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The March 2015 update of Apple's 13" MacBook Pro Retina Display, model A1502, features fifth-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and introduces the Force Touch trackpad.

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MacBook bricking my SSDs.

Hello everyone. I am about to lose my mind! Can any of you lovely, helpful people that are much more patient and smarter that I am help me out? About a year or so ago… I accidentally dropped a glass cup from about waist height onto my MacBook’s display. The display broke and shortly after, I was getting the white folder with a grey question mark (black background). I procrastinated on fixing it and here we are now.

Just last week, I replaced the screen assembly. I then went into Disk Utilities from Recovery Mode and my OEM drive wasn’t showing up. Assuming the drive was dead… I went into Recovery Mode with a Kingston Sata SSD plugged up via USB with my handy adapter. From Recovery Mode, I formatted the Kingston and installed El Capitan (that’s what was offered in Recovery Mode). I then upgraded to Sierra via the App Store link offered on Step #4 on this Apple webpage: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208202 (because Sierra wasn’t being offered to me in the App Store under the “Updates” section. So I tried to do the same thing for High Sierra but I got a message saying that the “computer has a missing firmware partition.” All of this was done in the efforts of upgrading to macOS High Sierra (or Mojave, ideally), so that my Intel NVMe with an adapter could be recognized… all so that I could install Mojave on it and so that I could finally enjoy my Macintosh again.

So… what I went and did was purchase an MZ-JPV1280/0A4 SSD (the same exact drive as my OEM drive that I got with my MacBook) on eBay. I did this so that I could upgrade to Mojave so that my Intel could be recognized. I received it today, popped it in, went into recovery mode, and I selected “Install Mojave.” I was part way through the install process (33% on the loading bar) when I got an error. I went into disk utilities and the drive is no longer there! Exiting disk utilities and going back to the main Recovery Mode section, El Capitan is being offered and not Mojave. Regardless, is my MacBook bricking these SSDs? This is crazy weird.

Can anyone guide me in the correct direction? I am eager to start getting the most that I can out of this machine. Using the MacBook with Sierra installed on the external Kingston doesn’t allow me to using the MacBook to its fullest potential. Thank you to anyone and everyone that takes a look at this post!

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Edit: When I said that the display broke, I meant to say that a small section of the screen of broke.

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You are facing a few different issues! Your replacement Apple custom SSD is likely bad! You also had an issue within your systems firmware as you are jumping between a drive which was setup with APFS while your system doesn’t know how to deal with it yet as you haven’t upgraded the systems firmware so your system doesn’t know how to deal with it (its still expecting HFS+ volume). Then to add to this you’ve used cloning software! So your onboard recovery partition is missing!

You also talk about using an Intel SSD. I’m assuming a M.2 SSD with an adapter. I really don’t recommend using these. I’ve got a drawer full (I think close to 80 now). What the seller of these magical adapters don’t tell you it Apples SSD are not quite the same as the M.2 drives! To add to this the construction of these adapters have quality issues and the overtime the SSD will wear out from CRC errors and wear leveling.

The best thing I can tell you is to fix your original Apple Custom SSD and install the proper macOS version. Return both of the SSD’s & adapter and get your money back!

Review this great guide The Ultimate Guide to Apple’s Proprietary SSDs

As you didn’t tell us the SSD size you are looking for look at the BeetsTech store front to find the one you want. I have no finical interests in either BeetsTech or iFixit here. I’ve found both are dependable merchants.

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Thank you very much! The SSD Guide was especially helpful, and your reference to BeetsTech was just what I was looking for! I'm still eligible for a return for the two SSD's and the adapter so I'll file for a return on these items soon. Thank you.

You mentioned that I should fix my Original Apple SSD? Is it even salvageable? Or what did you mean by fixing? And I woudn't mind purchasing a 128GB from BeetsTech to just get my MacBook up and running if it will provide me a plug and play experience (unlike the adapter solution). Upon receiving it, I would just have to format it, install the OS that I am prompted with in Recovery Mode (probably El Capitan in my case), and upgrade to Mojave from the App Store right?

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Also, I might just be completely paranoid... but my MacBook didn't just fry the Apple SSD that I got on eBay, right? Call me crazy, but I feel that it's completely plausible. The SSD was extremely hot after shut down from just being in Recovery Mode. Tying all of this to my SSD being hot is probably me just being paranoid, but what's justifiably messing with me is that it originally recognized the eBay drive for a while... but then it just no longer recognized it. Hopefully it's just the APFS format type doing this, like you mentioned.

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To fix your SSD you'll need to install the SSD into a OWC Envoy Pro Portable, Bus-Powered USB 3.0 Enclosure which is designed to hold the custom Apple SSD. Then using a second system to reformat the drive and install the OS.

Here is when it can be tricky! As you want to install Sierra 10.12.6 or older as you want to stick with HFS+.

You may need to also inspect the SSD socket for a bent pin. I've seen two systems with damaged slots.

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@danj I see, thank you! I’ll purchase the enclosure and use my buddy’s MacBook as the second system. My end goal is to have Mojave running on my MacBook, but you mentioned that I want to format as HFS+ and install 10.12.6 or older onto the SSD? This is because my computer is still expecting HFS+, just like you said in your first response, correct? Ok. I think I am learning here, haha. Then I would just upgrade straight to Mojave from the App Store?

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@danj And as far as the SSD socket goes, everything looks to be perfect. I shall proceed with your advice! Thank you so much for taking the time to go over my post. It means a lot to me. I was about to give in, return the display, and resort to purchasing the same machine that I am trying to fix, but used on eBay. After all, I was telling myself that the screen assembly that I purchased for this laptop would cover a large amount of the cost of buying an entire used machine… but in reality, salvaging my own MacBook is a much better play given that I know that I have treated this machine with care and that it is cosmetically perfect. Plus learning a thing or two and doing it myself will prove to be more rewarding… and thanks to you’re post, you’ve allowed me to continue the pursuit of finally re-adopting this machine into my everyday life! Thank you very, very much!

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Jonathan Garcia will be eternally grateful.
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