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

[ultimaDC]

Ok so my P2 has arrived and it has the UK/CA logo on the external label. I'm gonna return it sealed.

don't you want to test it first? you can still return even if opened right?

 

[te36]

I keep on hearing people say the "new" SN550 is QLC. This is highly unlikely as QLC has a much lower endurance than what the SN550 is spec'ed for (600 TBW @ 1TB). In terms of worst-case write speed after the SLC runs out, which is where all the notoriety comes from, SN550 is faster than every QLC drive, usually by a wide margin, with the sole exception of Intel 670p, both of which are just a tiny slower than many popular TLC drives. (Like... 390 vs 500 MB/s).

I am inclined to believe SN550 just switched to some slower TLC. QLC got a bad name because of lower endurance and slower speed. If both are TLC-like who cares what the underlying technology is? If WD had made a major breakthrough and made QLC perform at TLC-level wouldn't they have made a big announcement about the achievement?

People noted the speed similarity to SN350, but look at the endurance and you will see a big difference.

https://www.extremetech.com/computi...ncy-will-replace-qlc-sn550-for-unhappy-buyers

 

[te36]

Wow guys, I have a Crucial P2 on its way with the small Sintech adapter. Sadly I just discovered about this new P2 QLC version. Thinking about returning it without opening. What could be another good ssd for a 13" mbp 12,1 early 2015? I'm looking at WD Blue SN550 which has a similar price. EDIT: oh so also this had swapped components as the P2..

I just got the 1TB SN550 from Amazon yesterday, and now i was worried about QLC, so i tested writing a 300GB file onto an APFS Volume, and i got persistent throughput of 800MByte/sec writing it. So i guess this is not QLC. I also checked firmware with smartmontools, it says 211210WD, and according to some finds on the web, this seems to be the good TLC version.

Still no explanation for my ?mediocre? read speed of also only 800MByte/sec that i was asking about earlier in this thread.

 

[coso]

I just got the 1TB SN550 from Amazon yesterday, and now i was worried about QLC, so i tested writing a 300GB file onto an APFS Volume, and i got persistent throughput of 800MByte/sec writing it. So i guess this is not QLC. I also checked firmware with smartmontools, it says 211210WD, and according to some finds on the web, this seems to be the good TLC version.

Still no explanation for my ?mediocre? read speed of also only 800MByte/sec that i was asking about earlier in this thread.

Thanks, yeah read that. 800 seems low. I bought a Sintech adapter just to be safe, I'm not sure if that adapter could be a cause for that, seems unlikely, they should be unstable but not reduce speed when they're not Sintech

 

[xboxbml]

Excellent Wiki article in this thread. Thanks a lot to everyone who contributed.
The one piece of information i am missing relates to speed:

Question:
In "About this Mac" -> "System Information" -> NVMExpress:
What value should i see for "Link Width" ? The number of PCIe lanes supported by the NVME SSD inserted ??? (1...4)

In my case, i do see 'x1', but i thought it should be x4 for my case.
I am asking also because i think my SSD gives less performance than the graphics in the wiki post:

MacBook Pro 15" Mid 2015 (A1398), 2.2Ghz I7, 16GB memory, Mojave 10.14.6,
Adapter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZVQXG4B
WDC SDS100T2B0C - Western Digital 1TB WD Blue SN550 NVMe Internal SSD - Gen3 x4 PCIe

Black Magic Disk Speed Test shows me read/write speeds around 800 MByte/sec (read and write).
My original Apple 256G AHCI disk gave me 1200 MByte/sec write and 1800 MByte/read speed.

Do i have any misconfiguration ? I wouldn't want to believe my Adapter passes through only one PCIe lane, but it almost looks as if this could be the problem ? So i would love to see some reconfirmation that i should see 'x4' for the "Link Width"!

I've got the 2015 Air, and I used the actual Sintech small adapter. I had ordered the long Sintech adapter similar to that link, and it did work, however, because of it's form, the case bottom was pressing on the SSD and over time would create a failure. I reordered the short adapter and have had no issues. All that said, I'm not sure if the short adapter would work for a MBP.. x1 sounds strange for sure.. I think my Air has x2. Here's my display below. It shows x4, so not sure why that is.. I know the ADATA drive is capable of x4.. Anyway, if yours actually shows x1, something is amiss..

Generic SSD Controller:

ADATA SX8200PNP:
Capacity: 2.05 TB (2,048,408,248,320 bytes)
TRIM Support: Yes
Model: ADATA SX8200PNP
Revision: 42AZS6AC
Serial Number:
Link Width: x4
Link Speed: 5.0 GT/s
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
Removable Media: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
EFI:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
File System: MS-DOS FAT32
BSD Name: disk0s1
Content: EFI
Volume UUID: 0E239BC6-F960-3107-89CF-1C97F78BB46B
disk0s2:
Capacity: 2.05 TB (2,048,198,492,160 bytes)
BSD Name: disk0s2
Content: Apple_APFS

 

[coso]

So I think I'm at the end of my search and at the moment for European users I think the Sabrent Rocket is the best bet. It doesn't require firmware updates done with windows like the WD sn550, it's not failing as many Kingston after a few months, it's easy to find unlike the SK Hynix. It has low power consumption, i.e., lower than the Apple OEM one. Is there any other model I'm forgetting? It's this one:

 

[vince22]

Wow guys, I have a Crucial P2 on its way with the small Sintech adapter. Sadly I just discovered about this new P2 QLC version. Thinking about returning it without opening. What could be another good ssd for a 13" mbp 12,1 early 2015? I'm looking at WD Blue SN550 which has a similar price. EDIT: oh so also this had swapped components as the P2..

Also is it true that apple diagnostics will keep throwing out error code VDH002 anyway?

I will also be reading this thread backwards for hints

edit: looks like the Sabrent Rocket is a nice (costly) option

I'll pick Hynix P31 gold over Sabrent Rocket (probably costly at your location) both of this Nvme's are TLC based and very good in terms of speed and power efficient during idle.

 

[coso]

I'll pick Hynix P31 gold over Sabrent Rocket (probably costly at your location) both of this Nvme's are TLC based and very good in terms of speed and power efficient during idle.

Yes, read about it, but it's simply not available in Italy. Sabrent Rocket can be considered the second best right? Thanks

 

[te36]

I've got the 2015 Air, and I used the actual Sintech small adapter. I had ordered the long Sintech adapter similar to that link, and it did work, however, because of it's form, the case bottom was pressing on the SSD and over time would create a failure. I reordered the short adapter and have had no issues. All that said, I'm not sure if the short adapter would work for a MBP.. x1 sounds strange for sure.. I think my Air has x2. Here's my display below. It shows x4, so not sure why that is.. I know the ADATA drive is capable of x4.. Anyway, if yours actually shows x1, something is amiss..

Generic SSD Controller:

ADATA SX8200PNP:
Capacity: 2.05 TB (2,048,408,248,320 bytes)
TRIM Support: Yes
Model: ADATA SX8200PNP
Revision: 42AZS6AC
Serial Number:
Link Width: x4
Link Speed: 5.0 GT/s
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk0
Partition Map Type: GPT (GUID Partition Table)
Removable Media: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
EFI:
Capacity: 209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
File System: MS-DOS FAT32
BSD Name: disk0s1
Content: EFI
Volume UUID: 0E239BC6-F960-3107-89CF-1C97F78BB46B
disk0s2:
Capacity: 2.05 TB (2,048,198,492,160 bytes)
BSD Name: disk0s2
Content: Apple_APFS

Thanks a lot for the confirmation, that the Link Width should really show how many PCIe lanes are used. WOul b good to get an example like that into the #1 wiki entry.

I have ordered a short sintech adapter, let's see.

Which MacOS versio do you run ? Maybe there are even newer firmware upgrades than Mojave for my Mid 2015'er MBP... I guess this could be hardware and/or firmware.

 

[vince22]

Yes, read about it, but it's simply not available in Italy. Sabrent Rocket can be considered the second best right? Thanks

yes for battery efficiency, not so sure about sabrent rocket 1TB high failure rate reports based on amazon users reviews , it does come with up to 5yrs warranty if you register it.

 

[coso]

yes for battery efficiency, not so sure about sabrent rocket 1TB high failure rate reports based on amazon users reviews , it does come with up to 5yrs warranty if you register it.

Damn. Will go read about that. It would be the 512GB. It’s for my GF, she doesn’t want to spend too much because it would be wasted (she will upgrade to apple silicon sooner or later). How bad would it be to keep the QLC Crucial P2? Does it consume more? Should read research more, maybe I could keep that anyway. Decisions decisions

 

[grapefruitcherrypie]

Hi all, this thread has been critical in my journey to upgrade the ssd in my venerable macbook, so I want to add my experience to the general pool of knowledge.

I have a late 2013 macbook pro 13" retina. 16gb ram, 1tb ssd, High Sierra. This laptop has been my rock-solid daily driver for 8 years now and it is still going strong. I needed to install Big Sur recently to install XCode v13. However Big Sur refused to install, saying the ssd has SMART errors. Some investigation revealed that the wear levelling on the 1tb ssd had triggered a SMART warning, even though the numbers didn't seem immediately worrying. Disk Utility now showed the disk as "Failed" and Big Sur refused to install on it.

The need to replace the ssd in my macbook quickly led me to this forum. Based on all the reviews, I decided on the SK Hynix P31 Gold 2tb ssd from amazon AU (au$429 ~= us$320) with a SinTech adapter (au$25 ~= us$19). I opted for the P31 given the price, as well as the knowledge that I would unfortunately not be able to run ssdPmEnabler on my MacBookPro11.1. This drive reportedly idles at 100mW, which is what I need.

Took a week for the drive and adapter to be delivered. Here're pictures of the 1tb and 2tb installed in the laptop:

Apple 1tb hard drive in the laptop:

SK Hynix P31 Gold 2tb ssd installed:

I was worried that the end of new 2tb drive would cover over the screw hole a bit, but turns out it needs a good amount of force applied to properly sit in the connector. The screw then fits perfectly.

I had already prepped a Big Sur bootable usb, so I booted from that and proceeded to install that to a 500gb partition. Install was quick and painless - no issues at all.

I also needed to get Windows Server and Windows 10 installed on Bootcamp, as I use that for work. I was running Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 (for light gaming) on my existing 1tb, so I figured I would try to install Windows Server 2022 and Windows 11. I tried using both Boot Camp Assistant (BCA) on macos and Rufus on windows to create bootable USBs, both without any success. There were a lot of variables to try, including the various methods listed online to make Win11 install on non-TPM machines, as well as the Rufus options themselves.

I finally tried just going back to Windows 10. I initially tried installing 20h2 but this didn't work. In hindsight, this turned out to be because I used BCA to create the USB.

Adapting the method from here I finally got Win10 1607 installed. I'll detail the reliable method that I used. First, create a bootable USB. There is a lot of varying information on the internet about how best to achieve this. The method that worked for me requires access to a windows PC. Windows in a virtual machine might work, but I haven't tried. The usb must be formatted at GPT (Guid Partition Table) and the file system as exFat. Some of the more recent Windows .iso contain files which are larger than the 4gb fat32 limit. The steps are similar to those required for an MBR usb here, but adjusted to suit GPT.

On your windows machine, insert your >=8gb USB and open command prompt:

• type: diskpart - opens windows command-line disk manager program
• type: list disk - this displays the available disks
• select disk {number to the usb disk} - make sure you get the correct disk!
• clean - wipes the disk
• convert gpt - pretty straight forward
• create partition primary - create a single partition that spans the disk
• format quick fs=exfat label=Win10Inst
• assign letter={pick an unused letter, like u}
• exit - quick disk part

Now you need to double-click in Explorer on your Windows 10 1607 x64 .iso file to mount it.
Back in the command prompt window, type:

• cd {drive letter of mounted .iso}:
• cd\boot
• bootsect /nt60 {usb drive letter}:
• cd ..
• xcopy {mounted iso drive letter}:\*.* {usb drive letter}:\ /e /f /h

When the copy is finished, eject the USB and unmount the .iso. Congratulations, you now have a windows bootable usb that will work on your mac. I have used this process successfully for Win10, Win 11, Win Server 2016 and Win Server 2022.

Now we will need to download the Bootcamp drivers. Open Boot Camp Assistant on your mac, and choose Action -> Download Windows Support Software. Check that the version is 6.0.6136 by opening WindowsSupport\BootCamp\BootCamp.xml in TextEdit and confirm that there is the line "<ProductVersion>6.0.6136</ProductVersion>". Rename the WindowsSupport folder to something useful like "Bootcamp v6.0.6136" and move it to your bootable Windows USB, if there is enough space (it requires about 2.5gb). Otherwise save it to another fat32/exfat-formatted USB. We will use this later to install the Bootcamp drivers into Windows.

Now we are ready to actually install Windows. I have to give credit to this post as it was a big help in pointing me in the right direction.

Insert the USB into your mac, turn it on, then press-and-hold the Option (Alt) key to show the boot device menu. The boot usb should be listed as "EFI Boot". If there are multiple options listed with the same name, the easiest way is to take the USB out, watch the option disappear from the list, then plug it back in again. This makes it clear which is which.

Proceed to install Windows 10. I used the Win 10 installer to turn the rest of the 1.5 tb free space on my drive into three partitions. One for Win Server, one for data, then one for Win 10. I put the data drive in between, so I can easily resize that partition in the future if any of my OS partitions need more space.

Let windows install do its thing. When your computer boots for the first time, remove the install usb. Windows installation should continue automatically, but if you reboot into macos, you might need to restart need to restart, press-and-hold the Option(alt) key and choose "EFI boot". This should be the name of the Windows OS on the other partition.

You should see the "Getting Ready" screen, then Windows install will report "ran into a problem" and reboot. This is not great, but it is expected. Let it reboot. On start up, you should see a message box with text like "the computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an error" (sorry, I should have taken a photo). Do not press ok yet. Now we need to employ the shift-f10 trick that is referenced in in the first post of this mega-thread, under the "8 - BootCamp installation issues" section:

• press shift-f10 - this opens a command prompt
• type: regedit - open registry editor
• in regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\ChildCompletion
• when you can see "setup.exe" in the right section, double-click it and modify the value to 3
• close registry editor
• close command prompt
• press ok - this will reboot the pc

When Windows 10 installation continues, you'll see some progress. Then it'll ask you a bunch of questions. Well done, you now have Windows 10 installed.

To install the BootCamp drivers, insert the USB where you copied the "Bootcamp v6.0.6136" folder to, then run Bootcamp v6.0.6136\BootCamp\Setup.exe. Reboot the computer when Bootcamp asks. When the computer starts again, connect to wifi and run the Apple Software Updater (find it in the start menu somewhere). This might provide a couple of driver updates. We want to install those before we run Windows Update, as Windows Update will probably have the more recent drivers. Next, run Windows Update. Make sure you install any extra drivers listed under Optional Updates (depending on the windows version, you might find optional updates listed under Advanced Options). On my MacBookPro11.1, there were 5 intel drivers which I installed with no issues.

There we have it, Windows 10 1607 installed. Feeling brave, I then repeated the same process above with the Windows Server 2022 evaluation x64 .iso (download here), installing Standard edition with GUI, and it worked too! Interestingly, Windows Server 2022 eval iso did not perform any TPM check, so I didn't need any hack to get around that. You will need an external usb keyboard to be able to press "ctrl-alt-delete" at the logon screen, until you have Bootcamp installed. After bootcamp, you can press fn-ctrl-alt-del on the in-built keyboard without problems. Also, before installing bootcamp, open powershell and run "Add-WindowsFeature -Name Wireless-Networking". Reboot. Then install Bootcamp drivers. Without this, Bootcamp will not properly install the wifi driver and you cannot connect to any network. Right-clicking on the bootcamp tray icon and choosing "show control panel" wasn't working. However, from command prompt you can run "runas /trustlevel:0x20000 AppleControlPanel" (credit). This will show the control panel and allow you to make any changes.

Now, feeling plain reckless, I tried it with the Windows 11 x64 .iso (making bootable usb as per above). That worked as well! Win11 requires a couple of extra steps to bypass the TPM check that it tries to make (adapted from here, but I use the registry editor to import instead of the roundabout method of opening notepad to try and merge in a reg file):

• after you create your win11 bootable usb, while still on your windows machine:
• open notepad
• paste in the following text to notepad (no spare lines above or below):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig]
"BypassTPMCheck"=dword:00000001
"BypassSecureBootCheck"=dword:00000001

• save the file to the root of the bootable usb as "tpmbypass.reg". Important: Make sure you change file extension drop-down from "Text" to "All files", otherwise Windows might try to add a .txt extension

Follow steps above to actually boot from this USB. When you see the screen with the "Install Now" button:

• press shift-f10 to open a command prompt
• type: regedit - to open registry editor
• choose File -> Import menu item
• browse to the bootable USB and open the "tpmbypass.reg" file
• import that, and click OK
• close registry editor
• close command prompt

You can now press Install Now and continue with the installation. Follow the rest of the instructions above as per the Win10 install. When it comes to the network selection, choose "I don't have a network" then "continue with limited setup". Windows 11 will not have any drivers for the wifi adapter yet. After a few more questions Windows will then show a purple "this might take a few minutes, don't turn off your pc" screen. After that, you are in the desktop. Windows 11 is installed. Follow Bootcamp driver installation above, making sure you install any optional drivers too. Congratulations, you are now in business.

As an aside, I have always run ThrottleStop on my Windows Bootcamp partitions, to reduce the max CPU frequency to 28 (just before turbo mode kicks in on my i7 2.8ghz dual-core cpus). When turbo mode kicks in, so do the fans and I don't like that. I use v8.60 (available for download under "older versions"). Newer versions might work, but I haven't tried. In order to get ThrottleStop v8.60 working in Win Server 2022 and Windows 11, you'll need to install the x86 and x64 versions of the Update for Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable Package (credit)

Finally, the good bits. Here are the stats of existing 1tb Apple ssd and the new 2tb.

Apple 1tb ssd:
idle power usage on battery: ~15mW

iStat Menus SSD 3.3v idle readings, on battery:

iStat Menus SSD 3.3v idle readings, on a/c:

AmorpheousDiskMark, High Sierra (connected to a/c)

CrystalDiskMark on Windows 10 (connected to a/c):

SK Hynix 2tb ssd:
idle power usage on battery: ~105mw

iStat Menus SSD 3.3v idle readings, on battery:

iStat Menus SSD 3.3v idle readings, on battery, downloading XCode:

iStat Menus SSD 3.3v idle readings, on battery, installing XCode:

iStat Menus SSD 3.3v idle readings, on battery, back on idle after XCode installation (while typing up this post):

AmorpheousDiskMark, Big Sur (connected to a/c):

CrystalDiskMark, Windows 11 (connected to a/c):

Overall, I am very pleased with the result. Performance is about twice as good, with twice the capacity. The machine certainly feels snappier (the drive plays a big part, but the fresh operating systems certainly help too). Interesting that the random 4k read at queue depth 1 is less than the writes. Not sure what that is about, but at least the values increased.

I am a masochist, so I am going to try installing @kvic ssdPmEnabler even though it most likely won't work. I'd really love to get that idle power usage down. I spend most of my time on a/c, so it isn't a major issue, but I would still love to be able to improve the battery life.

There we have it, I feel a mega-post is only fitting for a mega-thread.

 

[coso]

Reading more in the thread, thinking about keeping the QLC P2. More than 135GB at once will be hardly written, will be half full, and the low power consumption is nice. It's cheap. Might be not that bad.

 

[te36]

Reading more in the thread, thinking about keeping the QLC P2. More than 135GB at once will be hardly written, will be half full, and the low power consumption is nice. It's cheap. Might be not that bad.

From the daa i can find it says the P2 has a TBW of only 300TByte. That means a lifetime of just rewriting the complete SSD 300 times. The WD is double of that. WHich of course i don't think would be true for QLC WD either...

 

[cyberstudio]

Great observation - which is exactly why I said even the "new" SN550 is NOT QLC, despite whatever you may read otherwise from certain journalists who are good at conjuring stuff without verification to fill any gaps in the narrative.

The new SN550 has the speed of a really fast QLC (such as SN350 and Intel 670p), or that of an average TLC, but its endurance rating is very firmly in TLC territory.

If WD had made a breakthrough in QLC endurance and made it match TLC, they would have had great PR fanfare about that accomplishment. From these I surmise QLC is beginning to catch up to TLC in speed but still way behind in endurance.

As for the QLC Crucial P2... I personally wouldn't want it but if it is hard to return... just don't fill it to the brim and/or use over-provisioning. Nothing to worry because the SLC cache is generous. By the time your drive gets filled up you may itch for your next upgrade anyway...

 

[phybersplice]

@kvic I just got the P31 Hynix in hand today. The freight forwarder brought it across the US / Canada Border yesterday. Wow, what a drive! Idle for me is .15 to .21 A.
Speed is great. MacOS + Migration worked fine.
Just installing Bootcamp so I can check if I have the latest firmware on it.
Hoping this goes very well, because I have a WD 550, Crucial P2, and an ADATA 8200 Pro to be returned to Amazon.ca.

 

[ultimaDC]

The new WD Blue SN550 is okay even as the new reviews say so, i'm using it both on my workhorse PC and Mac. My only gripe is the idle power consumption @.30A

I stand corrected here. I just viewed the versions of the two WD SN550's i bought for my PC and Macbook 11,1 both are still the old TLC versions. I just assumed it's the new version since i bought them like two weeks ago. They are both running the 211 firmware. Seller's inventory is old apparently.

 

[ultimaDC]

Hi all, this thread has been critical in my journey to upgrade the ssd in my venerable macbook, so I want to add my experience to the general pool of knowledge.

I have a late 2013 macbook pro 13" retina. 16gb ram, 1tb ssd, High Sierra. This laptop has been my rock-solid daily driver for 8 years now and it is still going strong. I needed to install Big Sur recently to install XCode v13. However Big Sur refused to install, saying the ssd has SMART errors. Some investigation revealed that the wear levelling on the 1tb ssd had triggered a SMART warning, even though the numbers didn't seem immediately worrying. Disk Utility now showed the disk as "Failed" and Big Sur refused to install on it.

The need to replace the ssd in my macbook quickly led me to this forum. Based on all the reviews, I decided on the SK Hynix P31 Gold 2tb ssd from amazon AU (au$429 ~= us$320) with a SinTech adapter (au$25 ~= us$19). I opted for the P31 given the price, as well as the knowledge that I would unfortunately not be able to run ssdPmEnabler on my MacBookPro11.1. This drive reportedly idles at 100mW, which is what I need.

Took a week for the drive and adapter to be delivered. Here're pictures of the 1tb and 2tb installed in the laptop:

Apple 1tb hard drive in the laptop:
View attachment 1877036

SK Hynix P31 Gold 2tb ssd installed:
View attachment 1877037

I was worried that the end of new 2tb drive would cover over the screw hole a bit, but turns out it needs a good amount of force applied to properly sit in the connector. The screw then fits perfectly.

I had already prepped a Big Sur bootable usb, so I booted from that and proceeded to install that to a 500gb partition. Install was quick and painless - no issues at all.

I also needed to get Windows Server and Windows 10 installed on Bootcamp, as I use that for work. I was running Windows Server 2016 and Windows 10 (for light gaming) on my existing 1tb, so I figured I would try to install Windows Server 2022 and Windows 11. I tried using both Boot Camp Assistant (BCA) on macos and Rufus on windows to create bootable USBs, both without any success. There were a lot of variables to try, including the various methods listed online to make Win11 install on non-TPM machines, as well as the Rufus options themselves.

I finally tried just going back to Windows 10. I initially tried installing 20h2 but this didn't work. In hindsight, this turned out to be because I used BCA to create the USB.

Adapting the method from here I finally got Win10 1607 installed. I'll detail the reliable method that I used. First, create a bootable USB. There is a lot of varying information on the internet about how best to achieve this. The method that worked for me requires access to a windows PC. Windows in a virtual machine might work, but I haven't tried. The usb must be formatted at GPT (Guid Partition Table) and the file system as exFat. Some of the more recent Windows .iso contain files which are larger than the 4gb fat32 limit. The steps are similar to those required for an MBR usb here, but adjusted to suit GPT.

On your windows machine, insert your >=8gb USB and open command prompt:

• type: diskpart - opens windows command-line disk manager program
• type: list disk - this displays the available disks
• select disk {number to the usb disk} - make sure you get the correct disk!
• clean - wipes the disk
• convert gpt - pretty straight forward
• create partition primary - create a single partition that spans the disk
• format quick fs=exfat label=Win10Inst
• assign letter={pick an unused letter, like u}
• exit - quick disk part

Now you need to double-click in Explorer on your Windows 10 1607 x64 .iso file to mount it.
Back in the command prompt window, type:

• cd {drive letter of mounted .iso}:
• cd\boot
• bootsect /nt60 {usb drive letter}:
• cd ..
• xcopy {mounted iso drive letter}:\*.* {usb drive letter}:\ /e /f /h

When the copy is finished, eject the USB and unmount the .iso. Congratulations, you now have a windows bootable usb that will work on your mac. I have used this process successfully for Win10, Win 11, Win Server 2016 and Win Server 2022.

Now we will need to download the Bootcamp drivers. Open Boot Camp Assistant on your mac, and choose Action -> Download Windows Support Software. Check that the version is 6.0.6136 by opening WindowsSupport\BootCamp\BootCamp.xml in TextEdit and confirm that there is the line "<ProductVersion>6.0.6136</ProductVersion>". Rename the WindowsSupport folder to something useful like "Bootcamp v6.0.6136" and move it to your bootable Windows USB, if there is enough space (it requires about 2.5gb). Otherwise save it to another fat32/exfat-formatted USB. We will use this later to install the Bootcamp drivers into Windows.

Now we are ready to actually install Windows. I have to give credit to this post as it was a big help in pointing me in the right direction.

Insert the USB into your mac, turn it on, then press-and-hold the Option (Alt) key to show the boot device menu. The boot usb should be listed as "EFI Boot". If there are multiple options listed with the same name, the easiest way is to take the USB out, watch the option disappear from the list, then plug it back in again. This makes it clear which is which.

Proceed to install Windows 10. I used the Win 10 installer to turn the rest of the 1.5 tb free space on my drive into three partitions. One for Win Server, one for data, then one for Win 10. I put the data drive in between, so I can easily resize that partition in the future if any of my OS partitions need more space.

Let windows install do its thing. When your computer boots for the first time, remove the install usb. Windows installation should continue automatically, but if you reboot into macos, you might need to restart need to restart, press-and-hold the Option(alt) key and choose "EFI boot". This should be the name of the Windows OS on the other partition.

You should see the "Getting Ready" screen, then Windows install will report "ran into a problem" and reboot. This is not great, but it is expected. Let it reboot. On start up, you should see a message box with text like "the computer restarted unexpectedly or encountered an error" (sorry, I should have taken a photo). Do not press ok yet. Now we need to employ the shift-f10 trick that is referenced in in the first post of this mega-thread, under the "8 - BootCamp installation issues" section:

• press shift-f10 - this opens a command prompt
• type: regedit - open registry editor
• in regedit, navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\Status\ChildCompletion
• when you can see "setup.exe" in the right section, double-click it and modify the value to 3
• close registry editor
• close command prompt
• press ok - this will reboot the pc

When Windows 10 installation continues, you'll see some progress. Then it'll ask you a bunch of questions. Well done, you now have Windows 10 installed.

To install the BootCamp drivers, insert the USB where you copied the "Bootcamp v6.0.6136" folder to, then run Bootcamp v6.0.6136\BootCamp\Setup.exe. Reboot the computer when Bootcamp asks. When the computer starts again, connect to wifi and run the Apple Software Updater (find it in the start menu somewhere). This might provide a couple of driver updates. We want to install those before we run Windows Update, as Windows Update will probably have the more recent drivers. Next, run Windows Update. Make sure you install any extra drivers listed under Optional Updates (depending on the windows version, you might find optional updates listed under Advanced Options). On my MacBookPro11.1, there were 5 intel drivers which I installed with no issues.

There we have it, Windows 10 1607 installed. Feeling brave, I then repeated the same process above with the Windows Server 2022 evaluation x64 .iso (download here), installing Standard edition with GUI, and it worked too! Interestingly, Windows Server 2022 eval iso did not perform any TPM check, so I didn't need any hack to get around that. You will need an external usb keyboard to be able to press "ctrl-alt-delete" at the logon screen, until you have Bootcamp installed. After bootcamp, you can press fn-ctrl-alt-del on the in-built keyboard without problems. Also, before installing bootcamp, open powershell and run "Add-WindowsFeature -Name Wireless-Networking". Reboot. Then install Bootcamp drivers. Without this, Bootcamp will not properly install the wifi driver and you cannot connect to any network. Right-clicking on the bootcamp tray icon and choosing "show control panel" wasn't working. However, from command prompt you can run "runas /trustlevel:0x20000 AppleControlPanel" (credit). This will show the control panel and allow you to make any changes.

Now, feeling plain reckless, I tried it with the Windows 11 x64 .iso (making bootable usb as per above). That worked as well! Win11 requires a couple of extra steps to bypass the TPM check that it tries to make (adapted from here, but I use the registry editor to import instead of the roundabout method of opening notepad to try and merge in a reg file):

• after you create your win11 bootable usb, while still on your windows machine:
• open notepad
• paste in the following text to notepad (no spare lines above or below):

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup\LabConfig]
"BypassTPMCheck"=dword:00000001
"BypassSecureBootCheck"=dword:00000001

• save the file to the root of the bootable usb as "tpmbypass.reg". Important: Make sure you change file extension drop-down from "Text" to "All files", otherwise Windows might try to add a .txt extension

Follow steps above to actually boot from this USB. When you see the screen with the "Install Now" button:

• press shift-f10 to open a command prompt
• type: regedit - to open registry editor
• choose File -> Import menu item
• browse to the bootable USB and open the "tpmbypass.reg" file
• import that, and click OK
• close registry editor
• close command prompt

You can now press Install Now and continue with the installation. Follow the rest of the instructions above as per the Win10 install. When it comes to the network selection, choose "I don't have a network" then "continue with limited setup". Windows 11 will not have any drivers for the wifi adapter yet. After a few more questions Windows will then show a purple "this might take a few minutes, don't turn off your pc" screen. After that, you are in the desktop. Windows 11 is installed. Follow Bootcamp driver installation above, making sure you install any optional drivers too. Congratulations, you are now in business.

As an aside, I have always run ThrottleStop on my Windows Bootcamp partitions, to reduce the max CPU frequency to 28 (just before turbo mode kicks in on my i7 2.8ghz dual-core cpus). When turbo mode kicks in, so do the fans and I don't like that. I use v8.60 (available for download under "older versions"). Newer versions might work, but I haven't tried. In order to get ThrottleStop v8.60 working in Win Server 2022 and Windows 11, you'll need to install the x86 and x64 versions of the Update for Visual C++ 2013 Redistributable Package (credit)

Finally, the good bits. Here are the stats of existing 1tb Apple ssd and the new 2tb.

Apple 1tb ssd:
idle power usage on battery: ~15mW

iStat Menus SSD 3.3v idle readings, on battery:
View attachment 1877055

iStat Menus SSD 3.3v idle readings, on a/c:
View attachment 1877056

AmorpheousDiskMark, High Sierra (connected to a/c)
View attachment 1877041

CrystalDiskMark on Windows 10 (connected to a/c):
View attachment 1877048

SK Hynix 2tb ssd:
idle power usage on battery: ~105mw

iStat Menus SSD 3.3v idle readings, on battery:
View attachment 1877057

iStat Menus SSD 3.3v idle readings, on battery, downloading XCode:
View attachment 1877058

iStat Menus SSD 3.3v idle readings, on battery, installing XCode:
View attachment 1877059

iStat Menus SSD 3.3v idle readings, on battery, back on idle after XCode installation (while typing up this post):
View attachment 1877060

AmorpheousDiskMark, Big Sur (connected to a/c):
View attachment 1877051

CrystalDiskMark, Windows 11 (connected to a/c):
View attachment 1877053

Overall, I am very pleased with the result. Performance is about twice as good, with twice the capacity. The machine certainly feels snappier (the drive plays a big part, but the fresh operating systems certainly help too). Interesting that the random 4k read at queue depth 1 is less than the writes. Not sure what that is about, but at least the values increased.

I am a masochist, so I am going to try installing @kvic ssdPmEnabler even though it most likely won't work. I'd really love to get that idle power usage down. I spend most of my time on a/c, so it isn't a major issue, but I would still love to be able to improve the battery life.

There we have it, I feel a mega-post is only fitting for a mega-thread.

How's the battery life in actual usage compared to the previous 1tb? is it the same or better? Keep us posted.

 

[coso]

@kvic I just got the P31 Hynix in hand today. The freight forwarder brought it across the US / Canada Border yesterday. Wow, what a drive! Idle for me is .15 to .21 A.
Speed is great. MacOS + Migration worked fine.
Just installing Bootcamp so I can check if I have the latest firmware on it.
Hoping this goes very well, because I have a WD 550, Crucial P2, and an ADATA 8200 Pro to be returned to Amazon.ca.

Why are you returning the WD 550 as well? Still pondering... the Corsair MP510 seems a good choice but costs double

 

[phybersplice]

Why are you returning the WD 550 as well? Still pondering... the Corsair MP510 seems a good choice but costs double

Bought it here in Canada - was a good price at $109, but I feel the Hynix is a better drive that I got for a reasonable price.
The WD is unopened.

 

[TorontoListener]

I'm in Canada too, do you mean the Hynix Gold? Where did you buy from? Thanks

Edit: saw you got it cross-border. Wish they had a better price up here.

 

[coso]

By the way, the P2 still seems the most energy efficient drive of all. At least there's that...

 

[coso]

So how many of you experienced higher temperature and fans use? Is it true that AHCI -> NVMe always consumes more power, or was this true only for older models?

I already changed the battery on this early 2015 13,3" MBP due to swelling two times, mostly due to higher temperatures because I was driving a 4K external screen... reading better now the first post maybe I shouldn't upgrade the SSD at all..

 

[te36]

@kvic I just got the P31 Hynix in hand today. The freight forwarder brought it across the US / Canada Border yesterday. Wow, what a drive! Idle for me is .15 to .21 A.
Speed is great. MacOS + Migration worked fine.
Just installing Bootcamp so I can check if I have the latest firmware on it.
Hoping this goes very well, because I have a WD 550, Crucial P2, and an ADATA 8200 Pro to be returned to Amazon.ca.

How do you check power consumption of the SSD ?

 

[coso]

How do you check power consumption of the SSD ?

iStat Menus usually