I bought my MacBook Air 2015 13 ‘in about 16 years. At that time, I did not understand the specific needs and did not have much money. I bought 8G + 128G configuration. Xcode 12 needed to be updated a while ago, so I took care of everything I could move, delete, and Store for iCloud on my computer, so I had 30 gigabytes of space to update Xcode (although it only shows 4G on the App Store). Then take a closer look at the computer, my own documents + commonly used applications add up to less than 15G, Xcode + system files + wechat + system “other” files are about 70G, and then catch up with Big Sur update, Big Sur installation package is 12G. Then he wants 20 gigabytes of space to update…… That’s when I realized that once I installed Xcode, I didn’t want to update my system. So I did a lot of online research and found that it was possible to upgrade the MacBook with an SSD! Here I upgrade this record to give you a reference.

Mode of upgrading a hard disk

In fact, there are many ways to upgrade the capacity, according to different use scenarios have different choices, the simplest way is to connect an external hard disk or insert an SD card. If you need speed or need to install software, you can choose to replace the hard disk, which is what I chose. There are also three options for replacing the hard drive:

  1. Replace Apple’s official hard drive (don’t ask, it’s too expensive to ask, it’s better to replace the M1)

  2. Replace with a hard drive that is not official but directly compatible with Apple.

  3. Replace a common MARKET SSD + adapter card (cheap 🤡, cost-effective pull full)

My personal choice is the third. The mainstream SSD is a SSD that uses the NVME protocol and ports M.2. If you are an older MacBook, your PC only has SATA protocol, and TB also has this card, but I don’t know about that.

The older MacBook refers to the 2012 and previous Air and the first Retina Pro (15 “Late 2012 & 13” Early 2013)

Which macBooks are suitable

This refers to which macBooks are suitable for replacing NVME protocol, M.2 SSD.

  • The 2013 to 2017 MacBook Air
  • The late 2013 model to the 2015 MacBook Pro
  • The 2018 to 2019 iMac

The hard drives of these later macBooks are soldered to the motherboard and don’t work very well.

Selection card

Transfer cards are not particularly technical, I bought a 12 yuan one, in fact, they should be similar. I read a lot of posts and bought what many people have referred to as “Dior Technologies”.

I searched the experience posts for a whole week before I bought the transfer card. Finally, when I bought the transfer card, I found that my boss had written all the things I wanted to know and didn’t want to know in the AUTOMATIC answer of TB.

So everyone now shut down the page to TB search is not not not…

Select the SSD

I checked a lot of experience before the choice, strategy. I looked at the “Intel 760p,” “Samsung 970 EVO,” “Samsung 970 Pro,” and I ended up with the “West Digital SN550,” or West Digital Blue Disk.

When choosing an SSD, you should first consider the performance and requirements of your computer, and select the appropriate SSD according to the following instructions from the boss of Dior Technologies:

  • For small (11 “or 13”) and early (2013, 2014) devices, select SSD with low speed and low power consumption as far as possible.
  • For devices with large volume (15 “to 27”) and early year (2013, 2014), pay attention to check the link width of your own devices (see the following figure). If x2 is used, select a low-speed SSD without considering power consumption.
  • Small (11 “or 13”) devices that are new (after 2015) can choose SSDS with medium speed and power consumption.
  • High speed, high power SSDS are available for large (15 “to 27”) and newer (after 2015) devices.
  • Note that the larger the SSD capacity, the higher the power consumption.

I was going to get the “Samsung 970 EVO” because I don’t know which SSD consumes more power or anything… The boss recommended “HP EX900”, “HP EX950” and “WESTERN Digital SN550” to me, which are relatively low in speed and power consumption. Then I studied carefully, because the expansion and in fact, I just want to, also not high to the requirement of speed (I’ve been in this CPU), instead of requiring heat and power (I usually close the lid displays, on the desktop without ventilation side), gave up those mentioned previously, chose westen blue plate, and the price is much cheaper than those 🚲 also.

Plus, if your device’s connection speed is 8 GT/s (MacBook Pro 15 ‘ ‘Mid 2015), you’ll get the most out of the Intel 760p, Samsung 970 EVO, and Samsung 970 Pro SSDS. Basically can run 2500+ MB/s reading and writing performance.

Of course, other than what I’ve mentioned, most of the other SSDS are also fine, and may even be more cost-effective.

The following information I have collected cannot be guaranteed to be completely accurate for your reference:

The Intel 760p is the best overall (speed, power), and it’s pretty expensive under the circumstances.

Samsung series is still quite cheap this time?

Comparing life span (TBW) alone doesn’t make much sense, since it probably won’t be that long.

“Samsung 970 EVO Plus” depends on the year of production, and those before July 19 need to swipe the firmware.

“West number SN750” also is west number black disk, fever is more severe.

I switched to 512GB, but THE most I’ve seen is 2TB.

The SN550 I bought is 419 yuan from the official store of JINGdong West Digital. It was 459 the day before I bought it, and 429 for plus members. 🐶)

Attachment: Link width and speed can be seen in the system information:

About dormancy

Hibernation problem is simple to change the hard disk, the computer will crash after hibernation, can not open, forced to restart the computer.

The 2013-2014 macBooks don’t support native sleep, not necessarily right away, but they do. Everything after 2015 is fine.

There are two ways to solve this problem:

  1. Turn off the sleep of the system with the command, which will increase the power consumption, but not much else.

    • Note that hibernation is not the same as sleep, it is powered off.

    • For reference, run the sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0 standby 0 autopoweroff 0 command

  2. Upgrade BootRom, brush BIOS, TB There is a solution.

I have not operated this part in detail, because I am the machine of 2015 😁, and you still need to explore more details.

Specific steps

Many early warning

1. Back up data

I want to move the whole hard disk, so I bought a 60 yuan 160G mobile hard disk 😈 to do Time Machine backup. It will ask you if you want to back it up as Time Machine. If you choose yes, it will erase the hard drive, and you can back it up in log format. I backed up the 85GB for over an hour. The speed varies depending on the computer. Remember to use USB 3.0.

2. In the hard disk

Get ready. In the middle is a transfer card. Screwdriver to two (sell transfer card store to buy together, 3 dollars), one fifty and one sixty, one to open the back cover of the computer, one to open SSD. Then touch the wall with your hand to release static electricity ⚡️.

The next step is to open the back cover. You need to remove the 10 screws with a five-point screwdriver. The point is that the downforce is greater than the rotating force. Then a little push will remove the shell. It should be noted that the two orange screws on the top are different in size from other screws. Pay attention to the distinction.

From the 🍎 visitor sticker on the back of my cover, I can see that IT has been used for a long time. I feel that the text on it will fade completely after I change it this time.

This is what it looks like after taking it apart. The first thing we need to do is unplug! That’s important, or you could burn the motherboard. The power socket is the orange part in the picture, and it is inserted in the yellow part. We need to pull the plastic piece below to pull it out, and then insert it back after the hard disk is replaced.

The green part of the image above is the original hard drive. You can see that there is a screw on the right side. Use a hex screwdriver to unscrew and lift the SSD slightly to pull it out from the right side. Here’s what it looks like when it’s pulled out. Notice that my power cord is already out.

The next step is to insert the card (red part) into the slot (green part) and then insert the SSD into the card (red part). At this time, the SSD tail end should just be able to screw, that is, the length of the original SSD. At this time it is installed, you can plug in the power cord again, cover the back cover, you can do not screw first, otherwise in case there is any problem but to screw again.

3. Restore data from backup

The next step is to start up your computer. After pressing the power button, press CMD + opt + R to go to recovery, which will first connect you to Wi-Fi and then the little earth will rotate. This process takes about 10 minutes. A similar screen will be displayed to select disk Tool.

You may notice that my interface is different from other experience posts because I’m Big Sur…

We want to format the new SSD, find the new hard drive on the left, usually the name of the brand you bought, if you can’t find it, click the picture to show all the hard drives, if there is still no, you may not boot the button when the wrong. Select the new SSD, click Erase, and set the partition to APFS.

After formatting, insert our backup Time Machine mobile hard disk and select Restore from Time Machine.

In fact, it didn’t take that long, I recovered for about an hour or more.

🧐 aye? What’s wrong with that? I don’t think we have the step to make the system boot disk? Yes, with Time Machine you don’t need to install your own system at all, and then if you don’t have anything to back up, you can download a new system as a second option.

As I mentioned earlier, I couldn’t install Big Sur because my hard drive didn’t have enough capacity, so my backup was on the old system. I don’t know if it is because of this reason, when I restore to 12G or so, the computer suddenly reboot……. Frighten me 😇, then turned into the old system of the recovery mode, the back is everything goes well, normal restore my entire system, even opened the software I did not close.

4. Speed test

The following figure is the speed measurement before hard disk replacement:

The following figure is the speed measurement 1 day after the replacement of the hard disk (the speed measurement may not be accurate if the index is rebuilt immediately after the replacement of the hard disk) :

Yeah, and my READ speed slowed down.

In terms of temperature, the average is about 5 degrees higher than before, which is the case without heat dissipation silicone, I am still quite satisfied.

conclusion

After using it for the past two days, I feel the same as before. It is enough for my computer.

These are the things I bought this time to upgrade SSD:

  • “SN 550” SSD ¥419
  • Adapter x2 + screwdriver + radiator grease X2 ¥35
    • I bought two for fear of getting broken cards, but according to the boss, the rate of broken cards is very low
    • The thermal grease is temporarily unused
    • Screwdriver to buy adapter card have send, I am another spend 3 pieces to buy orange! Cool!
  • 160G removable hard disk ¥60

The total price is ¥514, which makes my old MacBook blossom. The cost performance is really high. I haven’t felt this simple happiness for a long time.

Then wait for Apple M2 chip to replace the computer! 🌈