Help installing macOS on new SSD installed in iMac

Not all SSDs are compatible with all devices and Macs can be very particular about the drives used for booting. I've never been a fan of Orico's products.

Samsung SSDs have mixed results with Macs when used internally....especially the lowest end models such as the older EVO series and the more recent QVO series which are Samsung's newest lowest end model. I would definitely trust a Samsung SSD more than an Orico. Unfortunately it seems Crucial is no longer producing the MX500 series SSD which have traditionally been a good option (the Crucial BX500 series is pure junk). Another option would be an OWC Mercury Extreme 6G SSD. I definitely don't like the current OWC Mercury Electra model and would hope the higher end OWC Mercury Extreme SSD would be better.

FYI, many of the SSDs out there are just low end models and mostly junk to one degree or another. It is very hard to tell them apart these days and it doesn't help that the traditionally respected brands are putting out some junk as well.

Also, if you had just used an external USB3 SSD, then you would have the same performance or with a Thunderbolt3 SSD you could be close to the speed of the internal PCIe NVMe SSD....so faster than the original Fusion Drive.

yogix wrote:

I think I found the issue with why macOs was not installing and why I was getting so many issues with the iMac becoming unresponsive.

I decided to unplug the iFixit thermal sensor cable, just to see if it made a difference, and it did. MacOs installed on the SSD and so far the iMac has been on and has not beach balled or restarted.

Odd.

My only issue now is when I look at the report on DriveDX it says Advanced S.M.A.R.T. status is: Failing. I am a bit concerned about this. I wondered if this could be a false reading, but looking online this is uncommon.

Post the complete DriveDx text report here using the "Additional Text" icon which looks like a piece of paper on the forum editing toolbar.

FYI, "Warning" & "Failing" notices in DriveDx for SSDs does not always mean the SSD is bad, although it is unusual for a brand new SSD to report issues. An SSD's health report must be manually interpreted unlike for a Hard Drive.

Here is the failing attribute reported by DriveDx:

181 Program Fail Count Life-span online 20,472 100 0 100 - 100% Failing

Having over 20K "Program Fail Count" incidents...assuming this app is properly interpreting this value seems like a lot to have with just 70 power on hours. The normalized health attributes do not seem affected which unfortunately is becoming more & more common with SSDs so we have no way of knowing exactly what the SSD manufacturer expects from this attribute (or there is a slim chance 20K of these events is not enough to even trigger a 1% change in the "Worst" normalized column).

It is concerning that there are so many unknown "Vendor Specific" health attributes especially when a manufacturer explicitly states their drives support SMART.

Since you had several issues with the new SSD and the new SSD is showing 20K "Program Fail Count" incidents, it would seem to be related.

I'll be interested in hearing what Orico support has to say about this report.

yogix wrote:

Latest communication from Orico:

There is indeed a quality issue with the product, and it is recommended to handle it after sales. Thank you!

Just waiting to find out what the next steps are.

That is good to hear.

yogix wrote:

So Orico have offered a replacement or refund which I have taken the refund.

That raises my impression of Orico a lot by honoring the warranty with the SMART health report you had.

now got to decide what drive to put back inside.

These days it is very hard to decide which SSDs are actually any good.

i do have a ZikeDrive USB4 NVMe external SSD Enclosure but my 2TB SN850X not large enough. But could get a 4TB and go the external route?

It will be using Thunderbolt 3 with a max transfer rate of 40Gb/s. I believe this is shared with the other Thunderbolt 3 port. It should give you good performance.