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

[dewitts]

Hi guys, so I bought myself the Sabrent 512gb drive and the sintech adapter, used Carbon Copy Clone to copy my drive to transfer my files back later and I swapped the drive over expecting all to be hunky dory, I want a fresh install so I decided to try installing straight from the internet recovery.

it only gave me Mavericks and when I go into the disk utility it doesn’t see the Hard drive I’ve bought!
It’s a late 2013 RETINA display and from looking at some posts here I read it’s not compatible
Why is this not in post 1?

Is there a work around?
I’ve opened the packaging so it can’t be returned

 

[Walee]

It’s a late 2013 RETINA display and from looking at some posts here I read it’s not compatible

What posts are you referring to? if not a secret.

MacBook Pro's from Late 2013 to Mid 2015 (MacBookPro11,1 to MacBookPro12,1) become compatible with NVMe drives only AFTER High Sierra or newer version of MacOS has been installed on the laptop in it's original configuration i.e. on the original Apple SSD (otherwise OS installer won't update bootrom to add nvme support).

 

[markintosh13]

Hi guys, so I bought myself the Sabrent 512gb drive and the sintech adapter, used Carbon Copy Clone to copy my drive to transfer my files back later and I swapped the drive over expecting all to be hunky dory, I want a fresh install so I decided to try installing straight from the internet recovery

it only gave me Mavericks and when I go into the disk utility it doesn’t see the Hard drive I’ve bought!
It’s a late 2013 RETINA display and from looking at some posts here I read it’s not compatible
Why is this not in post 1?

Is there a work around?
I’ve opened the packaging so it can’t be returned

1. what version of bootrom was installed? see post 1

2. Internet recovery provides different OS options depending on which key combination is selected: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204904

If you selected the option to reinstall the version of OS which was originally installed on a Late 2013 MBP, it would have been.... Mavericks. So pick the a different option.

 

[dewitts]

1. what version of bootrom was installed? see post 1

2. Internet recovery provides different OS options depending on which key combination is selected: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204904

If you selected the option to reinstall the version of OS which was originally installed on a Late 2013 MBP, it would have been.... Mavericks. So pick the a different option.

Thanks for that, that's helpful to know!

Do you think the reason disk utiltity couldn't find it is because it was Mavericks installer from internet recovery??

I was on Boot rom 149.000.000 and have reinstalled my drive and updated to latest version:

Boot ROM Version 156.0.0.0.0

SMC Version (system) 2.16f68

What posts are you referring to? if not a secret.

MacBook Pro's from Late 2013 to Mid 2015 (MacBookPro11,1 to MacBookPro12,1) become compatible with NVMe drives only AFTER High Sierra or newer version of MacOS has been installed on the laptop in it's original configuration i.e. on the original Apple SSD (otherwise OS installer won't update bootrom to add nvme support).

I have just scrolled through 13 pages looking for the post, it referred to the 4 lanes not being compatible with MBP 13" only working with drives that are 2 lanes not 4, I will try finding it and let you know what and where.
I have seen in the process that people have late 2013 laptops and refer to the sabrent drive working (could be different model I suppose?)

I'm going to reinstall the new drive and try the other Internet recovery options for latest version and hope it see's the drive, my clone does not want to boot for some reason and i'm not able to partition the drive unless it is recognised by disk utility in the installer, I wanted a fresh install anyway.

 

[Walee]

I have just scrolled through 13 pages looking for the post, it referred to the 4 lanes not being compatible with MBP 13" only working with drives that are 2 lanes not 4, I will try finding it and let you know what and where.

Number of lanes should not be an issue - in theory you can plug your nvme ssd into pcie x1 slot and it will work just fine albeit at x1 speeds. In the past I have successfully upgraded MBA L2013 with a pcie x4 nvme ssd - the drive ran at x2 speed.

Bootrom v156.0.0.0.0 should ok, so try a newer installer. If no luck then reseat your ssd, make sure your adapter has electrical tape covering backside of the m.2 slot.
In disk utility remember to switch to "show all devices" instead of "show volumes".

 

[dewitts]

Well mystery solved.

Getting internet recovery for latest compatible version (Catalina) has found my drive and has now installed.

I'm a bit disappointed though that i've only gone from 200 MB/s to 753 MB/s though.
I was hoping for the full 3000 that it's rated for.

Will that be because of the fresh install and it hasn't been restarted yet?

I'm now on :
Boot ROM Version: 156.0.0.0.0
SMC Version (system): 2.16f68

 

[Walee]

Will that be because of the fresh install and it hasn't been restarted yet?

Hm, to be honest I don't know if that's normal. In theory if your ssd is running in x4 mode then you should see up to 2k read/write (in reality 1.7 probably). But modern SSD's preformance may go down under load due to overheating. Also after writing a lot of data write speed drops once SLC chache is depleted. Give it some time.

UPD according to the performance chart in the first post your drive performs pretty much as it should: R1200MBs; W1500MBs. Low write speed is likely temporary due to SLC cache being depleted - it should return back to normal after some time.

 

[markintosh13]

I'm a bit disappointed though that i've only gone from 200 MB/s to 753 MB/s though.
I was hoping for the full 3000 that it's rated for.

It's rated for 3000 on PCIE v3 x4.

A 2013 MBPonly has PCIE v2, and will never achieve v3 speeds.

My 13" late 2013 MBP with a 960MB SX8200 achieves a x4 link with the following r/w speeds

It is possible that the 512MB version is not as fast, or it's being impacted by spotlight indexing or something else.

 

[dewitts]

Well i've copied all my files across and i've let it idle for a bit and i'm now seeing improvements in read & write speeds.

Is it normal for it to take about 15 seconds for the apple logo to appear on boot with the new drive?

If I can't get V4 link, how come yours can?
It does say v4 on sys info.

 

[Kraizelburg]

Well i've copied all my files across and i've let it idle for a bit and i'm now seeing improvements in read & write speeds.

Is it normal for it to take about 15 seconds for the apple logo to appear on boot with the new drive?

If I can't get V4 link, how come yours can?
It does say v4 on sys info. View attachment 876235

Hi, you are already getting x4 link your macbook will never get faster speeds than you are already getting.
As previously stated you have PCI x2 so you are technically reaching top speed.
[automerge]1573405465[/automerge]

It's rated for 3000 on PCIE v3 x4.

A 2013 MBPonly has PCIE v2, and will never achieve v3 speeds.

My 13" late 2013 MBP with a 960MB SX8200 achieves a x4 link with the following r/w speeds

View attachment 876232

It is possible that the 512MB version is not as fast, or it's being impacted by spotlight indexing or something else.

Hi how's battery life with your Adata SX8200?

 

[damaltor]

After hours and days of reading and research, I did the m.2 NVMe upgrade on my 2015 macBook Pro...
Went with a Sabrent 1TB Rocket, w/Sintech short adapter, hardware and macOS installation was pretty straight forward.
Been up and running for about a week now, all is well (knock on wood), couldn't be happier.

 

[dimickh]

Are you happy with the 1TB Kingston A2000 upgrade overall if you take the cons into consideration?

I have 500GB not the 1TB version.Overall i'm satisfied with it.

A bit disappointed with a battery life, but im okay trading it for extra 400GB over stock 128GB SSD, More important for me that i have no longer have to choose between downloading several movies/storing large virtual machine image/having all folders from dropbox synced locally.

 

[Walee]

If I can't get V4 link, how come yours can?
It does say v4 on sys info.

Please don't confuse link width (number of pci-express lanes) and PCIe generaion (version). Your SSD is using 4 lanes at PCIe 2.0 specs. One PCIe 2.0 lane equals to theoretical 500MBs throughput. PCIe 3.0 is twice as fast. Real throughput is always lower due to error correction and whatnot.

Is it normal for it to take about 15 seconds for the apple logo to appear on boot with the new drive?

If your drive is formatted into APFS then yes. As far as I know HFS doesn't behave this way. Why? - no clue.

 

[markintosh13]

Hi how's battery life with your Adata SX8200?

Probably about as good as any nvme really, hard to say as the battery in my late 2013 isn't the best at this point.
[automerge]1573439822[/automerge]

Well i've copied all my files across and i've let it idle for a bit and i'm now seeing improvements in read & write speeds.

Is it normal for it to take about 15 seconds for the apple logo to appear on boot with the new drive?

If I can't get V4 link, how come yours can?
It does say v4 on sys info. View attachment 876235

That's the best results you can hope for.
You've got a x4 link width on pcie v2.

 

[Mike5042000]

After hours and days of reading and research, I did the m.2 NVMe upgrade on my 2015 macBook Pro...
Went with a Sabrent 1TB Rocket, w/Sintech short adapter, hardware and macOS installation was pretty straight forward.
Been up and running for about a week now, all is well (knock on wood), couldn't be happier.

View attachment 876257

I was thinking about getting the Sabrent 1TB Rocket for my Mid 2015 MacBook pro. How is the temperature? Do the fans kick on more than usual? Does it burn through battery quicker than the apple SSD?

 

[damaltor]

I was thinking about getting the Sabrent 1TB Rocket for my Mid 2015 MacBook pro. How is the temperature? Do the fans kick on more than usual? Does it burn through battery quicker than the apple SSD?

Temperature has not been an issue at all, haven't even heard the fan on since doing the swap. Battery performance has dropped a bit, but nothing I'm stressed about. Maybe a 10% drop?

 

[splifingate]

I was thinking about getting the Sabrent 1TB Rocket for my Mid 2015 MacBook pro. How is the temperature? Do the fans kick on more than usual? Does it burn through battery quicker than the apple SSD?

MBP gets hotter, amps-up the fans and the battery drains like there's no tmrw . . . but, the spaciousness is priceless

Regards, splifingate

 

[kuwona]

Hi All,
Late 2013 rMBP 13"
Short Snitch Adapter
Sabrent Rocket 512

I didn't have a USB drive over 8GB around so I used a 16GB CF Card from a camera.
Installed Catalina 10.15 to get update Boot Rom to 157.0.0.0.0.

Everything went fine.
Speed improvement is good but less than expected.

Battery was already pretty old and weak so hard to comment on difference at this point.

My question is, how can I tell if hibernate is working? When I close the lid, the screen goes dark. I open it the next day and have lost 1 or 2 percent battery, but it doesn't freeze or need to be restarted. I feel like that's normal working hibernate?

Also, should I upgrade to 10.15.1. I think I can do that without swapping old drive back in since boot rom is the same?

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Hi All,
Late 2013 rMBP 13"
Short Snitch Adapter
Sabrent Rocket 512

I didn't have a USB drive over 8GB around so I used a 16GB CF Card from a camera.
Installed Catalina 10.15 to get update Boot Rom to 157.0.0.0.0.

Everything went fine.
Speed improvement is good but less than expected.

Battery was already pretty old and weak so hard to comment on difference at this point.

My question is, how can I tell if hibernate is working? When I close the lid, the screen goes dark. I open it the next day and have lost 1 or 2 percent battery, but it doesn't freeze or need to be restarted. I feel like that's normal working hibernate?

Also, should I upgrade to 10.15.1. I think I can do that without swapping old drive back in since boot rom is the same?

As mentioned in previous posts, with default configs hibernate takes more than 24hrs. Therefore, if you want to test hibernate you will have to leave the laptop untouched for more than 24 hrs.
There is no reason not to update to 10.15.1.

 

[Audit13]

Hi All,
Late 2013 rMBP 13"
Short Snitch Adapter
Sabrent Rocket 512


My question is, how can I tell if hibernate is working? When I close the lid, the screen goes dark. I open it the next day and have lost 1 or 2 percent battery, but it doesn't freeze or need to be restarted. I feel like that's normal working hibernate?

Also, should I upgrade to 10.15.1. I think I can do that without swapping old drive back in since boot rom is the same?

Hibernation mode 25 (Mac copies ram contents to SSD and powers itself off) will not work on the late 2013 Pro without installing a modified bootrom.

Use the following command to figure out which sleep or hibernate mode your computer’s using:

pmset -g | grep hibernatemode

• hibernatemode 0 is normal sleep.
• hibernatemode 1 is hibernation.
• hibernatemode 3 is Safe Sleep.
• hibernatemode 25 is the second type of hibernation

 

[-andreas-]

Hi all,
I have read here for a while but now I just registered to ask some questions.

I am a computer consultant that mostly fix PCs, but now I have a customer that need to upgrade her MBP Retina 2013. I usually just use Samsung SSDs because they are fast and reliable. But after reading here I started to think that maybe a Sabrent Rocket would be a better choice because of the power issue. Then I read a little more about several that had problems and then this:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/sabrent-rocket-and-no-512e-sectors.274177/post-2014944
And some other similar statements on other sites that says that Sabrent Rocket was good, but now they have changed the hardware. It does not longer have the Toshiba memory chips, and some places also stated that the controller also changed (can’t find those places now though). For the ones that have recently bought this drive. What chips do you have?

Since it will not sit in my own computer, most important thing is that it is a reliable and stable SSD.

And then the next question. I read that to upgrade Boot rom I need to put the old disk back. This will probably never happen after I have installed the disk. How often do Macs get in to trouble when updating MacOS if not the Boot rom is also updated? I am thinking of updates a couple of years down the road.

That was all for now.

 

[johnhurley]

Hi all,
I have read here for a while but now I just registered to ask some questions.

I am a computer consultant that mostly fix PCs, but now I have a customer that need to upgrade her MBP Retina 2013. I usually just use Samsung SSDs because they are fast and reliable. But after reading here I started to think that maybe a Sabrent Rocket would be a better choice because of the power issue. Then I read a little more about several that had problems and then this:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/sabrent-rocket-and-no-512e-sectors.274177/post-2014944
And some other similar statements on other sites that says that Sabrent Rocket was good, but now they have changed the hardware. It does not longer have the Toshiba memory chips, and some places also stated that the controller also changed (can’t find those places now though). For the ones that have recently bought this drive. What chips do you have?

Since it will not sit in my own computer, most important thing is that it is a reliable and stable SSD.

And then the next question. I read that to upgrade Boot rom I need to put the old disk back. This will probably never happen after I have installed the disk. How often do Macs get in to trouble when updating MacOS if not the Boot rom is also updated? I am thinking of updates a couple of years down the road.

That was all for now.

No incorrect you do not need original ssd in machine to update bootrom.

Brand preferences vary. My machine now uses a samsung 970 evo 1 tb. Personally i only ever buy samsung ssds.

 

[Kraizelburg]

Hi all,
I have read here for a while but now I just registered to ask some questions.

I am a computer consultant that mostly fix PCs, but now I have a customer that need to upgrade her MBP Retina 2013. I usually just use Samsung SSDs because they are fast and reliable. But after reading here I started to think that maybe a Sabrent Rocket would be a better choice because of the power issue. Then I read a little more about several that had problems and then this:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/sabrent-rocket-and-no-512e-sectors.274177/post-2014944
And some other similar statements on other sites that says that Sabrent Rocket was good, but now they have changed the hardware. It does not longer have the Toshiba memory chips, and some places also stated that the controller also changed (can’t find those places now though). For the ones that have recently bought this drive. What chips do you have?

Since it will not sit in my own computer, most important thing is that it is a reliable and stable SSD.

And then the next question. I read that to upgrade Boot rom I need to put the old disk back. This will probably never happen after I have installed the disk. How often do Macs get in to trouble when updating MacOS if not the Boot rom is also updated? I am thinking of updates a couple of years down the road.

That was all for now.

To be honest most brands these days are very reliable, the main differences are power consumption, heat and speed which ultimately depends on the controller itself.
Any reliable brand would do the job intel, corsair, Adata,...Samsung.

Bear in mind samsung drives are very power hungry compared to others, this is because they are mostly designed for desktop PC and servers.

 

[whaledandan]

Hello!

I was finally able to flash the modified bootrom to my MacBook Pro 13" mid 2014.
After several hours on the internet searching for clues and answers I was able to produce a "writing" state for the SPI chip.

I followed the manual from this forum to the letter but hit a wall every time when trying to flash the rom back to Macbook.
It always told me the same messages: Erase failed plaahplaaahplaah.
I needed to connect the programmer first and then the the MagSafe charger. I did not plugin the battery, meaning I unclipped it before all of this.
After that the fan run for a while and after that I was able to flash the modified rom without errors.

Thanks for the manual and this awesome forum for knowledge. Also shout out to flashrom irc channel, they had it right all along - the voltage is wrong if flashing fails.

I would add instructions to try different combinations of plugging in battery, MagSafe and the programmer if the flashing fails.

hello, I met the “erase failed” problem just like you mentioned. I tried to follow what you had done in the reply; you mentioned that the fan was spinning and you could write the rom to the chip. But while the fan was spinning, the system booted up.
Did you write the rom when the MacBook turned on? Can you tell more detail about that? Thank you!

------------------------------------UPDATE-----------------------------------
After couple hours calming down, I tried again to write the modified ROM to the chip again.
Finally I got a verified message after writing to the chip, my WRITING steps are followed:

1. POWER OFF your laptop, INTERNAL BATTERY attached, MagSafe cable attached, J6100 adapter on, CH314A on the secondary system USB slot. (CONNECT ALL THE DEVICES and CABLES)

2. The red light on CH314A should bright on. Now test your programmer if it can normally read the rom or not. You can type flashrom -p ch341a_spi -r dump1.bin -c "MX25L6406E/MX25L6408E" to make the final copy of your original rom. If the copy can be copied, that means your are connecting everything right.

3.Now, we are going to write the modified rom!!

4.Keep J6100 adaptor and CH314A in place. Keep MagSafe cable attached. REMOVE the internal battery attachment. Your system should not be turned on and the fan won't spin though. NOW try to write the rom
by typing flashrom -p ch341a_spi -w modified.rom -c "MX25L6406E/MX25L6408E"

5.After waiting for a while, you will see the verified message.

I haven't tested the hibernation and sleep issue, but I think it will work like a charm.

 

[damaltor]

Hi all,
I have read here for a while but now I just registered to ask some questions.

I am a computer consultant that mostly fix PCs, but now I have a customer that need to upgrade her MBP Retina 2013. I usually just use Samsung SSDs because they are fast and reliable. But after reading here I started to think that maybe a Sabrent Rocket would be a better choice because of the power issue. Then I read a little more about several that had problems and then this:
https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/sabrent-rocket-and-no-512e-sectors.274177/post-2014944
And some other similar statements on other sites that says that Sabrent Rocket was good, but now they have changed the hardware. It does not longer have the Toshiba memory chips, and some places also stated that the controller also changed (can’t find those places now though). For the ones that have recently bought this drive. What chips do you have?

Well I be..., I think this may be true. I haven't opened mine up to verify, but the revision does appear to be different than the original drives and disk utility does say SMART status is unsupported?!

Model: Sabrent
Revision: RKT303.1