External SSD problems. Need help.

[I Need a Drink]

Sorry in advance for the long explanation.

I bought two Samsung 850 EVO SSDs and two Inateck FE2002 enclosures to hook up to my 2013 iMac and 2014 Mac Mini last week. The drive and enclosure that I hooked up to my Mini is working without issue for over a week now. However, on my iMac, I am constantly having issues where I wake up the machine to a black screen and have to reboot to get it working again. The light on the enclosure will go from occasionally blinking to a solid blue light and a reboot is the only thing to get it going again. This doesn't happen every time the screen shuts off, it is random and could be 8-10 hours before it happens again.

Originally, I cloned my iMac HDD to the SSD and when I had problems I thought that the clone might be the issue. After nothing seemed to fix the problem, I clean installed macOS on the SSD and moved data back to the drive only to still have the black screen. I tried turning off "Put Hard Disks to Sleep" in the Energy Saver settings, but that didn't work. I replaced the external enclosure with a new one from Amazon, but I'm still having the problem. I replaced the USB cable and moved it to a different USB port on the iMac, but it still goes to a black screen. The only thing I haven't tried, yet, is to contact the seller and request a replacement SSD, but I don't know if that would be the problem anyway since the drive works.

Are there any suggestions? As I said, I've had the same configuration on my 2014 Mini for over a week and it has been rock solid. The problem only seems to come from the iMac. Could the iMac be disconnecting the drive randomly? If so, why would the iMac be doing this and not the Mini? Both machines are on Sierra 10.12.1. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[thats all folks]

I think you got what you paid for. have you tried swapping the units and cables between the two machines to see if the problem follows?

 

[I Need a Drink]

Got what I paid for? I thought the EVO 850 was supposed to be a good drive. Is that incorrect? And as far as the enclosures, the Inateck is what was recommended to me by others here on the forum.

As for swapping, no. Since the one on the Mini seems to be working, I'm in no hurry to do something that might change that. That is why I purchased a new enclosure from Amazon and tried it on the iMac. I've tried two identical enclosures on the iMac now. with two different cables, and both have had the issue. I'm just trying to find out if the issue is the iMac or the drive at this point. Disk Utility finds no errors with the drive, but that doesn't mean that something isn't wrong.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I've tried two identical enclosures on the iMac now. with two different cables, and both have had the issue."

Seems like this might indicate some kind of conflict between the enclosure, the OS, and/or the iMac.

Suggestions:

- Try a DIFFERENT brand of enclosure. I highly recommend this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Oyen-Digital...80434117&sr=8-1&keywords=oyen+digital+minipro
Alternative:
Use a USB3/SATA "adapter dongle" like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-...478&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=sabremt+usb3+to+ssd


- DISABLE sleep on the iMac (using your current Inateck). Yes, you're reading that right. Instead, choose to put the display to sleep, instead. Also, disable sleep for external drives.
Run this way for two or three days. Does the problem persist, or does it disappear?

 

[I Need a Drink]

OP wrote:
"I've tried two identical enclosures on the iMac now. with two different cables, and both have had the issue."

Seems like this might indicate some kind of conflict between the enclosure, the OS, and/or the iMac.

Suggestions:

- Try a DIFFERENT brand of enclosure. I highly recommend this one:
https://www.amazon.com/Oyen-Digital...80434117&sr=8-1&keywords=oyen+digital+minipro
Alternative:
Use a USB3/SATA "adapter dongle" like this:
https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-...478&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=sabremt+usb3+to+ssd


- DISABLE sleep on the iMac (using your current Inateck). Yes, you're reading that right. Instead, choose to put the display (onhttps://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-2-5-Inch-Adapter-Optimized-EC-SS31/dp/B017NIDXF0/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1480434478&sr=1-2-spell&keywords=sabremt+usb3+to+ssd xly) to sleep, instead. Also, disable sleep for external drives.
Run this way for two or three days. Does the problem persist, or does it disappear?

I'm running the same enclosure on a Mac Mini and it has been fine for over a week. I'll try turning off sleep again. I've already tried that, but I'll try once more. However, why would the Mini not have a problem with the same drive and enclosure with sleep on, but the iMac would?

 

[kohlson]

I believe you have 4 variables: system, drive, cable, and enclosure. Trying swapping different components to isolate the problem. First the cable (easiest), then perhaps the whole bundle (to see if it's the Mac or the external drive bundle).

 

[I Need a Drink]

Update:

As suggested, I ran the computer for a two days with "Prevent computer from sleeping" on and "Turn off Hard Disks" off and I did not see an issue where I needed to reboot. Yesterday, I lost power for a few minutes and when I turned on the computer I decided to test sleep again and turned the settings back to allow sleep and turn off hard disks. I didn't see an issue for over 24 hours, which has never gone that long with sleep turned on. However, just a few minutes ago, I was reading an article on the web and the computer locked up and would not allow me to do anything. No keyboard, no mouse, nothing.

As I said in my initial posts a few days ago, I have had numerous issues with this drive/enclosure when waking, but it the light on the drive was always solid when I went to wake the computer, which means that the drive was already locked up before I tried to wake the machine. However, this is the second time that I've had this issue while actually using the computer. This leads me to believe that the issue is not with sleep.

Meanwhile, the Mac Mini that I have is still going strong with the exact same model SSD and enclosure. I'm guessing that the issue at this point has to be the SSD itself, not the iMac or the enclosure. Any thoughts? Anything else to try or should I just return the drive and get a new one?

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I'm guessing that the issue at this point has to be the SSD itself, not the iMac or the enclosure. Any thoughts?"

Until you do a complete round of "process of elimination" tests, you're not going to know for sure.

You could get a new drive, put it into the same enclosure, and …. still have problems.