High Sierra blasted my SSD

[dquake]

Hello all.
I'm new to the forum and sorry if my first post is a tech request.
I was beta testing high sierra when my ssd went kaput.

I don't mind about the data as there's nothing on it but I can't reinstall mac os now.
Tried from netboot, pendrive. Nothing.

When I launch network recovery, the installation goes fine but at first boot there's the no access logo, question mark logo and another one flashing one after the other. Never saw this before.

Sometimes even network install won't work. Giving me error when launching it

Tried a live version of Linux to see if hardware was alright and all works fine.

Can someone cast some light on this?
I can see the bootloader but there's no partition on the hard drive

 

[keysofanxiety]

What laptop do you have?

 

[dquake]

Hi Keysofanxiety. Thanks for the interest

it's a macbookpro mid 2012 13"

 

[ZapNZs]

Have you ruled out the chance of it being the SATA cable? The easiest way to do this is to throw the SSD in a USB enclosure, and try booting/installing. If all functions well, the vulnerable SATA cable is likely the issue. If Linux is booting OK from a flash drive, that's suggestive of the SATA cable.

If you haven't already, you could check the SMART status of the SSD in Linux, but chances are it will report the metrics associated with physical disk failure as being OK.

 

[keysofanxiety]

Hi Keysofanxiety. Thanks for the interest

it's a macbookpro mid 2012 13"

What Zap said. SATA cable on that model is hugely unreliable. Best try through a USB SATA dock as that will confirm.

Pop to an Apple Store if you can. They have a free repair program for the SATA cables on those models.

 

[dquake]

I also did a local installation of ubuntu on the ssd so it's definitely not the cable

 

[ZapNZs]

I also did a local installation of ubuntu on the ssd so it's definitely not the cable

Before coming to this forum and working part time at an AASP, I would have said that rules out the SATA cable - but now I am not sure! It may still be worth trying an install macOS when the SSD is in a dock/USB enclosure because when the SATA cable is in the process of going out, the behaviors we've observed on these forums with 2012 13's could only be described as outright strange (for example, some hard drives will work where as others will not, one version of OS X may function correctly where as another will not, sometimes even the SMART errors are inconsistent - some of it is just plain weird! One customer of mine started having issues with the SATA cable only immediately after enabling trimforce - they did nothing else than that!) (IIRC it will install with HFS+ rather than APFS if done this way.)

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

I'd forego High Sierra for now, and go back to "Low" Sierra.

Get a copy of the Sierra installer and a USB flashdrive 16gb or larger.

Then use either "Boot Buddy", "DiskMaker X" or "Install Disk Creator" to create a bootable USB flash drive version of the installer.

Then, boot from the flashdrive, totally erase and re-initialize the internal drive, and try a reinstall of Low Sierra.

I wouldn't rule out the drive ribbon cable (unless you already replaced it). Seems to be very problematic on the 2012 non-retina MBPro's...

 

[green86]

Before coming to this forum and working part time at an AASP, I would have said that rules out the SATA cable - but now I am not sure! It may still be worth trying an install macOS when the SSD is in a dock/USB enclosure because when the SATA cable is in the process of going out, the behaviors we've observed on these forums with 2012 13's could only be described as outright strange (for example, some hard drives will work where as others will not, one version of OS X may function correctly where as another will not, sometimes even the SMART errors are inconsistent - some of it is just plain weird! One customer of mine started having issues with the SATA cable only immediately after enabling trimforce - they did nothing else than that!) (IIRC it will install with HFS+ rather than APFS if done this way.)

I second this. I've seen Bootcamp working (the Windows Partition) but the MacOS side not booting.... all caused by the cable. It's cheap and easy to fix, and easy to test. I'd start here.

 

[dquake]

Cool thanks for the hints guys! will try out