MBP 2010 SSD upgrade problem

I am currently trying to upgrade from my old HDD to a new, bigger Crucial MX100 SSD.

The problem: the new SSD will run perfectly within an external enclosure with or without the HDD in the machine, but it will not boot as an internal drive - a grey 'no entry' sign appears. I understand this means it can't find a boot drive but when pressing option on start up and physically selecting the drive, it still fails.

Steps taken to this point:
1. Erase SSD in external enclosure, format as Mac OS Journaled, 1 partition.
2. Use CCC to copy all data from HDD to SSD, including setting up a recovery partition for the OS.
3. Boot from new SSD within external enclosure - Success!
4. Replace HDD with SSD internally and attempt to boot - fail with 'no entry' sign.
5. Replace HDD cable and repeat step 4 - fail with 'no entry' sign.
6. Place SSD internally and attempt to boot HDD from enclosure - fail with 'no entry' sign.

If anyone can fix this for me, I would be forever in your debt!

I'll add some specs.

OSX 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion), mid-2010 unibody
2.4Ghz intel core 2 duo
8GB RAM (upgraded from 4GB) 1067MHz DDR3

Sorry for bumping but it seems people are active in this forum and no one has replied

I've tried a couple of other things without success:
1. Erased and formatted SSD externally, installed latest OS 10.10.1 (Yosemite), booted externally successfully.
2. Attempted to boot SSD internally - fail.
3. Attempted to boot SSD via recovery partition by pressing option key - fail.

Note: if I boot the HDD externally with the SSD in the main bay, I can 'see' the SSD by pressing the option key on startup but the SSD is nowhere to be seen on Disk Utility or Finder once booted.

How about some specs on your machine? Year and model?

It sounds like the SSD you purchased is not compatible when utilized as an internal boot drive. We've seen this before with certain SSDs and model MacBook Pros.

Not sure what other specs you would like than I've already given. The model as stated is a mid-2010 MBP (5,1). The SSD is a Crucial MX100 512GB. Their website says it's definitely compatible, and others have confirmed that they have successfully used this SSD with this model.

Sorry, didn't read your third post closely enough. The SSD you purchased should have worked in your MacBook Pro. However, you stated you changed the SATA cable (which is a common problem when the cable wears out), and the SSD boots when hooked up externally as USB. That doesn't leave much which could be the problem does it? Your old HDD still works to boot the machine so that means your MacBook Pro is OK. Common denominator here is the SSD again.

I can't think of anything to try other than replacing the SSD, as was previously suggested. I'm running a Crucial M500 in my 2012 MBP without issue FWIW.

It's not what you think.

Certain SSD Hard drives only work on certain Sata controllers for example a Sata III issued SSD will drop its mhz and run on a Sata 2 controller however if the drive is firmware locked to run only on a Sata III controller it will boot in a external storage unit no problems but won't boot in a internal.

So far i have had this happen on only one drive and it was manufactured by samsung.

to completely rule out the drive try these steps.

1. Reset SMC

2. Update the firmware on the macintosh in question all firmware updates can be found at apple.com in there support section.

3.Update the firmware on the SSD Some SSD's have been known to come with firmware with issues some usually major like auto erasing data to the minor the drive not working.

once you have done all of this.

Try the SSD Again and see if it boots if it fails to boot again you will need a mac os x startup disk usually i would recommend snow leopard disk for this not that you will be installing it you need to see when you boot from the installer disk if Disk Utility finds the drive if it does and says it needs to be reformatted then most likely the machine in question is formatting the drive to the machine id.

This was a older way apple use to do things they had one macbook and one powerbook where you had to format the drive to the systems id number or it wouldn't boot this lead a lot of people back to apple stores until someone figured out the way to do it without apple.

Thanks for the replies. I have followed johnodd4's steps.

1. Reset SMC
2. Firmware is currently at MBP71.0039.B0E (2.1 or 2.2 I think) - I tried updating to 2.5 but it said "This software is not supported on your system". Weird. It was definitely the 13" mid-2010 MBP firmware I downloaded.
3. Firmware on the SSD cannot be updated as there are no updates available, nor is there any history of updates.

All to no avail. Something had changed this time after booting the SSD: instead of displaying a grey 'no entry' sign, it has now changed to a flashing folder with a question mark.

I tried booting it in recovery mode (CMD+R) and seeing if Disk Utility could find the SSD and it could not, neither could the OS install.

Could it be that I need a better SATA cable? I already replaced the cable for the exact one I had before but is it possible that I need a different one?

This is the one I have currently: Macbook Pro A1278 13” Hard Drive Cable 821-0814-A 2009 2010

EDIT: Just did some Googling and it seems SATA cables and drives are backwards compatible so any SATA cable (I, II, or III) should work with any SATA drive (I, II, or III). Hmm.

I really don't know what else to suggest.... other than sending the Crucial SSD back and trying another. I know that can be an inconvenience, but it does look like the problem is with the Crucial SSD and not your MacBook Pro or the SATA cable. You might even want to consider another brand of SSD instead of the Crucial. We usually recommend SSDs made and sold by OWC. (Other World Computing (OWC) - Performance Upgrades For Your Mac)