Help. Whats the right Hdd cable for 7200 rpm on macbook late 2011 15" 8,2 model? Please

[aliberesco]

I own a late 2011 15" macbook pro but it seems cable is 5400 rpm and not 7200 rpm, because i bought a ssd and tried to upgrade but it doesnt work, the ssd is not recognized as in my other 2012 mbp.
Which cable do i have to buy? Please let me know, thanks.

 

[techiesteve]

I own a late 2011 15" macbook pro but it seems cable is 5400 rpm and not 7200 rpm, because i bought a ssd and tried to upgrade but it doesnt work, the ssd is not recognized as in my other 2012 mbp.
Which cable do i have to buy? Please let me know, thanks.

There is only one hard drive cable, used in both the early and late 2011 MBP 15". It functions normally with 5400rpm, 7200rpm drives and SSD's. The HD cable on your MBP is usually very reliable unless it has been physically damaged.

Is this correct, your new SSD is recognised in a 2012 MBP, but when fitted in the MBP 2011 disk utility on your installer will not see it? Is the hard drive you removed from the 2011 MBP good and can it be refitted to check the MBP and cable are in working condition?

If you are fitting the SSD to your 2011 MBP because it boots to a white screen and you suspect the original hard drive has failed, this can also be a symptom of the GPU on the logic board failing, a very common issue.

 

[aliberesco]

There is only one hard drive cable, used in both the early and late 2011 MBP 15". It functions normally with 5400rpm, 7200rpm drives and SSD's. The HD cable on your MBP is usually very reliable unless it has been physically damaged.

Is this correct, your new SSD is recognised in a 2012 MBP, but when fitted in the MBP 2011 disk utility on your installer will not see it? Is the hard drive you removed from the 2011 MBP good and can it be refitted to check the MBP and cable are in working condition?

If you are fitting the SSD to your 2011 MBP because it boots to a white screen and you suspect the original hard drive has failed, this can also be a symptom of the GPU on the logic board failing, a very common issue.

<<Thank you very muhc, Steve.
In fact, i own another mbp 2012 and 3 disks (2 hd and 1 ssd) both disks, the hd and sd have osx installed and work fine on the 2012. But the 2011 only works fine with its own disk, because when i swap the other hd it keeps hanging on boot apple logo and full starting bar, and when i connect ssd it's not recognized by disk utility, so i read somewhere that it was a problem with 5400 cable and had to upgrade, but if you say that it's the same i don't know why some people have made it.

 

[rcorph]

Hi, I have a late 2011 17" MBP and back then I replaced the HD with a SATA 6gbs Intel which was the only one I could get to work at 6gbs. I tried many 6gbs ssds from OWC and all had issues. The 2011 MBP was supposed to support SATA 6 but the Intel was the only one I found without issues. 3 Gbs ssd should be fine but 6gbs were hit and miss even though they were supposed to be supported. It was a known issue back then. If you just bought it it is probably 6gbs. Can either try a different brand or go to 3gbs drive if they are still offered. As far as I know they were no issues with 2012 and 6gbs third party drives.

 

[techiesteve]

I have installed Crucial SATA 6gbs SSD's multiple times in both the 2011 MBP 13" and 15" with no issues, that is all we fit at work. I can't speak for other brands. I have seen MBP 2011's running ok with Kingston and Samsung SSD's, but have no recollection what part numbers they were.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

<<Thank you very muhc, Steve.
In fact, i own another mbp 2012 and 3 disks (2 hd and 1 ssd) both disks, the hd and sd have osx installed and work fine on the 2012. But the 2011 only works fine with its own disk, because when i swap the other hd it keeps hanging on boot apple logo and full starting bar, and when i connect ssd it's not recognized by disk utility, so i read somewhere that it was a problem with 5400 cable and had to upgrade, but if you say that it's the same i don't know why some people have made it.

There's no such thing as a "5400" cable or a "7200" cable. The interface is Serial ATA (SATA) and the cable is standard for that interface regardless of what's attached. The speed of the interface can vary (3 Gb/sec vs 6 Gb/sec, for example), but the connectors are unchanged. "5400" and "7200" aren't even numbers that apply to SSDs. It's the rotational speed of the platters inside a hard drive, and SSDs have no moving parts. This has no bearing on what kind of cable is used.

That all said, there are a couple possible problems at hand here. You say the SSD works fine in a 2012 MacBook but not the 2011? What version of macOS is on that SSD? If it's Mojave or Catalina (10.14 or 10.15), then the 2011 MacBook cannot boot that. The last version of macOS that the 2011 MacBook can run is 10.13 High Sierra.

There is a conversation on iFixit about using a replacement SSD on a 2011 MacBook Pro, and the solution for him was to reinstall macOS from scratch rather than clone it. That's not quite the situation you are in, nor should have that even been necessary for that person. But there were other suggestions that the SATA cable was bad and further suggestions to use a replacement SATA cable intended for a 2012 MacBook Pro instead of the one for a 2011. Link to all that below.
SOLVED: System doesn't recognize Samsung EVO SSD - MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011 - iFixit

 

[ferrarr]

I also remember when I had my Late 2011 15" MBP, I had an issue with one of the SSD drives (Samsung) I tried to run in it, but a different manufacturers SSD (Kingston) worked, without any issue.