Much attention has been paid in recent days to the possibility that Mac Studio SSDs are hot-swappable and therefore we could expand the storage space of our Macs after shopping. That doesn’t appear to be the case, let alone the recommendation, but the details are much more intricate than it appears.
A possible change, in theory, but with several unknowns
With the first units of Mac Studio reaching the hands of customers, some of them have already been encouraged to take it apart completely. This is how we discovered that the SSDs in these computers are not soldered to the boardbut can be extracted.
Mac Studios has two slots in which to connect these storages, so it would seem that it is possible expand internal storage after purchase. The truth, however, is that changing the SSDs in the Mac Studio renders it unusable because the operating system cannot boot. Instead, the LED on the front of the computer sends an SOS in Morse code and the boot process stops.
The reason for this behavior forces us to go into somewhat technical details, which we will try to explain in a fairly simplified way. As developer Hector Martin tells us on Twitter, the modules that we see in the image above these lines is not really an SSD, but a RAW storage module. In other words, an SSD has multiple RAW storage modules that together manage data.
Just as you can’t swap out the core modules of an SSD and expect data to be preserved, the same is true for these storage modules in Mac Studio. SSD controllers are part of the M1 Max and the M1 Ultra, so a possible change requires at least a thorough cleaning to work occasionally.
Luckily, Apple’s software allows you to perform a very low-level wipe of storage drives if you’re performing a DFU restore. this allows recover the correct functioning of these modules in the event that the information has been corrupted.
This DFU restores, in theory, should allow you to change Mac Studio RAW storage drives, but the truth is that other considerations come into play here. Both modules must be the same size and can be from the same manufacturer. Also, we will definitely have to do a DFU wipe before even considering the change to work.
Let’s keep in mind that macOS requires cryptographically signed volumes to boot. This is done in order to extend the chain of trust from hardware to software on the computer. So, even with the procedures just mentioned, the computer may not be able to boot after a change in the RAW storage modules.
So what are we left with? Will you be able to add more storage?
The truth is that, on the whole, everything seems to indicate that this is not the case. As far as we know, awaiting new data and evidence as Mac Studios reach more people, the storage is not expandable. We don’t even know if Apple, despite having separated this component from the board, perhaps only due to manufacturing processes, can replace it.
So when asked during the buying process for a new Mac Studio, the recommendation is always to configure it with the amount of storage which we will need. For something Apple claims that this storage is not accessible to the user.
On the other hand, it should be kept in mind that, even if a Mac Studio may be brought to work with a new storage unit, successive software updates may not be compatible with this change. For the moment we will have to wait for further tests and analyzesbut, if in doubt, it is better to configure a larger input storage.
