Hard Drive Question......

Hi Everyone,

I have another pre-purchase question. My "Early 2008" 15" MacBook Pro had a non-user upgradeable hard drive, as upgrading it yourself voided your warranty. This was the last model of MBP before they went to the unibody design. I have read numerous posts here about people performing third-party upgrades to their MBPs to solid-state drives, and larger drives in general. Has Apple started to allow users to upgrade hard drives in the current MBPs?

In a related note, in your opinion is the speed difference between the stock 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM drives worth the sacrifice of capacity? In most cases, (where there is an option) Apple gives you the choice of a 5400 RPM drive @ 750 GB or a 7200 RPM drive @ 500 GBs. However they do not offer the faster drive on the 13" MBP, so you are "stuck" with 5400 RPM options. Thanks in advance!

Rich S.

 

Palmhand. What Apple doesn't know won't heart them. Just make sure to keep stock drive.

 

There are a lot of clips, screws etc that have to be settled in the last-gen MBP models during reassembly to keep the chassis all tight as it originally was - this can be tricky, depending on your skill level. I just had a local Apple auth repair shop do the swap on my in-law's MBP, which cost me $50-60 for the labor using a HDD I provided. Better peace of mind.

Performance difference between the stock drives is going to be on the order of 10-15%. Whether that is something that is a) important enough and/or b) something you would actually notice is a personal decision alone.

User HDD upgrades in all current-gen MBPs and MBs do not void warranty since their initial release in late '08.

 

I've confirmed straight from Apple technicians themselves - replacing the hardware on any Mac will not void the warranty. They will only cover warranty for Apple branded hard drives. Can that be deemed as voiding the warranty? To me, no. We swap hard drives on Mac's at work all the time

 

Diggy,

I'm sure you meant MacBook, when you said Mac. Apple is completely unambiguous on MacBooks, but far less so on the iMac. Replacing the HDD with a non-Apple drive on the Imac, or doing it yourself is an item of current contention that is not alleviated by the wording in the iMac manual. We'll have to see how this pans out. But I would take the word of any one technician, unless he is also authorized to put that in writing.

From the iMac manual.

While it is a no brainer that user damage is never covered under warranty, the operative statement is quite clear in the first sentence with regard to HD drives.

From the MacBook manual:

 

Yes, sorry, I was referring to MacBooks and Pro's