Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

New SSD: Yosemite won't install, old drive won't clone

M

MidnightBarber

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 4, 2015
14
0
I bought a Kingston 120 GB SSD for my 2011 MBP. The original HDD is now where the superdrive used to be, and the SSD is in its place. The new drive is formattable, and read/writable (seemingly), but I'm having a number of really strange issues.

1. I booted to the old drive and formatted the new drive using Disk Utility: 1 partition, GUID partition table, Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file structure. This works fine and files can be copied to & deleted from the drive.
2. I booted into recovery mode using CMD+R and tried to download/install a fresh OS X Yosemite to the drive. After an hour or so the bar is full, and then perhaps another hour goes by before it says "Failed to download OS X. Please use the purchases page".
3. I boot back into the old drive, go into the app store, and download the OS X installer. I run it, specify the drive, boot to it, and continue the installation. After a while I get an error that the copy failed.
4. I tried using Disk Utility's restore function to clone my OS X partition (97 GB used) to the new drive and/or a new partition. Whether I do it from within OS X, or from recovery mode, I either get "error- 7", "invalid argument", or "failed to unmount drive". Another fresh format did nothing to change these things.
5. I tried the Carbon Copy Cloner program, which copied about 800 MB of data before hitting a write error. I removed the file that caused the error from both drives and tried again, but it's been sitting at zero progress for half an hour now.
6. Disk Utility verifies that the disk appears to be OK in all regards

After all of this, I can only imagine the SSD must be defective. I've spent many hours trying every combination of things I can think of, and I'm getting super bummed out because the drive was a birthday present. What do you think? Is there something I'm missing, or perhaps something I should try? Is there a way I can check if the disk really is defective? Any insight is helpful!
 
Similar problem with SuperDuper!: "Failed to copy files from <old drive> to <new drive>". It's not looking good, I guess!

From the log: "Error | Exception: Failed to clear ACLs on /Volumes/Solid. Invalid argument (-1)"
 
I put the SSD into a Windows desktop. It formats just fine and lets me copy data no problem. It only seems to be in the macbook that there's an issue.. Still trying things, but I hope this helps someone with more knowledge than me diagnose the problem.
 
MidnightBarber said:
I put the SSD into a Windows desktop. It formats just fine and lets me copy data no problem. It only seems to be in the macbook that there's an issue.. Still trying things, but I hope this helps someone with more knowledge than me diagnose the problem.
Click to expand...

It all sounds rather strange. Post the specific details on your Kingston drive and your MacBook Pro model, and I'll see what I can figure out.
 
Have tried booting cmd & r then using disk utility to cloan the drive? You don't need fancy apps to do this basic task

----------

Nm I see you tried
 
MidnightBarber said:
I put the SSD into a Windows desktop. It formats just fine and lets me copy data no problem. It only seems to be in the macbook that there's an issue.. Still trying things, but I hope this helps someone with more knowledge than me diagnose the problem.
Click to expand...

It's unorthodox, but have you tried the SSD in the optical bay?
 
I have similar problems with a possible solution:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1861683/

1 reset pram
2 clone hdd to ssd with dd

for details see my thread. When I get to ssd cloning I'll report back. Meantime hdd to hdd cloning works with dd when diskutil fails.

It is highly unlikely your ssd is at fault. My Evo 850 Works like a charm elsewhere too.
 
Last edited:
JTToft: I have a 2011 MBP, 4 GB DDR-1333 MHz RAM, 2.4 GHz i5, and the SSD is Kingston SV300S37A120G 120 GB

Gav2K: Yep, using Disk Utility to clone the drive was one of the first things I tried. I agree fancy software shouldn't be necessary.

I've been doing a lot of reading and it seems that people are having some issues with third-party SSDs in Yosemite. I have no idea if it's related, but I'm currently downloading Mavericks to see if that will install. People are saying they can't boot in Yosemite, but I have no idea if that includes no write access. If seems that it can briefly - and slowly - write, sometimes, but that ability disappears a few minutes after the computer has been on.

I'll let you know if it was in fact Yosemite related.

Edit: DebianJunkie: Thanks for the tip - I'll try this right away. I think you're right that the SSD is fine, it works in windows.
 
JTToft said:
- Normally, yes, but not on the 2011 models. Many of them suffer from reliability problems with SATA 6 Gbps drives in the optical bay.
Click to expand...

Hmmm but from that link "MacBook Pro 13" models: Apple does not support the use of 6Gb/s drives in the optical bay. While we have observed a high rate of success using SATA 3.0 6Gb/s drives in Apple 13" bays where 6Gb/s link is present, some systems may not operate properly with this setup."

Does OP have a 13"? So worth a try on 13" if that is current OWC advice.
 
MidnightBarber said:
JTToft: I have a 2011 MBP, 4 GB DDR-1333 MHz RAM, 2.4 GHz i5, and the SSD is Kingston SV300S37A120G 120 GB
Click to expand...

- So that would be a Late 2011 13", correct?
There have been a few reports of stability problems with the SATA cable in some MacBook Pro machines. That could be your issue. Perhaps do some research to see if the symptoms others describe match yours?
I have heard some people have fixed it by insulating the cable with electrical tape. Others have replaced it.

As others have suggested, you could also try installing the SSD in the optical bay to see if that makes a difference - so long as you are aware of the potential stability problems I mentioned above.

Also, to further eliminate the SSD itself as the problem, you could connect it to your MBP externally via an enclosure or a SATA-USB cable and see how it performs then.

simonsi said:
Hmmm but from that link "MacBook Pro 13" models: Apple does not support the use of 6Gb/s drives in the optical bay. While we have observed a high rate of success using SATA 3.0 6Gb/s drives in Apple 13" bays where 6Gb/s link is present, some systems may not operate properly with this setup."

Does OP have a 13"? So worth a try on 13" if that is current OWC advice.
Click to expand...

- Yes, the 13" models are indeed less susceptible to it, but they still aren't guaranteed to work properly. Yes, it could be worth a try for sure, but I just think it's important to be aware of the potential issues one could experience.
If I am right in matching the mentioned specifications to 2011 models, then the OP has a Late 2011 13".
 
Get another ssd should work, I got Samsung, Crucial and Kingston SSD all have zero problem, if your machine can recognize the drive, then should have no problem. Why spinning your wheel ?
 
That's right, it's a 13", and I think late 2011. It doesn't seem that the cable and/or bay the drive are in should be the problem - My original hard drive had a Windows partition, and when I boot into Windows from it I can use the SSD as I should be able to. It only appears to be from OS X that there are issues.

I tried a Mavericks install, and got much further - The install got all the way through. When I boot into Mavericks, though, instead of a login screen I just get a dark gray screen with a movable cursor. At this point I tried clearing the PRAM but that had no effect. Edit: Also, a safe boot did not work. I may just try another Mavericks isntall.

So, it seems the drive and the cable should be fine, and Mavericks got further than Yosemite.. I may just have to put Windows on the SSD, but I don't really want to do that..
 
Last edited:
Just to update, I tried installing Mavericks through a bootable external drive and then with a partition of my internal drive. Both times the same result - I run through the installation, which gets all the way to the end, and then says it failed. Trying a second time appears to succeed but then I get that gray screen I mentioned (no apple logo, just dark gray).

I'm really completely out of ideas at this point.
 
Check Kingston for firmware updates. If it's already current, then RMA the drive and get a different one from another manufacturer. I recommend Crucial first, Samsung second. (that's what I would do in your situation.)

If you can't get a refund on it, then sell it as a Windows-only drive, or keep it to use in an external enclosure.
 
Last edited:
might sound silly, but did you check if the drive is set to "MBR" or "GUID"?
that will cause such an issue, try once more and this time reformat the ssd and under options when setting the ssd change "MBR" to "GUID" if it was not.
 
iAhmedy said:
might sound silly, but did you check if the drive is set to "MBR" or "GUID"?
that will cause such an issue, try once more and this time reformat the ssd and under options when setting the ssd change "MBR" to "GUID" if it was not.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea but yeah I've made sure of this.
 
its frustrating, is the OD Caddy new?

i had a similar issue, but the case was that the OD Caddy screwing up the I/O for the whole system, i ended up with taking it out and install from a usb directly to the SSD on an E08 MBP.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back