Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe

[profcutter]

Ok, sweet! Did you use tape? That made the difference for me, been pretty stable but did get an efi error prompt the other day which I just closed.

My adapter came pre-taped. My goal was to get more space and to see if I could eliminate the AHCI crashes that happened every time I moved the computer with the original ssd installed. I was successful on both counts. Battery life seems to be suffering, but I’m hoping at some point to find the cable to do a firmware fix for hibernation. Computer is much more responsive, and I don’t have to worry every time I download something that I’m buying against the 1tb capacity of the original ssd.

 

[antexxx]

just received Intel 760P 2TB and Sintech adapters (short green, revision B and long black, revision C). Which of these adapters do you recommend for 2TB Intel drive? Will install it in rMBP 15" late 2013

 

[CarlSagan]

can you give a link to a FileVault fix?

Certainly:

The problem most likely has to do with the fact that your main admin user does not have a secure token, as described here:

What to do when FileVault won’t turn on

Diagnosing an oddball scenario in which you canu2019t enable FileVault requires more information than macOS provides.

www.macworld.com

The fix was posted, thankfully, here:

How to make FileVault work again when you’re missing a ‘secure token’

A long-running problem appears to have a solution.

www.macworld.com

Bottom line is that you reboot into recovery mode and type in a quick and easy Terminal argument. Fixed it for me!

Some future tests I will be running:

Take out the 2TB SSPOLARIS (should be hereto referred to as $$POLARIS) and replace with the 2TB Inland (microcenter) and short sintech adapter to see if battery life and boot time is better. That one is currently in my cMP with a RIITOP adapter, working great. I might also wipe the system as is and set it up as a new user, then use migration assistant to bring back my old stuff, rather than Carbon copy cloner. As I type this, the Apple ssd is running at 77° F, and that seems pretty good...

 

[brabus78]

You mean in Windows?

No it does not.

Wich error?

 

[slickdawg]

As promised, here are some results.

Mid-2015 15" retina MacBook Pro
OS X Catalina
Sintech short black NVMe adapter
Sabrent 2TB Rocket Pro

Link width 4
Link. bandwidth 8.0 GT/s

Benchmarks - Roughly 2400MB/sec write, 1900MB/sec read

I have open and closed the lid numerous times, and the Mac came right back as expected.

I have let the Mac sleep for 3 and 12 hours, and the Mac came right back as expected.

No hangs, no black screens, no kernel panics thus far - which is in its second day of testing.

I am confident enough in it to have screwed the bottom case back in. In hindsight, I wish I had not yet, just to check some more on the Silicon Power 2TB NVMe, which repeatedly hung up and crashed.

The only difference I see between the Sabrent and the Silicon Power is that the Sabrent revision is ECFM12.2 where the Silicon Power was ECFM12.3

So perhaps that different drive firmware is the problem with the Silicon Power?

 

[Seppo777]

So is Sabrent still the nvme we should choose if we want to have a long battery life?

 

[htcmda]

Ok, sweet! Did you use tape? That made the difference for me, been pretty stable but did get an efi error prompt the other day which I just closed.

I asked the other day why people put tape on their adapter OR why some come with tape, and how does this make the adapter work better. Can you explain how tape magically fixes a problem?

 

[vince22]

I asked the other day why people put tape on their adapter OR why some come with tape, and how does this make the adapter work better. Can you explain how tape magically fixes a problem?

I believe older sintech adapter version have exposed pins connector that needed insulated/covered with Kapton tape to prevent errors/crash. last month I bought from Amazon both Sintech short and long black adapters have black coated pin connectors covered.

 

[dstyp]

I believe older sintech adapter version have exposed pins connector that needed insulated/covered with Kapton tape to prevent errors/crash. last month I bought from Amazon both Sintech short and long black adapters have black coated pin connectors covered.

Bought mine 2 weeks ago from Sintech on Amazon, short matte black adapter version that seemingly have no exposed pins. Still required tape for my system to become anything near stable.

 

[htcmda]

Are you taping the red side or the yellow side (pic is reference to the short style)

also,thanks for the response.

 

[vince22]

Bought mine 2 weeks ago from Sintech on Amazon, short matte black adapter version that seemingly have no exposed pins. Still required tape for my system to become anything near stable.

I’ve seen some reports for 2015 15” MBP , no tape (short matte black adapter or long black adapter) required for my 2015 13” MBP, no errors or crash/kernel panic, I’ve only used tested recommended NVME’s at Opening page in this thread.

 

[johnhurley]

Bought mine 2 weeks ago from Sintech on Amazon, short matte black adapter version that seemingly have no exposed pins. Still required tape for my system to become anything near stable.

Not for me using samsung 970 evo but theres nothing wrong with adding some additional protection.

 

[juan985_Spain]

Wich error?

The same:

Error "An error occurred while trying to access the startup disk settings. You may not have privileges to change the startup disk. Make sure you have administrator privileges and try again."

 

[dstyp]

I’ve seen some reports for 2015 15” MBP , no tape (short matte black adapter or long black adapter) required for my 2015 13” MBP, no errors or crash/kernel panic, I’ve only used tested recommended NVME’s at Opening page in this thread.

Not for me using samsung 970 evo but theres nothing wrong with adding some additional protection.

Interesting that it differs between models...

 

[xabibal]

Hi. I am new here and I am using a Spanish to English translator for this problem. I have a 15 "pro-retina macbook at the end of 2013. The 256GB disk that has original m2 has been damaged. I bought a Samsung 970 m2 evo plus of 500 Gb but it doesn't work. When booting the mac there is no disc in sight and I can not do anything.
The adapter that I bought is sintech.

Some help? Now I can't use my macbook pro !!!

 

[Walee]

When booting the mac there is no disc in sight and I can not do anything.

What version of MacOS was installed on your macbook when original 256GB ssd broke?
Also Samsung 970 Evo Plus is listed as incompatible - please check the first post for more information.

 

[johnhurley]

Hi. I am new here and I am using a Spanish to English translator for this problem. I have a 15 "pro-retina macbook at the end of 2013. The 256GB disk that has original m2 has been damaged. I bought a Samsung 970 m2 evo plus of 500 Gb but it doesn't work. When booting the mac there is no disc in sight and I can not do anything.
The adapter that I bought is sintech.

Some help? Now I can't use my macbook pro !!!

Use a catalina bootable usb drive and you may need to install catalina on another usb drive attached first to get bootrom updated to where it can see ssd.

The internet recovery wont do it that os too old.

Read back my posts from a few pages back i had similar problem at first.

Shoot yes EVO plus may be dicey i have EVO pro working just fine.

 

[xabibal]

[CITA = "Walee, publicación: 27911342, miembro: 1159832"]
¿Qué versión de MacOS se instala en su Macbook cuando se rompe el SSD original de 256 GB?
Además, el Samsung 970 Evo Plus aparece como incompatible. Consulte la primera publicación para obtener más información.
[/ CITAR]
Hello. I had High Sierra

 

[Walee]

I had High Sierra

In this case try a different SSD, preferably one that is listed as tested and working. Also make sure your Sintech adapter has tape insulation like in the following photo.
Lastly I would strongly advise to review all the information presented in the first message of this tread - there one will find all available knowledge on the topic.

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Thank you very much for your extensive story! I bought and installed the Intel 660p 2 TB for my rMBP 2015 13”. It only required adjustment of sleep (from 3 to 25) to prevent excessive power usage overnight. The write performance is significant better than with the original 500 GB Apple/Samsung SSD. The original Apple/Samsung SSD has been transplanted to the MBA 2015 11” of my daughter. It replaced the original 128 SSD. Significant improvement in reads, and hughe improvements for writes.
I have choosen for the 660p because:
- well balaced performance (i.e. more expensive SSD won’t perform much better due to the PCI 2.0 limitation of the rMBP)
- I don’t do video editing or other tasks that involve hughe continious amounts of writing
- likely low power usage (However, the operation time on a full battery dropped noticably with 1 to 2 hours!)

I have a mid-2014 MBP 15" 512 Apple original SSD. I am waiting for Black Friday to purchase the Intel 660p too (1TB or 2TB, I still don't know. Price will be a determinant in this matter)! I've been monitoring its price on Amazon.ca and other local stores (Toronto). Besides what MauriceG said, I would include:

- Intel 660p is reported to be compatible with Apple's BootRom update mechanism when a new MacOS is released.

I keep my MBP plugged in most of the time and I will not do the hibernation BootRom update for now. Knowing about this issue, I would turn the MBP off when I know I would not be using it in the next 24 hrs.

 

[hardax]

Bought mine 2 weeks ago from Sintech on Amazon, short matte black adapter version that seemingly have no exposed pins. Still required tape for my system to become anything near stable.

So if there were no exposed pins what did you have to tape exactly?

 

[Arktika]

I complained about getting 3hrs of screen time with a Sabrent 1TB.
Now that I've had the drive in for a couple of weeks the battery life has markedly improved and feels nearer to the original Apple drive.

Wondering if anyone else experienced this, that the battery life is bad initially and gets better? Or does it fluctuate?

MBPr 15 mid-2014 i7 2.2 v156 bootrom mojave.

Hi there,
Do you have any idea about if Sabrent couldn support install windows10 on macbook？

 

[hardax]

Just an FYI to anyone trying to do the initial formatting of your drive using a High Sierra boot drive, it doesn’t work. Drive won’t be recognized.

I need to stay on High Sierra for work so I thought it wise to use a High Sierra boot drive. Had to use a Catalina Instal drive instead. (I’m assuming Mojave would work as well?).

 

[markintosh13]

As someone who has upgraded my MBP to nvme and formatted the new drive when High Sierra was the newest OS, I don't understand what you're trying to say.

 

[hardax]

As someone who has upgraded my MBP to nvme and formatted the new drive when High Sierra was the newest OS, I don't understand what you're trying to say.

Hmmm. Not sure why it didn’t work for me then? I also saw some older YouTube videos were people had to use a Linx boot drive to be able to recognize and format the drive so I thought it might have been a universal problem. Just trying to save others time wasted/headaches.