Okay, so ever since I've been here, theres been people asking about upgrading the HDD in MBP, and the Apple warrently/apple care.
It's always seemed like it's a mixed reaction, most people saying that it will void your warrrenty.
Others say that it doesn't, and basically the HDD isnt covered, but the laptop still is.
So I wanted to know, for sure, what's apples stance on this?
To me it would make sense, that the new HDD isn't covered under warranty. But like on some electronics theres a seal saying if you break the seal, warrenty is broken. (So just opening the laptop would void it)
I don't have applecare right now, and I probably wont get it, but if repairs do need to be done I don't want the HDD to make them get into semantics and not repair it.
Does anyone have any first hand experience, or know for sure what Apple says?
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I thought i found something on apples site that said it voids the warranty.
It's listed as a non user upgradeable part, I believe the link I saw said it voided the warranty. However, I don't recall if it was just the HDD warranty or the full machine warranty. You'll probably want to search on apples site or call them. -
Why don't you just e-mail or call Apple and get a definite answer instead of a "maybe"?
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Yes, find out for sure because I've swapped out the hard drive on every MBP that I've owned for a larger one. I just ordered a new MBP with the standard 200 gig 5400 RPM drive and as soon as I get it, I'm going to replace the HD with a brand new 320 gig drive. I need to be able to run both Windows XP and Vista for software testing so I need plenty of hard disk space for the virtual machines.
I honestly never worried about voiding the warranty because I keep the original virgin hard drive in a safe place and can always swap it back in if necessary for warranty work. -
masterchef341 The guy from The Notebook
did you make any noticeable entry into the laptop, ie, cut something, tear something,
or
is the hard drive replacement process LNT (leave no trace)?
if you can replace a hard drive without leaving a trace of your presence, semantics really doesn't matter, it just never happened. If you bring it in for repairs, replace the original drive. You won't be breaking any moral obligation to the world because its ridiculous that you can't replace the hard drive under warranty as it is- and the hdd isn't going to be the reason you need replacement parts (unless the hdd disk itself breaks, which you will obviously need to front the cash for) -
I just read a couple of threads about this on the apple support forums and it sounds like it will void the warranty if you install it, however you can get an apple authorized Service Centre to do it for you and in that case the warranty is not void but the new HD is not covered by apple/applecare (naturally) but by the HD manufacturer instead.
They'll probably charge you 2 hours labour to do it which isn't cheap but might be worth it if you really want to change the HD and still be covered.
Interestingly, both threads mention that on the MB the HD is a user replaceable item but definitely not on the MBP.
I would still check with apple on this before going ahead with anything. -
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Since so many people have upgraded theirs I would still like to know from someone with experience whether they were able to get warranty coverage on their MBP after swapping hard drives. -
To answer your question, it's best to ask apple directly IMO. -
How hard is it to take a MBP apart and upgrade the hard drive? I have no problem taking a laptop apart and I've even upgraded the graphics card and CPU in other laptops so I don't think it should be too difficult unless there are parts that are harder to open up than simply just taking out screws?? Is there any way to tell you've had the laptop taking apart if you are careful? -
If you have the right screwdriver, you can change out the hard drive in about 15 minutes. You don't have to cut through anything and the only way they would be able to tell that you replaced the hard drive is if you put in a non-Apple spec'd hard drive. Not as complicated as they make it out to be.
While I'm at it, I also put in 4 gigs of ram purchased from Crucial. -
There's no way in heck that Apple could know I switched out my hard drive. If I ever need a warranty call on my system, I'll put the old 160GB back in. Simple.
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I can't really understand why they void the warranty if you swap the hard drive except that they want to ensure their techs get paid for the swap out. -
I guess if Apple's techs wanted to look hard enough, they could find evidence of opening it up. I mean you're bound to leave some mark around... maybe a scratched screw or something. -
This is what you need to do, just replace the hd with the new drive and keep your original hd safe somewhere (usually I just put it inside the box of the mbp box) then if something goes wrong in the future, swap the hd back to the original (including ram) and ship it to apple. Problem solved. I've done this many times.
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Kinda seems like what most people are saying is that apple wants the original hdd in the mbp when they get it.
If a certified person installs the hdd do you get a special certificate or something? Kinda seems like you could just say that a certified tech installed the hdd, when they really didn't.
Though I'm still wondering what apple does if they receive a mbp with a non-stock hdd, which was kinda the original purpose of the thread.
Upgrading MBP's HDD and Applecare
Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by sulkorp, Feb 26, 2008.