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Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe
- Thread starter maxthackray
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The MacBook Pro Mid-2014 will be the next to be incompatible with the future releases and Big Sur will be its last major official update.Thanks for the reply, reinstall fixed the update to 10.15.7 issue.
Now the issue with updating to Big Sur is that Apple has made the new installer incompatible with 2013-2014 13" Macbook Pro since it was bricking some peoples devices. Unfortunate since the update fixes hibernation issues, we'll see if Apple fixes this or the 2013-2014 13" MBP will be made officially incompatible with Big Sur.
Big Sur 11.0.1 (20B50) Released to Block Install for 2013-14 13" MBPro's!
Following the problems that 2013 & '14 13" MacBook Pro users were having, Apple released a new version of Big Sur that blocks installation!mrmacintosh.com
This is what I have been planning for when the time comes:
(Nov. 2020) - Big Sur major release. - Check
(Sept. 2021) - Big Sur Security Updates. -
(Sept. 2022) - Last Big Sur Security Updates. -
(Out. 2022) - Buy a new MacBook Pro with Apple Silicon. -
I think they will find a solution, but in worst case the check can be bypassed.Thanks for the reply, reinstall fixed the update to 10.15.7 issue.
Now the issue with updating to Big Sur is that Apple has made the new installer incompatible with 2013-2014 13" Macbook Pro since it was bricking some peoples devices. Unfortunate since the update fixes hibernation issues, we'll see if Apple fixes this or the 2013-2014 13" MBP will be made officially incompatible with Big Sur.
Big Sur 11.0.1 (20B50) Released to Block Install for 2013-14 13" MBPro's!
Following the problems that 2013 & '14 13" MacBook Pro users were having, Apple released a new version of Big Sur that blocks installation!
I would not update Big Sur before Apple has confirmed that it won't brick the machine. You can however update the bootrom without updating to Big Sur. CMD+Q has written instruction on post 7,6XX.
You need to download Big Sur update from App Store and NOT install it. You need to extract the bootrom from the image inside installation app and use terminal to update Bootrom.
The sleeping issue has nothing to do with adapter, it is solely a bootrom issue, older bootroms do not have nvme compatibility without patching.
Hi all
Since Black Friday is nearing, I would go for the Adata xpg 8200 pro and this adapter https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07FYY3H5F?tag=macr05-21#customerReviews&dtb=1
This will work on the MacBook Pro early 2015 on Big Sur I guess?
Since Black Friday is nearing, I would go for the Adata xpg 8200 pro and this adapter https://www.amazon.de/dp/B07FYY3H5F?tag=macr05-21#customerReviews&dtb=1
This will work on the MacBook Pro early 2015 on Big Sur I guess?
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Great thread, but overwhelming. Trying to upgrade a stock 250GB SSD on my Mid 2015 MBP 11,4 that has a Boot ROM Version: 199.0.0.0.0. I purchased a Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card from their 'store' on Amazon, and was waiting to buy a new SSD until that part arrived. Can anyone tell me what is the smartest way to proceed? There are so many conflicting bits and pieces of information in this 310-page thread I don't want to blow it. I read I needed to make a bootable OS thumb drive. I don't know how to do it! I do have Carbon Copy Cloner. Can I clone my internal SSD, the one I want to replace, onto a new SSD? Then, just plug and play the new SSD? Now, I tried to study the spreadsheets in the Wiki, on the SSDs and their performance, etc., then on Sintech's store, got further confused. I don't know what the best drive is to buy, and is 2TB the best? Any input on some simple steps is greatly appreciated. Thanks to all who have contributed here. I will report back with how it goes for a NOB like me, in case anyone else out there is one too 
exactly the same struggles haha!Great thread, but overwhelming. Trying to upgrade a stock 250GB SSD on my Mid 2015 MBP 11,4 that has a Boot ROM Version: 199.0.0.0.0. I purchased a Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card from their 'store' on Amazon, and was waiting to buy a new SSD until that part arrived. Can anyone tell me what is the smartest way to proceed? There are so many conflicting bits and pieces of information in this 310-page thread I don't want to blow it. I read I needed to make a bootable OS thumb drive. I don't know how to do it! I do have Carbon Copy Cloner. Can I clone my internal SSD, the one I want to replace, onto a new SSD? Then, just plug and play the new SSD? Now, I tried to study the spreadsheets in the Wiki, on the SSDs and their performance, etc., then on Sintech's store, got further confused. I don't know what the best drive is to buy, and is 2TB the best? Any input on some simple steps is greatly appreciated. Thanks to all who have contributed here. I will report back with how it goes for a NOB like me, in case anyone else out there is one too
It all depends on your need. If you need 2TB storage go for that. You need to make a backup (with like CCC) if you want your same setup and system back, but otherwise you can restore it like a new system, in which case you just install the new drive and use the normal restore process for a Mac. And you don’t need a install USB as internet recovery does the same thing.Great thread, but overwhelming. Trying to upgrade a stock 250GB SSD on my Mid 2015 MBP 11,4 that has a Boot ROM Version: 199.0.0.0.0. I purchased a Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter Card from their 'store' on Amazon, and was waiting to buy a new SSD until that part arrived. Can anyone tell me what is the smartest way to proceed? There are so many conflicting bits and pieces of information in this 310-page thread I don't want to blow it. I read I needed to make a bootable OS thumb drive. I don't know how to do it! I do have Carbon Copy Cloner. Can I clone my internal SSD, the one I want to replace, onto a new SSD? Then, just plug and play the new SSD? Now, I tried to study the spreadsheets in the Wiki, on the SSDs and their performance, etc., then on Sintech's store, got further confused. I don't know what the best drive is to buy, and is 2TB the best? Any input on some simple steps is greatly appreciated. Thanks to all who have contributed here. I will report back with how it goes for a NOB like me, in case anyone else out there is one too
To make a USB:
Create a bootable installer for macOS - Apple Support
You can use a USB flash drive or other secondary volume as a startup disk from which to install the Mac operating system. These steps are primarily for system administrators and other experienced users who are familiar with entering commands in Terminal.
Yes, especially with a double sided SSD like SX8200 proYou mean, don't use it with the long card but only the adapter? Using this on my MacBook Pro Early 2015
Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapterkaart Upgrade compatibel met 2013-2015 MacBook Pro en 2013-2017 MacBook Air
OPMERKING: omdat te veel klanten het kunnen gebruiken, raad ik u aan het opnieuw te proberen als uw MAC nVME SSD niet kan detecteren. Pls kennisgeving om de kaart volledig in SSD-sleuf te plaatsen en u moet opstartbare USB-schijf (zie derde punt) voorbereiden met High Sierra om eerst M.2 SSD te f...www.amazon.nl
Some replied to me that this wouldn't be an official one, but I can't seem to find a store who sells these officially from Sintech.
Also to apply thermal pads.
I'll try to help others by replying my own message.
I did the trick to load the BootROM from the install-file package, and can now confirm it updated the BootROM from 162.0.0.0.0 to 427.0.0.0.0 on my MacBook Pro 13" Retina Late 2013 11,1, with Samsung EVO 970 1TB installed.
Running Catalina 10.15.7, I did reset the pmset-parameters for the hibernation and other things, and it all works flawless, no problems with sleep etc. and the power consumption seems like pretty much before having issues with the hibernation reboots.
Hi guys i have read the first post and the last 20-30 pages of this threads.
But i have accumulated a lot of questions...
I hope I'm not too verbose.
I want install a new ssd nvem on my macbook pro early 2015 13" i5 2,7ghz
1)I already have some doubts about the health of my battery, what do you recommend to check the current state of it and the night drains. I still have the stock pcie sd of the macbook 2015 13 "
2) i have see the initial list with the different Average power Consumption of the ssd. But i can't report it on the real "life". If i buy the first ssd ( MyDigitalSSD SBX) how bad the battery will be in one day, about 10%? 15%? Or i see the drain only in sleep mode? I don't need a precise measurement, but I can't understand the implications in real life of battery. Where is the temperature sensor of ssd?
3) if in a 2013 macbook pro (without BigSur updated EFI) i install an ssd sata m2.2 with the connector and with ahci i should have no problem with hibernation as they use the AHCI protocol, am I wrong? (I need the answer for a logical reasoning, the easiest way is to install BigSur, I know)
4) i see in the first post that many people have had problems with windows (bluescreen etc ..) are these problems still common? and do they also exist on Linux? Because i used to do a three-boot: ArchLinux, w10, Catalina.
5) For knowledge why you use NVMEfix & LiLu.kext that apparently works only in some SSD and first of the relase of BigSur you no longer used the write of ROM with the CH341A Mini Programmer.
Sorry for the many questions, but as a good programmer I am thirsty for knowledge.
THx
But i have accumulated a lot of questions...
I hope I'm not too verbose.
I want install a new ssd nvem on my macbook pro early 2015 13" i5 2,7ghz
1)I already have some doubts about the health of my battery, what do you recommend to check the current state of it and the night drains. I still have the stock pcie sd of the macbook 2015 13 "
2) i have see the initial list with the different Average power Consumption of the ssd. But i can't report it on the real "life". If i buy the first ssd ( MyDigitalSSD SBX) how bad the battery will be in one day, about 10%? 15%? Or i see the drain only in sleep mode? I don't need a precise measurement, but I can't understand the implications in real life of battery. Where is the temperature sensor of ssd?
3) if in a 2013 macbook pro (without BigSur updated EFI) i install an ssd sata m2.2 with the connector and with ahci i should have no problem with hibernation as they use the AHCI protocol, am I wrong? (I need the answer for a logical reasoning, the easiest way is to install BigSur, I know)
4) i see in the first post that many people have had problems with windows (bluescreen etc ..) are these problems still common? and do they also exist on Linux? Because i used to do a three-boot: ArchLinux, w10, Catalina.
5) For knowledge why you use NVMEfix & LiLu.kext that apparently works only in some SSD and first of the relase of BigSur you no longer used the write of ROM with the CH341A Mini Programmer.
Sorry for the many questions, but as a good programmer I am thirsty for knowledge.
THx
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Silicon Power has the Phison controller which means it compares to the Sabrent Rocket in the Wiki (1st page) charts.
In terms of battery drain, the Silicon Power drains less than the SX8200 Pro.
I have a 2tb ssd just arrived. Do I ccc my internal ssd to a portable then R&R, with Sintech adaptor, then ccc back to the new SSD? How does the machine run? Are there keys I need to hold while booting so it recognizes the ccc back-up to boot?
Cmd+Q,
Was very much looking forward to this workaround, but I am still getting sleep issues after I applied (or I thought I applied). Is there a prereq BootROM version? I did not check beforehand, but after I applied this, I checked and I am at Boot ROM Version: 157.0.0.0.0
I ran this command after extracting to the path listed as I was not sure where "Desktop/Big\ Sur" was:
sudo /usr/sbin/bless -firmware /Users/Shared/da4c0b39d73549c809a57e9b9951e380b28b122d/AssetData/boot/EFI/EFIPayloads/MBP111.scap --verbose --recovery
Here was the output:
EFI found at IODeviceTree:/efi
Will need to copy 8523776 bytes to EFI system partition
No auxiliary booter partition required
System partition found
Preferred system partition found: disk0s1
Returning booter information dictionary:
{
"Auxiliary Partitions" = (
);
"Data Partitions" = (
disk1s5
);
"Preboot Volumes" = (
disk1s2
);
"System Partitions" = (
disk0s1
);
}
Mounting at /Volumes/bless.JXCG
Executing "/sbin/mount"
Returned 0
Creating /Volumes/bless.JXCG/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE if needed
Deleting previous contents of /Volumes/bless.JXCG/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE
Deleting /Volumes/bless.JXCG/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE/MBP111.scap (8520304 bytes)
Opened dest at /Volumes/bless.JXCG/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE/MBP111.scap for writing
preallocation not supported on this filesystem for /Volumes/bless.JXCG/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE/MBP111.scap
/Volumes/bless.JXCG/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE/MBP111.scap created successfully
No auxiliary booter partition required
System partition found
Preferred system partition found: disk0s1
Returning booter information dictionary:
{
"Auxiliary Partitions" = (
);
"Data Partitions" = (
disk1s1
);
"Preboot Volumes" = (
disk1s2
);
"System Partitions" = (
disk0s1
);
}
Bad path for boot item: /Users/Shared/da4c0b39d73549c809a57e9b9951e380b28b122d/AssetData/boot/EFI/EFIPayloads/MBP111.scap
Relative path of /Volumes/bless.JXCG/EFI/APPLE/FIRMWARE/MBP111.scap is \EFI\APPLE\FIRMWARE\MBP111.scap
IOMedia disk0s1 has UUID 5FA0B715-2A91-4CFE-BCEA-232054C15407
Executing "/sbin/umount"
Returned 0
Write to RTC: 0
Setting EFI NVRAM:
{
"efi-apple-recovery" = "<array><dict><key>IOMatch</key><dict><key>IOProviderClass</key><string>IOMedia</string><key>IOPropertyMatch</key><dict><key>UUID</key><string>5FA0B715-2A91-4CFE-BCEA-232054C15407</string></dict></dict><key>BLLastBSDName</key><string>disk0s1</string></dict><dict><key>IOEFIDevicePathType</key><string>MediaFilePath</string><key>Path</key><string>\\EFI\\APPLE\\FIRMWARE\\MBP111.scap</string></dict></array>";
}
I then shutdown and powered on with power button.. Any thoughts?
I used Time Machine to create a backup of my original drive, installed the new drive and adapter, booted into internet recovery, used disk utility to format the new drive, and restored from my time machine backup.
If you MacBook is not running the latest boot rom, you might want to create the backup, upgrade to the latest OS if the latest OS has a bootrom update, then install and restore.
Whoop whoop, successfully upgraded my rMBP mid-2014 (MBP112.scap) and I can also confirm hibernation works, didn't lose a bit of battery after closing the laptop for three hours.
Sitting pretty with 427.0.0.0 in my BootROM and I could swear even the OS load was a bit faster!
I'm still on Mojave 18G6042 and didn't have to wait through a long Big Sur install to do it..
Maybe just confirmation bias or something there.. I knew it worked when I powered on the machine and it went straight to the good old Apple logo and progress bar.
Thanks, CMD+Q!
BTW, I just unzipped that zip file in the com folder (using Apple's Archive Utility) and then used Find Any File to find all the files ending in scap, and boom found the file I needed, copied it to the desktop, then used the terminal command to bless the file in place and then restarted.
I have this funny feeling Apple will obfuscate this process in the future, though..
Sitting pretty with 427.0.0.0 in my BootROM and I could swear even the OS load was a bit faster!
I'm still on Mojave 18G6042 and didn't have to wait through a long Big Sur install to do it..
Maybe just confirmation bias or something there.. I knew it worked when I powered on the machine and it went straight to the good old Apple logo and progress bar.
Thanks, CMD+Q!
BTW, I just unzipped that zip file in the com folder (using Apple's Archive Utility) and then used Find Any File to find all the files ending in scap, and boom found the file I needed, copied it to the desktop, then used the terminal command to bless the file in place and then restarted.
I have this funny feeling Apple will obfuscate this process in the future, though..
UPHi guys i have read the first post and the last 20-30 pages of this threads.
But i have accumulated a lot of questions...
I hope I'm not too verbose.
I want install a new ssd nvem on my macbook pro early 2015 13" i5 2,7ghz
1)I already have some doubts about the health of my battery, what do you recommend to check the current state of it and the night drains. I still have the stock pcie sd of the macbook 2015 13 "
2) i have see the initial list with the different Average power Consumption of the ssd. But i can't report it on the real "life". If i buy the first ssd ( MyDigitalSSD SBX) how bad the battery will be in one day, about 10%? 15%? Or i see the drain only in sleep mode? I don't need a precise measurement, but I can't understand the implications in real life of battery. Where is the temperature sensor of ssd?
3) if in a 2013 macbook pro (without BigSur updated EFI) i install an ssd sata m2.2 with the connector and with ahci i should have no problem with hibernation as they use the AHCI protocol, am I wrong? (I need the answer for a logical reasoning, the easiest way is to install BigSur, I know)
4) i see in the first post that many people have had problems with windows (bluescreen etc ..) are these problems still common? and do they also exist on Linux? Because i used to do a three-boot: ArchLinux, w10, Catalina.
5) For knowledge why you use NVMEfix & LiLu.kext that apparently works only in some SSD and first of the relase of BigSur you no longer used the write of ROM with the CH341A Mini Programmer.
Sorry for the many questions, but as a good programmer I am thirsty for knowledge.
THx
Hey CMD+Q, what if I want to flash a MacBook Pro whose identifier ends in .fd?
I note that there's only a handful of .scap files, the rest are .fd...
Will the .fd files work the same way? Just bless them and power down/boot?
I note that there's only a handful of .scap files, the rest are .fd...
Will the .fd files work the same way? Just bless them and power down/boot?
My computer (mid-2014 15" Retina) went to apple for a warranty screen replacement and I just got it back after 6 weeks. At first they refused to work on it due to the non-Apple SSD and they sent it back to me, I removed the SSD, and sent it back to them.
They also replaced the motherboard because it wouldn't light the camera LED (lucky me), all on their nickel. The Bootrom revision says: MBP112.0146.B00. I don't remember the MBP at the start and I thought the number was higher than 112.xxxx.xxx before I sent it in. My OS X is Catalina 10.15.7, to which it updated just after I got it back.
My SSD is a 512 GB Samsung 970 Pro.
I've caught up on the last 10 pages of this thread this morning. What I can't tell, is there any chance an upgrade to Big Sur will update my Bootrom, without putting an Apple SSD in (mine died which is why I went NVMe)?
They also replaced the motherboard because it wouldn't light the camera LED (lucky me), all on their nickel. The Bootrom revision says: MBP112.0146.B00. I don't remember the MBP at the start and I thought the number was higher than 112.xxxx.xxx before I sent it in. My OS X is Catalina 10.15.7, to which it updated just after I got it back.
My SSD is a 512 GB Samsung 970 Pro.
I've caught up on the last 10 pages of this thread this morning. What I can't tell, is there any chance an upgrade to Big Sur will update my Bootrom, without putting an Apple SSD in (mine died which is why I went NVMe)?
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Don't see why not, I have the same model (2.5 GHz) and I was able to perform the upgrade with the terminal command on an Inland Premium SSD.
If they were still checking for their own drives I (and others here) would have been stopped in our tracks..
I think Apple removed the ID check for OEM SSDs back in Mojave, possibly because they knew about the plethora of folks who discovered the Sintech adapter and off the shelf SSDs.
If they were still checking for their own drives I (and others here) would have been stopped in our tracks..
I think Apple removed the ID check for OEM SSDs back in Mojave, possibly because they knew about the plethora of folks who discovered the Sintech adapter and off the shelf SSDs.