snow leopard using an install on an external drive.
-opened up disk utility. The optical drive is recognized and has its data intact, but the SSD does not even appear in the sidebar. It's like it's not even there.
-reset the SMC control and PRAM (no effect)

I'm getting pretty desperate here. Do you have any thoughts on why this happened and what I can do to recover the SSD? I'm willing to accept that the data on it will be lost but I'm just hoping I can make the machine recognize it again. I don't know how to proceed. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[trajan2448]

I have an early 2011 Macbook Pro (2.2Ghz quad core i7) that I outfitted with an SSD from Other World Computing (115GB OWC Mercury EXTREME Pro 3G). I have Lion installed on that drive and boot from it. I use the optical drive for storage. The system has been great. It was easy to install and I've had no technical difficulties.

Last week software update prompted me to upgrade to EFI firmware version 2.7. I did so (with the power adaptor plugged in). When the computer attempted to reboot I was met with a folder icon and a question mark on the blue screen, which I take to mean that the machine can no longer find a bootable drive.

What I've done so far:
-successfully booted into snow leopard using an install on an external drive.
-opened up disk utility. The optical drive is recognized and has its data intact, but the SSD does not even appear in the sidebar. It's like it's not even there.
-reset the SMC control and PRAM (no effect)

I'm getting pretty desperate here. Do you have any thoughts on why this happened and what I can do to recover the SSD? I'm willing to accept that the data on it will be lost but I'm just hoping I can make the machine recognize it again. I don't know how to proceed. Any help would be much appreciated.

Did you burn the firmware to a dvd? That is the ONLY way to do this correctly. Call OWC tech support. They are excellent.

 

[NickZac]

It may be the hard drive itself just went up if it is not even recognizing it. This thread shows that the OWC SSDs have occasional issues. How often is hard to say.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1003185/

The OWC uses a SandForce controller, which has had its share of reliability problems in recent time. With that said I have a SandForce OWC from a few years ago that is doing just fine. On a good note, OWC has stellar service and so they will definitely make it right.

 

[bozz2006]

Did you burn the firmware to a dvd? That is the ONLY way to do this correctly. Call OWC tech support. They are excellent.

He's talking about the EFI firmware for the computer, not the firmware on the SSD.

 

[jeffreymabq]

Disregard - I rolled back the firmware and I am still having trouble.

 

[cmax13007]

Has anyone else had a macbook pro (early 2011) fail after updating to the latest firmware EFI 2.7? I updated from High Sierra to the newest version and it installed this and after my graphics card failed. Now I do know that these had defective video cards in 2011 so I wanted to see if anyone else is having this same issue on macbook pros that can be easily upgraded. It would be in apples best interest to do something like this as the new macbook pros are not upgrade able. Perhaps its just old and failed but I like the shady idea of Apple conspiring to create a firmware upgrade to kill older laptops to force un-expected users into upgrade to the newest hardware. Any opinions out there about this or similar experiences please let me know.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I'm willing to accept that the data on it will be lost but I'm just hoping I can make the machine recognize it again. I don't know how to proceed. Any help would be much appreciated."

IF you don't care about the data, I'd do this:
1. Buy a NEW SSD -- but don't buy from OWC. Get a Crucial or a Sandisk
2. Put the new SSD into the Macbook
3. Boot from the external drive that can boot the computer (if you still have Lion on an install DVD, can you boot from that?)
4. Open Disk Utility and initialize the SSD to Mac OS extended with journaling enabled
5. Install a fresh copy of the OS onto it.
6. Get a new account set up

The idea is to get the MacBook bootable from an internally-installed drive.

Once you do this, I suggest you buy a USB3/SATA adapter/dongle and use it to connect the OWC drive. See if you can get it to just "mount in the finder" (no guarantees).
If you CAN get it to mount, you can then "manually recover" data from it.

 

[duervo]

Has anyone else had a macbook pro (early 2011) fail after updating to the latest firmware EFI 2.7? I updated from High Sierra to the newest version and it installed this and after my graphics card failed. Now I do know that these had defective video cards in 2011 so I wanted to see if anyone else is having this same issue on macbook pros that can be easily upgraded. It would be in apples best interest to do something like this as the new macbook pros are not upgrade able. Perhaps its just old and failed but I like the shady idea of Apple conspiring to create a firmware upgrade to kill older laptops to force un-expected users into upgrade to the newest hardware. Any opinions out there about this or similar experiences please let me know.

You updated from High Sierra to the newest version (which would also be High Sierra, which makes no sense), and it updated the EFI to a version that came out 6 years ago for the 2011 MBP? That also doesn’t make any sense.