Resolved Problems with upgrading 2013 MBA drive with WD Blue SN550 NVMe + Sintech adaptor

[Sharky II]

Hi,

Today a WD SN550 Blue and the small Sintech M2 adaptor arrived to update a 2013 MBA with a 128GB Apple drive. The current 128GB drive has Big Sur installed, and the latest firmware.

The WD SN550 is not being recognised on the MBA. I've tried reseating the adaptor and the drive multiple times, so I don't think it's that. I have a Big Sur USB installer (I know the USB installer works as I've used it on the original Apple 128GB drive).

When I boot hold down option I only get the option for internet recovery - I think because it does not see any HD inside. I then tried Internet Recovery -> Disk Utility and can't see the SN550 there, only my USB drive and an Internet Recovery partition.

Before I assume the adaptor or drive is broken:

- Is it okay to use a Big Sur USB installer or does it have to be Mojave like it says on the tiny Sintech instruction card?
- Can anyone confirm that the WD SN550 Blue is compatible?

I have a Mac Pro with a PCIe M2 adaptor - I could theoretically put the drive in there and format it for APFS, but things don't quite seem right as they are. I suppose I will try that at some point to narrow it down to an issue with the adaptor.

Thanks!

 

[Sharky II]

I managed to get it working by realising that - for some reason - I need to put the USB drive in AFTER I boot up the computer. Then it would recognise it. If it's plugged in already, it wouldn't recognise it.

Currently installs Big Sur.

Hope that helps somebody!

 

[Sharky II]

Surprised by the added heat, very noticeable!

 

[kvic]

Surprised by the added heat, very noticeable!

See if ssdpmEnabler helps. It reduces SN550's idle power by 40% in MBP's

 

[japmeet]

See if ssdpmEnabler helps. It reduces SN550's idle power by 40% in MBP's

ssdpmEnabler doesn't work on MBAs older than 7.2,

 

[kvic]

ssdpmEnabler doesn't work on MBAs older than 7.2,

Seems right. After my post above, I received reports from a couple of folks regarding MacBook Air. Some Air's don't work just like MacBookPro11,1. But many models work well in saving battery life. People can find a list of working Mac models and SSDs reported by folks on this forum:

SsdPmEnabler/README.md at main · kvic-z/SsdPmEnabler

Contribute to kvic-z/SsdPmEnabler development by creating an account on GitHub.

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