Updating Hard-Drive in Retina MBP

[Ambrosia7177]

Hello. I have a 2015 Retina MBP, 13" with macOS Sierra. It has a 1 TB HDD that is now full.

My two Retina MBP's are the last of their kind, and supposedly you can change the HDD.

So I would likd to know...

1.) Can I swap out the HDD/SSD in my Retina MBP myself?

2.) Do I need any crazy tools or knowledge?

3.) How do I check whether I have a HDD or SSD now?


In my ideal world, I would like to upgrade to a 2TB drive so I can keep using Carbon Copy Cloner as my backup solution, and not have to fiddle with external hard-drives...

Unfortunately, being out of work, this is a bad time to be spending money...

4.) Would it be foolish to get a 7200rpm, 2TB HDD if they exist?

5.) How much would a *reliable* 2TB or larger internal SSD cost these days?

6.) Any other advice?


Thanks.

 

[satcomer]

Maybe a video like this one:

 

[James_C]

Hi @Texas_Toast , it is possible to replace the SSD in your MacBook Pro with a 2TB SSD ( you can't use a standard HHD in your MBP), unfortunately they are pretty expensive - $570 on ifixit website.

If you are going to get into Video Creation then as I think you are finding they tend to take up a lot of space. I have an iMac with a 500GB Internal SSD, but I have a 4TB External Drive for storing Music, Photos and Videos. When I am editing video I will use the internal SSD, and then transfer it to the 4TB External. They are thunderbolt drives so they are pretty quick (although they are using standard HDD's). I have a 6TB Backup external thunderbolt drive as well. I suspect at some point your are going to need External Storage for your video projects as even increasing your internal to 2TB , it will not take you that long to fill that up.

I have the advantage of a stationary iMac so it is not an issue having two external drives attached and I understand your reluctance to use an external drive, but as a backup device does not need to be an SSD, I would suggest the most cost effective method would be to buy a suitable External drive for your CCC backups. I presume you are using one Mac to backup the other at the moment using CCC. You can pick up a 2TB external drive for less than $100. You less than $200 you could have a 2TB External storage and 2TB Backup HDD.

 

[Fishrrman]

Not worth the trouble.

Buy an EXTERNAL USB3 drive, or put together an EXTERNAL USB3.1 gen2 blade SSD (easy to do).

Then...
Move the stuff you DON'T use to the external drive.
At least 400-600gb.

Really... how much of "all that stuff" do you need and use every day...?

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Not worth the trouble.

Buy an EXTERNAL USB3 drive, or put together an EXTERNAL USB3.1 gen2 blade SSD (easy to do).

Then...
Move the stuff you DON'T use to the external drive.
At least 400-600gb.

Really... how much of "all that stuff" do you need and use every day...?

Even if $$$ wasn't an issue, I'm kind of wavering back and forth on this one....

What I love about my current setup is that I have my internal !TB SSD and several 1TB HDD. All drives use FDE, and I use CCC to make clones on maybe a monthly basis. (Yeah, I should make that more like weekly, but you know how it goes.)

So I have a library of like 8 disks of various encrypted and bootable versions of my rMBP.

I then rotate those off to a storage spot across the country (i.e. "home").

Yes that is a lot of disks, but from a backup standpoint I only have one SOurce drive and one Destination drive in CCC to deal with. (So it's basically idiot-proof!)

If I get into a situation where I have to backup and/or clone my internal drive, PLUS one of more active external drives, then it creates more work, AND the opportunity to forget to backup my external drive(s) and get them offsite and that puts my data at greater risk.

See what I mean?

Any ideas how to streamline that part?

 

[DeltaMac]

Thought I would point out that no Retina MBPro has an internal HDD (referring to mechanical hard drives, which some prefer to call "spinning rust" or some other colorful title ). All Retina models have SSDs of one type or another. If you do have an internal HDD, then you don't have a retina (and is a 2012 model or older)

One possible way to "streamline that (backup) part"? iCloud.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Thought I would point out that no Retina MBPro has an internal HDD (referring to mechanical hard drives, which some prefer to call "spinning rust" or some other colorful title ). All Retina models have SSDs of one type or another. If you do have an internal HDD, then you don't have a retina (and is a 2012 model or older)

Maybe I mixed up my acronyms above?

Personally, I use "hard-drive" to refer to all computer storage devices - as they are all "hard".

And I use "HDD" to represet mechanical drives, and "SSD" to represent solid-state drives.

One possible way to "streamline that (backup) part"? iCloud.

For privacy and security reasons, never.


As @James Craner points out, since this was all caused by the video I am shooting on my iPhone, I probably just need to suck things up and keep video on an external drive.


@DeltaMac,

I don't suppose there is a way to still use CCC with an external drive is there?

 

[DeltaMac]

If you mean using CCC to backup an external drive to another drive, then that's just choosing the source (external drive) and the destination (another drive). Should work with no problems.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

If you mean using CCC to backup an external drive to another drive, then that's just choosing the source (external drive) and the destination (another drive). Should work with no problems.

But can you do that with a data-only drive?

Or does CCC require an OS on the "Source" and "Destination" drives?


Also, what I was thinking of was almost like backing up a RAID array.

I guess I already know the answer, because you can only choose a SINGLE "Source" drive and a SINGLE "Destination' drive, right?

 

[DeltaMac]

Data-only drive?
Just my opinion - Why even bother with CCC? (well, might be a faster copy routine, someone with more CCC experience will correct me, I bet) It's just data, in folders. No need for a "carbon copy" with just data.
Just drag your folders from the source to the destination drive. And (waiting for that to finish) it's that simple.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Data-only drive?
Just my opinion - Why even bother with CCC? (well, might be a faster copy routine, someone with more CCC experience will correct me, I bet) It's just data, in folders. No need for a "carbon copy" with just data.
Just drag your folders from the source to the destination drive. And (waiting for that to finish) it's that simple.

Fair enough.

Isn't there a thing called a "Fusion drive" that daisy-chains a bucnh of separate disks together to create a virtual disk?

If so, I wonder if you could use CCC on such a set up?

Even if you can, it doesn't really address my concern, which is having to deal with an external drive, and the fear of losing it, or forgetting to back it up, plus it just occurred tome that I also have the issue of needing to encrypt it....

 

[DeltaMac]

OK... Fusion drive on a Mac is a HDD and an SSD (so, two separate devices, both usually internal). Software setup so that both drives are used as a virtual drive, where the SSD is used for the fastest access to speed up booting, and most apps would also be accessed through the SSD -- and the HDD takes the slower end of the system, mostly file storage and other purposes. That has been used by Apple since 2012, at least partly as a stop-gap measure because of the expense of larger SSDs. I'm fairly sure that CCC supports fusion drives without a problem.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

OK... Fusion drive on a Mac is a HDD and an SSD (so, two separate devices, both usually internal). Software setup so that both drives are used as a virtual drive, where the SSD is used for the fastest access to speed up booting, and most apps would also be accessed through the SSD -- and the HDD takes the slower end of the system, mostly file storage and other purposes. That has been used by Apple since 2012, at least partly as a stop-gap measure because of the expense of larger SSDs. I'm fairly sure that CCC supports fusion drives without a problem.

Beat me to the punch so I'll stop writing my response!

I will add that Fusion drives aren't applicable to your post/situation, @Texas_Toast.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Beat me to the punch so I'll stop writing my response!

I will add that Fusion drives aren't applicable to your post/situation, @Texas_Toast.

Sorry that my threads lately have meandered all over the place, but such is my life right now!!


@Mr_Brightside_@,

Why would a Fusion drive not apply to my situation?

Obviously it wouldn't allow me to just have one internal drive, but IF I had to go to a two-drive paradigm, it sounds like from @DeltaMac that it would allow me to keep a one backup/cloning approach still, right?


Btw, what is the largest SSD I could put into my 2015 rMBP?

And is that a function more of the logic board or of the OS?

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

They are intended to be used while two drives are physically installed in the computer. You could probably hypothetically create one using Terminal with your built in SSD and an external HD, but I don't think the benefits would be worthwhile, and imagine catastrophe would occur if the external HD were unmounted or unavailable.

 

[James_C]

Fusion Drive is Apple Inc's implementation of a hybrid drive. It combines a hard disk drive with flash storage (solid-state drive and presents it as a single Core Storage managed logical volume with the space of both drives combined.

The operating system automatically manages the contents of the drive so the most frequently accessed files are stored on the faster flash storage, while infrequently used items move to or stay on the hard drive.

The Fusion drive has its fans, but I don't particularly like it, as the SSD part is normally quite small 24GB or so, and represents two points of failure ( Conventional HD and SSD) in a single device. Because of the small size of flash storage then it may not lend itself well to video projects because of the typically large file size.

A RAID device is made up of separate hard disks can be configured both as single volume and provide a level of security through data redundancy. At one time I had a Drobo storage device that took raid a step further and allowed you to use hard disks of different sizes to provide single volume and data redundancy. However that was an early version of the Drobo and was a little slow, and I replaced it with a 6TB Thunderbolt external drive a few years ago.

Unfortunately you have probably reached the point were you will need to buy a 2TB backup drive to backup your Mac's HDD and an External Drive. Just have one of your existing 1TB Externals as a dedicated extra external drive, and use your new 2TB device to back up both at the same time.
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The Largest SSD you could put in your MBP is a 2TB SSD.

I spent too long responding as I see @DeltaMac beat me by 20 mins!

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Fusion Drive is Apple Inc's implementation of a hybrid drive. It combines a hard disk drive with flash storage (solid-state drive and presents it as a single Core Storage managed logical volume with the space of both drives combined.

But to be clear, you are saying a "Fusion drive" is one physical drive made up of a mechanical HDD component and a SSD component?

(I was thinking a Fusion drive was the name of the virtual drive, and you could make a Fusion drive be anything you wanted (e.g. your laptop's interal SSD and any external HDD. Is that not the case?)

A RAID device is made up of separate hard disks can be configured both as single volume and provide a level of security through data redundancy. At one time I had a Drobo storage device that took raid a step further and allowed you to use hard disks of different sizes to provide single volume and data redundancy. However that was an early version of the Drobo and was a little slow, and I replaced it with a 6TB Thunderbolt external drive a few years ago.

Yeah, I understand RAID. (I guess I thought "Fusion drive" was maybe just the Apple name for a RAID array?

Unfortunately you have probably reached the point were you will need to buy a 2TB backup drive to backup your Mac's HDD and an External Drive. Just have one of your existing 1TB Externals as a dedicated extra external drive, and use your new 2TB device to back up both at the same time.
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The Largest SSD you could put in your MBP is a 2TB SSD.

I'm going to have to chew on all of this for a while, and since I'm nearly out of $$$ to survive, in some ways the solution is easy... ;-)

Money aside, I am leery to go to a 2TB drive because then it negates my current backup/recovery paradign which consists of like 12 - 1TB HDDs - yeah, I sorta went overboard... *LOL*

The backup/recovery solution I ideally want is this...

X-sized internal SSD in Retina #1. At least 2 x-sized HDDs here with me, with staggered CCC clones. Then at least 1 x-sized HDD out-of-state in storage, with a CCC clone that matches the latest backup. (I actually have like 3-4 CCC clones in storage with snapshots over a year or two.)

Then I need something identical for my MBP.

And Retina #2 is just a test bed right now, although I may turn it into my video production laptop soon enough.

between all of the articles I store from online - probably a 1GB per week, plus now video, I am getting my butt kciked withs torage as of late?!


I probably just need to get into a habit of manually backing up my external drive dedicated to iPhone videos for now, as that costs me $0. (I just fear I'll forget to do that, or forget to take that *extra* drive back home with me, and there will be a fire in my hotel or something, and I'll be SOL...)

Right now, I just have to mentally manage "One disk, one backup/clone" and it's pretty idiot-proof...

 

[James_C]

But to be clear, you are saying a "Fusion drive" is one physical drive made up of a mechanical HDD component and a SSD component?

(I was thinking a Fusion drive was the name of the virtual drive, and you could make a Fusion drive be anything you wanted (e.g. your laptop's interal SSD and any external HDD. Is that not the case?)

you are correct it is possible to make a fusion drive with a SSD and a HDD, it does not have to be one physical device.
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However it would not be a good idea to use your internal SSD and an external HDD, as you could never use your Mac without the external drive being connected, I am not sure if you could combine the two drives with thunderbolt anyway.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

you are correct it is possible to make a fusion drive with a SSD and a HDD, it does not have to be one physical device.
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However it would not be a good idea to use your internal SSD and an external HDD, as you could never use your Mac without the external drive being connected, I am not sure if you could combine the two drives with thunderbolt anyway.

Yeah, I don't think that makes sense, and @Mr_Brightside_@ seems to agree.

What is the largest internal SSD they make these days that will work in a MBP?

And how new does the MBP have to be to house such a drive?

Like I am curious if you can get a 4TB or 8TB SSD for a MBP yet?


Also, @James Craner, how big is your video drive?

Are you up to 4TB, 8TB, or larger? Or not yet?

Do you save your "workspace" - not sure if that exists in iMovie - or do you just keep the finished movies you make?

 

[pldelisle]

And how new does the MBP have to be to house such a drive?

Like I am curious if you can get a 4TB or 8TB SSD for a MBP yet?

SSDs in newer macbook air/pro models are soldered on motherboard. You can’t change them.
Max on MBP16 is 8TB.

Many people simply buy a NAS with either 10gbps or Thunderbolt 3 connectivity to work directly on the NAS or to make backup. This is the most efficient yet safe way to work and backup data.

You setup seems completely crazy. You seem to jungle with a ton of hdds, swapping them... wtf? Just get a NAS, throw in it 3 or 4 6-8 TB HDDs in RAID5, get a 8 TB external HDD to backup the most important things from the NAS periodically and you’ll be fine. The more you manipulate electronics and HDDs the more likely it will fail.

 

[sundialsoft]

Hello. I have a 2015 Retina MBP, 13" with macOS Sierra. It has a 1 TB HDD that is now full.

My two Retina MBP's are the last of their kind, and supposedly you can change the HDD.

So I would likd to know...

1.) Can I swap out the HDD/SSD in my Retina MBP myself?

2.) Do I need any crazy tools or knowledge?

3.) How do I check whether I have a HDD or SSD now?


In my ideal world, I would like to upgrade to a 2TB drive so I can keep using Carbon Copy Cloner as my backup solution, and not have to fiddle with external hard-drives...

Unfortunately, being out of work, this is a bad time to be spending money...

4.) Would it be foolish to get a 7200rpm, 2TB HDD if they exist?

5.) How much would a *reliable* 2TB or larger internal SSD cost these days?

6.) Any other advice?


Thanks.

Does your MBP have a DVD drive? My 2013 MBP had a DVD drive which I replaced with the original hard drive. I bought a little cheap kit which came with the required screwdriver and an enclosure to turn the DVD into an external one.

I bought a new SSD, put it in place of the original HDD and the HDD goes where the DVD was.
The companies selling upgrades should be able to assist in identifying compatibility.

 

[pldelisle]

Does your MBP have a DVD drive? My 2013 MBP had a DVD drive which I replaced with the original hard drive. I bought a little cheap kit which came with the required screwdriver and an enclosure to turn the DVD into an external one.

I bought a new SSD, put it in place of the original HDD and the HDD goes where the DVD was.
The companies selling upgrades should be able to assist in identifying compatibility.

He says 2015 MBP. Last MBP with DVD drives were non-Retina model in 2012.

 

[James_C]

Yeah, I don't think that makes sense, and @Mr_Brightside_@ seems to agree.

What is the largest internal SSD they make these days that will work in a MBP?

And how new does the MBP have to be to house such a drive?

Like I am curious if you can get a 4TB or 8TB SSD for a MBP yet?


Also, @James Craner, how big is your video drive?

Are you up to 4TB, 8TB, or larger? Or not yet?

Do you save your "workspace" - not sure if that exists in iMovie - or do you just keep the finished movies you make?

The largest INTERNAL SSD that is compatible with your particular MacBook Pro that I could find is 2TB from OtherWorld Computing. For the full kit it is almost $550. Even if you could get a larger device it would be very expensive.

I have two External drives permanently connected to my iMac. One is a 4TB device which is used to store music, videos and photo's. The other is a 6TB backup Hard disk which I use Time Machine to backup all my files on the internal SSD and the 4TB data drive. Time machine uses incremental backup's to backup both hard disks every hour. All my Photos are also stored in iCloud ( I have a 2TB plan). From Time to time I also use a a 2TB drive to backup data ( Movies and Documents) which I keep separate from the iMac.

I do tend to keep the source files for a video project for some time, then I may delete them periodically and just keep the final video.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

SSDs in newer macbook air/pro models are soldered on motherboard. You can’t change them.
Max on MBP16 is 8TB.

Okay.

Many people simply buy a NAS with either 10gbps or Thunderbolt 3 connectivity to work directly on the NAS or to make backup. This is the most efficient yet safe way to work and backup data.

Please refresh my memory about a NAS...

NAS = Network Area Storage, right?

Is that just an external RIAD box?

You setup seems completely crazy. You seem to jungle with a ton of hdds, swapping them... wtf?

It seems like everything I do is "crazy" to people here...

What can I say?! I am very "old-school" and I am very manual/analog/whatever.

I think that manual/mechanical processes are often far superior to "click a button and it just works" solutions.

Cleaning out the drawer in the TV credenza in my hotel room last night, I did come to realize that maybe I'm "hoarding" a bit... *LOL* But I still stand by my system.

Okay, so I have one 2012 MBP and two 2015 rMBPs plus some non-Mac laptops.

For my MBP, I have like 5 1TB HDDs with clones at various times over the last 2 years.

For rMBP1, I have like 5 1TB HDDs with clones at various times over the last 2 years.

Then I have a couple more HDDs with misc stuff like one with macOS installers, and a recent one with iPhone videos and am currently making a manual backup of the iPhone video drive.

Oh, and them out of state, I have maybe 4 drives for each laptop so I have snapshots over the last year and co-location backups in case of war!

Not sure how you would tackle things.

Sure, I could get a 30TB drive (figuratively) and backup everything on one drive and store it in my back pocket, but when that one drive stps working or gets stolen or lost, then I'd be screwed.

My only sorta regret is that I had spent some of that $$ on 2TB drives to buy me more time. But then again, I can see myself filling up a 4TB or 8TB drive pretty quickly as I get into video, so 1TB family of drives still makes some sense.

***********
Side note:

I have 135,000 photos and vidoes in my collection here in my hotel, totally about 800GB.

Just get a NAS, throw in it 3 or 4 6-8 TB HDDs in RAID5, get a 8 TB external HDD to backup the most important things from the NAS periodically and you’ll be fine. The more you manipulate electronics and HDDs the more likely it will fail.

Other than a little more clutter, how is that better than what I am doing?

You still have separate drives in a RAID array.


I think the only place I have failed in my current configuration is not using TimeMachine 24/7...

 

[pldelisle]

Ok this is next level.
Nobody on this forum will ever be able to convince you of using any other method.

This is just crazy. And not in a good way...
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I think the only place I have failed in my current configuration is not using TimeMachine 24/7...

And this is now that you notice this ?

Wow.
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I think that manual/mechanical processes are often far superior to "click a button and it just works" solutions.

You just can’t be more wrong 🤦‍♂️