Change SSD in Macbook Air with EFI password

[Adenitz]

Hello guys,

I have MBA A1466 with EFI password, but the can boot to Big Sur OS and knows administrator password. The laptop is not stolen or anything like that. The customer/owner set up password log time ago and cannot remember it anymore. Now he wants SSD drive replaced with a higher capacity SSD drive. Since there is EFI password on the laptop, boot from USB MacOS drive is not possible and therefore, installation of MacOs is not possible.
I wonder if it is possible to put the new SSD drive into another MBA A1466 and install MacOS there and then just swaps SSD drives? The new drive will become the only drive, so it should be able to boot from.

Is this possible? I know this is possible on PC laptops, but I donćt have much experience with MacBooks.

Thank you!

[piernov]

Re: Change SSD in Macbook Air with EFI password

With an EFI password, it will boot only from the currently installed macOS.

[Adenitz]

Re: Change SSD in Macbook Air with EFI password

Ok, so it seems that unsoldering Spi rom chip and using programmer to remove the password is the only way to change the SSD drive.

How about the other option. I could install Acronis True Image or similar software, use external case for the second drive, connect it to the usb port and use clone option. After process is finished, I would swap drives then. Could that work?