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Does Apple store replace HDD in 2014 Mini?

E

EightyTwenty

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 11, 2015
809
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If I bring in my own SSD and ask them to replace the drive, would they do this (for a price)?

I'm sure they would fix a "defective" drive, so maybe I would just claim it was defective - 5400 drives ARE defective by their nature, imo... so technically not a lie :)

Anyone know? Thanks in advance.

I ask because there will be no new mini and I'm thinking about getting a refurb mid-level mini.
 
I've never heard of Apple installing non-Apple hardware in their computers and that's the consensus if you search the web but I've also never heard of anybody directly asking them and posting the answer here so maybe you can be the first. (If your HDD were "defective", they would replace it with another "Apple" HDD.)

In any case, I thinks it's better to find an Apple Authorized Service Provider and go down that route. A poster some time back said that the AASP charged $50 to replace the HDD with a SSD in a Mini (I think it was a 2012 Mini but it shouldn't be different for the 2014 Mini).

https://locate.apple.com/
(Upper right box)
 
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If you have a MicroCenter nearby you, they are an Apple Authorized Repair Center. When I got mine done about a year ago it cost me about $60. Apple Store will not do it, I called them even. This was about a year ago tho.
 
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Last year At a Apple Authorized Dealer here in Costa Rica they quoted me a price of $350.00 to replace my 500GB HD with a 250GB SSD in my MM(Late 2012); so, I passed.
 
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tibas92013 said:
Last year At a Apple Authorized Dealer here in Costa Rica they quoted me a price of $350.00 to replace my 500GB HD with a 250SSD in my MM(Late 2012); so, I passed.
Click to expand...

That's crazy. I hope the new SSD was included in that price. Even then, it still seems like robbery.

Why don't you buy a drive and do it yourself? The 2012 mini is very easily upgradable. Tons of YouTube how-to videos.

The 2014 mini looks like an absolute nightmare to upgrade. You need to tear apart the entire machine.
 
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Even cheaper --- External USB 3.0 drive enclosure for an SSD.
That would give you some of the speed advantage of the SSD, absolutely faster than the 5400 spinning drive, without the concern about finding a place that will install the SSD internally.
Or, an external Thunderbolt enclosure --- probably more expensive than USB 3.0, and fewer choices, but would give you the best performance on an external drive.
 
If you take it to the Apple store, they will not do it.
If you take it to a authorized repair center they will do it for a fee.

Having said that you may want to do it yourself.
I have done plenty of 2009s and I think I could do the whole thing in about 20 minutes (without rushing myself).

I was very intimidated by the newer design... I got a good set of tools and followed the guide on iFixit and it took me about little over an hour the first time. I did another one and it took little less time.

From what I saw the 2010 is most difficult to do out of the unibody Minis.

Last year I took in a work iMac for repair to Apple store. They confirmed the HD was bad, and they replaced it (but would not upgrade to SSD even if I offered $).
 
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DeltaMac said:
Or, an external Thunderbolt enclosure --- probably more expensive than USB 3.0, and fewer choices, but would give you the best performance on an external drive.
Click to expand...
Keep in mind that for a Mini with only one TB port (e.g. 2012 models), dedicating that port to an external drive will limit your options for driving displays, including reduced resolution.

Unless you need max port speeds for the drive, then USB3 is probably the better port choice. Much cheaper too.
 
EightyTwenty said:
That's crazy. I hope the new SSD was included in that price. Even then, it still seems like robbery.

Why don't you buy a drive and do it yourself? The 2012 mini is very easily upgradable. Tons of YouTube how-to videos.

The 2014 mini looks like an absolute nightmare to upgrade. You need to tear apart the entire machine.
Click to expand...
Yes, it was a 250GB SSD at a cost of $350.00 which I agree is Highway Robbery. As in other Countries outside the good old USA Apple Products and Services cost a Hell-Of-A-Lot-More here in Costa Rica. Also, new Apple Products that are announced in the USA arrive here in Costa Rica around six(6) months later. The new iPad(2017) that Apple began sales in the USA and elsewhere a few months ago has still not arrived here in Costa Rica.

We do not have one(1) Apple Store as yet here in Costa Rica. So, your only option are about Seven(7) Authorized Apple Dealerships here in the San Jose, Costa Rica Area which do honor free repair service on Apple Products covered by AppleCare. However, to the best of my knowledge they will not install third-party products not covered by Apple.
 
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"If I bring in my own SSD and ask them to replace the drive, would they do this (for a price)?"

No, they won't do that. Absolutely not.

We don't know whether there's going to be "a new Mini" or not.
Try not to pay too much attention to much of the blather in this forum.
IF there's no new Mini by, say, February 2018, then I'll agree that "the Mini is dead".
But I believe that Apple has other priorities at the moment.
I don't think we'll see a new Mini until the appropriate Coffee Lake CPU chips are available.

Having said that...
IF you're going to get a "refurb mid-level Mini", why not get one with the 1tb fusion drive option?
It costs only a little more, but will be much MUCH faster.
The 1tb fusion drive comes with a 128gb SSD portion, and a 1tb HDD portion.
The 128 is adequately sized for what the OS will require of it.
And it will be SIGNIFICANTLY FASTER than would be adding a 2.5" SATA SSD.

My strongest advice to you is:
DO NOT buy ANY Mini UNLESS it has either a fusion drive or a "straight" SSD inside.
Consider yourself as having been duly warned by this post!
 
EightyTwenty said:
That's crazy. I hope the new SSD was included in that price. Even then, it still seems like robbery.

Why don't you buy a drive and do it yourself? The 2012 mini is very easily upgradable. Tons of YouTube how-to videos.

The 2014 mini looks like an absolute nightmare to upgrade. You need to tear apart the entire machine.
Click to expand...
I've been able to get the process down to under 20 minutes from grabbing the machine to remove the bottom to having a replacement ssd in andpowering it back on.
I have around 30+ Minis running atm (from the 2010 redesign to the newer 2014's) and have replaced all HDD's with SSD's over the years and just having the right tool can make it a very quick process.
You can get a 480-500GB SSD from Amazon for under $160, the tools less than $40 one time cost so for under $200 you can make that Mini seem like an entire new computer by replacing that slothy HDD.
 
Maybe I'm missing something but the 5400 RPM drive is plenty fast for me. It does take 20 seconds to start up but it's fine after that.
 
krause734 said:
Maybe I'm missing something but the 5400 RPM drive is plenty fast for me. It does take 20 seconds to start up
Click to expand...

Maybe I'm missing something... I have a 2014 base model mini with the 500gb hard drive. Just timed and it took 48 seconds from the startup chime to the desktop. Hard to believe that yours does that in 20 seconds. I also have a 2012 quad server with the original Apple 256gb SSD and it takes 14 seconds to start up.
 
EightyTwenty said:
If I bring in my own SSD and ask them to replace the drive, would they do this (for a price)?

I'm sure they would fix a "defective" drive, so maybe I would just claim it was defective - 5400 drives ARE defective by their nature, imo... so technically not a lie :)

Anyone know? Thanks in advance.

I ask because there will be no new mini and I'm thinking about getting a refurb mid-level mini.
Click to expand...

You can try to fix it yourself.
Really not that difficult or dangerous.

Do watch a Youtube step by step walkthrough to guide you throughout the upgrade.
 
opeter said:
Yeah, first time it seems very difficult, but after you do it a second time or more, I is quite simple.
I upgraded mine in about 15-20 minutes.
Click to expand...

That's my experience as well - doing my 2014 was much easier because I did my 2012 - even though it was 2-1/2 years later.
 
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