Replacing SSD on MBP

[robertcoogan]

I have bought a refurbished MBP with retina display, and want to replace the SSD with a conventional HD (I have had bad luck with SSD and want to avoid them until the technology manages not to die on me long before a conventional HD does).

Does a MBP with a stock SSD have the same connections as a SATA HD? I am assuming it will accept a 2.5 size-wise.

 

[Donoban]

I have bought a refurbished MBP with retina display, and want to replace the SSD with a conventional HD (I have had bad luck with SSD and want to avoid them until the technology manages not to die on me long before a conventional HD does).

Does a MBP with a stock SSD have the same connections as a SATA HD? I am assuming it will accept a 2.5 size-wise.

Buddy, the ssd in that Mbp you're holding is rock solid. Save yourself the money, pain and drama and worry about something else. Trust me, just run a time machine backup on your home network to remove any data loss concerns.

Good luck and take care.

 

[yjchua95]

I have bought a refurbished MBP with retina display, and want to replace the SSD with a conventional HD (I have had bad luck with SSD and want to avoid them until the technology manages not to die on me long before a conventional HD does).

Does a MBP with a stock SSD have the same connections as a SATA HD? I am assuming it will accept a 2.5 size-wise.

You can't. The mid-2012 and early-2013 use a blade SATA (possibly m-SATA) based SSD. The blades are way smaller than the 2.5" drives.

The late-2013 ones use a blade PCIe SSD.

 

[BigBeast]

I have bought a refurbished MBP with retina display, and want to replace the SSD with a conventional HD (I have had bad luck with SSD and want to avoid them until the technology manages not to die on me long before a conventional HD does).

Does a MBP with a stock SSD have the same connections as a SATA HD? I am assuming it will accept a 2.5 size-wise.

(confusion)

You probably should have done just a small bit of research before you went and bought your Mac.

To answer your question, no, the SSD cannot be swapped with an HDD.

And FYI, SSD technology is quite mature, and your data is statistically much safer than residing on a traditional HDD. I don't want to sound rude, but you might need to brush up on your tech literacy.

 

[Fishrrman]

Replies 2 and 3 above pretty much say it all, but...

... if you're worried about the long-term integrity of the built-in SSD, either buy or put together an external backup drive, and use CarbonCopyCloner to maintain a bootable clone of the internal drive.

SSD's are by-and-large reliable, but when they -do- fail, they do so catastrophically and often without any warning signs at all. I understand that data recovery on a failed SSD is much more problematical than on an HDD with "platters".

For this reason, the backup will provide the insulation you need to calm your fears.

I suggest that you buy an external enclosure and a "bare drive" and assemble it yourself. Most require only a small screwdriver. Some don't have screws - just snap together.