Can I plug a macbook PCIe SSD in a PC to transfer data?

[OrionMaster]

I have the image of my current SSD in a external HD. I need to transfer that image to the new SSD I purchased (both are PCIe SSDs in a late 2013 MacBook Pro). Its hard to do that because i cannot have the two SSDs in at the same time (only 1 port and I have no interest in getting external enclosures that I will only use once). I have a PC with PCIe ports, can I just plug it there and transfer from the external HD (using Acronis)? Or will I need special software to make the PCIe SSD work in the PC?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

No.

But you can boot the macbook from a thumb drive, attach the external HDD, and restore your image to the internal drive.

 

[TheStu]

I have the image of my current SSD in a external HD. I need to transfer that image to the new SSD I purchased (both are PCIe SSDs in a late 2013 MacBook Pro). Its hard to do that because i cannot have the two SSDs in at the same time (only 1 port and I have no interest in getting external enclosures that I will only use once). I have a PC with PCIe ports, can I just plug it there and transfer from the external HD (using Acronis)? Or will I need special software to make the PCIe SSD work in the PC?

A: I don't believe the rMBPs had transitioned over to PCIe SSDs in 2013, but this point is actually moot because...
B: It's a proprietary connector, whether it's Apple's mSATA implementation OR their PCIe implementation, it's proprietary, and you'd need a special adapter for it.

Can you boot off the image on the external drive? If yes, drop in the new SSD, boot off the external, and image it back over to the internal.

If no... If the existing SSD is still working, can you create a new clone of it to the external? And then follow the plan above?

 

[OrionMaster]

I can try but are you sure a Macbook can boot off a USB plugged hard drive? I know PC machines have problems with is (when you have a full windows in there, not a linux distro or something)

 

[OrionMaster]

No.

But you can boot the macbook from a thumb drive, attach the external HDD, and restore your image to the internal drive.

I tried to boot of Macrium Reflect Recovery DVD and it did not work. I also used Parted Magic (which contains lots of different linuxes and other OSs) but it would not boot. Macs are a bitch when it comes to booting using these DVDs it seems

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I tried to boot of Macrium Reflect Recovery DVD and it did not work. I also used Parted Magic (which contains lots of different linuxes and other OSs) but it would not boot. Macs are a bitch when it comes to booting using these DVDs it seems

Yeah, just download an OS X installer from the App Store and put the included image file on a thumb drive.

http://osxdaily.com/2015/09/30/create-os-x-el-capitan-boot-install-drive/

You can use Disk Utility from there, or use the OS X CLI to do the restore with DD or something.

What did you use to create the image file in the first place?

 

[OrionMaster]

Yeah, just download an OS X installer from the App Store and put the included image file on a thumb drive.

http://osxdaily.com/2015/09/30/create-os-x-el-capitan-boot-install-drive/

You can use Disk Utility from there, or use the OS X CLI to do the restore with DD or something.

What did you use to create the image file in the first place?

I used Macrium Reflect and Acronis Image. Disk utlity doesn't work for me, when I try to image the Bootcamp Partition to an external drive, I get an unspecified error. I believe the bootcamp partition has security setttings that prevent me from doing that

 

[OrionMaster]

Does anyone know if its possible to install applications in the OSX Internet Recovery mode? Its kinda like a basic OSX, if I can run Acronis there, that might work

 

[TheStu]

I used Macrium Reflect and Acronis Image. Disk utlity doesn't work for me, when I try to image the Bootcamp Partition to an external drive, I get an unspecified error. I believe the bootcamp partition has security setttings that prevent me from doing that

I know very little about Macrium or Acronis, but you can clone both partitions using Carbon Copy Cloner (for the OS X partition) and WinClone for Bootcamp.

Does anyone know if its possible to install applications in the OSX Internet Recovery mode? Its kinda like a basic OSX, if I can run Acronis there, that might work

No, it's not. Internet Recovery is basically just a direct line to the Apple server so that you can download and install OS X. There IS Disk Utility and a few other utilities stored somewhere in the system that you can access even with a blank drive, but it's not stripped down OS X in that sense.

What exactly is the problem at hand? Is the drive failing, or are you just running out of space?

 

[OrionMaster]

What exactly is the problem at hand? Is the drive failing, or are you just running out of space?

the problem is that windows 7, OSX and a number of applications tell me the SSD will fail in the near future. its been going for 1 month like this but i don't want to take the chance

 

[Kaido]

I can try but are you sure a Macbook can boot off a USB plugged hard drive? I know PC machines have problems with is (when you have a full windows in there, not a linux distro or something)

Macs are really nice for backup. For starters, you can boot off a USB drive (flash stick or full drive). That is enormously convenient. Second, the system is really easy to do clones on using SuperDuper, which is just like Macrium Reflect, but for Mac:

http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html

Easiest way is to clone your boot drive to a USB drive (if it's big enough) and boot from that external drive. Once it's booted, you can clone it back internal if you want (again using SuperDuper). Couldn't be easier. Ooooooor you could get a PCIe SSD reader, a copy of MacDrive for Windows, and do it the hard (and expensive) way

 

[rugby]

I've even booted from an SD card, works well. I have a bootable diagnostic image I can put on a card quickly and boot a machine from it.

 

[Eug]

Yes you can theoretically plug in an Apple PCIe SSD into a Windows PC and read it.

How?

1) Buy a Mac PCIe SSD to USB 3 enclosure.
2) Buy HFS+ software to make the Windows PC understand it.
3) Plug in the enclosure to the PC via USB 3.

But this is stupid. Other methods are better, as mentioned, unless you're just trying to make use of an extra unused Apple PCIe drive.

 

[OrionMaster]

So I made a copy of the current SSD to an external hard drive (both OSX and W7), the OSX boots just fine but the W7 doesn't, its not even detected. Thats fine, as windows seem to have a problem running off USB. The problem is that I used carbon copy cloner to send the image of the W7 to the current SSD, yet it will not boot off it. Its not even detected when I hold option at the start. The program I used to make the copy was Macrium Reflect, it worked just perfectly for the Mac partition so I can't imagine it would not work for W7, anyone got any clue why it didn't work? Maybe because windows was running at the same time as the copy was being made and some system files were not transported? It would weird that it would be the case and Macrium wouldn't alert you about that

 

[TheStu]

If you're cloning, you'll want to use Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! to clone OS X. And WinClone to handle Windows. Here are older instructions, but I think the thrust is the same.

It sounds like you're at the "from OS X, make with the bootcamping" stage of those instructions.