Installing Your New SSD in Your MacBook Pro

You will need the following:

• 1x Feather SSD
• 1x T5 Hexalobe Screwdriver
• 1x P5 Pentalobe Screwdriver

Follow these steps:

1. Using the P5 screwdriver, remove all of the screws off the back of the MacBook.
1. The two screws next to the black hinge are either longer/shorter than the rest, depending on your MacBook Pro model. 
2. Store these separately from the others.
2. Remove the back panel of the Mac, starting near the hinge.
3. Remove the black plastic holder located where the trackpad is. 
1. Pinch and lift the holder to remove.
4. Use the T5 screwdriver to remove the SSD mounting screw and old SSD.
5. Insert the P12 and return the mounting screw.
1. Be sure the mounting screw goes in vertically, an angled installation suggests the P12 has not been fully inserted.
6. Follow steps 1 through 5 in reverse.

Doesn’t Fit

If you find your new Feather SSD does not fit inside your Mac, please check here and match your machine’s EMC number to the appropriate model. If you have purchased the wrong drive or there has been an error in fulfillment, please reach out to us at contact@fledging.net to begin the process of swapping for the correct drive.

Transferring Your Data

• 1x External Hard Drive
• 1x Personal old SSD
• 1x Feather SSD

Follow these steps:

1. Make sure your old drive is in your machine.
2. Plug in your external hard drive.
3. Open Time Machine by going to your Applications folder.
1. Or use Spotlight (COMMAND + SPACE) to find the Time Machine application.
4.  Choose "Back Up Now".
1. This may take a few minutes.
5. Remove your old drive and replace is with your Feather SSD.
1. Refer to our guide on installation if you are unsure how to do this.
6. Power on the Mac, holding OPTION until chimes are heard.
7. Select "Restore from Time Machine Backup" and follow the on-screen steps.
1.  Or use Migration Assistant located in Applications if you are restoring after already setting up your new computer.

Drive Was Working, Now It’s Not

If your drive was working normally and stopped functioning, there are a number of potential reasons. The bulk of these reasons are solved with a clean install of your OS onto the SSD, followed by a SMC and NVRAM/PRAM reset.

Clean Install

1. Create a USB installer for your preferred OS using any of the following links:

• High Sierra
• Mojave

1. The tool used to make the USB installer includes a patcher tool as well. You can run this or not, it is entirely optional.

SMC and NVRAM/PRAM Resets

Your machine’s SMC (System Management Controller) stores settings in relation to power management, temperature monitoring, fan control, status lights, keyboard backlights, and a few other miscellaneous components. If your SMC is experiencing problems you might notice things like excessive fan noise, slow performance, slow battery charging, sleep/wake problems, and random shutdowns.

Fortunately, resetting SMC is incredibly simple:

• Desktop Macs

1. Disconnect the power cord
1. Either from the Mac or from the AC outlet. 
2. Wait 15 seconds.
3. Plug it back in. 
4. Then wait another 5 seconds.
5. Turn your machine back on.

• Portable Macs with non-removable batteries

1. Shut down and unplug your Mac.
2. On the built-in keyboard, press and hold the SHIFT + OPTION + CONTROL + POWER buttons for 10 seconds.
3. Connect the power adapter.
4. Turn the Mac on normally.

• Portable Macs with removable batteries

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Disconnect the power cord and remove the battery.
3. Press and hold the POWER button for 5 seconds.
4. Put the battery back in.
5. Reconnect the power cord.
6. Turn the Mac on normally. 

PRAM (Parameter Random Access Memory) refers to a small amount of special, battery-backed memory in every Mac that stored information the computer needed before it loaded the operating system. Modern Macs no longer use PRAM; they instead use something called NVRAM (Non-Volatile Random Access Memory). NVRAM serves approximately the same purpose as PRAM, but now contains only a few functions: your selected startup disk, speaker volume, screen resolution, time zone, and—if your Mac has crashed recently—details of the last kernel panic.

If your Mac seems to take forever to figure out which disk to boot from, if it starts up with a different screen resolution, has weird audio problems (no sound, grayed out volume control menu), or has experienced a kernel panic; resetting the NVRAM is recommended.

1. Shut down your Mac.
2. Press POWER, then hold COMMAND + OPTION + P + R for 20 seconds.
3. Let go and allow your Mac to continue starting normally. 
1. If you have an older Mac that chimes at boot, hold down the keys until you hear a second startup chime. 
4. Check the Startup Disk, Display, and Date & Time panes in your System Preferences to make sure they’re set the way you want them. 

If you hold down COMMAND + OPTION + P + R and see nothing but a gray screen that doesn’t change for several minutes, don’t panic. Disconnect all USB devices (except your keyboard)*, hold the power button down until the Mac shuts off completely, and then press it again and immediately hold down COMMAND + OPTION + P + R.

*If that doesn’t work and you’re using an external Bluetooth keyboard, try using a USB keyboard instead.

That Didn’t Work

If you are still having trouble, this is probably a case where your machine has become convinced the drive is ‘unmounted’.

1. Go to Disk Utility while booted from your USB installer.
2. Select the Fledging Feather.
3. Hit Erase in the top-middle of the Disk Utility window.***
4. Reformat the drive.
1. If you’re using High Sierra, use MacOS Extended (Journaled) with GUID Partition Map.
2. If you’re using Mojave+, use APFS with GUID Partition Map.

***If the drive won’t erase and reformat, try adding a partition to the drive. Then erase and format the drive as described above. Sometimes a machine just needs to be ‘reminded’ that it can make changes to the drive. 

Drive is Hot

Feather models are designed to be faster and better than OEM SSDs, and do run slightly hotter. But while a slight increase in temperature is not uncommon, your Mac should never run hot enough to hurt. If your Mac is running very hot during regular or light use, please do the following:

1. Open Activity Monitor by first going to your Applications folder, then the Utilities folder.
1. Or use Spotlight (COMMAND + SPACE) to find the Activity Monitor application.
2. Click the Disk tab
3. Take a screenshot of the window.
1. Press COMMAND + SHIFT + 4
2. Then click and drag the box over the Activity Monitor window.
4. Email the screenshot to contact@fledging.net and include:
   1. Capacity, model, purchase date, etc.
   1. A#### EMC ####, printed on the underside of most Macs.
   1. When did the issue present, how long, what applications cause it, etc.
1. Details about the drive
2. Your Mac’s model and EMC number.
3. Details about the issue.