How to format a third party SSD to be compatible with High Sierra?

You don't really need to do any of that stuff. I have a SATA SSD and don't have TRIM enabled running High Sierra.

You can format in Mac OS Extended and install High Sierra. At some point (might be the next update) there will be an auto conversion to APFS. However, if you're going to do it, might as well just format in APFS to being with.

If you're going to do this with a fresh install of High Sierra, you should be able to do that with Internet Recovery. You wouldn't need to load any earlier version of the OS. With your machine it would require that the firmware be updated, but that is typically done automatically when there are OS updates (since Lion).

About macOS Recovery - Apple Support

You would need an internet connection that doesn't require a "splash screen" - such as some types of public WiFi or at a hotel room. WiFi with just a WEP/WPA password should be fine. Hold option-command-R at power on for the version that makes the latest version of MacOS/OS X available. There's another way to load that (shift-option-command-R) that will make available the earliest version of OS X available for your machine. I've tried that once, and it had an earlier version of Disk Utility that didn't recognize APFS. But without the shift it was a more recent version of Disk Utility that could recognize and format APFS.

How can I re-format the SSD & enable TRIM, on a machine that only has the OS Lion version of Disk Utility (no support for APFS)?

If you have been upgrading your notebook from OS X Lion to El Capitan, are you sure that it still has the Lion version of the Disk Utility? That version was 12.1.1; whereas, El Capitan comes with 15.0. Also, APFS is not available prior to macOS High Sierra, so you would still have to format this SSD in HFS+.

As far as TRIM, see if the following articles can be helpful:

• How to Enable TRIM on Third-Party SSDs in Mac OS X with trimforce - OSXDaily
• How to Enable TRIM for Third-Party SSDs on Mac OS X - How-To Geek

I should have noted that I'm using the Disk Utility in Recovery Mode...it's stuck in the older version(12.*.*) with no APFS option, and once Recovery begins, it will only download Lion, not any of the more recent OS.

Ah, I understand now. Thanks for providing the additional information. It sounds like the Recovery partition on your Mac is still the one that was created when Lion was installed. Interesting in it didn't update as you upgraded to El Capitan. OR that this partition was missing and your notebook went in to Internet Recovery mode which would attempt to download an earlier version.

It seems to be a Chicken-or-the-Egg problem: I need APFS to install High Sierra, but I can't format the SSD with APFS from the older MacBookPro Recovery mode, without High Sierra installed...

Ok, not sure where you got it that it the system drive must be formatted in APFS in order to install High Sierra, but that is not correct. For example, my Mac mini is running HS and is formatted in HFS+. You can always reformat an HFS+ drive for APFS after HS is installed.

Regardless, y_p_w is doing a great job providing you with a path to getting this resolved. I will let them take over so that you don't get any conflicting information or having to respond to two different solution options. I will go into background mode and pipe in if you need any additional help.

Shirley_LeGitte wrote:

Once it's updated to High Sierra, isn't the conversion of HFS+ to APFS automatic?

That's the way it's supposed to work, but it seems that third party SSDs aren't officially supported, because they may not be completely compatible.

I heard there are some ways to force it to not perform the auto-conversion, but that requires some Terminal commands.

I've got a mid-2012 Unibody MBP and have had no issues with a SanDisk Ultra 3D 512 GB SSD. However, when I did it I already had High Sierra and I was able to format it directly in APFS using Disk Utility in Internet Recovery.

It's not supposed to have those issues you have. About the only thing I can think of is the SSD connector ribbon (i.e. cable). For whatever reason, many people report that these seem to get worn with age/use from mechanical wear/vibrations and affect SSDs more than they do hard drives. Some report that it doesn't work at all with SSDs while others report intermittent problems until the "cable" is replaced. It's pretty much a sheet of mylar with metal traces connecting the logic board to the drive. Replacement is pretty cheap. Is yours a 13"? You didn't say, but this is the 13" part:

Apple 922-9771 Hard Drive / SSD Cable For 13-inch... at MacSales.com

https://beetstech.com/product/hard-drive-cable-922-9771

I would install an older version of macOS like the one that came with your machine preferably through Internet Recovery formatting the drive as HFS+ and then upgrade to High Sierra through the Mac App Store which will convert the drive to APFS. While this is redundant at least you can be reassured that nothing can really go wrong.

Edit: Sorry, Internet Recovery is not useful in your scenario since the new SSD doesn't have any recovery data. You will need a USB stick with a full install of MacOS. You can download the full macOS Sierra 10.12.6 dmg from the Mac App Store here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-sierra/id1127487414?ls=1&mt=12. If you don't have access to a working Mac, then I'm sure you can find a torrent somewhere. Just make sure to check the hash!

Tesserax wrote:

Ok, not sure where you got it that it the system drive must be formatted in APFS in order to install High Sierra, but that is not correct. For example, my Mac mini is running HS and is formatted in HFS+. You can always reformat an HFS+ drive for APFS after HS is installed.

Once it's updated to High Sierra, isn't the conversion of HFS+ to APFS automatic?

Most MacBook Pro after about 2011 have Internet Recovery in their ROM, independent of the Recovery Partition on their boot drive.

For this particular 2011 model, whether it has Internet Recovery in it boot ROM may depend whether its boot firmware has been updated.

lec0rsaire wrote:

Edit: Sorry, Internet Recovery is not useful in your scenario since the new SSD doesn't have any recovery data. You will need a USB stick with a full install of MacOS. You can download the full macOS Sierra 10.12.6 dmg from the Mac App Store here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/macos-sierra/id1127487414?ls=1&mt=12. If you don't have access to a working Mac, then I'm sure you can find a torrent somewhere. Just make sure to check the hash!

Internet Recovery is supposed to work with an unformatted internal drive. It's "Recovery HD" that requires a working recovery partition. That can even be on a bootable clone, where it can be accessed by holding down option at power on and selecting that partition.

Shirley_LeGitte wrote:

Ah...I will try the Option-Command-R next time!

When I was doing Command-R, I was getting the OS Lion installer & Disk Utility, the one that came with the machine.

I seem to recall the latest working version of the OS I had managed to install was 10.11.6, so Shift-Option-Command-R wouldn't apply.

I have read several obsolete or incomplete tutorials on other websites that overlook some of these finer points.

Thank you.

Just some clarification? Are you doing this with the SSD completely replacing the original hard drive in the computer? If that's the case, then regular recovery (command-R) probably won't work. It's in a hidden partition on the drive. I recall that older versions maintained the version of the operating that originally was installed, but the current versions in High Sierra rebuild the recovery partition as the same version as the last one. However, if it's missing it may default to trying to load the recovery menu from the internet (Internet Recovery).

Firmware updates happen automatically with OS updates, although there are different versions of the firmware with different Internet Recovery capabilities. If it's been updated to El Capitan in the past, the firmware on the machine should have been updated such that Internet Recovery should work. However, the support article from Apple mentions that Internet Recovery will have two versions available with High Sierra 10.12.4 or later. You might just try that and see what happens. My machine has already been updated to High Sierra, so I can't really test what that does. I have tried both option-command-R and shift-option-command-R and can verify that it's a different version of Disk Utility and a different operating system. The newer one calls it MacOS, while the older version calls it OS X.

I'm not quite sure what it means by "associated with your Apple ID".

Thanks for clearing up the difference. I'm still new to Macs. My 2016 15" is actually the first Mac I've owned. I've used Internet Recovery a few times since I had to take 2 MBPs back when I bought it. The first because the base config just wasn't good enough for me and the second because it came with a large, round circular scratch in the chassis right out of the box.

The basic idea of Internet Recovery is that everything is self-contained as long as there's adequate access to the internet. I mean - it's possible to pull out the drive and run Internet Recovery. If someone drive is completely toasted, it's supposed to be the magic bullet that takes care of everything - even if the recovery discs are lost.