How to Do a Firmware Upgrade on Samsung Ssd Evo 850 Mac

Adding to my answer as info trickles through on the interweb…

Update June 2015 – ane

It appears that no Mac fabricated before 2012 can use this method, but I discovered however another method using UNetbootin & a USB cardinal – linked
here


_{I appreciate this is ‘link only’ but this respond is turning into a novel 😉}

Update June 2015 – ii

Nevertheless, I today discovered that you lot can update the Firmware, though not reperform, by using a Windows PC & the latest
Samsung Sorcerer
utility [as of today v4.6]
without
losing whatsoever data. Information technology will update on a GUID/Mac Extended drive.
The drive must be fastened internal SATA, it doesn’t work in an external USB enclosure.

Make certain you e’er fetch the latest Magician kickoff, otherwise older versions merits the firmware is up to date, even if it is blatantly older than any other SSD in that machine!

As my old 2008 Mac Pro will accept nil to do with any of the CD/USB stick update methods, I thought that might be sufficient.

Equally it turned out, I still needed to actually clone my kicking partition, format to NTFS, reperform on Windows, then clone back – earlier I got dorsum the drive’s speed to as it was when new.

A comment from Cindori [makers of TRIM Enabler] on why in that location is no ‘easy way’ on Mac…

“The reason for Samsung non producing a OSX version of this tool is because they can’t.

Apple tree does not expose the necessary driver stack for such disk interaction. Information technology’southward the same thing stopping them from making Trim drivers or firmware upgrade utilities for OS X, and is why y’all have to employ Kicking CDs.”

To run the Firmware updater, the SSD must be fastened directly to an SATA port. It will not work over USB or PCIe, or on RAID or FileVault volumes.
It appears you may have to also remove
all
attached PCIe cards/devices except graphics cards before the SSD will be recognised by the tool.

I hope information technology goes without proverb that you lot need a total backup earlier attempting this.

Neither Samsung’southward ‘bootable’ image nor FreeDOS have the necessary EFI boot loader and then it’due south either a lot of
typing in Terminal
[Google translated from French original] for the brave, or 1 of the following methods…

For Macs with an internal DVD drive

[Some USB DVD drives have been known to work too]
Guide source –
Conrad Chavez

• Download the Samsung_Performance_Restoration.iso disk image from
  Samsung
  [DOS version for Mac users]
• Rename the file to Samsung_Performance_Restoration.dmg
• In Disk Utility, cull Images > Burn, select Samsung_Performance_Restoration.dmg and click Burn
• Put a blank optical disc in the optical drive and finish burning the disc. When you’re washed it should expect similar this:

For Macs without a DVD drive

The simplest method requires temporary admission to Windows – either hardware or VM

Guide Source –
Pixelflush
and
Rufus

• Download the Samsung_Performance_Restoration.iso disk epitome from
  Samsung
  [DOS version for Mac users]
• Download
  Rufus
• Use Rufus with default settings to copy the .iso to a USB stick.

Running the update

To utilize the bootable media, insert it and so restart the Mac while holding downwardly the Option key. This displays the list of connected bootable volumes. Select the volume with the update on it (in my case the CD, the USB bulldoze would show as a yellowish USB icon titled Windows) and press Return. (You should also be able to boot directly into a CD or DVD by holding down the C key as the Mac starts upwards.)

From this indicate on, the Samsung Performance Restoration utility takes over and works pretty much every bit it says in the Installation Guide. If you lot haven’t used DOS-based software, be aware that it’s all keyboard-based so forget about the trackpad or mouse, and pay attention for times when information technology asks you to practice things like press the “y” (for Aye) key or press the Enter key.

The tool offset installs a firmware update on the drive itself. When the tool says “Downloading Firmware…” I assume it ways it’s downloading the firmware from the bootable media into the bulldoze and not actually downloading over an Internet connectedness, merely I’chiliad not sure.

When the firmware update is washed, the software goes through a 2-step process which includes recalibrating all the information on the drive. This can take a while and information technology depends on how big your SSD is. For my 1TB SSD, information technology took about two hours total. Exercise not interrupt the process.

When it says “Samsung SSD 840 EVO Performance Restoration completed,” information technology’south safe to restart the Mac. At this point yous can simply concur down the Power button on your Mac until information technology turns off,
(at that place appears to be no way to exercise a soft reboot from this point.)
and so press the Power button once again to start back up. If you want to eject the optical disc, concur down the mouse or trackpad push button during restart and the Mac will pop out the disc before it even gets to the desktop.

Update:
I cannot get my own machine, Mac Pro 3,ane [Early 2008] to piece of work past whatever of the above methods.
Adjacent will be to merely back information technology up, drop it in a PC, do information technology there.