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Shelbriaj

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 5, 2018
2
0
I took my computer to Mac last year to get my hard drive replaced as it had failed. A year later the replacement hard drive has failed also. I refuse to pay them to fix it again when it just got fixed and shouldn’t be an issue so soon. Anywho I want to fix it myself just to be more familiar with my product. I want to make sure I fix it correctly and don’t want to miss any steps and mess up. I have looked up videos in which it takes them maybe 5 min to fix but I’m doubting that it is that easy to fix. Can someone who is experienced in this give me step by step instructions or link me to a step by step video? I purchased my MacBook Pro in December of 2013. Currently I cannot get to my main screen to try and save my files. I can only access disk utilities. If there is a way for me to access my files and save them to the new drive or a flash drive can you list that as well? TIA!
 
If you have the same device as I do (late 2013 15-MBP) the hard drive is SSD, and one that only Apple makes. FWIW my drive failed, too. There are discussions in MR about replacing these with more available products. Best to consult ifixit on how to.

If you can create another bootable device (such as a USB stick, or an external drive), you should be able to boot from that and see if you can see the files on the ssd in your MBP. If the drive is large enough, you can copy the files from the ssd onto this external boot drive.

You can also use "Target Mode" such that your MBP will look like an external disk to another device, such as another Mac. You'll need to connect it with an appropriate cable. This can be a thunderbolt 2 on one end, and either thunderbolt or USB on the other.

Finally, you can try booting into "Recovery Mode". This does only a minimal amount of things, including allowing you to re-install the OS over the internet. But it may wipe your data.
 
I was able to look on my old receipt from the last time and I googled the hard drive they used and found it on amazon. Many ppl gave it great reviews for using it on their Mac books as well.
 
Can you get to internet recovery?
(press power-on button and hold down command-option-R)

Try this and get back to us.
 
I took my computer to Mac last year to get my hard drive replaced as it had failed. A year later the replacement hard drive has failed also. I refuse to pay them to fix it again when it just got fixed and shouldn’t be an issue so soon. Anywho I want to fix it myself just to be more familiar with my product. I want to make sure I fix it correctly and don’t want to miss any steps and mess up. I have looked up videos in which it takes them maybe 5 min to fix but I’m doubting that it is that easy to fix. Can someone who is experienced in this give me step by step instructions or link me to a step by step video? I purchased my MacBook Pro in December of 2013. Currently I cannot get to my main screen to try and save my files. I can only access disk utilities. If there is a way for me to access my files and save them to the new drive or a flash drive can you list that as well? TIA!
Purchase date does not say much, it could be a much older machine that's been sitting on shelves for a bit.

You'll need to tell us exactly what model it is. 13"? 15"? Retina or not? What year?
 
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