A1398 (Macbook Pro mid-2014 15") NVME SSD Upgrade - OSX Install Boot Loop Solution

[mishawarren1999]

Hello!

I bought a Crucial 1TB P2 NVME SSD to replace my stock 256gb storage, plugged it in using an adapter from eBay, and to my enormous frustration the SSD was recognised and formatable in recovery mode disk utility, but upon attempting to install Big Sur via bootable USB, the installer got to around 80%, and then restarted straight back into recovery mode back to square one. I tried everything - resetting DRAM, trying online recovery, but the same kept occurring – recognised SSD, decent progress but then a restart back to the beginning.

After hitting my head against the wall for a few hours it occurred to me that I might actually be able to install OSX onto the USB I was using as a bootable drive, as a last ditch solution. So, I put the old SSD back in, formatted the USB, booted into online recovery mode and selected the USB as the destination. Sure enough (this USB is only 32gb!) recovery mode was able to install High Sierra onto the USB, albeit very slowly. After this, I put the new NVME SSD back in, booted High Sierra off of the USB, and used SuperDuper to clone the entire contents of the USB onto the new SSD and make it bootable.

Sure enough, it actually worked! The new SSD booted straight into High Sierra and I was able to update it straight to Big Sur without an issue. The speeds of the Cruical P2 are around 1.3GB/S read and write, which is almost double the stock A1398 SSD.

If anybody is having any issues with boot loop regarding using recovery mode to install OSX onto an NVME SSD, even though this method is probably the least intuitive one possible, it's definitely worth a shot.

Hope this helps someone!

 

[Dsheridansc]

Glad you were successful. I installed a Crucial P2 in a Late 2013 MBP with a Sintech adapter from Amazon (Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade MacBook Air(2013-2016 Year) and MacBook PRO(Late 2013-2015 Year)) .
I ran BlackMagic benchmarking software at 5GB file size and the speeds started above 1 GB/sec but quickly failed to 40MB/s by the second write test. If I only wrote at 1 GB file size, it held up longer, but by the third or fourth write test it was down to the same 40 MB/s. I have tried other benchmarking programs that don't test such volumes and they are more supportive of your 1 GB/s speeds.

I don't know if it is an issue of the adapter not interfacing smoothly or the garbage collection in the P2 versus OSX. Any thoughts?

 

[Audit13]

Glad you were successful. I installed a Crucial P2 in a Late 2013 MBP with a Sintech adapter from Amazon (Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card for Upgrade MacBook Air(2013-2016 Year) and MacBook PRO(Late 2013-2015 Year)) .
I ran BlackMagic benchmarking software at 5GB file size and the speeds started above 1 GB/sec but quickly failed to 40MB/s by the second write test. If I only wrote at 1 GB file size, it held up longer, but by the third or fourth write test it was down to the same 40 MB/s. I have tried other benchmarking programs that don't test such volumes and they are more supportive of your 1 GB/s speeds.

I don't know if it is an issue of the adapter not interfacing smoothly or the garbage collection in the P2 versus OSX. Any thoughts?

Is you MacBook a 13" or 15"?

Is the drive lane width x4 according to system report?

 

[Dsheridansc]

It is a 15" MBP. Here is the NVMExpress report:

Generic SSD Controller:
CT500P2SSD8:
Capacity: 500.11 GB (500,107,862,016 bytes)
TRIM Support: Yes
Model: CT500P2SSD8
Revision: P2CR033
Serial Number: 2117E59BF3DD
Link Width: x4
Link Speed: 5.0 GT/s
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
Removable Media: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
EFI:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
File System: MS-DOS FAT32
BSD Name: disk0s1
Content: EFI
Volume UUID: 0E239BC6-F960-3107-89CF-1C97F78BB46B
disk0s2:
Capacity: 499.9 GB (499,898,105,856 bytes)
BSD Name: disk0s2
Content: Apple_APFS

Not sure why the EFI got formatted as FAT32 - I thought I used Disk Utility to format the whole drive as APFS. TRIM is turned on in Big Sur 11.5 as well as in the NVMe.

 

[Audit13]

@Dsheridansc , everything looks fine. The MacBook is running the latest bootrom?

The MacBook uses a GPT format and the EFI FAT32 partition is required, even with an original Apple SSD.

I had a look at the Crucial P2 specs and it appears that the SSD does not have any onboard DRAM. With a DRAMless SSD, write speeds will decrease during the write process with large files.

 

[Dsheridansc]

I assumed that the OS updates are keeping the bootrom updated. Here is the system report:

System Firmware Version: 431.140.6.0.0
SMC Version (system): 2.18f15
or the EFI check:

EFI Version: MBP112.88Z.F000.B00.2106131836 (Boot ROM Version: 431.140.6.0.0)

So, I believe this is the newest version.

I think you are probably correct that without DRAM, the speeds slow with larger files. I guess for daily use, this probably doesn't matter since I am not doing any video editing where I need to save large amounts of data.

I appreciate your insights.

 

[Audit13]

I assumed that the OS updates are keeping the bootrom updated. Here is the system report:

System Firmware Version: 431.140.6.0.0
SMC Version (system): 2.18f15
or the EFI check:

EFI Version: MBP112.88Z.F000.B00.2106131836 (Boot ROM Version: 431.140.6.0.0)

So, I believe this is the newest version.

I think you are probably correct that without DRAM, the speeds slow with larger files. I guess for daily use, this probably doesn't matter since I am not doing any video editing where I need to save large amounts of data.

I appreciate your insights.

Yes, your MacBook is running the latest bootrom.

I would not worry about benchmarks unless you are running benchmarks all day.

I used the HP ex900 in three Airs. People did not notice a difference in speed during everyday use even though the HP SSD is also dramless. They went from 128 to 512 and were completely satisfied with the increase in storage without a decrease in usability.