MacBook Air storage upgrade with kingston hyperX predator not recognized

[lucasmllr]

Hi there,

I am trying to upgrade the storage of my mid 2013 Macbook Air as for example suggested here.
I got the Kingston HyperX Predator 240 and this adapter by Kalea Informatique.
It all fits together nicely but when I start the macbook with the new setup in place pressing cmd + alt + d it does not seem to recognize the SSD. It neither shows up in Disk Utility nor can I restore from a Time Machine backup or reinstall the OS directly.
Also the macbook makes a weird humming sound with the new hardware installed. It disappears when I plug in the original SSD.

Any experience with this kind of problem? Is one of the components likely to be bad?

 

[Audit13]

Are you installing high Sierra?

 

[lucasmllr]

yes that was the plan. And it's of course cmd + alt + R when starting up.

 

[Audit13]

Maybe the ngff adapter isn't compatible? You installed the latest boot rom using the original ssd?

I bought a Sintech but haven't decided on a drive yet.

 

[lucasmllr]

Im pretty sure the adapter is just copper rearranging the pins. So cannot depend on the system can it?
But I just realized Im stille running on Sierra Beta so Im going to update. Maybe the drive is incompatible.
That should also install the latest boot rom right?

 

[Audit13]

Have a look at this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrading-2013-2014-macbook-pro-ssd-to-m-2-nvme.2034976/

Based on my reading of the posts, the adapter can affect the functionality of the nvme drive. The addition of kapton tape can also influence the results.

With the original SSD in the Air, install the latest High Sierra release to ensure the latest bootrom has been installed.

If the Predator cannot be formatted in 4k, you'll have to run HS. If it can be formatted in 512, Sierra can be installed.