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MacOS High Sierra New SSD

Astingel2016

Astingel2016

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 4, 2018
18
0
I have an early 2015 13in Retina display MacBook Pro (A1502) that I purchased from Goodwill. It did not have a hard drive. I have one on the way, but it's not Apple OEM so I know the MBP will not recognize it without the firmware update required by High Sierra. I've been running the MBP from Sierra installed on a 1TB external hard drive.

Is there any way to get the MBP to update the firmware while I'm running the OS from the external hard drive? Without it the SSD I ordered is pretty much useless. I've tried updating the external hard to High Sierra but no luck. Any suggestions?
 
No. You can clone the external HD with Sierra to the internal SSD when you have the SSD using Carbon Copy Cloner. Then boot from the internal SSD and upgrade to High Sierra, but personally I stay away from APFS. I still use HFS+.
 
Okay, but the system won't recognize the new hard drive without the firmware update that comes with High Sierra so cloning it would be pointless.
 
Will the drive work if you stay with Low Sierra?
Or even with El Capitan?

If so, forget about High Sierra, and use what works for you.
 
The MBP won't recognize the drive without the firmware update that comes with High Sierra.
 
I don't have the SSD yet, it's on it's way. But from what I'm being told, the only way the SSD can be recognized is with the firmware update from High Sierra. I'm working on a way to extract the firmware update and apply it separately from High Sierra.
 
If I understand the situation correctly, I think this will be easier than you think. By way of example, I have an older Mac Pro that was booting from a hard disk running 10.10. I connected a Sandisk SSD. From the App Store, I got 10.13 and pointed it to the SSD. It installed all the necessary bits, and I now boot 10.13 from the SSD.
If you have access to other (earlier) Mac OSs, it should work the same way.
 
kohlson said:
If I understand the situation correctly, I think this will be easier than you think. By way of example, I have an older Mac Pro that was booting from a hard disk running 10.10. I connected a Sandisk SSD. From the App Store, I got 10.13 and pointed it to the SSD. It installed all the necessary bits, and I now boot 10.13 from the SSD.
If you have access to other (earlier) Mac OSs, it should work the same way.
Click to expand...

So your system recognized hard drive? The person I'm purchasing the hard drive from told me the machine will not even recognize the SSD without the firmware update. Also, I would like to be able to update it past Sierra. It's only a 2015 so it has many years to go yet.
 
I don't think this will be the problem you are making it out to be. When running the machine on your external HDD, the OS will recognize the SSD and ask you if you want to format it. Just click yes, and you are good to go.

Lou
 
Okay, so everyone keeps saying it's not going to be a problem, but this SSD isn't Apple OEM. It's a different brand and everywhere I research says MBP need the firmware update to recognize non-Apple SSDs
 
Astingel2016 said:
So your system recognized hard drive?
Click to expand...
Yes, it recognized the Sandisk SSD.
Perhaps a bit of confusion here? Macs can use and recognize virtually any external drive, as connected through appropriate external ports (for example, USB). Internally, MacBook Pros use a somewhat proprietary physical interface. Vendors such as OWC and a few others sell SSDs that fit. Yes, they work with High Sierra.

But to reiterate, there isn't any issue I am aware of with using a non-Apple SSD for High Sierra.
 
kohlson said:
Yes, it recognized the Sandisk SSD.
Perhaps a bit of confusion here? Macs can use and recognize virtually any external drive, as connected through appropriate external ports (for example, USB). Internally, MacBook Pros use a somewhat proprietary physical interface. Vendors such as OWC and a few others sell SSDs that fit. Yes, they work with High Sierra.

But to reiterate, there isn't any issue I am aware of with using a non-Apple SSD for High Sierra.
Click to expand...

I think there is some confusion. My MBP currently has no internal hard drive, but has an external hard drive attached via USB. It is running great but I cannot get it to update to High Sierra. The new hard drive I have coming is a B
kohlson said:
Yes, it recognized the Sandisk SSD.
Perhaps a bit of confusion here? Macs can use and recognize virtually any external drive, as connected through appropriate external ports (for example, USB). Internally, MacBook Pros use a somewhat proprietary physical interface. Vendors such as OWC and a few others sell SSDs that fit. Yes, they work with High Sierra.

But to reiterate, there isn't any issue I am aware of with using a non-Apple SSD for High Sierra.
Click to expand...


I believe there is some confusion here. My MBP currently has no internal hard drive. I have an external hard drive attached running Sierra, but cannot get it to update to High Sierra. The hard drive I have coming (who knows when with this snow!) is a non-Apple SSD with no hard drive already installed. It's blank and will be connected internally, not externally. I don't want to keep carrying around a MBP with an external drive attachment. When connected internally High Sierra has to be installed for the MBP to recognize it as it contains the necessary firmware update.
 
Again, should not be a problem. My second computer is an MBA running a non-Apple (Transcend) SSD. No issues. You are relying on information someone gave you, but not from all the posters here. Rather than try to anticipate a perceived problem, why not wait until your SSD arrives and go from there.

Astingel2016 said:
When connected internally High Sierra has to be installed for the MBP to recognize it as it contains the necessary firmware update.
Click to expand...

That's NOT TRUE!!!!!!


Lou
 
flowrider said:
Again, should not be a problem. My second computer is an MBA running a non-Apple (Transcend) SSD. No issues. You are relying on information someone gave you, but not from all the posters here. Rather than try to anticipate a perceived problem, why not wait until your SSD arrives and go from there.



That's NOT TRUE!!!!!!


Lou
Click to expand...

Obviously I can't do anything until it gets here, I was just trying to prepare for it. The person I'm purchasing from is a computer tech and has done many of these installs so I believed him when he said I'd need the firmware. But we'll see what happens when it arrives, hopefully it will be here by Monday. This snow put a halt on everything
 
So the SSD came today (post office delivered today, go figure!). I installed it and started it up. The only way it is recognized is when I hold option upon startup. If I choose “Select StartUp Disk” option from the menu it is recognized and shows 10.13 installed, but will not startup. When I start the MBP using the external hard drive with Sierra, it is not recognized at all. Not in Disk Utility, not even in Carbon Copy Cloner to be able to clone the external hard drive.
 
Your replacement SSD did not come with macOS pre-installed, did it?
So, after installing the drive internally, you would need to boot to an installer, and complete the macOS install.
Then, you should be able to restore your software from the external drive.
You could also do this through Internet Recovery (Restart, while holding Option-Command-r)
Disconnect your external drive before booting to Internet Recovery, so that does not confuse your issue for now.
Get macOS installed on your MBPro, then restore from the clone.

If you STILL can't see the internal drive - what is the manufacturer showing on the label of your SSD?
 
DeltaMac said:
Your replacement SSD did not come with macOS pre-installed, did it?
So, after installing the drive internally, you would need to boot to an installer, and complete the macOS install.
Then, you should be able to restore your software from the external drive.
You could also do this through Internet Recovery (Restart, while holding Option-Command-r)
Disconnect your external drive before booting to Internet Recovery, so that does not confuse your issue for now.
Get macOS installed on your MBPro, then restore from the clone.

If you STILL can't see the internal drive - what is the manufacturer showing on the label of your SSD?
Click to expand...

It looks like it did come preinstalled. When trying to install High Sierra to my external hard drive, it may be that I was trying to go directly from Yosemite. I’m downloading Sierra now to try to install it, at least to my external hard drive. We’ll see what happens from there
 
OK
What is that SSD that you purchased, that is a non-Apple drive, yet comes with macOS pre-installed?
Where did you order it?
That would NOT be one that I would trust to have a properly installed system, and "pre-installed" would be a complete waste of time for me, as the first thing that I do with a replacement drive is to reformat. A boot drive would get a fresh install of macOS, so that there's a system that I can be certain of what's there (and what is NOT :D )

And, you can surely go from Yosemite to Sierra - with no intermediate steps needed.
 
I purchased it on eBay. It’s a WD 256GB. I didn’t even know it was preinstalled, so I was preparing to have to install the OS. I already did the reformat. I’m trying to upgrade to Sierra first to see if that may be the problem. I keep getting a firmware error during firmware verification when I try to install High Sierra to the external hard drive.
 
flowrider said:
^^^^Is it an NVME SSD, maybe?

Lou
Click to expand...

No, it’s a PCIe. I can say this. I successfully installed Sierra on my hard drive. Since I did, the High Sierra update has downloaded and is actually downloading the 5.20 GB full installer. When I downloaded it before it was only 19-21MB and I was never able to create a boot drive with it. Hopefully I can use the flash drive I used to install Sierra and install High Sierra with it onto the external drive. I don’t have anything to save so I’m not worried if I have to do a clean install. I just don’t want this SSD to be a waste of time. I can always send it back and get my money back but that’s not the point.
 
^^^^Yes, I know it's a PCIe, that's the configuration. The type is either AHCI to NVME. Do you have the specs of the drive. I believe WD SSDs are NVME. If so, that's an issue.

Lou
 
flowrider said:
^^^^Yes, I know it's a PCIe, that's the configuration. The type is either AHCI to NVME. Do you have the specs of the drive. I believe WD SSDs are NVME. If so, that's an issue.

Lou
Click to expand...

Ok, I need to check on that. While I'm finding out, can you tell me why it's an issue if it's NVME? As of now the drive is recognized when I boot using the install USB, the install just will not finish because of a firmware verification issue. I'm creating a Sierra USB to see if Sierra can be installed on the drive and if it will recognize it as a bootable drive from there.
 
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