I’m a first-timer and just went through a huge headache that looked like a completely dead SSD. Posting this in case another beginner runs into the same thing.
Setup
- Ant Esports 690 Neo Pro NVMe SSD
- Hackintosh installed on the drive
- USB NVMe enclosure
- Windows machine used to edit EFI files
What Went Wrong
Windows does not normally expose EFI partitions, so I used MiniTool Partition Wizard to assign the EFI a drive letter and modify the partition type so Windows would mount it.
After that, I used Explorer++ to move files around inside EFI.
Big mistake:
- Used Cut + Paste instead of Copy
- USB enclosure briefly disconnected during transfer
- EFI/partition structure became corrupted
Immediately after that:
- Windows showed:
- "USB Device Not Recognized"
- "Device Descriptor Request Failed"
- "Set Address Failed"
- Enclosure LED barely blinked
- SSD stopped mounting properly
At first I thought:
- the enclosure died
- the SSD failed
- or drivers were missing
None of those were the actual issue.
Also:
- NVMe enclosures are usually plug-and-play
- If the drive disappears after EFI edits, the partition structure may just be corrupted
Recovery
I booted into a Linux live USB (Zorin OS).
Linux detected the drive immediately even though Windows treated it like failed hardware.
Using Linux, I was able to:
- inspect the partitions
- repair/recreate the EFI structure
- restore EFI contents
- keep my original "config.plist"
- rebuild EFI with matching kexts/drivers
After repairing the EFI and partition structure, the SSD started working normally again.
TL;DR
- Never use Cut + Paste inside EFI over USB. Copy first.
- "Device Descriptor Request Failed" does not always mean dead hardware.
- Windows handles corrupted EFI/USB bridge states very poorly.
- Keep a Linux live USB nearby for recovery work.
- Be careful when force-mounting EFI partitions from Windows.
Managed to recover all my data in the end.
