Install Mac OS X 10.12 or older on a non-prorietary SSD

Dear Apple Community,

Happy new year!

I have a MBP 15 (2015) running an internal Samsung Evo 980 Pro 1TB. Bought it off of amazon (link below).

https://www.amazon.se/dp/B08GS7748F?ref_=pe_24982401_513610551_E_301_dt_1&th=1

Thing is i want to install Mac OS X El Capitan alt. Sierra but the advertise said that it is only capable of installing Mac OS High Sierra or later.

I still havent tried to wipe off my whole disk yet though i backed everything up and after booting via USB where I already clean installed el capitan in it I can't choose the internal drive (the 980 pro SSD) to install el capitan on.

I did though try it in my other macbook air where i swapped SSD's and it worked after erasing the internal drive but thats Apples original.

So once again, is there any trick to fool mac os so i can be able to install el capitan on a non-proprietary ssd inside my macbook pro 2015 retina?

Hälsningar

Felix

MacBook Pro 15″

Posted on Dec 31, 2023 4:58 PM

Top-ranking reply

HWTech

Community+ 2026

Level 9

74,430 points

Posted on Dec 31, 2023 6:52 PM

If you are using a third party NVMe SSD, then you can only install macOS 10.13+ onto the internal third party SSD since older versions of macOS don't have the required NVMe driver to communicate with the third party SSD.

You could install an older version of macOS onto an external USB3 SSD and boot the older OS from the external SSD, but you still will not be able to see the physical internal third party NVMe SSD because the older OS does not have the necessary NVMe drivers.

If you want or need to run older versions of macOS on the internal SSD, then you will need to reinstall the original Apple OEM SSD. If your original Apple OEM SSD failed or is no longer available, then you need to be very careful buying a used Apple OEM SSD since many of them will not work in this laptop even if they have the same connector. Sometimes macOS won't even boot the Mac if the wrong Apple OEM SSD is installed internally.

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Install Mac OS X 10.12 or older on a non-prorietary SSD

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