Chosen Solution
Hello all! I’ve had a Samsung 850 Pro installed in my 2011 13’’ MacBook Pro as a startup drive, for almost two years until it stopped working about two months ago. It stopped being recognized so I took it to warranty at the store I bought it from. I received it back a couple of weeks ago, with them telling me they performed a firmware update on the SSD, and that it was fine. When I tried to install it back in the MacBook the same problem occurred. I can’t even correctly format the drive through the disk utility. Today I took it back to the store and their position is that they don’t guarantee compatibility with a Mac system, and the tests they do on a Windows computer all seem perfectly fine, so nothing they can help me with (I’ve contacted Samsung directly, but still waiting on a response from them). What would be my course of action, and could it be solved by something simple like a firmware update on the Mac or something? Thank you!
Have you tried SMC and PRAM/NVRAM resets? If not, I would try those resets and see if those help. How to reset the SMC, PRAM and NVRAM on a Mac Laptop
You’re likely hitting a HD SATA cable failure. I often replace the cable in the course of upgrading this series as the original cable was not really durable for a SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) drive, Apple installed SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) drives in this series. Here’s the IFIXIT guide: MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Early 2011 Repair but I would use this cable MacBook Pro 13" Unibody (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable this cable is better built. In addition I would place a strip of electricians tape on the uppercase where the cable crosses over, I would also not bend the cable as the cable curves around the edge, you want an arc not a crisp fold as that damages the foil wires inside.
