Samsung 960 PRO in MacBook Pro (Retina 15“, Mid 2015)

My last weekend side-activity (besides to building Millenium Falcon from lego with my son ;) ).

I would like to share my experience with upgrade SSD in my 2-years old MacBook Pro (Retina 15“, Mid 2015 — MacBookPro11,5 ).
Old SSD was original Apple 500GB. New one is Samsung SSD 960 PRO NVMe M.2 1TB.

[EDIT 2020–05–22] : WARN: This tweak could possibly have long term bad impact on macbook battery! I got swollen battery 1 year ago. I taught that it’s just a coincidence. I had replaced it for new one from iFixit. Now it’s bloating again. I hope I don’t have to replace battery every year. This time I will use Apple original one and I will see after a year.

[EDIT 2021–03–28] : WARN: After few years I have to admit that upgrade to NVMe SSD with high power drain leads to overheating my macbook pro and faster battery degradation. I am used to use my macbook under heavy load almost every day and have to replace battery every year now (with 2TB Samsung 960 Pro).

First problem: incompatible connector

Apple does not use standard M.2 form factor, so I have to use an adapter. Like one of those:

for Macbook A1465 A1466 A1398 A1502 NGFF M.2 SSD Adapter M Key Riser Card | eBay

Mini PCI-E x4 M.2 NGFF SSD for Apple MacBook A1465 A1466 A1398 A1502 SSD Card | eBay

M2 M-Key SSD as 2013-2014-2015 MACBOOK SSD for Air A1465 A1466 Pro A1398 A1502 | eBay

I have ordered all three of them… just for sure ;) . One of them does not work (or maybe i haven’t used it correctly), next one worked, so I didn’t try other one.

Second doubt: NVME vs. AHCI

I was not sure if my computer can work with NVME disk. The original SSD have been connected to PCIe, but it worked in AHCI mode. But there are some discussions and youtube videos saying that it can work.

The result: YES, it works correctly with third update of MacOS High Sierra (10.13.3). Also with this OS there is not an issue with freezing after sleep mode(instead of wake-up). This issue was reported in some discussions.

But there are two minor issues that I have discovered:

1. Sometimes it freezes just after “restart”. Notebook looks like it’s off, but I can hear very silent sound of cooling ventilators. Solution is: press start button for 4 sec.->this leads to power off. Then you can start it again.
   There is not problem with “shut down” function. Only “restart” function can do this problem.
2. S.M.A.R.T. shows me a lot of information, but instead of self-test info shows just “Read Error Information Log failed: NVMe admin command:0x02/page:0x01 is not supported”. I think it’s only smartmontools incompatibility.

Prerequisites

• screwdriver pentalobe P5 (5-star 1.2 mm) for macbook cover
• screwdriver torx T5 (6-star 2.9 mm) for ssd
• USB 3.0 stick with MacOS High Sierra 10.13.3 installer (3rd update of High Sierra)
• optional: external hard drive with Time Machine full backup (if you want to move your data from existing SSD)

HW replace

1. Shutdown computer, remove power adapter and all peripherals. Flip it over upside down (you can use some pad to avoid scratches on a lid).
2. Use pentalobe P5 to unscrew 10 screws. Notice that two of them under the display are little bit shorter than the other ones. Remind it for the time when you will screw it back.
3. Gently pull the cover up (from the display side). Notice that there are two latches under the the middle of cover, so you can use a little bit more force to loose them.
4. Unplug the battery connector. This step is more important than it looks. Don’t underestimate it.

You can locate the battery connector here

5. Use torx T5 to unscrew one SSD screw. Lift old SSD up a little bit and slide it out from connector.

6. Put new SSD to the adapter. Then put them together to computers connector and fix it with screw.

7. !!! Don’t forget to plug back the battery connector !!! THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.

8. Put and screw back the cover (don’t forget that two shorter screws are under the display). Turn it over and plug the power adapter back.

First start

1. Press and hold keys cmd+opt(alt)+R+P , start the computer while holding them and wait for jingle sound. This will reset non-volatile RAM. Maybe it isn’t necessary, but I have used it for sure. After NVRAM reset you can shut down computer.
2. Insert USB stick with OS installer and boot it up. You can press alt key when you hear the jingle sound to select boot medium.
3. If you don’t want to restore your data from Time Machine, you can install OS now. If you can’t see your SSD in OS instalator, use Disk Utility to create new APFS volume on your new SSD. If you can’t see your new disk even in Disk Utility, switch view mode to “Show all devices”. If you can’t see your new SSD either, something is wrong. Don’t forget to enable TRIM support ( sudo trimforce enable ) after installation.

Restore data from Time Machine (direct 1:1 variant)

1. Plug Time Machine disk to USB. Run Disk Utility and mount it (and unlock it if it’s encrypted).
2. Create new APFS volume on your new SSD. If you can’t see your new disk, switch view mode to “Show all devices”. If you want restore to an encrypted volume, it’s useless to prepare the encrypted volume. Time Machine will recreate volume to unencrypted one :( . Encryption can be enabled afterwards (by FileVault).
3. Close the Disk Utility and run Time Machine restoration. It will take long time (cca 3–4 hours in my case for cca 400 GB).
4. After Time Machine restoration it will restart to your restored system. If it freezes just after restart, see above to the issues.
5. Now you can enable FileVault if you want to encrypt the volume (System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> FileVault). It will take VERY looooong time (cca 24 hours in my case: cca 400 GB on 1TB disk). You can watch percentage process using this command in Terminal: sudo fsesetup status
6. Don’t forget to enable TRIM support ( sudo trimforce enable).

I have used this variant to restore my system. Even that I have to wait for long FileVault encryption.

Restore data from Time Machine (data migration variant)

1. Use Disk Utility to create new APFS volume on your new SSD. If you can’t see your new disk, switch view mode to “Show all devices”. If you want to install on “pre-encrypted” volume, you can create the encrypted one.
2. Close Disk Utility and Install new Mac OS on your computer.
3. At some moment of installation it will offer you migration from TimeMachine. Use it.
4. Don’t forget to enable TRIM support ( sudo trimforce enable ).

I don’t like this variant. Because it causes that my USB 3.0 ethernet adapter doesn’t work with system restored by this way. Even I have reinstalled drivers.

Benchmarks

I have found only the Blackmagic speed test. Does exist something like AS SSD for Mac OS? Something what will use 64 threads for disk benchmark test? Tell me in comment.

There are test results. Both of the SSDs were encrypted:

original Apple SSD

NVME Samsung 960 PRO