Chosen Solution
Hello, I’m upgrading my iMac Late 2009 from a 2 TB HDD to a 1TB Crucial MX500 SSD using the kit. The 1 TB SSD when connected externally is recognized when I’m running High Sierra. When booting, the external SSD is not seen at all during in the Restore mode/Disk Utility screens. The USB 2.0 adapter seems OK and is seen at boot when another 1 TB HDD is connected at boot. I’m able to install and boot High Sierra from that. Want to do the external check before removing the screen. Is this a known problem with Crucial MX500? Read online somewhere to try Samsung EVO 850 due to a SATA link negotiation issue. Would be so nice to save this iMac from the recycle.
Got the Samsung Pro 850 1TB working just fine. Will be returning the Crucial MX-500 in the kit. Ifixit folks, please take note and you may want to modify your kit! Also, the metal drive adapter needed drilling out two holes with an 1/8 drill. The iMac original shock-mount stubs look like they use a 6-32 screw thread not the 3mm threads in the holes. The 6-32 threads were just the right size to self-tap. So both the Crucial and Samsung SSDs were compatible with the kit’s USB 2.0 adapter, but the Crucial was not compatible on boot time with my iMac late 2009.
It sounds like your SATA to USB adapter is not able to support the Crucial SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) SSD.