New Lexar NM620 M.2 2280 PCIe SSD Not Detected on MacBook Pro

General
1

I plan to replace the hard drive on my MacBook Pro A1398 with a new Lexar NM620 M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3x4 NVMe 512GB SSD disk. So I went to install macOS on the SSD, but unfortunately, Disk Utility doesn’t see it.

I then switched it back with the original SSD and connected it to the Mac externally. It worked fine, and I reformatted the SSD. I tried again to install macOS on the new SSD; however, it still doesn’t work.

2

Not all SSDs will work with a Mac. I believe you should use an SSD adapter for the third-party M.2 NVMe-based SSD.

3

You should also make sure you format the whole physical disk rather than the partition to ensure the scheme is GUID Partition Map, which is key for the SSD to be bootable. Here’s how to properly format the new SSD for macOS installation:

  1. Open Disk Utility.
  2. Click View > Show All Devices.
  3. Select the top level of your internal hard drive, usually named with the brand and some letters.
  4. Click Erase.
  5. Name the drive Macintosh HD.
  6. Choose APFS as the format.
  7. Select GUID Partition Map as the scheme.
  8. Click Erase.