Yes, of course. I want a warranty on any notebook I buy, and effectively don't have one on a Macbook Pro if I care about data security-which I do, and so does my employer.
And as far as the warranty is concerned, I worked for Apple. I have friends who STILL work for Apple. As long as you don't break the machine during a hard drive swap, you're fine. They recommend you go to an Apple Authorized Dealer, but if you can do it yourself without frying the machine, more power to ya!
If that's true, that's great, but that goes against everything I've heard from Apple, it goes against what they say in their warranty, people's actual experiences, etc.
Yeah I never got the 'If you open your computer it will void the warrantee' thing. I understand if they have seals they can tell but otherwise there is no way of Apple telling if you send the computer back for repair. And if anyone has seen the state Apple send computers in back from repair they would understand, after-all they make my repair work look good.
True, they have to actually figure out you've done it, but that's a big risk on something I'd be droping $2500 on.
Actually, the easy upgradeability of hard drive is very high on MY list when I shop for a laptop.
Why?
* Hard drive and memory are the components that I will absolutely, positively want to upgrade sooner or later
* I want to have the option to take out the hard drive with my personal data from the machine, should I desire to do so
Yep. There are a LOT of people who this is important to, many who avoid systems where you can't do it. Even entire companies/divisions who won't allow it. (NO company in their right mind should allow something with work data/passwords to be sent in randomly to some other company.)
It has been like that for a while now too - I still shudder when I remember how I was upgrading the drive in my G4 AlBook. That one had some stupid latches you had to pop through the DVD drive slot... Ugh.
Yikes. Thankfully the MBP doesn't seem THAT bad, but there are still latches that sound like they're cracking when you take it apart.
Replacing the hard drive will not void the warranty on your entire machine. It simply means the drive is no longer under Apple warranty (it's your drive), and if you spill your beer on the motherboard while you upgrade it, you're out of gas.
It depends on teh model. The Macbook it's a user accessible part. The MBP it isn't.
That said, it'd be nice if the MBP had a door with screws right below the left palmrest where the HD sits. I would take the the hit in aesthetics (of the 2 or 4 screws) for the advantage of easier replacement.
It's completely nuts that they don't just stick a door there.
It is most categorically NOT easier than a TiBook.
In a TiBook a hard drive is a user-replaceable part, and the procedure for its replacement/upgrade is described in the user manual. To replace a TiBook's drive you only had to undo 8, I think, Torx screws on the bottom of the machine, take the bottom cover off - and voila, you had full access to innards, hard drive and DVD drive included.
I had completely forgotten that about the Tibook. Didn't realize they had actually gone BACKWARDS on the newer systems.
The reason for crappy upgadeabilty of all the subsequent models is one, and one only: money. If you can easily upgrade your existent computer, you won't buy a new one. Apple want to sell you more computers. They don't want you to upgrade.
If so, that's nuts. They don't realize the sales it's costing them. Just within my own department there are at least two other people who would buy a Macbook Pro RIGHT NOW if Apple fixed this. It's not even an upgrade that I care about (although being able to easily swap it many years down the road could help keep it in service longer, for family members, etc.)
And having a replaceable hard drive isn't going to prevent me from buying a new system any time sooner. The hard drive is the least of my concerns, compared to the GPU, CPU, chipset, and amount of RAM a system can handle.
