Change harddrive on the new macbook pro M1

emanuele78687 wrote:

what happens if ssd will broke. Can it be replaced or you need to trash the motherboard?

If the internal SSD fails on a USB-C Mac (Intel or M1), then the Logic Board (aka motherboard) will need to be replaced which is an expensive repair.

Make sure to always have frequent and regular backups. It is impossible to recover accidentally deleted data from an SSD after the Trash has been emptied plus an SSD can fail at any time without any warning signs. If a 2018+ USB-C Mac has any type of hardware failure which prevents the Mac from booting or entering Target Disk Mode or DFU Mode, then you will need an expensive professional data recovery service to even attempt data recovery (with no guarantee of success). I've seen numerous reports where a simple macOS update has made it so a USB-C Mac needs to be erased in order to be able to access the internal SSD which makes it a catch-22 for recovering data.

As a Mac user since 1984 I have had my gripes with what Apple has done over time. Goes from no longer offering 17" MBPs to the fact that now NOTHING can be replaced or upgraded with the latest MBPs.

I was able to stretch older Macs with self performed upgrades to an almost 10 year life span. Currently running two 2015 MBPs with OWC SSDs, of which one died.

The lesson from that dead one is to have all important files backed up. No recovery was possible and as somebody wrote with an SSD it's almost impossible to get anything useful recovered.

It is easy to criticize Apple , however if you step on the other side you will have to admit that a very small percentage of Mac users want to tinker inside their machines. Most users just want their MBPs to work.

By locking down what's inside their machines Apple avoids many calls for issues they did not cause and they still provide a satisfactory experience for the majority of Mac users.

About the only drawback I see is that one has to plan how long one wants a purchase to last.

My MO is to buy the top shelf configuration and it usually ends up on the bottom or being the standard over the years.

Expensive , but again over the years a bargain. Mac in my experience last very long.

I'll switch to the M1s and 2s and 3s when the operating system leaves my current 2015 MBPs in the dust.

Nobody will force Apple to change what they are doing by not buying the M1s (Soon to be M2s).

About the only thing these days that is upsetting is the anemic memory they give these new machines,.

It's embarrassing to still offer 8GB memory and 128 GB SSDs although by Apple's thinking one should have all the rest in the cloud.

I guess it's all personal preference and for those who insist on tinkering, there are windows machines.

Raed143 wrote:

Yes just don’t buy it. This is the only way to force them change their way. I will never buy a laptop where I don’t have the option to upgrade/replace my storage drive.

You DO have the option to replace the drive with an EXTERNAL drive. The Mac has never booted from a default drive, always from the drive last specified in "Set Startup Disk".

<< and 128 GB SSDs although by Apple's thinking one should have all the rest in the cloud. >>

Macs with drives under about 512-ish GB are aimed at secondary school students who are keeping all their files on other drives or on services like GoogleDocs.

Regular home or business users should never even THINK about purchasing such machines.

Agreed, however my point is that with Apple's purchasing power the price difference between putting in 8 vs 16GB and at least 256GB as a starting configuration is probably negligible.

The low spec users may want to look into an AIR

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

Raed143 wrote:

Yes just don’t buy it. This is the only way to force them change their way. I will never buy a laptop where I don’t have the option to upgrade/replace my storage drive.

You DO have the option to replace the drive with an EXTERNAL drive. The Mac has never booted from a default drive, always from the drive last specified in "Set Startup Disk".

Unfortunately that may not be the case with an M1 Mac. I've read that the internal SSD is required for booting the M1 Mac. I don't have a link to that information at the moment, but the signs have already been there with all the Retina model laptops where it can be impossible to upgrade macOS without a functioning internal SSD (or even install macOS to a USB drive if the built-in SSD is missing since the firmware updater requires a properly formatted and functioning internal drive).

It seems hard to believe Apple would now insist on booting from a specific drive.

But you DO have to have change your boot-up permissions to allow alternate boot devices. (Seen as a security issue to keep thieves from being able to take over your stolen notebook computer.)

Hey there, some of these things I'm not sure if people covered but I feel they are critical to understanding the M1 Mac and why things are done the way they are.

I'll start by saying I have an extremely powerful windows desktop with 4tbs of ssd storage and m.2 nvme ssd 1tb, amd ryzen 5, rtx 2060 super, and plenty of ram. Since buying my first MacBook and I had been waiting for something like the M1 for years from Apple as to why I hadn't bought one before.

So, the M1 MacBook sounds super unimpressive on paper and without understanding what it is, it seems terrible. The M1 chip manufactured in Taiwan, designed by apple is a ARMS based processor. My Ryzen and intel pcs run on X86. ARMS has been around for 35 years and you use it everyday in devices you wouldn't even consider. All apple chips run on ARMS, and have expect for the Macs. Heres the kicker and you can do benchmarks yourself or just watch YouTube videos. The M1 chip will keep up in processing power to some Intels BEST CHIPS. So far there hasn't been much advancement in the X86 and each year its starting to become a rehashing from intel. Apple wanted Intel to make the M1 but they refused saying no way ARMS would ever beat X86. Well here we are, The chipsets that allow data to flow on the M1 have practically 0 latency being they are all right next to each other on the same chip. I'm sure you could see how that's already super handy, and makes a faster system overall even if it sounds bad on paper. With out the option to use an external gpu though, don't be expecting fantastic gaming performance. That's not what this Apple Silicon is set to take on.

No.

Hi,

As far as I know, you can't upgrade RAM and storage on M1 MacBook Pro since RAM is on M1 chip and Storage is soldered on logic board.

No, unfortunately the technology in your 2011 MacBook is completely different.

Does anyone know if it's a technical requirement that forces them to do this, or if it's yet another attempt to kneecap people working on their own machines?

ryancole85 wrote:

Does anyone know if it's a technical requirement that forces them to do this, or if it's yet another attempt to kneecap people working on their own machines?

Are you serious?

i Think it’s mainly because the memory and storage are soldered directly onto the motherboard of the newer generation Mac’s, most probably because of space constraints inside the case

I get the ram. What I don't get are things like battery and ssd's being completely built in.