imac 21'5 (late 2013) & SSD NVMe driving me crazy

[Fab29100]

Hi everyone,
I've just installed an OCW Aurora Pro X2 SSD and I can't get the system to recognise it (Catalina up to date). I have (I think) tried everything. Even unplugged the current HDD and booted on a USB key (with Catalina). Still the same, the Disk Utility doesn't want to know anything.

For the record, the iMac only has one HDD, no Fusion, but the NVMe port is there.

There is a port, but you can't use it?

Is it hackable with a special kext?

 

[Fishrrman]

You may have already done this, but...

Try booting to INTERNET recovery (this is not the same as "the recovery partition").
Command+OPTION+R
at boot.

KEEP HOLDING DOWN THOSE KEYS until
- you see a msg that the internet utilities are loading (or see the spinning globe)
or
- are asked for your wifi password (if connecting thru wifi, but ethernet is better for this job)

When you get to the utilities, open disk utility
VERY IMPORTANT: go to the "view" menu and choose "show all devices".

Can you get this far?
If so, can you now see the SSD (should be top item in the "list on the left")?

 

[Fab29100]

Yep i did it several time… This internet recovery shows me a menu with 4 options isn't it ?

• Restore form timemachine
• Reinstall Macos
• Something help
• Disk Utiliy

The Show All Devices of Disk Utility don't show the SSD card (just the HDD one) :

 

[Bigwaff]

For the record, the iMac only has one HDD, no Fusion, but the NVMe port is there.

There is a port, but you can't use it?

I believe you can only use it if your iMac originally came with SSD or with Fusion Drive internal storage.

Update: More research indicates the slot exists on all later production builds regardless of whether the storage configuration iMac shipped with. So... I think you may have to put the new SSD in an enclosure test it or assume it is defective and return it.

 

[Fab29100]

I believe you can only use it if your iMac originally came with SSD or with Fusion Drive internal storage.

Yes, some say so, others don't. I don't have the necessary equipment to test whether this slot is powered or not.

Update: More research indicates the slot exists on all later production builds regardless of whether the storage configuration iMac shipped with. So... I think you may have to put the new SSD in an enclosure test it or assume it is defective and return it.

Certainly. I'm going to send this product back and choose my first idea: replace the HDD with a SATA SSD. Sad but true.

Thkx to @Bigwaff and @Fishrrman for your help.