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Upgrading 2013-2015 Macbook Pro SSD to M.2 NVMe
- Thread starter maxthackray
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An updated on Transcend's JetDrive 820 (256GB):
It is a PCIex2 AHCI SSD. Therefore, perfect compatibility with older boot ROM, yet the performance sucks. The following are tested on a MacBook Air 13 2015.
When SATA M.2 become compatible with 2013-2015 Mac, all of these products will probably die out quickly.
It is a PCIex2 AHCI SSD. Therefore, perfect compatibility with older boot ROM, yet the performance sucks. The following are tested on a MacBook Air 13 2015.
When SATA M.2 become compatible with 2013-2015 Mac, all of these products will probably die out quickly.
Attachments
Fantastic spreadsheet - just what I was looking for! BUT....
either theres a slight mistake or my Mac DIY skills suck! I've upgraded the apple blade ssd (128gb) in my late 2014 5k 27 inch iMac. It was a 1TB fusion drive, and I've swapped the HDD for a Crucial SSD 1TB, and the original apple SSD I've replaced with a 512gb apple SSD (MZ-KKW5120 SSPOLARIS) which as far as I can work out is a 4 lane nvme ssd. The Crucial SSD shows a 6GT link and works great. The new apple SSD only shows a x2 link @ 5GT - I was thinking it should be 4 lanes not 2? Searching around I can't seem to find any definitive answer on what this model iMac actually supports (your spreadsheet says pcie 3.0 x4 - but as you say it may be wrong).
Boring
I get better with the stock 512GB AHCI SSD, presumably made by Samsung in my 2015 Macbook Pro.
[doublepost=1522163860][/doublepost]Now. Are AHCI SSDs compatible with the long black sintech adapter and the 2015 15" Macbook Pro, or does it have to be NVMe?
Just curious, not that I'd like slower.
Boring
I get better with the stock 512GB AHCI SSD, presumably made by Samsung in my 2015 Macbook Pro.
[doublepost=1522163860][/doublepost]Now. Are AHCI SSDs compatible with the long black sintech adapter and the 2015 15" Macbook Pro, or does it have to be NVMe?
Just curious, not that I'd like slower.
It should be compatible, yet I only tested with the smaller green ones.
Eh. I probably wait for more success reports with the NVMe SSD's and get one that is sufficiently fast and high capacity (>=1TB) for myself.
Updates:
I received the sintech adapter, and installed it.
Booted OK 1st time.
2nd time, same issue as generic eBay adapter: SSD would not be detected with option/alt key pressed.
I re-seated the adapters and SSD multiple times. MacBook Pro booted randomly, but not consistently.
Turns out that the issue was with the thermal tape attached to my SSD. The Intel 600p I bought came with a thermal pad underneath.
I moved it to the top, and so far so good. It must have been slightly too thick, causing misalignment of the connectors.
hey guys. long time since i got my sm961 working with my mbpr2015 after several update with my OSX. no problem untill now.
i want to ask about 2017 models without Touchbar.
Can I upgrade ssd from macbook pro retina 2017 models since it's not soldered with the main board? i look in google that the ssd size of 2017 models shorter than 2015,2014,.. models. but the port is just the same right? cmiiw.
okay. so the question is
can i upgrade my macbook pro 2017 model with any ssd out there?
i thought about mSata size, but i think mSata still won't fit in 2017 model........ do i have any options ssd size out there?
i want to ask about 2017 models without Touchbar.
Can I upgrade ssd from macbook pro retina 2017 models since it's not soldered with the main board? i look in google that the ssd size of 2017 models shorter than 2015,2014,.. models. but the port is just the same right? cmiiw.
okay. so the question is
can i upgrade my macbook pro 2017 model with any ssd out there?
i thought about mSata size, but i think mSata still won't fit in 2017 model........ do i have any options ssd size out there?
I came to the same conclusion after reading through this thread. My late 2013 15" rMBP with 16GB RAM had a 512GB SSD which wasn't really big enough. I just won a used 1TB Apple SSUBX with a 90 day warranty on eBay for £450. The actual upgrade was even easier than putting an SSD in my partner's 15" unibody MBP. I needed the extra storage but the extra performance is a nice bonus & very noticeable. The slight premium for the genuine Apple part is easily worth it for me & I can defray the cost a little by selling the 512GB drive although I think that with a PCI-e adaptor I'll be able to use it in my Mac Pro 3,1.
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Finally done! Thanks for everybody's contribution to this thread, especially @gilles_polysoft.
Mine is MacBook Air mid 2013, A1465, 128G. Now I have successfully upgraded to 250G, Samsung 960 EVO. Though the capacity is not increased much, the performance is dramatically improved! As below are screenshot of before and after.
Mine is MacBook Air mid 2013, A1465, 128G. Now I have successfully upgraded to 250G, Samsung 960 EVO. Though the capacity is not increased much, the performance is dramatically improved! As below are screenshot of before and after.
Attachments
It'll increase even a bit more if you get the 500 or 1 GB EVO.
BTW, installed macOS 10.13.4 combo update, doesn't seem to have much effect on my OG Sintech green adapter, everything still works.
No BootROM update, doesn't look like the NVMe driver was updated either, but I could be wrong on that.
BTW, installed macOS 10.13.4 combo update, doesn't seem to have much effect on my OG Sintech green adapter, everything still works.
No BootROM update, doesn't look like the NVMe driver was updated either, but I could be wrong on that.
I am still getting the same problems:
Both with the Sintech and eBay adapter, sometimes the ssd will not be detected upon boot. No drives displayed when option is held at start.
I tried re-seating the ssd, removing the thermal tape completely (I thought the added thickness was causing the case to press on the connectors and result in bad connection.)
I am starting to worry that my motherboard is faulty.
Any ideas?
Hello to all, I am really sorry, I really have very bad English, I use Reverso and chrome to translate, thank you for being indulgent. That makes a few days that I read this very interesting, thanks to Gilles_polysoft and to the others who developed their very appreciated experiences.
I have a retina MacBook Pro 13 "at the beginning of 2015 with a SSD of origin of 128 Go with High Sierra of installed above (10.13.4) I wish to take the plunge and to carry the storage capacity in 512 Go I bought at Sintech the adapter NGFF M.2 PCIe SSD (I think that it is the new version which is going to send me the one who has defects) ST-NGFF2013 I bought a new one ST-NGFF2013-C As regards the SSD NVMe I am always in the reflection?
I hesitate to buy Samsung 960 pro 512GB ... With the problems of pk ; battery which empties ; long Starting up ; BootCamp ...etc.
Is it the good choice?
What adapters and SSD do you advise(do recommend) me?
Thank you very much for your help
Regards
I have a retina MacBook Pro 13 "at the beginning of 2015 with a SSD of origin of 128 Go with High Sierra of installed above (10.13.4) I wish to take the plunge and to carry the storage capacity in 512 Go I bought at Sintech the adapter NGFF M.2 PCIe SSD (I think that it is the new version which is going to send me the one who has defects) ST-NGFF2013 I bought a new one ST-NGFF2013-C As regards the SSD NVMe I am always in the reflection?
I hesitate to buy Samsung 960 pro 512GB ... With the problems of pk ; battery which empties ; long Starting up ; BootCamp ...etc.
Is it the good choice?
What adapters and SSD do you advise(do recommend) me?
Thank you very much for your help
Regards
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Finally got it working, my Sintech adapters arrived today and so far so good with the SM961 but the pm951 is slow on write speed but fast on read but still working on that one.
anyway the 961 in my 2015 macbook pro, see pics.
follow up, after 1 day its working well, no sleep issues so far and boots immediately as before. I'm using the sintech long black adapter.
Checking in about my 2013 13" MacBook Pro w/ Green Sintech + Samsung EVO 1TB.
I had originally used APFS as it is the default when installing High Sierra. But with APFS I was getting extremely long startup times (3-5 minutes).
I reinstalled High Sierra (and restored everything from Time Machine backup) but forced HFS+J and my startup times are back to normal (<30 seconds).
I've done some online reading about this, and it seems that Samsung NVMe drives in particular have issues with APFS and High Sierra (on Hackintosh for example), and looking at my kernel logs, it seems that APFS was causing diagnostic issues during startup.
I had originally used APFS as it is the default when installing High Sierra. But with APFS I was getting extremely long startup times (3-5 minutes).
I reinstalled High Sierra (and restored everything from Time Machine backup) but forced HFS+J and my startup times are back to normal (<30 seconds).
I've done some online reading about this, and it seems that Samsung NVMe drives in particular have issues with APFS and High Sierra (on Hackintosh for example), and looking at my kernel logs, it seems that APFS was causing diagnostic issues during startup.
Maybe in more recent releases, Apple have fixed something, I don't know but my sm961 + long black adapter in macbook pro 2015 formatted to APFS boots normally, 19 seconds from power off to fully booted, apple logo appears right after the chime. i'm now on 10.13.4.
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[doublepost=1522818572][/doublepost]Computer does however run slightly warmer than before.
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THANK YOU TO ALL WHO'VE HELPED BYPASS APPLE'S STORAGE MONOPOLY
This is both a 45-page, historical “development” of problems and solutions. Even ideas that didn’t work were brilliant.
My very LONG post, is intended as a persuasion to (counterintuitively) condense the thread in to:
What does, hasn’t and can’t work… and what will work, EASILY for even a beginner.
If painstakingly evaluated, many effective solutions ARE here. This is (to my knowledge) the best repository serving as the community as a “how to” … to make NVMe storage work in your (PCIE based) MacBook Pro.
There's just no easy way for someone short on time to winnow the wheat from the chaff as it could be on any page.
Despite that fact, the content here is to valuable to be lost due to it’s dilute, presently-disorganized arrangement:
A metaphor, if I may, from the nuke world; there’re isotopes available from civilian reactors which are SO! valuable; Bismuth-213 for instance. This isotope, (a surprise product that’s created as a free byproduct in greenhouse gas FREE energy creation), though “free,” is simultaneously PRICELESS. Priceless that is, to the parent of a child with say, Leukemia — or other victims of dispersed cancers for which there’re no practical “cures” in which this isotope of the ingredient which is but an isotope of the same ingredient found in Pepto-Bismol! To which a parent would perhaps argue that “free” is a misnomer. Perhaps even… “priceless” would better describe it’s value to said parent.
Only an alpha emitting particle which is brilliantly attached to a nutrient that the cancer cells disproportionately use — allowing the concentration of this alpha emitting radiotherapy to be concentrated in the mutated genetics of Leukemia… to destroy these harmful cells. And now, what was otherwise believed to be an incurable condition as no other chemo, or radiotherapy could redress such dispersed cancers, is now precision targeted by the careful separation of the useful from the unusable… spent fuel. The value, both free and priceless, accurately describe the product. The distinction is in the separation of the useful from the useless.
To some people, though I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading the great ideas which in some cases still didn’t work, could be a waste of time to read; just as dumping all your spices in to a pile would make them fairly unusable. But much like the separation of the Bismuth-213, the heap of material, or information in this case, could be made substantially more valuable from any perspective, if we whittled it down to the isolates.
This in 45-page format in which the neither the first nor last page have the essence of that learned within, (as I said, though I’ve enjoyed reading it) — would be undeniably more valuable if we could winnow the wheat from the chaff.
Perhaps someone who’s qualified is willing to take initiative and create a sticky? Including only what we either know or strongly believe to both work and importantly, that which doesn’t. It’d then become:
This is a REQUEST for a group effort to make:
The Ultimate Guide to make NVMe drives work in PCI-E Macs
Color coding Legend. (requests to color code other idea-sections will be implemented as requested)
Outline Objectives:
I believe clear, consolidated answers to the below will be helpful to others
This is also a request for any additional ideas I overlooked.
All criticism (excluding ad hominem) is welcomed. I couldn't think of a way to make it shorter without omitting elements that may be useful for some people or circumstances.
If a consensus emerges agreeing this to be devoid utility, I apologize & will delete it.
For those of you with Retinas both under and not under AppleCare, should your existing SSD fail, Apple DISALLOWS upgrading the size (let alone model) through Apple/The "Genius" bar. Even if you do replace your device with a like-model PCI-E SSD, they'll charge a fortune and give a paltry 90 day warranty on that part alone.
If you upgrade your SSD DIY style, including purchasing an Apple SSD off eBay that's the IDENTICAL SIZE and version -- whether you're under AppleCare or not, despite it being AN OVERPRICED OEM APPLE SSD -- the SN won't match and, they’d try to void your ENTIRE warranty or deny repairs you're paying them to perform.
Should you entirely replace the device with say an OWC or other manufacturer's product, or, adapt a third party's product, they will act like you have given your laptop HIV and will refuse to do any service unless they can charge you full price to replace the WORKING DRIVE in there as well! And if under AppleCare, they'll act like it's what caused every other thing to break, even if that were a mechanical feature like a keyboard button or even your freaking HINGES. They are not constrained by logic! And will not allow your logic to infect their dogmatic views on invalidating your legal right to services.
More on this issue below under "Warranty Violations”:
This covers legal tactics to fight Apple's attempt to shirk responsibility..
Back to the thread: It contains the process to upgrade, resolving, problem(s), info on the 'easier' paths via parts that require less effort -- and those scenarios that appear more difficult for people lacking the physical resources of secondary linux boxes, who understood linux, kexts, etc -- from which to use expert-to-expert advice. All of which is PURE generosity.
We all owe special thanks to MacRumors and those who’ve spent time, money on hardware and expertise in "trial and error" -- which they documented for the benefit of us all. There the NVMe heroes, who used their years of expertise to voluntarily donate to the community & Mac world how to minimize the bad / costly, and maximize the best / most effective methods available.
The thread needs a Jean-François Champollion to create the NVMe-Rosetta-stone.
(Homage to Carl Sagan, Cosmos Part 11 I believe) A simple primer for the layman (me).
I have a special place in my heart for flowcharts (they’re often funny and educational). The work to create this (irrespective the ‘style’ would need to be updated whenever new/better information emerges: Whether about nuances such as the SMC, or major factors such as make-model or size — and their respective compatibility with each NVMe drive’s model and size.
Example of the joy's of intelligent flowcharts.
Courtesy of https://xkcd.com/627/
.... a flowchart at the bottom that all techs probably get a kick out of is attached.
I’d volunteer a donation towards this: MacRumors, the creator(s), etc, and imagine others might also?
If I could afford to, (or were a programmer and thought it were possible) I’d create a shareware app which’d allow:
IDing the computer's model/make/firmware/SMC, allowed the specification of the capacity and NVMe model info so, — format the device via an OWC USB caddy, and allowed the trial version of CCC with their permission to restore an appropriate NVMe kext updated version of their OS to be installed from their internal to external drive. Swap the external for the internal, post if on eBay to subsidize your costs, and voila! Another customer allowed to access superior performance to Apple’s drives, with a FULL warranty on the component purchased.
Admittedly, MacRumor’s "beginners" are often more knowledgable than I am. I'd just love to see the work so many people created become mass-available, regardless as to whether the person were a beginner or advanced, or had a linux box to format a drive with.
Some people would possibly pay MacRumors or the largest contributor(s) to the project for a consolidation of the information… such that it’s parsimonious and efficient to determine what works from what didn’t. (And yes, I am aware that my post is hardly better than the entire 45-page thread is. And I apologize. Perhaps that, in itself makes the point of the ineffectiveness that elongated messages have.)
INFORMATION FOR PEOPLE DENIED SERVICE BY APPLE / APPLECARE:
Whether “Warranty, Quality program, or purchased hardware (i.e. a battery)
Refusal to provide Warranty Service or General Service due to upgrades:
Check out or even bring with you a print out of the Magneson-Moss Warranty Act (available on wikipedia) which proves that this is illegal and subjects them to a lawsuit.
I would recommend withholding the reference to the act until they have provided you documentation as to “why” they’re rejecting your warranty claim, so that they cannot revise the documentation to be compatible with denial of services that doesn’t violate the Magneson-Moss Act. After such documentation is in your possession, for them to change to a subsequent reason would be to engage in “motivated reasoning” which shows prejudice in the performance of services under whichever name allows them to evade the responsibility or agreement to otherwise perform services (punitive bias).
With Depot, they’ll usually have emailed you something to that effect which provides you the perfect opportunity to reply with the legal notice; obviously, the exception would be if the part in which they have to service is the actual part you’ve upgraded. This is effective irrespective whether it's an OEM component that is merely different than the model originally sold with the computer (say, a 512GB Apple SSUBX in a 2014 which was sold with a 256GB SSUAX) or even an OWC model SSD — or CPU for that matter.
Furthermore, as they often allege that such 3rd party parts or different model Apple parts cause harm to the other products which is their cause for invalidating it — still relies upon the legal and scientific principles of argumentation. That is to say, that the onus of proof lies squarely on the person’s shoulders making the claim! Lacking such proof, they remain obligated to perform the services, and would be subject to tort suits for non-performance.
With specific regards to OWC (and even Transcend) drive experiences (potentially anecdotal)
While speaking of SSD drives, I don't want to disparage OWC, but I have had only 20 or so OWC SSD’s come through our hands in the 8 years of business of selling and repairing Macs. On two occasions, I have had OWC drives replaced under warranty in which, the replacement drive either died within a week in one case, and in 2 months in the other. And a surprising number of them which’ve failed generally, under lower usage (using drive testing tools which show us the S.M.A.R.T. data including the hours used, etc.) that suggest to me that we’ve either been unlucky (20 is by far not a “scientific” volume for a study) … or, that it’s indicative of lower quality. I HATE having to say anything but that which is glowing of them, as they’re one of the only manufactures of compatible hardware for PCIE SSDs in Macs that don’t require the kinds of ideas this thread intends to solve, and I will absolutely update this statement if/when my experiences, volumetrically, mitigate my perception of their reliability. Transcend's may in fact be worse, but, are less difficult to obtain an RMA authorization from. Pick your poison.
I must also note that OWC doesn't put up a fight to RMA product -- provided you have the receipt (i.e., didn’t purchase it IN a computer…)
Samsung on the other hand, has engaged in denial of services that are fraudulent and have compelled me to file a lawsuit in Los Angeles. I'll let you know if I have the gumption to do this and what happens if so.
My sincerest apologies for errors, ambiguities and crappy syntax requiring a decoder ring.
This is both a 45-page, historical “development” of problems and solutions. Even ideas that didn’t work were brilliant.
My very LONG post, is intended as a persuasion to (counterintuitively) condense the thread in to:
What does, hasn’t and can’t work… and what will work, EASILY for even a beginner.
If painstakingly evaluated, many effective solutions ARE here. This is (to my knowledge) the best repository serving as the community as a “how to” … to make NVMe storage work in your (PCIE based) MacBook Pro.
There's just no easy way for someone short on time to winnow the wheat from the chaff as it could be on any page.
Despite that fact, the content here is to valuable to be lost due to it’s dilute, presently-disorganized arrangement:
A metaphor, if I may, from the nuke world; there’re isotopes available from civilian reactors which are SO! valuable; Bismuth-213 for instance. This isotope, (a surprise product that’s created as a free byproduct in greenhouse gas FREE energy creation), though “free,” is simultaneously PRICELESS. Priceless that is, to the parent of a child with say, Leukemia — or other victims of dispersed cancers for which there’re no practical “cures” in which this isotope of the ingredient which is but an isotope of the same ingredient found in Pepto-Bismol! To which a parent would perhaps argue that “free” is a misnomer. Perhaps even… “priceless” would better describe it’s value to said parent.
Only an alpha emitting particle which is brilliantly attached to a nutrient that the cancer cells disproportionately use — allowing the concentration of this alpha emitting radiotherapy to be concentrated in the mutated genetics of Leukemia… to destroy these harmful cells. And now, what was otherwise believed to be an incurable condition as no other chemo, or radiotherapy could redress such dispersed cancers, is now precision targeted by the careful separation of the useful from the unusable… spent fuel. The value, both free and priceless, accurately describe the product. The distinction is in the separation of the useful from the useless.
To some people, though I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading the great ideas which in some cases still didn’t work, could be a waste of time to read; just as dumping all your spices in to a pile would make them fairly unusable. But much like the separation of the Bismuth-213, the heap of material, or information in this case, could be made substantially more valuable from any perspective, if we whittled it down to the isolates.
This in 45-page format in which the neither the first nor last page have the essence of that learned within, (as I said, though I’ve enjoyed reading it) — would be undeniably more valuable if we could winnow the wheat from the chaff.
Perhaps someone who’s qualified is willing to take initiative and create a sticky? Including only what we either know or strongly believe to both work and importantly, that which doesn’t. It’d then become:
This is a REQUEST for a group effort to make:
The Ultimate Guide to make NVMe drives work in PCI-E Macs
Color coding Legend. (requests to color code other idea-sections will be implemented as requested)
- ORANGE: Dealing with Apple's 4k cluster requirements.
- BLUE: Is a fresh installation required? Or can a cloned image/restored sparse/DMG work?
- GREEN: Interest in 2TB NVMe drives -- if any exists.
- PINK: Would anyone else like a re-written version of Rehab-Mans (generous) NVMe kexts
Outline Objectives:
I believe clear, consolidated answers to the below will be helpful to others
This is also a request for any additional ideas I overlooked.
All criticism (excluding ad hominem) is welcomed. I couldn't think of a way to make it shorter without omitting elements that may be useful for some people or circumstances.
If a consensus emerges agreeing this to be devoid utility, I apologize & will delete it.
- Consolidate the best / most plausible ideas
- Identify the things that we know cannot, do not, and likely can’t work.
- Separate Apple model groups:
- Size-Year: L13/14 A1398 (differ only in the x2 and x4 speeds) and the Mid 2015 A1398
- Size-Year: L13/14 A1502 (differ only in the x2 and x4 speeds) and the Early 2015 A1502
- Perhaps SMC code would be a smarter choice than this framework.
- Is there a difference based on the manufacture date/month of the device? If so, is there a URL to help?
- Do methods which would make the 950 EVO work on the Pro?
- Do those of the 950 EVO / Pro differ from those of the the 960 EVO / Pro?
- Indicate the info required to provide assistance: SMC, ROM, Build Date, EMC, OS, adapter, drive, size?
- Methods to identify adapters if they purchased without the mfg info: (Color, size, etc)
- URLs to those adapters which work best -- those unlikely to -- those that can't ... with each model.
- Perhaps a generic ‘Troubleshooting Page' ?
- Which NVMe drives are THE easiest to make work.
- Which version of OS X is the easiest to configure, or which requires no configuration.
- If there is a combination of M.2 + OS + adapter which work out the box? This would be awesome info.
- Grading the various OS X versions difficulty, in general.
- Dealing with the necessary 4k cluster size:
- The easiest way to format for in 4k
- Is a Linux machine required?
- Perhaps a link to an easiest process to make a Mac bootable Linux thumb drive?
- Is there an OS X apps for this?
- Can this be done in command line?
- If by hardware, does it have to be directly installed via PCIE? Or does the OWC caddy work?
- What's the easiest way to verify the cluster size.
- There's an app which may help: (Sector_Size_V1.2) -- I just hope that doesn’t violate the TOS.
- Is APFS required? Must it be 10.13.3+ ? Are newer updates easier?
- Is there an update that makes it harder?
- Some people rely on software which precludes use of the optimal OS / File System.
- If they can't use APFS can it be made to work reliably (large file transfers included!) in HFS+ ?
- What must be done to allow 10.12.4 to work? Is 10.12.6 definitively "better/worse"?
- What approach variations are necessary for Sierra 10.12.4 vs. 10.12.6 ?
- Can I help by uploading the OEM NVMe kexts for each OS X iteration?
- It is preferable to perform a FRESH INSTALLATION of OS X if they mess up their kext installation?
- THE BELOW SECTION IS ON INSTALLING OS X ON YOUR NEW NVMe DRIVE'S QUESTIONS:
- When the NVMe drive is installed, is a [fresh installation] mandatory?
- Can restoring from a known good backup via: sparse image/disk/bundle, DMG, cloned image, work?
- If not, why not (if anyone knows) why a fresh installation is superior.
- Has someone restored from a known good OS X clone for it only to fail?
- Is this why a completely fresh installation is advocated?
- Does anyone know WHY this works better than cloning a drive or restoring from an image?
- I haven't even seen discussions of restoring from a DMG/Sparse*/Drive Clone/TimeMachine.
- Ergo, it's advised against — but not discussed.
- Are there other drives as easy as the XG3 out there?
- The MacPro 'king of the hill' SM951 AHCI has made prices skyrocket as supply constrains.
- Other members discussed using the EXPENSIVE 2TB Polaris drive
- The 960 Pro 2TB is pretty affordable yet lacks a single reference in my reading... ?
- Does the lack of reference to the 960 Pro 2TB size suggest its impossible?
- Is the Polaris the only 2TB option?
- Instructions for an affordable 2TB M.2 seem especially useful given the other choices.
- Is the price point of the 960 Pro 2TB the only reason for which we lack info to use it?
- Is the Samsung Evo safer/easier/more compatible than the Pro? Or is this just a pricing issue?
- What are the MOST reliable settings for:
- What's the sleep/hibernation per OS, Model, screen size, ROM, SMC consensus' solution presently?
- The Polaris 2TB -- like all OEM Apple PCIE drives will stay pricy and not fall until replaced.
- All M.2 prices are subject to competition, bad quarters, floods of OEM laptop products.
- Is "Rehab Man's" kext (the best and most current kext)?
- Though I'm INCREDIBLY grateful for the kext, I found RM's instructions difficult to understand.
- I believe Rehab man’s kext instructions are why people ask for alternates EVERYWHERE.
- Would someone like me to re-write those instructions in easier, steb-by-step fashion?
For those of you with Retinas both under and not under AppleCare, should your existing SSD fail, Apple DISALLOWS upgrading the size (let alone model) through Apple/The "Genius" bar. Even if you do replace your device with a like-model PCI-E SSD, they'll charge a fortune and give a paltry 90 day warranty on that part alone.
If you upgrade your SSD DIY style, including purchasing an Apple SSD off eBay that's the IDENTICAL SIZE and version -- whether you're under AppleCare or not, despite it being AN OVERPRICED OEM APPLE SSD -- the SN won't match and, they’d try to void your ENTIRE warranty or deny repairs you're paying them to perform.
Should you entirely replace the device with say an OWC or other manufacturer's product, or, adapt a third party's product, they will act like you have given your laptop HIV and will refuse to do any service unless they can charge you full price to replace the WORKING DRIVE in there as well! And if under AppleCare, they'll act like it's what caused every other thing to break, even if that were a mechanical feature like a keyboard button or even your freaking HINGES. They are not constrained by logic! And will not allow your logic to infect their dogmatic views on invalidating your legal right to services.
More on this issue below under "Warranty Violations”:
This covers legal tactics to fight Apple's attempt to shirk responsibility..
Back to the thread: It contains the process to upgrade, resolving, problem(s), info on the 'easier' paths via parts that require less effort -- and those scenarios that appear more difficult for people lacking the physical resources of secondary linux boxes, who understood linux, kexts, etc -- from which to use expert-to-expert advice.
All of which is PURE generosity.We all owe special thanks to MacRumors and those who’ve spent time, money on hardware and expertise in "trial and error" -- which they documented for the benefit of us all. There the NVMe heroes, who used their years of expertise to voluntarily donate to the community & Mac world how to minimize the bad / costly, and maximize the best / most effective methods available.
The thread needs a Jean-François Champollion to create the NVMe-Rosetta-stone.
(Homage to Carl Sagan, Cosmos Part 11 I believe) A simple primer for the layman (me).
I have a special place in my heart for flowcharts (they’re often funny and educational). The work to create this (irrespective the ‘style’ would need to be updated whenever new/better information emerges: Whether about nuances such as the SMC, or major factors such as make-model or size — and their respective compatibility with each NVMe drive’s model and size.
Example of the joy's of intelligent flowcharts.
Courtesy of https://xkcd.com/627/
.... a flowchart at the bottom that all techs probably get a kick out of is attached.
I’d volunteer a donation towards this: MacRumors, the creator(s), etc, and imagine others might also?
If I could afford to, (or were a programmer and thought it were possible) I’d create a shareware app which’d allow:
IDing the computer's model/make/firmware/SMC, allowed the specification of the capacity and NVMe model info so, — format the device via an OWC USB caddy, and allowed the trial version of CCC with their permission to restore an appropriate NVMe kext updated version of their OS to be installed from their internal to external drive. Swap the external for the internal, post if on eBay to subsidize your costs, and voila! Another customer allowed to access superior performance to Apple’s drives, with a FULL warranty on the component purchased.
Admittedly, MacRumor’s "beginners" are often more knowledgable than I am. I'd just love to see the work so many people created become mass-available, regardless as to whether the person were a beginner or advanced, or had a linux box to format a drive with.
Some people would possibly pay MacRumors or the largest contributor(s) to the project for a consolidation of the information… such that it’s parsimonious and efficient to determine what works from what didn’t. (And yes, I am aware that my post is hardly better than the entire 45-page thread is.
And I apologize. Perhaps that, in itself makes the point of the ineffectiveness that elongated messages have.)INFORMATION FOR PEOPLE DENIED SERVICE BY APPLE / APPLECARE:
Whether “Warranty, Quality program, or purchased hardware (i.e. a battery)
Refusal to provide Warranty Service or General Service due to upgrades:
Check out or even bring with you a print out of the Magneson-Moss Warranty Act (available on wikipedia) which proves that this is illegal and subjects them to a lawsuit.
I would recommend withholding the reference to the act until they have provided you documentation as to “why” they’re rejecting your warranty claim, so that they cannot revise the documentation to be compatible with denial of services that doesn’t violate the Magneson-Moss Act. After such documentation is in your possession, for them to change to a subsequent reason would be to engage in “motivated reasoning” which shows prejudice in the performance of services under whichever name allows them to evade the responsibility or agreement to otherwise perform services (punitive bias).
With Depot, they’ll usually have emailed you something to that effect which provides you the perfect opportunity to reply with the legal notice; obviously, the exception would be if the part in which they have to service is the actual part you’ve upgraded. This is effective irrespective whether it's an OEM component that is merely different than the model originally sold with the computer (say, a 512GB Apple SSUBX in a 2014 which was sold with a 256GB SSUAX) or even an OWC model SSD — or CPU for that matter.
Furthermore, as they often allege that such 3rd party parts or different model Apple parts cause harm to the other products which is their cause for invalidating it — still relies upon the legal and scientific principles of argumentation. That is to say, that the onus of proof lies squarely on the person’s shoulders making the claim! Lacking such proof, they remain obligated to perform the services, and would be subject to tort suits for non-performance.
With specific regards to OWC (and even Transcend) drive experiences (potentially anecdotal)
While speaking of SSD drives, I don't want to disparage OWC, but I have had only 20 or so OWC SSD’s come through our hands in the 8 years of business of selling and repairing Macs. On two occasions, I have had OWC drives replaced under warranty in which, the replacement drive either died within a week in one case, and in 2 months in the other. And a surprising number of them which’ve failed generally, under lower usage (using drive testing tools which show us the S.M.A.R.T. data including the hours used, etc.) that suggest to me that we’ve either been unlucky (20 is by far not a “scientific” volume for a study) … or, that it’s indicative of lower quality. I HATE having to say anything but that which is glowing of them, as they’re one of the only manufactures of compatible hardware for PCIE SSDs in Macs that don’t require the kinds of ideas this thread intends to solve, and I will absolutely update this statement if/when my experiences, volumetrically, mitigate my perception of their reliability. Transcend's may in fact be worse, but, are less difficult to obtain an RMA authorization from. Pick your poison.
I must also note that OWC doesn't put up a fight to RMA product -- provided you have the receipt (i.e., didn’t purchase it IN a computer…)
Samsung on the other hand, has engaged in denial of services that are fraudulent and have compelled me to file a lawsuit in Los Angeles. I'll let you know if I have the gumption to do this and what happens if so.
My sincerest apologies for errors, ambiguities and crappy syntax requiring a decoder ring.
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Can some one please help the more i ask the more i get lost i just need to know if this will work before i spend my not a lot of money on it and is there anything i need to do before I install it
I have a macBook pro 13'' early 2015
Form reading all the posts i can use a Samsung 960 EVO Series NVMe M.2 SSDs and a adapter. am i better with Samsung 960 EVO or the PRO as for speed there is not a lot in it.
Can you please advice me which is the best adapter and where in the uk i can get one as all the links are us or out of stock.
I would like to be able to run window on my mac just for one program that will not run on mac os
Many Thanks
I have a macBook pro 13'' early 2015
Form reading all the posts i can use a Samsung 960 EVO Series NVMe M.2 SSDs and a adapter. am i better with Samsung 960 EVO or the PRO as for speed there is not a lot in it.
Can you please advice me which is the best adapter and where in the uk i can get one as all the links are us or out of stock.
I would like to be able to run window on my mac just for one program that will not run on mac os
Many Thanks
From the frequency of statements above, I BELIEVE that you can use a 950 EVO more easily than the Pro -- and the 950 more easily than the 960. It appears that using APFS and 10.13.3 or higher is preferred... however, the Toshiba XG3 is the easiest NVMe drive to use -- and the NEWEST adapters offered by Sintech from china (they ship pretty fast according to statements above) is preferred... and the "long one" maximizes compatibility and minimizes PITA.
The link to the adapter that is alleged to be best is I BELIEVE this one -- as it's the newest "long" adapter:
http://eshop.sintech.cn/ngff-m2-pcie-ssd-card-as-2013-2014-2015-macbook-ssd-p-1229.html
I have written a post above that is INCREDIBLY long that is doubtful anyone will care to read, let alone, consolidate such answers as they have already distributed their answers in absolute dilute fashion (think of the crap that hollistic idiots sell as water with the "memory" of some other thing in it that cures you) ....
I grant, I am BEYOND grateful for all the work they've done; I just worry that in seeing some claimed success story, that some subsequent update in which they succinctly say that they found another problem with that methodology may escape my focus... and I will therefore screw some crap up and give someone bad advice!
This is why everything in this post is listed as HEARSAY! That is, the kind of "evidence" that is not evidence in a court of law unless it's a dying declaration or the statements of a sworn officer of the law.
I hope.... that I was helpful. I have no idea in fact if I was, because we have yet to create a focused, consolidated statement that is singularly updated as new evidence emerges on each topic, model. etc.
Chances are, your ROM version, SMC, and even potentially your computer's build date will influence the success of your endeavors.
Best of luck. Your computer is your petri dish!
Report your adventures please. It is WRONG to seek/collect suggestions from a group and not ultimately reply with: your computer's information
- (ROM, SMC, EMC, the adapter and SSD model used)
- If you CLONED your old image/drive, restored from TimeMachine, or did a fresh install.
- What revisions you made in terminal for sleep/hybernation
- What problems you encountered (if any)
MOST IMPORTANTLY. Tell us about all of your FAILED ATTEMPTS... PROBLEMS, and solutions!
Thanks in advance,
Truman
Just upgraded my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015 - A1502) to an Adata 256GB SSD NVME PCIE purchased from Newegg and an adaptor I got from Amazon. (the adaptor has to be 12+16pin)
Booted to Internet Recovery - ALT and R - as ALT just didn't give me the option to select new SSD.
OSx: High Sierra
Boot ROM version is MBP121.0171.B00
SSD: View Here
Connector: View Here
was worried I was wasting money on an SSD that would be unusable, but low and behold it worked.
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