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SSD upgrade for early 2015 MBA

Giuanniello

Giuanniello

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 21, 2012
790
216
Capri - Italy
Time has come for an upgrade of the internal storage of my MBA given the old MBPro late 2011 died once again and until I can't afford a whole new machine.

My MBA is a 13" i5 1.6Ghz with a mere 4GB RAM and 256GB storage, I need an upgrade in storage to temporarily download, store and edit digital camera photographs which won't go straight to the Mini I use for the purpose.

I have to decide if to go for 500GB or directly to a 1TB and be quiet for a while, first thing first I have to make sure I pick the right item, so far I am checking on the usual big online store and looking for M.2 NVMe, is this correct?

I will then need an adaptor, I was already suggested one in another thread but source was an US store whilst I am in Italy so I have to rely on local sources, possibly the same as for the SSD as to save on shipping, one I find comes as "SSD to M.2 NGFF convert adapter", is it the correct item?

I read about hibernation issues with non OEM SSDs, anything I should be careful about not to incur any problem?

Thank you for your time and suggestions and happy new year


Giovanni
 
With the stock SSD still installed you should connect the laptop to power and install Mojave (or newer) with all security updates installed. This will update the Boot ROM. There have recently been some fixes for hibernation issues with 3rd party SSDs. Once you've confirmed the Boot ROM has been updated (can check the version in System Information) you can power down and do the SSD swap.

With a recent Boot ROM the Boot ROM should be updated in the future even with a 3rd party SSD installed.
 
@Audit13 Thank you for your reply, I have to find out if the Sintech is available in the EU or if they ship overseas (till shipping cost makes it worth).

@mdgm I am actually on BigSur so I guess I should perform a backup and then start the computer in recovery mode, format the new SSD and allow the installer to do its job, dunno which was the stock OS version for early 2015 MBA.

I guess those cases to use AppleOEM SSD as external drives are not worth the pain cost wise, isn't it?

Thanks you for the hint
 
What I meant was that if you have a very old Boot ROM version to update the Boot ROM you may need to put the Apple OEM SSD back in the laptop. Then once the Boot ROM is updated put the 3rd party SSD back in.

The current version for MBAs that officially support running Big Sur start with a 4 e.g. 425.0.0.0.0 or 429.0.0.0.0

If your Boot ROM version is still older than that then it wasn’t updated when you updated to Big Sur.
 
Giuanniello said:
I got it, I should be fine since mine reports

Versione firmware di sistema: 425.0.0.0.0
Click to expand...
With your bootrom, the air should accept bootrom updates with a NVMe drive.

I used time machine to restore my os to a new NVMe drive. All I had to do was boot from the time machine drive, use disk utility to format, and restore.

Sintech shipped the adapter to me in Canada.
 
Hi everyone I've been trying to upgrade a 2015 MBP (13 inch, 2.7 GHz, 128 Go) with a 1TB Crucial P2 and the SSD is not detected (even when prompting 'diskutil list' in the terminal).

I've been using a non-Sintech adapter and the bootrom is 192.0.0.0.0. Do you think I should update to a more recent version of macOS or using a proper adapter should be sufficient for the SSD to be detected ?

Thanks in advance for you replies
 
gabrielk said:
Hi everyone I've been trying to upgrade a 2015 MBP (13 inch, 2.7 GHz, 128 Go) with a 1TB Crucial P2 and the SSD is not detected (even when prompting 'diskutil list' in the terminal).

I've been using a non-Sintech adapter and the bootrom is 192.0.0.0.0. Do you think I should update to a more recent version of macOS or using a proper adapter should be sufficient for the SSD to be detected ?

Thanks in advance for you replies
Click to expand...
The MacBook's bootrom is sufficient to allow the use a NVMe drive.

Are you booting from a Mojave, Catalina, or Big Sur installer?
 
Audit13 said:
High Sierra should work because a High Sierra bootrom was the minimum. To eliminate the OS being the issue, try Catalina or Mojave.

If disk utility won't detect the drive, try re-seating the drive and/or try the drive in another machine.
Click to expand...
I'll try it then, thank you very much !
 
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If you need to use 32-bit apps go with Mojave. Otherwise go with Catalina.
 
mdgm said:
If you need to use 32-bit apps go with Mojave. Otherwise go with Catalina.
Click to expand...
I'm currently trying with Catalina then. By the way, I can rule out as a cause the fact that the SSD is completely new and that I've plugged it right out of the box without formatting it first ? I've read that some users recommend to format the drive first and then plug it into the laptop.
 
gabrielk said:
I'm currently trying with Catalina then. By the way, I can rule out as a cause the fact that the SSD is completely new and that I've plugged it right out of the box without formatting it first ? I've read that some users recommend to format the drive first and then plug it into the laptop.
Click to expand...
I have installed new, unformatted NVMe drives in the air and pro. I used disk utility to partition and format the drives.
 
Last edited:
Audit13 said:
I have installed new, unformatted NVMe drives in the air and pro. I used disk utility to partition and format the drives.
Click to expand...
[UPDATE] I've updated to Catalina and the SSD is still not detected. I guess the problem then simply comes from the adapter. I ordered an adapter from Sintech and I'll keep you informed when I'll have tried with it.

[UPDATE 2] Tried again with an update of the NVRAM. It still doesn't work
 
Last edited:
gabrielk said:
[UPDATE] I've updated to Catalina and the SSD is still not detected. I guess the problem then simply comes from the adapter. I ordered an adapter from Sintech and I'll keep you informed when I'll have tried with it.
Click to expand...
I hope you are able to solve the issue.

I used two cheap adapters I bought of eBay for about $2.50 Canadian about 1.5 years ago and both worked flawlessly. I have used several Sintech adapters and the cheap adapters are just as stable as the Sintech adapters.
 
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Sharky II said:
The Snitch that's recommended has a 2-4 week wait here in the UK, on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sintech-Adapter-Upgrade-2013-2015-MacBook/dp/B07FYY3H5F/ref=sr_1_4?crid=182AFRMXVHBT6&dchild=1&keywords=sintech+ngff+m.2+nvme+ssd+adapter&qid=1610563852&sprefix=snitch,aps,138&sr=8-4

Can anyone recommend an adaptor in the UK that supports sleep/hibernation/acts completely OEM, and is in stock?

Running Big Sur and latest BootROM on 2013 13"MBA, thanks!
Click to expand...
With the Big Sur bootrom, sleep/hibernation should not be an issue; however, battery life will not be as good as it is with an OEM SSD.
 
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Just ordered the small Sintech and a WD Blue 500GB, arrives tomorrow.

Hoping this will be a good gift for a kid to do their homework on!!
 
Looking forward to read your report and, please, if anybody got a source to buy the right adapter in Italy/EU please share

Good luck and have a nice week end
 
See sig... My setup works very well. Battery life decent as long as bluetooth is off when not actually needing it..
 
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