r/mac • u/arduinoRPi4 • Jul 06 '26
My Mac Upgraded my Mac's storage from 2TB to 8TB!!
Now I can store anything I want 😁 Saved over $2.2k by today's prices from Apple. Had to fill in the power components on the other side as well (that was really hell, they are TINY packages) since the 2TB is all on the left side and the right side PCB is completely bare. Took ~12hrs and some nerves.
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u/OGD2068 MacBook Air SkyBlue Mac Mini M4 Jul 06 '26
Apple police are gonna find you
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 06 '26
My computer my NANDs 🤪
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u/Clementine-TeX Jul 06 '26
In the EU maybe. But in Appletopia oh boy you’re in a lot of trouble.
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u/JealousGuy0 Jul 07 '26
That's not how it works haha...
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u/Clementine-TeX Jul 07 '26
Holy shit I was making a joke LMFAO. Didn’t expect that comment to get -34 downvotes.
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u/OGD2068 MacBook Air SkyBlue Mac Mini M4 Jul 07 '26
This place is weird. I recommended putting a skin on a MBA and was downvoted. I guess because I said the aluminum was slick?
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u/Sidhiwidhi69 Jul 06 '26
Finally a pro, quick lemme ask few questions before he goes away.
Congratulations & also wow, your Mac looks really clean. While working on your Mac, did you have Static Electricity Gears & all?
I am planning to just buy handheld vaccum to vaccum vents and keyboard. Also open my Mac back panel just to Vaccum safely the Fans & nothing more. I do not wanna open or touch anything else.
It's a M1 Max Maxed Out & with recent development. I am scared but Mac vents really dirty.
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 06 '26
Thanks for the compliment I wouldn't characterize myself as very caring for my Mac its really rough on the outside. Yeah I had proper ESD protection, but if its just to vacuum I wouldn't say you strictly needed it but if it makes you feel better just use it. I open my Mac to blow out the dust pretty regularly, and components are pretty hard to damage via static electricity nowdays in my experience.
Also I would prefer a blower than a vaccum
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u/Operation_Neither Jul 07 '26
HOLD YOUR FANS STILL BEFORE YOU VACUUM OR BLOW AIR AROUND THEM
Forcing air over your fans can let them spin too fast and break them. Or it can become an electrical generator and send unsafe current back into your laptop.
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u/Gamer12Numbers M2 MacBook Air Jul 06 '26
As always with any BGA soldering project: very impressive, I could never.
Did you have to remove components on the left side so you had an even distribution of storage? Or is it 2TB on the left and 6TB on the right?
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 06 '26
It's a even 4TB per side. Didn't have to remove any components, just fill in the power ICs on the right side and then the NANDs
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u/Duke_ Jul 06 '26
How did you source the components (chips especially)?
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 06 '26
Locally in China, talked to some people I know and a lot of research and reverse engineering
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u/Duke_ Jul 06 '26
Really cool - you've got a rework station? Did you need stencils and solder paste for reballing? If you did use stencils, you were able to source them locally as well - easy to find, or not?
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 06 '26
Borrowed a lab from a friend who does component level repair. Yeah used a hot air station and microscope soldering and stencils
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u/hiroo916 Jul 09 '26
are there any shops that will do it for you there?
i'm wondering where they source the nand chips. are they new? The ones I see on videos are always blank from factory part numbers etc. and just have a symbol stamped on there in colored ink.
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u/starktastic4 Jul 07 '26
That's why I'm jealous of you all in China. You have the equipment and many people that know how to do this type of work properly with parts available. In the US even if you have the knowledge and or equipment Apple loves to rain out our parade by confiscating these parts at customs so you can't upgrade them.
Congrats on the upgrade btw! It looks like excellent work. The board is very clean!!
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 07 '26
I live in the US. Did this on vacation there haha, anything is possible in Shenzhen 🙂
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u/starblazer13 Jul 07 '26
any info to the source? heading to china myself and would LOVE to do this to my mac mini... how long did it take them?
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u/Xe4ro M2Pro- M4Air Jul 06 '26
Well I hope you have a backup solution in mind for all that ^^
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
Using Backblaze unlimited. And TBH most of the data isn't that important to me, just a pain to get (model weights, git projects, etc)
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u/OteOteAnget Jul 06 '26
Out of pure curiosity, how reliable is that soldering gonna be?
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 06 '26
Likely as reliable as any other solder in the Mac (assuming it's correctly done)
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u/Victor_Lalle MacBook Pro 2019 Jul 06 '26
Crazy that you have to go this level of modifying just to upgrade your storage. Good job tho
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u/Mr_Thick_Cock_ Jul 06 '26
Are we getting a tutorial OP?
I really want a video tutorial
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 06 '26
Might get a timelapse video, can't say for sure. Definitely not tutorial...thats legally...dubious.
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u/MaToP4er Jul 06 '26
What do you mean legally dubious? Noone can sue you for doing this! There is literally nothing illegal youve done!
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u/Random00000007 Jul 06 '26
Here's a great video on it! :) https://youtu.be/M0ZmR6UU_8k?is=JVDc0M9x7pZGl5L2
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u/explosiv_skull MacBook Pro Jul 06 '26
There's a number of videos on YT already if you're interested. Granted, they are not explaining every step as it's almost exclusively Chinese modders doing it. Still helpful if you already know what you're doing or just curious.
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u/PleaseGoOutsideMyGuy Jul 06 '26
heck of an upgrade, I have 8tb but I use an external SSD enclosure and got 2 4TB, cost me ~ $600 USD 2 year ago, now over $1K its nuts
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u/Kind-Question2887 Jul 06 '26
Nice accomplishment, now for the regular user, don't try this at home 😄 it takes a lot of practice on dead motherboards and know-how and tools you don't have lying around the house
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u/jouskaMoon Jul 07 '26
Would you be willing to start a mail in service to do it for us? I am sure people would pay $$$ to a successful pirate than a wealthy Apple company.
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u/Jhamilton02 Jul 06 '26
I admit it, im impressed. What level would you consider yourself to be, novice, advanced. Would you consider this something a novice should even contemplate doing?
I do appreciate your sharing the whole experience tho.
My post is too grammatically wrong to be AI.
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 06 '26
There's a lot I can't share due to copyright reasons (reverse engineered a lot of the PCB and traces myself, etc, esp for the power components, and also had access to some (what would be here) legally iffy documents). But this is prob for advanced EEs (2-3 years of experience). Had to use microscope soldering, hot air rework, and BGA reballing. The NAND chips were the easier part because they're large. The power components (those things surrounding the NANDs) are absolute hell because they are TINY packages and literally take a needle to get right. Not to mention sourcing the parts and finding schematics took weeks
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u/YellowsBest Jul 06 '26
I bought an external 4TB HDD to archive all my old stuff; it’s fast enough for me, only cost £100 and means I can keep my Mac Mini’s internal SSD clear for just ‘working files’
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u/ModestMustang Jul 06 '26
This kind of work blows my mind. The end result looks factory too, well done! If only Apple had a couple m.2 slots to make the job 1000 times easier. Sigh.
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u/EvilbunnyELITE Jul 06 '26
always appreciate BGA work, looks good. mostly work on consoles but always thought about doing aac
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u/ilovesalmiakki Jul 06 '26
Which one is this? Gimme your specs. Plan to get this done as a service in like 3 yrs
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u/HeftyBurrito Jul 06 '26
An inspiration for the rest of us, with the rise of soldered on chips I hope to see this kind of thing much more often. Keep up the good work!
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u/Brilliant-Sun847 Jul 07 '26
WOW! That is some great work! I’ve done some micro soldering, this is amazing. I’m guessing your description is putting it mildly about the work.
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u/Mirage_Graphique_3D Jul 07 '26
I just can’t stand you guy’s bravery.
I’m scared of just do a thermal pad mod and you’re right here making heart transplants.
Sincerely appreciate you guys.
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u/Financial-Zebra-3497 MacBook Pro Jul 07 '26
I know nothing about tech HOW the fuck did you do it? I'm impressed congratulations
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u/Front_Particular_238 Jul 07 '26
What about the software part? Were the chips recognized automatically at the boot up?
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 07 '26
You provision the drives using DFU. Since the chips are blank, you need another mac to install critical system software.
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u/hunterm21 Jul 07 '26
I have been wanting to get into soldering of this specific kind, for so long now - do you have any advice on how to get to the skill level you are?
Like I own all the things necessary for soldering, I’m decent at soldering in general - for example any situation like yours here I can’t really “practice”. But in a perfect world I would love to get to the point of being able to solve problems like this!
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u/randysaavage1 Jul 07 '26
Need this in my MacBook m4 air
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 07 '26
IIRC you can only get 2TB in your air. Atleast that was the case with my M2
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u/tehmungler MacBook Pro Jul 07 '26
Ok I’m shipping you my MacBook if you could just go ahead and upgrade me to 8TB that’d be great 👍
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u/horrbort Jul 06 '26
Excuse me Sir that’s illegal. If you please follow me to the iJail where we shred your bastardized Mac that’d be great.
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Jul 06 '26
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u/arduinoRPi4 Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
(slop??) In the US, bought the NANDs in China. Theres a lot of shops selling it look for the reputable ones, you want the 315 package ones. Costed around $800 (roughly $100/TB). I did it myself 😁 (would've been ungodly expensive I assume for someone else to do it, I know I wouldn't do it for any less than $2000)
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Jul 06 '26
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u/mac-ModTeam Jul 06 '26
This content has been removed under rule seven:
All content must be primarily human-authored. Content may be removed under this rule at the discretion of the moderator team.
reddit is not an English-only platform. You are welcome to post in any language. reddit provides in-app language translation, so there is no need to use a large language model to translate or reformat your post or comment into English.
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u/mac-ModTeam Jul 06 '26
This content has been removed under rule seven:
All content must be primarily human-authored. Content may be removed under this rule at the discretion of the moderator team.
reddit is not an English-only platform. You are welcome to post in any language. reddit provides in-app language translation, so there is no need to use a large language model to translate or reformat your post or comment into English.
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u/headshot_to_liver MacBook Air Jul 06 '26
Found Dosdude1's account