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Well, there is one more thing to try, but this is looking more and more like a more serious hardware issue with the 2011 MacBook Pro.
With the 2011 MacBook Pro off, connect the 850 EVO SSD. Boot up the Mac, but hold down the Option key. If the Startup Manager is working on the machine, you should then see a screen that shows the 850 EVO Startup Partition (ie, the one with Sierra on it). You should then be able to select it, and then your Mac will boot from that external, bootable partition.
If you see nothing (or a white screen), it would mean that there are some hardware issues with that Mac. Assuming the original internal drive is OK, and the OS on it is not corrupted, if you cannot boot the machine to that hard drive, there is something else wrong from a hardware perspective. Not sure if there could be a loose cable/connection, or something is damaged "internally".
In actuality, in another discussion here, an individual wanted to boot his Mac Mini from an external, bootable drive, without having any internal drive installed inside the Mac Mini. The responses I saw on that forum was that was a possibility, ie, could be done. You'll see the answer to that when you try what I suggested above, about the Startup Manager.
The final thing you could do is to remove the hard drive from the 2011 MacBook Pro, remove the 850 EVO from the external case, install the 2011 MacBook Pro's drive inside that external enclosure, connect it to your good 2013 MacBook Pro, and then boot up that machine. If the Volume/Volumes (Partition/Partitions) for the 2011 Mac's internal drive show up on the 2013 Mac's desktop, then that drive is OK. You could even try and boot the 2013 Mac from the 2011 Mac's boot up Volume.
If that worked, then the issue is definitely a more serious one with the 2011 MacBook Pro. But maybe the "empty drive" scenario with the 2011 MacBook Pro will work.
With the 2011 MacBook Pro off, connect the 850 EVO SSD. Boot up the Mac, but hold down the Option key. If the Startup Manager is working on the machine, you should then see a screen that shows the 850 EVO Startup Partition (ie, the one with Sierra on it). You should then be able to select it, and then your Mac will boot from that external, bootable partition.
If you see nothing (or a white screen), it would mean that there are some hardware issues with that Mac. Assuming the original internal drive is OK, and the OS on it is not corrupted, if you cannot boot the machine to that hard drive, there is something else wrong from a hardware perspective. Not sure if there could be a loose cable/connection, or something is damaged "internally".
In actuality, in another discussion here, an individual wanted to boot his Mac Mini from an external, bootable drive, without having any internal drive installed inside the Mac Mini. The responses I saw on that forum was that was a possibility, ie, could be done. You'll see the answer to that when you try what I suggested above, about the Startup Manager.
The final thing you could do is to remove the hard drive from the 2011 MacBook Pro, remove the 850 EVO from the external case, install the 2011 MacBook Pro's drive inside that external enclosure, connect it to your good 2013 MacBook Pro, and then boot up that machine. If the Volume/Volumes (Partition/Partitions) for the 2011 Mac's internal drive show up on the 2013 Mac's desktop, then that drive is OK. You could even try and boot the 2013 Mac from the 2011 Mac's boot up Volume.
If that worked, then the issue is definitely a more serious one with the 2011 MacBook Pro. But maybe the "empty drive" scenario with the 2011 MacBook Pro will work.
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