But the payoff is that this is one of the very fastest external hard drives for an M1 Mac. That means this SSD can still unleash its maximum speed potential of up to 2000MB/s, really putting the 'extreme' in Extreme Pro.Ĭapacities range from 500GB to 2TB, which isn't all that much by today's standards. But the USB 4 ports on an M1 Mac are backward compatible with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. This is linked to your Mac via the short-lived USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 connection: the USB generation that directly preceded the current USB 4 standard.
Sadly, buying a hard drive that can utilise this tech is currently almost impossible, but this SanDisk drive is the next best thing.Īlthough strictly speaking this is a portable hard drive, rather than a device that lives on your desk, there's no reason why it can't be used in place of a bigger external desktop hard drive.Īnd while most external drives use older, slower mechanical hard disk drives to store your data, the Extreme Pro Portable SSD V2 is based around a blazing fast NVMe SSD. In the guide, you’ll find all the instructions, as well as links to buy the parts you need.If you have one of the latest M1 MacBooks or iMacs, you're able to connect a hard drive using the latest Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 interface.
You can see the guide to replacing the SSD is right there. The one caveat to that is if your Mac is old enough to use standard 2.5″ or 3.5″ HDDs, you can buy them anywhere. While you can find hard drive replacement kits through online retailers just by searching, we recommend iFixit because they only stock parts from reputable suppliers so you know you’re not going to get ripped off. They have guides for every Mac model and sell all the parts you need. Rather than walk you through every possible hard drive replacement, if you’ve decided to go it alone, I’m going to hand you off to our friends at iFixit. RELATED: Should You Repair Your Own Phone or Laptop? If you’re not sure you have the technical chops to do it right, you should consider asking a more qualified friend to help, or even going to the professionals. The Mac Pro is designed to have its hard drive replaced easily, while an iMac requires you to remove the entire screen. While it is possible to replace the hard drive on any Mac not listed above, how difficult it is varies wildly with the model.
This may change if a third-party manufacturer manages to create a compatible hard drive, but for the time being you’ll need to go to an Apple Store or an Apple Authorized Service Provider if you need your hard drive replaced.
This means that the Mac models you can’t upgrade the hard drive in are:
RELATED: How to Wipe Your Mac and Reinstall macOS from Scratch What Macs Hard Drives Can You Upgrade? This will help you figure out if you can upgrade the hard drive in your Mac, and help you find the right parts.
On the Overview tab you’ll see your Mac’s exact model.