SSD Upgrade on Mid 2013 MacBook Air Not Working

[Snakes202]

So,

I am using a SM951 256GB M.2 SSD with a NGFF M.2 Adapter.

I have researched and found them to be compatible with my laptop, a 11" Mid 2013 MacBook Air.

The original SSD went bad, and this is a replacement more than an upgrade.

I have created a High Sierra (latest) USB installer, and upon using I can see my drive in Disk Utility.

I format it as Journaled and start the installer. I select the drive, it starts installing and says about 5 minutes.

At the 2 minute mark the screen will go black (restart I presume?) and then show the apple logo.

The progress bar below will load about 10% and then it will just boot to the USB again.

Inspecting the drive in disk utility shows that about 5GB of it is now used, but it is not bootable.

What is happening, and how do I fix it?

Can provide pictures and product links if needed...

Thanks

 

[pastrychef]

Are you using the AHCI version of the SM951?

 

[Snakes202]

Are you using the AHCI version of the SM951?

It is the nvme version...is it not supported after all?

 

[pastrychef]

It is the nvme version...is it not supported after all?

I believe that only the AHCI version is compatible.

 

[Snakes202]

I believe that only the AHCI version is compatible.

Then how would something like this work: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Macbook-Ai...k+air+2013+ssd&_from=R40&rt=nc&LH_TitleDesc=0

A Toshiba NVME

 

[pastrychef]

Then how would something like this work: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Macbook-Air-Pro-2013-2014-Alternate-SSD-256GB-Replacement/253715086379?hash=item3b1298fc2b:g:1eMAAOSwCvhbM7aP&_sacat=0&_nkw=macbook+air+2013+ssd&_from=R40&rt=nc&LH_TitleDesc=0

A Toshiba NVME

I stand corrected. I just did some searching and it appears NVMe is working with the MacBook Airs. I don't know why you are having issues with the installation.

 

[Snakes202]

I stand corrected. I just did some searching and it appears NVMe is working with the MacBook Airs. I don't know why you are having issues with the installation.

Damn. Was really hoping you were on to something. The only thing left I can think of is that maybe the MacBook Air was never running High Sierra.
I have read that if the machine is not running High Sierra, an NVME will not work, not just that an nvme will only work for High Sierra. Does upgrading to High Sierra upgrade a laptops firmware?

 

[pastrychef]

Damn. Was really hoping you were on to something. The only thing left I can think of is that maybe the MacBook Air was never running High Sierra.
I have read that if the machine is not running High Sierra, an NVME will not work, not just that an nvme will only work for High Sierra. Does upgrading to High Sierra upgrade a laptops firmware?

High Sierra is needed for NVMe because prior to High Sierra, macOS only had support for NVMe drives with 4k block size. It wasn't until High Sierra that support for 512 byte blocks.

 

[Snakes202]

High Sierra is needed for NVMe because prior to High Sierra, macOS only had support for NVMe drives with 4k block size. It wasn't until High Sierra that support for 512 byte blocks.

I see. So can you speak at all on the matter of a 'firmware update', or the laptop needing to have upgraded to high Sierra prior to an nvme replacement?

 

[pastrychef]

I see. So can you speak at all on the matter of a 'firmware update', or the laptop needing to have upgraded to high Sierra prior to an nvme replacement?

I don't know if there were any firmware updates to the MacBook Air with the High Sierra installer.

If you believe that might be the issue, you can always use the installer to install macOS High Sierra to an external USB drive and boot from it to see if it does a firmware update.