Macbook air 2017 SSD Compatibility with Samsung SSD

[Audit13]

The Samsung PM981 SSD may not compatible with MBA.

Macbook air 2017 SSD Compatibility with Samsung SSD

The Samsung PM981 does not work. I have reviewed efforts from the MacBook Pro forum and they have reported that the Samsung 960 PRO/EVO does work but I have not confirmed this for the MacBook Air. I do know that the Samsung 950 PRO does work however. I'm using this in my current MBA.

forums.macrumors.com

I'm not sure that the combination of an Air 2017 and PM981 with the latest bootrom has been confirmed to be incompatible. Since the person already has the PM981 in-hand, it's best to try all options before getting another drive IMHO.

I have experience with replacing the SSDs in the mid-2013 to 2017 Air but have never used a PM981.

 

[Robert Obniski]

Please tell me what are the steps I should make with the whole equipment i have?

How to upgrade my Sierra on exteranal drive for High Sierra? Do I have to do it ? I read NVMe drive works only on High Sierra and higher OS. I believe easiest way is to go buy another drive.
[automerge]1586009217[/automerge]
What does system report say under About?

Did you try using CMD+Option+R to boot into Internet recovery and using disk utility to see the Samsung?

Yes, it did not work. Still dont see SSD.

 

[Audit13]

Please tell me what are the steps I should make with the whole equipment i have?

How to upgrade my Sierra on exteranal drive for High Sierra? Do I have to do it ? I read NVMe drive works only on High Sierra and higher OS. I believe easiest way is to go buy another drive.
[automerge]1586009217[/automerge]
What does system report say under About?
View attachment 903520
View attachment 903521

Did you try using CMD+Option+R to boot into Internet recovery and using disk utility to see the Samsung?

Yes, it did not work. Still dont see SSD.

Your bootrom supports nvme. I think you need to use a different nvme drive and use internet recovery to install the OS.

 

[Jumme_Cph]

Hey,

I don't want to create a new topic so I will join here asking for help. I bought a used MBA 2017 13" Mac was without disk, so after some search the net I bought:
Drive: Samsung 256GB SSD NVMe PCIe 2280 MZ-VLB256B
And the adapter from Allegro offer number: 7713888598

I put everything together and .... I don't see the SSD in any way.

So I connected another external SSD drive and installed the system on it by the combination of shift+alt+cmd+R keys, at this moment the MBA starts up, the system boots, but it runs form external drive. I can't see the disk mounted inside. The system that has been automatically installed is SIERRA. Then I read that SIERRA doesn't support NVMe and I need to update at least to HIGH SIERRA. Following the blow, I said that I had to log in to APP STORE and download macOS Catalina (only this one is available in APP STORE). I downloaded a file wanting to upgrade my SIERRE to the latest system. I start the installer from the APP store level by clicking "open" I manage to click a few times further and I get to the disk selection window on which to install the system and I STOPED AGAIN !!

Internal SSD, of course, still isn't there. The external disk is visible, but I can't select it because I have the message: "You cannot install on this volume; the firmware partition is missing." I made a second partition on the same disk with the thought that maybe it would help - none of that. I put PENDRIVE with the thought that it will install sytem on it but have the same message on it "..firmware partition is missing". Both the partition and PENDRIVE formatted as "MAC OS EXTENDED (journaled)"

I am stuck, I admit that this is my first Mac adventure. I have been sitting and fighting this equipment for a week, but I definitely need someone's help. Maybe I'm trying to do something that can't be done? Please tell me how to run this equipment?

First, let me congratulate you for your courage of opening up and fixing a Macbook as your first Mac adventure.
Brave, but as you are likely to experience, Macs dont just ‘work with everything’ - hence your problems.

What I think you want (in listed order)

1) Throw out your converter and buy a working one instead. You will have to wait for it ship from china, probably.

2) You didnt buy the best disk, so hopefully you got it either free or at least REALLY cheap. But it should work.

3) After installing disk with the converter I linked to, you have to go to another working Mac and use this guide to prepare and USB disk installer with OSX Catalina.

Follow the guide for a succesfull installation and enjoy your new Macbook. Congratulation!


NB you COULD try to isolate your present converter with caption tape. But as I suspect you are pretty unlikely to have that lying around, and as you might/will still have severe problems with the system,.. you might as well get the correct converter to begin with!!

 

[Audit13]

There may be nothing wrong with the adapter. I bought and used 2 no name adapters for less than $4 each from eBay and they work perfectly. These cheap adapters work no differently than the Sintech adapters I have used before and support x4 on the 2015 and 2017 Air. No kapton was needed for these adapters. The new revision of the Sintech don't need tape either.

 

[Jumme_Cph]

The Samsung PM981 SSD may not compatible with MBA.

Macbook air 2017 SSD Compatibility with Samsung SSD

The Samsung PM981 does not work. I have reviewed efforts from the MacBook Pro forum and they have reported that the Samsung 960 PRO/EVO does work but I have not confirmed this for the MacBook Air. I do know that the Samsung 950 PRO does work however. I'm using this in my current MBA.

forums.macrumors.com

The PM981 SSD is as far as I know Nmve Vers 1.1 (not 1.3 like Samsung EVO 970). That might be an explanation..

There may be nothing wrong with the adapter. I bought and used 2 no name adapters for less than $4 each from eBay and they work perfectly. These cheap adapters work no differently than the Sintech adapters I have used before and support x4 on the 2015 and 2017 Air. No kapton was needed for these adapters. The new revision of the Sintech don't need tape either.

Still, he will want to play safe to rule out possible cause of probelms.

And as we dont know what exact revision of converter he found, it might luckily work like yours two - or might not like the tonnes of people who rapported problems with noname adapters.

 

[Robert Obniski]

Can i go for this one ? Or any other recomendation?

ADATA 256GB M.2 PCIe XPG SX8200 Pro

 

[Audit13]

Can i go for this one ? Or any other recomendation?

ADATA 256GB M.2 PCIe XPG SX8200 Pro

Yes, but the PCIe bus in the air will limit the maximum speed.

I don't pay too much attention to read or write speeds. I have used the hp ex920, Intel 600p, 760p, and Lexar nm610. No problems with any of them although they are old now. I used them because they were very cheap too buy from a store.

 

[Audit13]

The PM981 SSD is as far as I know Nmve Vers 1.1 (not 1.3 like Samsung EVO 970). That might be an explanation..



Still, he will want to play safe to rule out possible cause of probelms.

And as we dont know what exact revision of converter he found, it might luckily work like yours two - or might not like the tonnes of people who rapported problems with noname adapters.

My eBay adapters were purchased over 6 months ago from two different vendors.

With the covid problems, I recommend trying a different drive first. No point spending money and waiting a month or more if the original adapter works.

I have been following the sticky nvme thread for a very long time and haven't seen any recent reports of no-name adapters not working.

 

[Robert Obniski]

@ Jumme_Cph

Thank you, this is a lot of information. For your surprise I do have caption tape But this is the method which can work only for few days. I rather go for a stable connection. I am pretty sure adapters I bought are same like yours only have green color but looks same and i bought 3 pieces just in case one is a faulty. Place I bought them sold many of them and I did not see anyone complain. This makes me trust in this product. I think Audit13 is right about those adapters it is to simple to dont work.



I am aware the SSD I got is not the best one but bcs this is my first MBA i decided not to invest to much money in it. I think it is because of me sitting bored at home during this corona virus I want to see the magic od Mac and iPhone

Can i make a bootable pendrive on WIN 7 ultimate? It is hard those days to ask someone to make ma a pendrive on mac. Can I make bootable external SSD ?

 

[Audit13]

The easiest way to create a USB installer is with bootcamp since bootcamp will create a bootable USB drive from a Windows ISO and add the necessary drivers to the installation.

 

[Robert Obniski]

This is the adapter i have:

I have downloaded catalina macOS on my WIN7 and found TRANSMAC program to do bootable pendrive. Is this can work? Can I make it on external SSD instead PENDRIVE?

 

[Audit13]

This is the adapter i have:
View attachment 903547 View attachment 903548


I have downloaded catalina macOS on my WIN7 and found TRANSMAC program to do bootable pendrive. Is this can work? Can I make it on external SSD instead PENDRIVE?

The adapter looks fine and doesn't have the pins exposed so tape probably isn't needed.

Nope, transmac isn't going to work. You should use Internet recovery to install the OS.

 

[Robert Obniski]

I got here...

I used Jumme_Cph links and made catalina installation disk on external SSD instead PENDRIVE and by rebooting mac with ALT button i got to the point with DISC UTILITY now I can see PCI-E SSD but has only 1,05 GB

I have tried to erase it but still have 1,05 GB and I can not erase it to GUID format. Any idea now ?

 

[Audit13]

Click to view all devices in disk utility. You should see the entire drive.

 

[Robert Obniski]

With your help guys I see in disc utility the main ssd. I have tried to instal OS on it but on 90% Mac restarts and gives me screen like this below.

I have downloaded Catalina OS once again from app store I have erased external drive and made it fresh with bootable Catalina OS.

Unfortunately I faced same problem 90% and restart. I have unpluged external driver power on MBA and OS instalator pop up so I continued (external drive unpluged) This time installation process rebooted after 10%

Another try with ALT+CMD+R all external disks unpluged. For my surprise it comes with Catalina OS now. No sign of Sierra. So I tried to instal OS directly from internet and the process rebooted again

No idea what I do wrong. Any tips ?

 

[Audit13]

The 188.0.0.0 is a Catalina bootrom which is why Catalina appears in internet recovery.

Sounds like you'll need another SSD. It looks like it's suffering from a kernel panic but I'm not sure what is causing the panic.

 

[Robert Obniski]

Today I have tried Mojave OS. Still same problem as above.

It is time to buy another SSD this will make all clear. If someone can tell me wich SSD will work for sure with AIR I dont want to waste more time, options:

HP EX900 250GB M.2 $40
Silicon Power P34A60 256GB M.2 2280 $50
Crucial MX500 250GB M.2 2280 $55
HP EX920 256GB M.2 $60
Adata XPG SX8200 Pro 256GB $60
PNY XLR8 CS3030 M.2 250GB $60

 

[Audit13]

I have an HP ex900 in an early 2015 Air 13". It's a dramless drive and works fine.

The crucial MX500 is not nvme.

 

[Robert Obniski]

Problem solved.

Changing SSD for HP ex900 250gb helped. I can confirm SAMSUNG PM981 is not compatible with MacBook Air 2017.

Thank you guys for your help.

 

[Macdctr]

Robert, I use the app Install Disk Creator to make bootable Mac OS thumb drives to install new MacOS software. I use 16 or 32GB thumb drives when making these bootable OS drives then I will make two separate folders (Applications and Utilities) and load up my app or utility programs into them so I have an all-in-one solution to restore software on any Mac. Here is the link if you want to use this software to make your own bootable MacOS thumb drives...

Make a Bootable USB macOS Installer Download the update for Big Sur compatibility -

What’s needed for a clean install on a Mac A backup of the disk before it’s erased. Two options are to use Duplicate (a free utility which can copy and paste an entire bootable volume), or Mac Backup Guru (a paid, fully featured backup utility with unique incremental backups capability) for...

macdaddy.io

As for NVMe drives I use Samsung 950PRO, 970PRO/EVO drives. Currently I am using a 512GB 970PRO drive in my 2015 11 inch MacBook Air with no issues. I used to have my 970EVO 2TB drive there but have since transferred that drive into my 5,1 MacPro because that drive was compatible with the Pro and the 970PRO was not. The Samsung drives do use more power but I have found the tradeoffs aren't that severe and continue to recommend use of the Samsung drives.

 

[FreeAgent70]

Ok guys, sorry if this has been explained before but I would like to ask again... I'm new around here...

I have a 13" MBA early 2015, 1.6 GHz i5. 4GB RAM and original 250GB SSD (Apple SSD 0256G) running latest Mojave Os. I'm thinking to upgrade to 970 evo 500GB or 1TB and Sintech adapter.
I want to do the upgrade because MBA it feels sluggish, so my questions are:

1) Is this the "best" way to go? If not, what would you suggest?
2) will I get better speed of what i'm getting right now: 488.8 MB/s write - 1360.9 MB/z read
3) I read something about battery drainage
4) Also read something about boot room and firmware updates, do I have to do this? How you do that?

...By the way, I'm not that "techie" but last week I upgraded my late 2013 27" iMac original 1TB HD to a 1TB 970 EVO SSD and the improvement was so great that it feels I have a new computer!!! I haven't had any issues as other users reported. My readings before upgrade: 95.3MB/s write - 121.6MB/s read and after, 725.4MB/s write - 774.7MB/s read

Because the success and improvement with the iMac is why I want to do it in the MBA

Thank you in advance and any help or suggestion will be greatly appreciated!!

 

[z2000]

If your Mac is not shortage on space of SSD. To replace biger SSD may not solve your issue.
-The 970 could be higher speed - both read and write around 1400MBs.
-it will drain the battery quick - around 1/3 at least.
x because you have Mojave, so there no framework or boot issue on you.

 

[FreeAgent70]

If your Mac is not shortage on space of SSD. To replace biger SSD may not solve your issue.
-The 970 could be higher speed - both read and write around 1400MBs.
-it will drain the battery quick - around 1/3 at least.
x because you have Mojave, so there no framework or boot issue on you.

z2000 Thank you for your response!

 

[Macdctr]

As z2000 mentioned using the Samsung drives will drain the battery more because they are high performance drives. I enjoy having the 1400MBs drive speeds and am willing to have the sacrifice in total battery life. For my use I do not require max battery life of my MacBook Air. I'm okay having 7hrs of battery life on my 11inch Air vice 9hrs. I have access to AC power if I need it so going with the Samsung 970PRO drive is the way to go for me. If battery life is not of huge concern then keep these drives in mind. You won't regret using them.