Guides: upgrade storage in the Surface Studio

[illegaloperation]

iFixit now has guides to upgrading the hard drive and solid state drive in the Surface Studio.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Surface+Studio+M.2+SSD+Replacement/75600

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Surface+Studio+2.5-Inch+Hard+Drive+Replacement/75605

Since the guides were naturally written by yours truly, be sure to click "Give the author points" at the end of each guide. :winktongue:

 

[htmiata]

thank you for the steps required.

I have a question though....probably naive on my part but, what does the SSD do in the baseline configuration? Is that just to take the place of what would be normal read/write functions in the normal course of usage?

to put in a SSD in place of the hard drive the unit would need to be copied to the SSD from the hard drive...correct? I have a dual SATA drive duplicator port, but have not used it in that capacity yet. This device would format and then copy the hard drive contents to the SSD....correct?

 

[grob9642]

Fantastic instructions! Thanks for the post. I always need more storage.

 

[illegaloperation]

thank you for the steps required.

I have a question though....probably naive on my part but, what does the SSD do in the baseline configuration? Is that just to take the place of what would be normal read/write functions in the normal course of usage?

to put in a SSD in place of the hard drive the unit would need to be copied to the SSD from the hard drive...correct? I have a dual SATA drive duplicator port, but have not used it in that capacity yet. This device would format and then copy the hard drive contents to the SSD....correct?

"Rapid Hybrid Drive" uses Intel Smart Response Technology (SRT) that allows the SSD to work as a cache for a hard drive.

SSD Caching - Intel Z68 Chipset & Smart Response Technology (SSD Caching) Review

If you don't have a hard drive anymore, SRT won't be very useful.

One thing to mention is that Surface Studio with Intel Core i5 uses SATA III SSD for a cache while Surface Studio with Intel Core i7 uses PCIe NVME SSD for a cache so you might consider upgrading that SSD also.

Now, I am not exactly sure about cloning the drives because others that have done the upgrade also did clean installs afterward.

 

[illegaloperation]

Fantastic instructions! Thanks for the post. I always need more storage.

The big irony is that I don't have a Surface Studio nor have I ever seen one in person, yet I am writing guides for it.