I have a MacBook Pro with Applecare and I just bought a 250GB Western Digital Scorpio for it. I am not Apple certified but I am not at all worried that I will have trouble with the install. I was wondering if it will void the Applecare to install the drive myself. If I do install the drive myself, could I just take it out before I send it in for repairs? Also, if I technically would have to take it to an Apple authorized repair center to have the drive installed, would Apple have any way of knowing if I just did it myself?
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Applecare Question
- Thread starter 0939084
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my advice:
regardless if you think you need it or not....get Applecare. please. you won't regret it if you do.
Thanks for the response. I actually have Applecare, my question is whether or not installing the drive I bought will void the warranty.
Now, I'm not sure how the current MBP's hard drive install goes - but if it is under the keyboard like the pre Intel TiBook's - you should be fine, barring you don't actually break anything or bend any connectors while putting in the new drive.
As you said, you can just take it out and pop in the old one in the event of any repairs. As far as if they would *know* if you took in the MBP with upgraded drive into them - well, by looking at it - no way - but AppleCare may require paperwork to show that the upgrade was done by an authorized repair center - so without that, they could try to void your warranty - even if the hard drive installation isn't the problem. If it came to that - I'd just run to Best Buy, plunk down the $60 for a hard drive install (after the fact, who cares) so you could have paper work showing Apple you didn't do it yourself.
If you are sure you can do it, just keep the old drive in the new drive's box/static free bag and replace it if a repair is necessary.
By that same token, does modifying your SuperDrive with unofficial firmware void your warranty if it doesn't break the drive? Since it's software I would think it shouldn't, but it might given that the firmware is the most low level software available.