Macbook NVMe SSD Upgrade

Why?

Apple used to have relatively super-fast SSDs. Nowadays we have cheaper, and faster SSDs than Apple, and we can buy them literally anywhere instead of salvaging or getting one from OWC.

Sometimes we ran out of storage, and getting another Apple SSD is not economically feasible. And sometimes, we got a broken SSD, and is out of warranty.

Compabilities

Courtesy of gilles_polysoft

Adaptors

Known working connectors:

• Sintech Green / Black (long) adaptor
• sznfhk adaptor

Prerequesites

• Linux Bootable USB

• High Sierra Bootable USB

• Apple 12+14 Pin to M.2 NGFF adaptor

• Few inches of kapton tape

• A M.2 SSD of your choice

• A Macbook Pro (<2016), on High Sierra or later

Steps

1. (Optional) Make a Time machine Backup
2. Apply Kapton Tape to insulate pins
3. Install new SSD with adaptor
4. Boot with Linux USB, use fdisk to make partitions. Type Linux is good enough.
5. Boot with High Sierra USB, use Disk Utility to repartition/format disk into APFS with GUID partition table.
6. Restore from Time Machine or fresh install.