Apple and Third Party Hardware

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Hello I am a brand new apple user and after much googleing still can not seem to find an answer to this question. (Apologies if this is the wrong area of the website to post)

Is it a violation of apples terms of service to replace the factory installed hard drive with a larger third party one?

I understand that it is a violation of the terms of service to install OSX on non-apple hardware and I was wondering if installing a third party hard drive would be a violation. If so would I need to buy a first party hard drive directly from apple, or is it completely taboo to poke around inside an apple product?

Simply put can you replace the hard drive of an Apple laptop with a third party hard drive?
 

chscag

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Welcome to the Mac-Forums!

I understand that it is a violation of the terms of service to install OSX on non-apple hardware

This means that OS X or any Apple operating system can not be installed on non Apple hardware. In other words, I can not install OS X on my Dell or Toshiba PC.

As for other hardware peripherals such as the hard drive or memory modules, third party replacements can be used without voiding the warranty. However, nowadays it's very difficult to replace an internal hard drive in an iMac and any of the retina machines. Which is why we recommend buying Apple Care to extend the warranty to three years from one year. And only the 27" iMac and Mac Pro can accept additional memory user installed. The MacBook Pro line (with the exception of the 2012 MacBook Pro which is still being sold) all have the memory modules permanently soldered to the main board. The new Mac Mini is the same way.
 

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