Chosen Solution
Bought a Samsung 860 EVO SSD to replace an aging HDD in my 2011 MBP, ordered a SATA to USB cable as well. Connected it to my MBP and it was not seeing it. I did not even get the “this device is not recognized” message that lets you erase it. Connect it, power light on the SATA cable comes on for 7ish seconds and goes out. Read some posts and decided to try it on our other MBP (2012). Plugged it in, saw it almost immediately, gave me the option to format it, which I did. Ejected it and moved back over to the 2011 MBP. Still not recognized, nothing. I have tried restarting the computer with it plugged in, with it unplugged. Just trying to get this thing cloned before I install it (using superduper!). Any ideas??
I suspect you have a USB 3.0 Type A connector on the SATA to USB adapter instead of a USB 2.0 or the USB ports are messed up.
The adapter you got needs the other signals which your 2011 MacBook Pro does not have. Which is why your SSD is not working. I don’t recommend cloning drives! Instead use Apple’s Migration Assistant to move your stuff over. There is still a way you can make this work! Use your 2012 system to do a proper OS install onto the SSD via the adapter. Now using either a FireWire or Thunderbolt cable connect your 2011 system to your 2012 system and then boot it up in Target Disk Mode holding the T Key. Now your old systems HD is available to your 2012 system. Restart your 2012 system so the SSD is now the boot drive hold the Option key when you boot it up to select your new SSD drive. Go to the Utilities folder and launch Migration Assistant. Here’s a good write up Migration Assistant the Easy Way to Move Your Data to a New Mac The reason this is better is if your drive has any corruptions this method will not copy a corrupted file in addition is get rid of old useless settings & files as you’ve installed a fresh copy of the OS.
