Hey guys. I have a macbookpro4,1 (I guess not that many people have these) and I bought an OCZ Apex 120gb ssd to upgrade the 5400rpm drive that came with it. After lots of fiddling I still can't get the MBP to see the drive in the disk utility from the install DVD. I've tried formatting the drive so many ways (windows and usb enclsoure with disk Utility) which works fine but the mac doesn't see it still. I think it might be an issue with the EFI on the mac but i'm not sure. Has anyone else had any issues with SSD's on this MBP?
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MacbookPro4,1 SSD Not Recognized
- Thread starter mcardlek
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Put the SSD drive into a USB enclosure and plug the USB enclosure into the Macbook Pro. Then boot the Macbook Pro using the install CD, and it should see the SSD drive. Then do the install onto the SSD drive while it is in the USB enclosure. When the install is done, you can plug the SSD drive into the hard drive slot of the Macbook Pro, and it should work.
Before I installed mine I cloned it (using the usb feature of my ssd, and i think OWC also have it, else just get an external enclosure which anyway will be of good idea since you will probably want to use the HDD as external) since I read reports of people having similar problems. However before you open your case again to try cloning it, try wondering about in the disk utility and try finding the option to format the drive in GUID (rather than mac bootable) however if you cannot see the disk in disk utility then either cloning is your only choice or the drive is defective/incompatible...
Thanks for the suggestion but I have tried this and the computer just sits when I boot it. When I boot from the dvd to see whats going on the disk still doesn't show up. Perhaps I'll have more luck with a clone?
Are you holding the "C" button down when you boot? That will force the Macbook Pro to boot from the install CD. Once it boots into the install program, it should see the SSD drive in the USB enclosure.
If you've done this and you still can't see the drive, the drive may be bad.
Yeah I can get the drive to showup fine in the disk utility from the DVD when its hooked up to the external. It's just when I put it in that it doesn't work...
Just to clarify - are you installing OS X onto the SSD drive while the SSD drive is still hooked up via the USB enclosure?
Or, are you formatting the SSD drive with Disk Utility, then putting the SSD drive back into the Macbook and trying to install OS X?
The first option is what worked for me. The second option didn't work.
I've tried both and neither work. When I installed OS X on the ssd via usb and I put it back in the mac and fired up the dvd the disk utility didn't see the drive...
Put the disk back in the SATA controller. Boot up the OS X installer. Once in the installer, it shows you available disks. You should see no disks listed here.
From the Utilities menu in the installer, open Disk Utility. In Disk Utility, you should see your SSD listed. Format and partition it as a Mac OS Journal Filesystem. After formatting and partitioning is done, close the disk utility.
Now you will see the disk listed in the installation's disk list.
From the Utilities menu in the installer, open Disk Utility. In Disk Utility, you should see your SSD listed. Format and partition it as a Mac OS Journal Filesystem. After formatting and partitioning is done, close the disk utility.
Now you will see the disk listed in the installation's disk list.
I have that same SSD and a Unibody MacBook Pro. Here's what I had to do to get it to work. I put the SSD in an external USB case and hooked it up with the stock hard drive/OS running. I went into Disk Utility and on the SSD (now hooked up via USB) you go to the partition tab. Go in and partition it, but don't pick "current" or "default" or whatever the scheme is, pick "1 partition." Make sure you change the partition type to GUID. The drive is currently partitioned in a Windows-only manner, so it will not boot OS X. Even if you reformat in OS X Journaled, it will not boot unless you have a GUID partition. After you partition the drive with GUID, you can format/erase again if you want (I did, just for good measure). Then I rebooted from the install DVD. I chose to install the OS on the SSD, still hooked up via USB. After installation was complete I put the SSD inside the computer and booted. Everything booted fine and it's been working great since. Sounds like you were doing everything correctly, but make sure your partition is GUID, that might be your problem. there's even a note on it that says it is required to boot an Intel Mac.
I did something quite similar, just that before formatting in GUID i had cloned the internal HDD to the SSD using USB port, I do not know however if that step is needed but some people recommended and I followed the recommendation. Then I formated from the DVD (mac installation) disk utility with GUID drive scheme and it worked just fine (I am using a G.Skill drive however many people claim that G.Skill and many OWC drives [execpt the latest vector] are very similar, e.g. samsung memory + JMicron controller, etc]) so just try that.
I'll give it a whirl in an hour or so when I get back to my house and let you know how it goes. Thanks!