Upgrading MBP's HDD and Applecare

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?

 

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"?

 

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.

 

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.

 

Yes, thats true. With the MB, you do not have to take the whole unit apart. You just unscrew a cover on the bottom and slide the drive out. It's pretty silly they made they've made their pro laptop line (the old Powerbooks were the same) so difficult to replace the drives.

 

It definitely makes no sense for them to make it so hard for a user to upgrade the hard drive and especially for them to void the warranty. The hard drive and RAM are two components that any user should have the right to upgrade on their own and it should have no effect on warranty unless that user damages something themselves when doing the upgrade.

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.

 

I agree. That's the only thing about the MBP that I don't like.

To answer your question, it's best to ask apple directly IMO.

 

Well naturally if it says it on the Apple site that it will void the warranty then that's probably what they're going to tell me over the phone. I'm just wondering if you can't upgrade the hard drive and if something should arise where the laptop would need a repair if you couldn't just swap back to the old drive without them noticing or maybe even caring since you put the old drive back in.

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.

 

Obviously, since they have so few options on hard drive sizes, if you walked in with a 320 gig hard drive (like I'm planning to install), they would know you changed it out.

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.

 

Eh... it's not bad, but it's not easy. First go around is the roughest. I can understand why they don't want people to replace the drives and why it voids the warranty. There are several pieces that would be VERY easy to break (especially they keyboard cable). I find one of the most frustrating parts is separating the chassis section by the trackpad. That part "sticks" and has to be separated with some force, I always think I'm going to break it.

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.

 

So as long as the the original drive is int he mbp when its shipped off apple is happy?

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.