Primary storage replacement that is compatible with Win 10/Boot Camp

Question

MacBook Pro 13" Retina Display Early 2015

The March 2015 update of Apple's 13" MacBook Pro Retina Display, model A1502, features fifth-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and introduces the Force Touch trackpad.

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Dada @dada78641

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crwdns2931729:0crwdne2931729:0: masiku 6 agoMha 30, 2025

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Primary storage replacement that is compatible with Win 10/Boot Camp

A long time ago my Macbook Pro 13" Early 2015 had its SSD break. At the time I replaced it with an OWC Aura Pro X2. What I didn't know at the time is that the OWC is not compatible with Windows, somehow. When you install Windows it just starts crashing.

Anyway, I'll omit all the details, and get to the point: I would really like to use this machine for some Windows tasks, and I'm wondering, is there any other primary storage I can use?

I know there's M.2 converters that allow you to use any SSD. Anyone use these and was able to use Windows?

Booting OpenCore Legacy Patcher also causes the crashes to start happening, with the crash logs always pointing to the NVMe driver. So if you tried that and it doesn't work, that's probably equivalent.

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score 0 · Answer 1 · 2025-08-30T05:38:23-07:00

Dan @danj

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crwdns2931729:0crwdne2931729:0: masiku 6 agoMha 30, 2025

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Mmm... I've installed quite a few OWC Aura SSD's in the 2015 systems and many use BootCamp so I can't see this as a compatibility issue. Yes the older 2012 13" MacBook Pro's couldn't run BootCamp as the system's PCIe/NVMe interface had a timing bug as even stated in the OWC product page Aura Pro x2 but your system is a MacBookPro12,1 not a MacBookPro11,1

Not compatible with Apple Boot Camp on MacBookPro11,1 or MacBookAir6,1 or MacBookAir6,2.

So... this SSD either has a problem within its hardware or the drives setup is messed up!

Let's assume the drive is not properly setup which can happen within OS updating. So I would make a full backup of your stuff and then create a bootable OS installer USB thumb drive with the macOS 12.7.6 (Monterey) so while you may want to run an even newer macOS via OpenCore we need to first get to this version. With our bootable installer we need to fully wipe the internal SSD and setup one partition during the OS install (there are a few hidden partitions also created. Which is likely where your issue is based) once you are running setup BootCamp and then restore your Mac Apps and MS Windows Apps checking everything is working at this point.

Now before going forward I would create a fresh full backup so you can get back to this point as it took quite a lot to get here. Now if you want to upgrade to Sonoma being the highest I've gone with this would be that point.

As for using an M.2 adapter and M.2 SSD some people have had success mostly lightweight users and when using larger sized SSD's (1~2TB) so there was plenty of space. Smaller (128GB ~ 512GB) have had more issues as their drives got loaded up. The older interfaces and some SSD's just didn't play well as well.

If you think (or after redoing the drive you still have issues) I would reach out to OWC to get a replacement if you can (warranty?) then maybe look at going with an M.2 SSD like a Samsung or Crucible drive.

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Really interesting, thank you! I don't know why, but for some reason I had ended up concluding at some point that the OWC is just not compatible with Windows. But I guess theoretically it should work?

However, the problem is that I bought the OWC because my old SSD stopped working, and I just cannot do the required firmware update to install macOS 12.

I did find some instructions for manually pulling the firmware file from the installer, and I did that, but even after successfully verifying that it's the right .fd file (MBP121.fd) and successfully blessing the file so it's queued as a firmware update (file is on the EFI volume and bless returned 0), I couldn't get the system to actually perform the update. When holding down the power button the firmware update just doesn't kick in. Supposedly this should work but I just can't get it to happen.

I've tried installing macOS 12 via a USB standalone installer but it always eventually fails due to the need for that firmware update which it can't apply.

crwdns2934271:0masiku 6 agoMha 30, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Dada crwdne2934271:0

@dada78641 - Well that makes sense! The OS installer can't get the hidden partitions updated as they are corrupted! Which is why we need to fully zero the drive out and then repartition and install the OS from the bootable thumb drive with a good clean copy of macOS.

Let's get a fresh USB thumb drive (32GB) with your system reformat it to GUID journaled file system then copy to it the OS installed you have just downloaded from the Apps Store - macOS Monterey (12.7.6)

Then we can convert it to a bootable installer following this guide Create a bootable installer for macOS. But make sure you have all your stuff backed up as once you redo the drive everything is gone!

crwdns2934271:0masiku 6 agoMha 30, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Dan crwdne2934271:0

@danj Thanks for helping me out. I'm going to give it a try today. Thankfully I'm familiar with the process of installing via usb.

I'm still a bit confused though. As I understand it, the firmware update can't install when using a third party drive, and it's required when installing macOS 12. So I tried to manually install the firmware update, but that doesn't work - apparently you need the recovery volume for that?

Either way I'll try to totally zero out the drive and install macOS 12 from scratch. If that doesn't work I'll try to install macOS 11 to see if that helps fix the additional volumes.

crwdns2934271:0masiku 5 agoMha 31, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Dada crwdne2934271:0

Well, I tried, but unfortunately, no go. Even with the drive erased and remade I just can't install macOS 12. It always refuses to install the firmware update.

I reinstalled macOS 11 from USB and again tried to manually force the firmware update. Extracted the right file, blessed it, confirmed the file is on the EFI partition, but I just can't trigger the update even though everything tells me I'm supposed to even with third party storage. (Using these instructions: https://gist.github.com/startergo/18e7fc... )

Usually I can figure things like this out but this one has me stumped!

edit: I just posted some technical details of my firmware update attempt on that gist if you're interested (character limit a bit short here to copypaste it)

crwdns2934271:0masiku 4 agoNdz 1, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Dada crwdne2934271:0

@dada78641 - I'm wondering what makes your system different than others. Did you buy this system used or new? Did you buy the OWC drive directly from them or from one of the online marketplaces? Have you tried reaching out to OWC to see what they say? Is it possible some virus found its way into your system?

crwdns2934271:0masiku 4 agoNdz 1, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Dan crwdne2934271:0

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