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Pram Author

Level 3

612 points

will a samsung 850 pro ssd work with yosemite?

Christopher Breen has an article today in Macworld explaining that most SSDs will not work with Yosemite. To paraphrase Mr. Breen, Apple's TRIM technology doesn't work with third party SSDs, and, while you could use Trim Enabler to make TRIM work with your drive in Mavericks, Trim Enabler modifies kext files and Yosemite will not run with modified kext files. The only workaround is to globally disable kext signing, which is not recommended for security reasons. Has anyone had any experience with this issue? I just purchased a third party SSD for my MBP. Thank you for any input.

Cheers, Peter

Posted on Nov 19, 2014 12:47 PM

Best reply

Network 23

Level 6

12,333 points

Posted on Nov 19, 2014 5:45 PM

Pram wrote:

Christopher Breen has an article today in Macworld explaining that most SSDs will not work with Yosemite.

That's not what it says. SSDs will work with Yosemite, the only thing that won't work is enabling third-party TRIM support. The SSD will boot and the SSD will work and it will be fast; having TRIM enabled is not even remotely a requirement. TRIM is just a housekeeping routine that is generally thought to be desired, but there's even debate on that.

The part of the Macworld article about not booting should only happen if you 1) enabled TRIM, 2) disabled kext signing, and 3) reset NVRAM, which re-enables kext signing and therefore blocks access to the hard drive you need to boot from. But if you didn't do 1-3 your Mac will boot into Yosemite just fine.

Some SSD brands do not require TRIM and some like OWC don't even recommend it because their SSDs have their own similar routines. I have a Samsung 840 and it works fine in Yosemite but I have not attempted to enable TRIM. I am not sure what the long term impact of that is, and I'm going to post a separate question regarding whether Disk Utility performs a trim when you Repair Disk because I read that somewhere.

In the end, the questions are: Does my SSD need TRIM, and if it does, how bad is it to run it in Yosemite without TRIM enabled? I am trying to find out the answer to the second question to know if not enabling TRIM is going to cause any more than minor problems down the road.

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75 replies

Aug 7, 2015 10:59 AM in response to 2raj

yes it will be off by default

read this http://lifehacker.com/enable-trim-for-third-party-ssds-in-os-x-with-a-termina-17 14978260

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Aug 7, 2015 11:01 AM in response to Sonia McConnell

Sonia McConnell wrote:

you should definitely run trim ! use the "sudo trimforce enable" command

in terminal.

What exactly does TRIM do?

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Aug 7, 2015 11:04 AM in response to 2raj

You have other issues to deal with, finding out why your ram usage is so high and what processes are causing your Mac to be sluggish should be done before changing hardware.

Start by downloading a copy of Etrecheck and running a report, post the report here.

Also how old is your Mac, and which model.

Aug 7, 2015 11:06 AM in response to Csound1

http://solid-state-drive-review.toptenreviews.com/what-is-trim-support.html

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Aug 7, 2015 11:10 AM in response to Sonia McConnell

Sonia McConnell wrote:

http://solid-state-drive-review.toptenreviews.com/what-is-trim-support.html

I was wondering if you knew what it does, but thanks anyway.

Network 23

Level 6

12,333 points

Aug 7, 2015 11:13 AM in response to Csound1

Csound1 wrote:

Pram wrote:

Christopher Breen has an article today in Macworld explaining that most SSDs will not work with Yosemite. To paraphrase Mr. Breen, Apple's TRIM technology doesn't work with third party SSDs, and, while you could use Trim Enabler to make TRIM work with your drive in Mavericks, Trim Enabler modifies kext files and Yosemite will not run with modified kext files. The only workaround is to globally disable kext signing, which is not recommended for security reasons. Has anyone had any experience with this issue? I just purchased a third party SSD for my MBP. Thank you for any input.

Cheers, Peter

You're out of date, only 10.10.1, 2 and 3 were affected by the kext signing issue. Current software (10.10.4) is not, future versions will also not be affected.

Try to post current info rather than old. (or come back and update the info)

Chris Breem is a nonce (look it up) he sells column inches, that's all.

Can you explain your post further? You said Pram is out of date, but his post was current at the time it was posted (November 2014). It was your reply that was nine months late.

Also, I looked up "nonce" and Apple dictionary says "adjective (of a word or expression), coined for or used on one occasion: a nonce usage." That doesn't make any sense. Were you a victim of AutoCorrect? Christopher Breen has been a knowledgable Mac user from the early days of the platform.

The whole post is strange.

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Aug 7, 2015 11:24 AM in response to Network 23

We have differing opinions on Mr Breem, Prams info is out of date (hence come back and update it) if you are going to leave time sensitive info checking whether it still is valid is useful to others.

Nonce: fit for a one time purpose, (selling column inches)

Network 23

Level 6

12,333 points

Aug 7, 2015 11:37 AM in response to Csound1

Csound1 wrote:

We have differing opinions on Mr Breem, Prams info is out of date (hence come back and update it) if you are going to leave time sensitive info checking whether it still is valid is useful to others.

Nonce: fit for a one time purpose, (selling column inches)

Can you point out any aspects of the article that make it a pure sales vehicle? I do not see any technical problems with his article. Breen is not the one that said third-party SSDs won't work, that was the erroneous poster's misinterpretation which I corrected.

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Aug 7, 2015 11:54 AM in response to Network 23

The problem with that article is that it is a widely misread (or poorly written) piece, the OP's take on it is repeated in many other blogs/articles. It is misleading (I doubt intentionally) it is the work of a jobbing journalist intended to catch readers and justify the paycheck it earns. This thread is full of misunderstood measurements and offhand gossip, at least partially prompted by Mr Breems article.

2raj

Level 1

47 points

Aug 7, 2015 2:27 PM in response to Csound1

@Csound1

The Blackmagic test shows about 107/135 (write/read).

I have a late 2009 Mac Mini with 8 GB RAM and 512 GB Samsung 850 SSD in the main bay, and 750 GB Seagate Hybrid Drive in the optical bay via adapter.

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Aug 7, 2015 2:39 PM in response to 2raj

Those speeds are about right for a 1.5Gb/s connection, an 09 should be 3.0Gb/s however. Can you disconnect the hybrid?

And run the Etrecheck report.

2raj

Level 1

47 points

Aug 7, 2015 2:40 PM in response to Sonia McConnell

Yes, I've already been using Memory Cleaner to optimize the memory and run it often.

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Aug 7, 2015 2:45 PM in response to 2raj

Do NOT install Memory Cleaner, it is just one more useless 3rd party app that at best will do nothing useful but usually slows OS X down while it refills the caches the Memory Cleaner keeps emptying.

If you want my help run the report I asked for, otherwise it's over to Sonia.