Installing larger flash drive

I have a 512 gb flash drive on my MacBook Pro. I moved all my files from my PC some months ago, but realized that the 512 GB flash drive is going to run out of room soon. Can a larger flash drive be installed (not by me of course) and all the files on the present flash drive transferred over?

It depends on what MBPro model you have, and some can have their SSD's replaced, but it's a bit of a PITA to do, or let macsales.com etc. do it for you — if your model qualifies. Start here to check your actual model:
Apple MacBook Pro Specs (All MacBook Pro Tech Specs) @ EveryMac.com

pixeltaker said:

I have a 512 gb flash drive on my MacBook Pro. I moved all my files from my PC some months ago, but realized that the 512 GB flash drive is going to run out of room soon. Can a larger flash drive be installed (not by me of course) and all the files on the present flash drive transferred over?

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Well, you'll need to provide more information on your MBPro, i.e. model/year - also, if you want to go to say 1 TB as an internal SSD, then not an inexpensive upgrade - check Other World Computing to match your MBP model to a SSD size of your choice to see the price. Dave

RadDave said:

Well, you'll need to provide more information on your MBPro, i.e. model/year - also, if you want to go to say 1 TB as an internal SSD, then not an inexpensive upgrade - check Other World Computing to match your MBP model to a SSD size of your choice to see the price. Dave

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MacBook Pro, purchased new in September 2014. Yosemite OS. Model Identifier: MacBookPro11,3

pixeltaker said:

MacBook Pro, purchased new in September 2014. Yosemite OS. Model Identifier: MacBookPro11,3

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Hi again - well I went to my link and your model is so new, I did not see a listing - I have a MBPro 10,2 (spring 2013) - a 1 TB SSD replacement is over $500, so likely comparable to what you would need. You can contact them - I'm sure there is one (or soon to be) available. Dave

RadDave said:

Hi again - well I went to my link and your model is so new, I did not see a listing - I have a MBPro 10,2 (spring 2013) - a 1 TB SSD replacement is over $500, so likely comparable to what you would need. You can contact them - I'm sure there is one (or soon to be) available. Dave

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Thank you. I didn't see one for my model either. I still have about 50 GB free, so I'll have time to think about what I want to do. What I would really like to do is move all my photos (which takes up the most space) onto a blank EHD and work with that file from there, but then I don't think my Time Machine would back them up from EHD. So I am at a quandary as to what direction to go. I didn't think through my initial Mac purchase or I would have gotten a bigger internal flash drive.

As they say, hind sight has 20/20 vision.

While Time Machine is not useful for making backups of an external hard drive, Carbon Copy Cloner is. I highly recommend purchasing CCC and use it to backup your external hard drive(s). Even if Mac Sales should come up with a replacement kit for you rMBP flash drive, it's a difficult procedure, expensive, and may void your warranty. Apple has not yet approved replacing the flash drives in the retina machines as they have replacing the spinning hard drives in other older model MacBook Pros.

chscag said:

While Time Machine is not useful for making backups of an external hard drive, Carbon Copy Cloner is. I highly recommend purchasing CCC and use it to backup your external hard drive(s). Even if Mac Sales should come up with a replacement kit for you rMBP flash drive, it's a difficult procedure, expensive, and may void your warranty. Apple has not yet approved replacing the flash drives in the retina machines as they have replacing the spinning hard drives in other older model MacBook Pros.

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I looked around at the CCC site, and found no information concerning backing up external hard drives. Is that all it does, or does it also back up internal flash/hard drives in the Mac itself?

Carbon Copy Cloner will backup internal and external hard drives. It can also "clone" an internal hard drive, flash drive to an external drive and render it bootable. It can clone an external hard drive to another external hard drive. Many of us use CCC in addition to Time Machine. Well worth the $40 day registration fee.

CCC can work with any mounted drive or volume. And either just some selected data or complete clones and can even clone/copy from any external to another external.

And yes, even any internal drive as well.



Sorry for any duplication chscag, but it can't hurt.

chscag said:

Carbon Copy Cloner will backup internal and external hard drives. It can also "clone" an internal hard drive, flash drive to an external drive and render it bootable. It can clone an external hard drive to another external hard drive. Many of us use CCC in addition to Time Machine. Well worth the $40 day registration fee.

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When you say "registration fee", what does that mean? It didn't say on the web site either. I subscribe to Carbonite which only backs up files and for my Mac it is $59 a year. So, I'm confused as to what the $40 is for. Just to register? Yearly?

The $40 is the cost of the Carbon Copy Cloner program. It was free at one time IIRC but it isn't anymore.