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Umm, WTF?!

G.Beard

G.Beard

New member
Here in frot of me I have two Macbooks.

MacBook A is a 2009 that will not run 10.13
MacBook B is a 2011 that will run 10.13

MacBook B had 10.13.3 installed and did the firmware update.
I installed a new HDD into MacBook B (2011) and neither the firmware or the OS recognises the HDD.

Fitted the HDD to MacBook A (2009) and sure enough it sees it and boots.

Fitted a Toshiba 500GB HDD with the Apple logo on it, to MacBook B (2011) and it sees the HDD and boots just fine.
 
D

dukefawks

Administrator
There are some really weird issues with the new APFS. I doubt that they locked out non OEM drives though, but it could be possible.
 
G.Beard

G.Beard

New member
dukefawks said:
There are some really weird issues with the new APFS. I doubt that they locked out non OEM drives though, but it could be possible.
Click to expand...

I have now tried three SSDs, one 1TB HDD and 2 Apple HDDs... All this thing will see is Apple HDDs.
Tried cloning an OS to SSD - HFS+ (or edit minstalconfig.xml to false under ConvertToAPFS) and fitting that... Tried an APFS SSD
Tried initializing a fresh Samsung Evo SSD and booting to OS
Tried a cloned 1TB HDD with cloned image as well as with fresh format.

All this thing will see is 500GB Apple HDDs I have from other machines.
 
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S

SMMRepair

Member
It's a High Sierra issue like Duke referenced. It seems that after installing High Sierra, the drives simply aren't hot-swappable between some units anymore due to boot file system issues. I've noticed it affecting the 3332 15" models in particular. I can take an SSD with High Sierra on it from one customer's 15" (3332) retina that works fine, and install into another unit/board of the identical type, and it won't detect the drive at all (flashing question mark folder). I'm not sure if it's because the 2nd unit didn't have HS installed previously at any pint (and thus didn't have the BIOS/ROM updated for HS accordingly), or if it's the simple fact of it being a different unit (i.e., if you swapped the SSDs from two identical units with HS installed, would they work fine, or still have boot/detect issues?). Is this related to the AP file system you mentioned, Duke?

The only solution has been to wipe it and install High Sierra (or another version) using that exact machine. Not a big deal or anything, but can be annoying when replacing a non-repairable board. It's a bummer to plug a drive into the replacement board and it not be detected...even though the drive is obviously OK (works great in original board, etc). Any fixed that don't involve wiping the drive?
 
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dukefawks

Administrator
I believe a firmware update is needed for APFS to work so getting a replacement board to work with AFPS would need to do a clean install of High Sierra so stuff gets updated and then placing back the original customer SSD.
 
S

SMMRepair

Member
Yeah, which is what we've been doing. Not a big deal, most customers are just happy to have a working machine; having to wipe their drives hasn't been a problem. Thanks, Duke!
 
G.Beard

G.Beard

New member
Yes, I see the same thing... But this particular issue has fuck all to do with APFS HFS+ FAT32 or even an uninitialized drive. It will only see certain drives regardless of the formatting. However, it will see anything you put in there when using the DVD bay / caddy, so that was the answer. Better things to do that piss about with a 7 year old MacBoook.
 
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