Can you change the PCIe SSD of a Late 2013 '15 Macbook Pro?

[OrionMaster]

Windows is saying the drive contains errors. I also confirmed an issue with the Erase count using other driver health software (funny enough crystral disk info says the drive is fine but other programs don't confirm this). It looks like the drive will fail soon (no problem as of right now other than windows annoying popups every once and a while).

Can I install just about any new PCIe SSD on it? I got no Apple Care or Warranty. I also dont want Apple to fix this cause they will charge me like half the price of a new one (in my country anyway). I'm looking to buy the part and install it myself.
What are my options here?

Here is the issue

 

[manly]

These are Apple-proprietary but OWC sells them in the U.S. for select 2012/2013 models.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Air-Retina/Apple-MacBook-Pro-Retina-2012-Drive-Internal-Flash

 

[dave_the_nerd]

These are Apple-proprietary but OWC sells them in the U.S. for select 2012/2013 models.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC/Air-Retina/Apple-MacBook-Pro-Retina-2012-Drive-Internal-Flash

OWC doesn't sell them for the Late '13 models (MacBookPro11,2).

Basically your parts sources are eBay or an Apple Store.

 

[Rakehellion]

Just get one from ebay.

 

[OrionMaster]

what about using an external SSD plugged to the USB 3.0 port? I don't move around with this laptop much (pretty much never)

 

[Childs]

what about using an external SSD plugged to the USB 3.0 port? I don't move around with this laptop much (pretty much never)

You can boot off of a USB 3 flash drive if you want to. I bought a Sandisk that reads at 245MB/s and writes at 190MB/s, and I use it to run different versions of OS X.

 

[OrionMaster]

You can boot off of a USB 3 flash drive if you want to. I bought a Sandisk that reads at 245MB/s and writes at 190MB/s, and I use it to run different versions of OS X.

great. how did you configured that to run off the flash drive in a Mac? I'm a bios guy

 

[OrionMaster]

Also, could this issue be a simple firmware bug or something? Because I got conflicting info from different programs
Crystal says everything is fine

Windows doesn't

Sentinel says everything is fine. They say the SSD is "perfect"

Gsmart Control contradicts that

Maybe its a simple issue that is being mistaken for a big problem? I did no windows update or any major change recently

 

[OrionMaster]

OSX disk utility confirms the problem. So it looks like the drive will die soon

 

[TheStu]

great. how did you configured that to run off the flash drive in a Mac? I'm a bios guy

You don't have to do anything special to run OS X off a flash drive. Windows is a whole other matter that I don't know the answer to.

For OS X:
Format the thumb drive as GUID with an HFS+ partition
Clone your existing install to the thumb drive (or install fresh)
Hold Option/Alt and restart you Mac
The thumbdrive should be listed as a boot option

But, all that said, if you have the funds, get a system pulled one from ebay. The drive itself is replaceable, it's just proprietary.

 

[Childs]

You don't have to do anything special to run OS X off a flash drive. Windows is a whole other matter that I don't know the answer to.

For OS X:
Format the thumb drive as GUID with an HFS+ partition
Clone your existing install to the thumb drive (or install fresh)
Hold Option/Alt and restart you Mac
The thumbdrive should be listed as a boot option

Once an OS is installed on a flash drive you can also just choose it as a startup disk.

But, all that said, if you have the funds, get a system pulled one from ebay. The drive itself is replaceable, it's just proprietary.

I did a check on ebay last night, and strangely its actually cheaper to buy the OWC or Transcend SSD for this Mac than buy the used Apple drive on eBay.

One thing I overlooked is it looks like the OP wants to run bootcamp from it. From what I can gather it can be done, but it will require some effort. Its mainly a Windows installing on external media issue. This thread has someone (Pierre80) that claims to have done it, and other people verified it.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5431182?start=15&tstart=0

A fast USB 3 flash drive is cheap (64GB ~ $40USD), or you can try it on any flash drive which would just be slower, but it would be probably better to just get a replacement drive like the others have said.

 

[TheStu]

I did a check on ebay last night, and strangely its actually cheaper to buy the OWC or Transcend SSD for this Mac than buy the used Apple drive on eBay.

OWC and Transcend don't make PCIe SSDs for the Late 2013+ rMBPs (that I can see).

 

[Childs]

OWC and Transcend don't make PCIe SSDs for the Late 2013+ rMBPs (that I can see).

You're right, I was looking at early 2013 not late.

 

[OrionMaster]

What are you guys best guess of how long this drive will last? (I already backed up everything). I'm trying to find the spare part on my country's ebay but no luck so far. Importing it will cost me 60%+ more with the import tax plus shipping (around $50 for the faster ones). Total cost would be around $400. Quite expensive

 

[OrionMaster]

Also, are Thunderbolt hard drives an option? I called Apple and they want $600 to fix this. ridiculous price given that I paid $1050 for the machine

 

[manly]

What are you guys best guess of how long this drive will last? (I already backed up everything). I'm trying to find the spare part on my country's ebay but no luck so far. Importing it will cost me 60%+ more with the import tax plus shipping (around $50 for the faster ones). Total cost would be around $400. Quite expensive

It's a bit mystical, but S.M.A.R.T. errors are not necessarily predictive of drive failures. I don't think there's enough public data on SMART errors and SSDs for us to know.

Also, attribute 173 is vendor-specific so you'll have a very difficult time of interpreting that data. GSmartControl "looks correct" but who knows?

Aren't ThunderBolt drives very expensive in general?
If you hardly ever move your laptop around, then running an SSD inside a USB3 enclosure is not a bad idea.

USB flash drives may have good sequential performance but typically suck at random seeks. Sorry I originally missed that you have a late 2013 model.

Here's hoping Apple will quickly move to industry-standard NVMe in 2016, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[OrionMaster]

It's a bit mystical, but S.M.A.R.T. errors are not necessarily predictive of drive failures. I don't think there's enough public data on SMART errors and SSDs for us to know.

Also, attribute 173 is vendor-specific so you'll have a very difficult time of interpreting that data. GSmartControl "looks correct" but who knows?

But doesn't MacOSX disk utility warning me about the drive raise the chance that the problem is a very real one?

 

[Koing]

On a side note I can not believe apple are charging £400 from the 512GB SSD to the 1TB on the Macbook Pro .

That is HORRIFIC.

And WOW SSD have dropped a lot on the pricing front. £270 gets you a 1TB drive.

Koing

 

[OrionMaster]

On a side note I can not believe apple are charging £400 from the 512GB SSD to the 1TB on the Macbook Pro .

That is HORRIFIC.

And WOW SSD have dropped a lot on the pricing front. £270 gets you a 1TB drive.

Koing

I hear you man, I'm done with this apple nonsense. I bought the macbook thinking it was going to give me durability. 9 months in and the SSD is going bust (ok i bought it used but come on, the SSD is supposed to last 5 years or more). I can't even install a regular one like I would be able to with a regular laptop. So now my idea of saving time with a durable product turns into time wasting to get the part imported and install it myself. The apple repair price was so ridiculous I could buy a pretty good dell or asus laptop with it so I completely ruled it out

 

[Koing]

I hear you man, I'm done with this apple nonsense. I bought the macbook thinking it was going to give me durability. 9 months in and the SSD is going bust (ok i bought it used but come on, the SSD is supposed to last 5 years or more). I can't even install a regular one like I would be able to with a regular laptop. So now my idea of saving time with a durable product turns into time wasting to get the part imported and install it myself. The apple repair price was so ridiculous I could buy a pretty good dell or asus laptop with it so I completely ruled it out

I don't have any complaints about the Macbook from 2008 (replaced the battery 2x, the track pad is going a bit click or weird, but to be fair it's given me 6yrs of solid use) and the rMBP 13 I have is rock solid. I just hate the SSD upgrade price since SSD's are much cheaper now.

Koing

 

[OrionMaster]

The problem with apple is that they only have 2 prices: expensive and expensive as shit

 

[Koing]

The problem with apple is that they only have 2 prices: expensive and expensive as shit

The laptop itself is expensive but it's something that isn't crazy expensive IMO. The upgrade on the SSD is just obscene.

Koing

 

[rugby]

The problem with apple is that they only have 2 prices: expensive and expensive as shit

The great thing is that they pretty much last FOREVER. I have Macbook Pros from 8 years ago still in production use at my house for my kids. Still look perfect too since they are built like tanks.

 

[Childs]

I stopped buying MBP's when you couldnt upgrade the RAM and hard drives. Wont buy an iMac and MacMini for the same reason. Once my current machines die I'll have some big decisions to make regarding the platform. Hopefully I can just rebuy the same models I have.

 

[rugby]

I stopped buying MBP's when you couldnt upgrade the RAM and hard drives. Wont buy an iMac and MacMini for the same reason. Once my current machines die I'll have some big decisions to make regarding the platform. Hopefully I can just rebuy the same models I have.

Or you could just max out the ram when you purchase the machine and not worry about it ever again.

Seriously, all of their machines can be upgraded to 16GB of ram for around $200 (if they don't already include it). That's pennies/month over the life of the machine.