Storage Compatibility for macOS

[EliteMacx86]

Storage Compatibility for macOS

Intel AHCI and RAID Controllers

Vendor	Chipset Series	VEN ID:EV ID	Support Kext
Intel	5 Series Chipset	8086:3b29 8086:3b22 8086:3b2f
Intel	5 Series/3400 Series Chipset SATA RAID Controller	8086,3b25 8086,3b2C
Intel	6 Series Chipset	8086:1c02 8086:1c03
Intel	6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SATA RAID Controller	8086:1c04 8086:1c05
Intel	7 Series Chipset	8086:1e02 8086,1e03
Intel	7 Series Chipset RAID	8086:1e04 8086:1e05 8086:1e06 8086:1e07
Intel	8 Series Chipset	8086:8c02 8086:8c03 8086:9c03
Intel	9 Series Chipset	8086:9c83 8086:8c83 8086:8c82
Intel	10 Series Chipset	8086:9d03 8086:a102 8086:a103
Intel	11 Series Chipset	8086:a352 8086:a353 8086:9dd3
Intel	12 Series Chipset	8086:a182
Intel	200 Series Chipset	8086:a282
Intel	Intel AHCI RAID	8086:282a 8086:2822

JMicron AHCI and RAID Controllers

Vendor	Controller	VEN ID: DEV ID	Support Kext
JMicron	JMB360 AHCI Controller	197B:2360
JMicron	JMB360 RAID	197B:2360
JMicron	JJMB361 AHCI/IDE	197B:2361
JMicron	JMB361 RAID	197B:2361
JMicron	JMB362 SATA Controller	197B:2362
JMicron	JMB362 RAID	197B:2362
JMicron	JMB363 SATA/IDE Controller	197B:2363
JMicron	JMB363 RAID	197B:2363
JMicron	JMB364 AHCI Controller	197B:2364
JMicron	JMB365 AHCI/IDE	197B:2365
JMicron	JMB366 AHCI/IDE	197B:2366
JMicron	JMB366 RAID/IDE	197B:2366
JMicron	JMB369 Serial ATA Controller	197B:2369
JMicron	JMB36x AHCI Controller	197B:2368

Marvell

Vendor	Controller	VEN ID: DEV ID	Support Kext
Marvell	88SE9120 SATA 6Gb/s Controller	1B4B:9120
Marvell	88SE9123 PCIe SATA 6.0 Gb/s controller	1B4B:9123
Marvell	88SE9125 PCIe SATA 6.0 Gb/s controller	1B4B:9125
Marvell	88SE9128 PCIe SATA 6 Gb/s RAID controller with HyperDuo	1B4B:9130
Marvell	88SE9172 SATA III 6Gb/s RAID Controller	1B4B:9192
Marvell	88SE9172 SATA 6Gb/s Controller	1B4B:9192
Marvell	88SE9172 PCIe SATA 6Gb/s Controller	1B4B:9192
Marvell	88SE9172 PCIe SATA 6Gb/s Controller	1B4B:9192

NVIDIA AHCI

Vendor	Controller	VEN ID: DEV ID	Support Kext
NVIDIA	MCP79 AHCI	10DE:0AB9
NVIDIA	MCP89 AHCI	10DE:0D88

HBA/RAID Cards

Vendor	Controller	VEN ID: DEV ID	Support Kext
LSI/AVAGO/Broadcom

eMMC and MMC Cards

LIMITATIONS eMMC Storage eMMC-based storage is commonly found in Netbooks, tablets, and low-end systems. Note that such technology is now supported by macOS. However, limitations still apply. See Enabling eMMC and MMC Cards for more information. SATA, M.2, NVMe, U.2 and SAS Normally, TRIM Normally, the TRIM function is supported for Apple and Non-Apple SSDs. However, few SSDs have TRIM broken under macOS, and as a result, the SSD dies under heavy load. These SSDs can be used with TRIM disabled, at slower boot times, or as Data Storage Drive(s). See Recommendations and SSDs to avoid section for more information. Samsung PM981, PM991, Micron 2200S, SK Hynix PC711, and Intel 600p NVMe SSDs SSDs with these controllers (NVMe) are not compatible with any macOS/OS X version and do not work out of the box. All these SSDs are known to cause Kernel Panics and performing a clean installation on these SSDs is not possible unless you use an SSDT. A clone method can be used to install macOS on these SSDs. In addition to the SSDT, you'll need to use NVMeFix.kext to fix the random Kernel Panics. Please note that these SSDs may still cause Kernel Panics even when using the required fix. Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe SSDs also had the same issue (mentioned above). However, with updated firmware, it works like a charm. Please make sure to update the firmware to the latest before proceeding with an installation. See Updating SSD Firmware for more information. Booting to the macOS installer may not be possible on some SSDs such as SK Hynix PC711. You'll need to disable such SSDs using an SSDT or nvme=-1 boot arg. See Disabling Unsupported SSDs on macOS and How to add Boot Args for more information. Intel 600p SSDs are prone to Kernel Panic and issues such as decreased R/W speed, freezing can be seen under macOS. Intel Optane and Micron 3D XPoint Intel Optane Technology uses Intel Rapid Storage Technology instead of AHCI and therefore it is not possible to use Intel Optane under macOS/OS X, regardless of the platform, either Desktop or Mobile. Laptops with Intel Optane and Micron 3D XPoint are completely unsupported in all macOS versions. There are few successes with it, but it is highly recommended to remove such drives to prevent any boot and stability issues. In Windows, do not install Intel Optane drivers (part of Intel Rapid Storage Technology). Installing these drivers can change the BIOS SATA Mode from AHCI to Intel Optane and therefore you may not be able to boot into macOS further. Intel Rapid Storage Technology and RAID Intel Rapid Storage Technology provides RAID support (SATA, NVMe, and U.2) with no requirement of any additional RAID Hardware, but rather utilizes the chipset feature. However, macOS requires AHCI mode and therefore Intel Rapid Storage Technology isn't supported under macOS/OS X. A solution is to either use a dedicated Hardware RAID (such as LSI, Areca, and High Point) or Software RAID within macOS/OS X. Software RAID under macOS/OS X can work for Data Drives but not for booting macOS (Bootable RAID). The software bootable RAID is only supported up to macOS Catalina and will not support macOS on Big Sur and newer. If you need to use RAID as a bootable macOS, consider installing a compatible dedicated Hardware RAID. See Installing macOS on Bootable RAID for more information. SATA and RAID Controllers Most of the SATA Controllers are supported out of the box. However, there are a few SATA Controllers which require an additional driver to work with. SATA Cards RAID and HBA Cards A few selected RAID and HBA Cards are supported with support kext. However, to use them as a boot drive, the Card BIOS and the Controller firmware must be using the same mode, either Legacy for Legacy computers and UEFI for UEFI computers. Most of the RAID Cards do not support booting macOS even when using the support kext either from the vendor or from the community.

Recommendations

---

Following are the tested SSDs list reported by several users in the community and are known to work well with any compatibility issues.

• SATA Drives:
  • SATA PLEXTOR M5Pro
  • KingDian S280
  • Kingchuxing 512GB
  • SATA Samsung 850 PRO (need more tests)
  • SATA Samsung 870 EVO (need more tests)
  • GIGABYTE 120GB/240GB
• M.2 Drives:
  
  • WD Green
  • WD Blue
• NVMe Drives:
  
  • Western Digital Blue SN550
  • Western Digital Black SN700
  • Western Digital Black SN720
  • Western Digital Black SN750 (aka SanDisk Extreme PRO)
  • Western Digital Black SN850
  • Intel 760p (including OEM models, e.g. SSDPEMKF512G8)
  • Crucial P1 1TB NVME (SM2263EN) (need more tests)
  • Intel 660P

SSDs to Avoid

---

The following SSDs should be avoided at all costs due to the broken TRIM function under macOS.

• Working with TRIM broken:
  
  • Samsung 950 Pro
  • Samsung 960 Evo/Pro
  • Samsung 970 Evo/Pro
• Incompatible with IONVMeFamily (die under heavy load):
  
  • Samsung PM981
  • Samsung PM991
  • Micron 2200S
  • Intel 600P
  • GIGABYTE 512 GB M.2 PCIe SSD (e.g. GP-GSM2NE8512GNTD) (need more tests)
  • ADATA Swordfish 2 TB M.2-2280
  • SK Hynix HFS001TD9TNG-L5B0B
  • SK Hynix P31
  • Samsung PM981 models
  • Micron 2200V MTFDHBA512TCK
  • Asgard AN3+ (STAR1000P)
  • Netac NVME SSD 480
  • Sabrent Rocket 4

 

[kaoz]

Hi there, i tried to search everywhere to find out if i could have some trouble using this SSD 990 pro for my hackintosh, but couldn't find anything about this specific samsung ssd...

My Hackintosh specs:

ASUS Tuf Gaming Z690-Plus Wifi
I7-12700KF
RX 4070 (first gpu)
RX 580 (second gpu)
32 GB ram

2 NVME Samsung 990 Pro 1TB
(1st win11 - 2nd Ventura macos)

i did read on dortania and many other places to not use samsung nvme (due the trim etc)

To me all is working really good on macos, i mean the boot is slow (compared to win11) but not so long as i read in other forums... would be like 40sec or 1min..

i did the tests with AmorphousDiskMark and i will attach the result.

there's something i should test to understand if my ssd works well?

thank you very much.

 

[EliteMacx86]

Hi there, i tried to search everywhere to find out if i could have some trouble using this SSD 990 pro for my hackintosh, but couldn't find anything about this specific samsung ssd...

My Hackintosh specs:

ASUS Tuf Gaming Z690-Plus Wifi
I7-12700KF
RX 4070 (first gpu)
RX 580 (second gpu)
32 GB ram

2 NVME Samsung 990 Pro 1TB
(1st win11 - 2nd Ventura macos)

i did read on dortania and many other places to not use samsung nvme (due the trim etc)

To me all is working really good on macos, i mean the boot is slow (compared to win11) but not so long as i read in other forums... would be like 40sec or 1min..

i did the tests with AmorphousDiskMark and i will attach the result.

there's something i should test to understand if my ssd works well?

thank you very much.

Post the output of

log show --last boot | grep "trims took"

 

[kaoz]

Post the output of

log show --last boot | grep "trims took"

2023-11-08 16:32:41.517563+0100 0x25b Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (apfs) spaceman_scan_free_blocks:3356: disk2 scan took 46.088031 s, trims took 45.914240 s

 

[EliteMacx86]

2023-11-08 16:32:41.517563+0100 0x25b Default 0x0 0 0 kernel: (apfs) spaceman_scan_free_blocks:3356: disk2 scan took 46.088031 s, trims took 45.914240 s

By default, the timeout is 9.999999 seconds on Mac and it strops the TRIM operation when not finished in that time. From the above log, we can see that it took like 46.9 seconds which means timeout already happened and TRIM was not performed. When you use an SSD without TRIM, the SSD will result in additional wear on the flash and it will eventually die/fail in no time. Of course, this depends on how much is the workload on the SSD on a daily basis and depending on that, the lifespan would be really low.

It's best to use a drive like WD SN850/SN850X.

Hope it helps!

 

[kaoz]

By default, the timeout is 9.999999 seconds on Mac and it strops the TRIM operation when not finished in that time. From the above log, we can see that it took like 46.9 seconds which means timeout already happened and TRIM was not performed. When you use an SSD without TRIM, the SSD will result in additional wear on the flash and it will eventually die/fail in no time. Of course, this depends on how much is the workload on the SSD on a daily basis and depending on that, the lifespan would be really low.

It's best to use a drive like WD SN850/SN850X.

Hope it helps!

ok thank you very much, another thing .. i'm using a NVMeFix.kext (as suggested in other forum) i should redo the log in terminal disabling this kext?

 

[kaoz]

anyway ok i understood, i will replace with an WD SN850X
thanks again!

 

[EliteMacx86]

ok thank you very much, another thing .. i'm using a NVMeFix.kext (as suggested in other forum) i should redo the log in terminal disabling this kext?

Yes, if you can.

 

[EliteMacx86]

anyway ok i understood, i will replace with an WD SN850X
thanks again!

Sounds good. A heatsink is mandatory.

 

[kaoz]

Sounds good. A heatsink is mandatory.

yes my motherboard has already the slot with heatsink on
ty again