General grumpiness about this particular design decision aside, it appears that since the T2 Macs, the main SSD was being used to store core system firmware. On T2 I think it's BridgeOS that sends the EFI image to the Intel side to boot it, and it does the firmware verification and loading. This setup has a benefit; namely, it is now impossible to brick the system with a bad BIOS/EFI flash, and you'll never need to u…
Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed
251–260 of 422 posts
Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed
#252General grumpiness about this particular design decision aside, it appears that since the T2 Macs, the main SSD was being used to store core system firmware. On T2 I think it's BridgeOS that sends the EFI image to the Intel side to boot it, and it does the firmware verification and loading. This setup has a benefit; namely, it is now impossible to brick the system with a bad BIOS/EFI flash, and you'll never need to u…
…the flying fuck?!
I stopped reading here. I was all for your comment until I heard this nonsense.
…in what world is this acceptable? What computer have you personally purchased between 1980-2010 that could not have had this core essential part simply replaced if it did not function correctly?
I’m not sorry for complaining; either. I’ve been used to the $2k-4k machines I invest in to have replaceable parts that I can fix in the city or town (that may not have an Apple Store) I am in without any excess effort or extended time.
This has been the standard for decades. It is not unreasonable to ask for an offering from this company whom I’ve almost exclusively purchased hardware from for more than 15 years.
It’s a fucking huge deal if I can’t simply boot from an external drive if my main one doesn’t work - mainly because the internal one can’t be replaced!
I mean; I get defending Apple - I’m in their camp - but this is just absolute nonsense. Yes. That’s a huge fucking deal. A deal-breaker; even.
Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed
#253General grumpiness about this particular design decision aside, it appears that since the T2 Macs, the main SSD was being used to store core system firmware. On T2 I think it's BridgeOS that sends the EFI image to the Intel side to boot it, and it does the firmware verification and loading. This setup has a benefit; namely, it is now impossible to brick the system with a bad BIOS/EFI flash, and you'll never need to u…
》The primary argument against soldering the SSD, or really any other part, down like this tends to be that "Oh, now you can't just save money by upgrading it yourself|replacing it when it breaks Are you trolling? The primary argument is data recovery. Anything on laptop can die: charging port, motherboard... With soldered ssd your data are gone! You need to resolder SSD into exact same machine type, it may take 5 wee…
Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed
#254Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed
#255Earlier quoted context omitted.
These days I don’t understand why people don’t sync their important files to cloud. Dropbox has a free layer that’s perfectly fit for a theses.
Maybe because not everyone likes to share their most important files with a third party? Or because of providers scanning files or stuff like: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv...
Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed
#256Earlier quoted context omitted.
Looks like all their laptops use Intel processors? Do they let you control and disable Intel's management engine on that CPU? If not then I don't see how one really "owns" the hardware.
Dell allows you to disable it (but it’s not really repairable) system76 and librem I think has it removed (but they’re not worth it for the specs).
Then again, their tower is exorbitant, so...maybe not.
Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed
#257The only lens I care about these days is the impending climate disaster. Technology like this, that embodies a lot of carbon and has a built-in expiration date, is getting more and more upsetting to me. I don't need a faster computer, I need air that will still be breathable in 20 years. My next computer will likely be whatever 5-10 year old laptop I can snatch up on it's way to the landfill. It definitely won't be a…
Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed
#258Earlier quoted context omitted.
> soldered-to-the-motherboard, everything-utterly-encrypted approach is that it's almost impossible to do data recovery Well, that's kind of the point. > You just have to be damn sure that you back it up correctly. Exactly. And that's as easy as plugging in an external hard drive occasionally, or storing critical files in the cloud.
Back it up to some cloud vendor that also holds the encryption keys... Brilliant bit of security there... /s
Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed
#259Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does anyone laugh a bit at these types of comments? Using these "stupid" and "unjustifiable" approaches, apple has delivered highly reliable / fast machines to lots of users. They come with applecare if you want, which gets you walk in fix/replace at their stores. Note, they've already don't this on iphones - millions shipped. They are going for as much reliability / speed out of this for the 90%+ of users who are no…
You are arguing without any arguments. 1) I agree that some integration is intimately tied to how well the machines performs. I also referenced this in my comment. What I don't agree to is the SSD being soldered on. It uses the same PCIe lanes it would use if it was swappable ! As for the "stupid" approach, it really doesn't make much sense to tie the capability of the machine FUNCTIONING to a storage that you cannot…
* Any connector is a potential failure point. Generally with a connector you double the connection points (ie, SSD -> Connector -> now soldered to board). So if you are soldering anyways, and can solder to board directly, then you save yourself both a part and a bunch of connection points. This is good news for everything (signal loss, noise / RFI / durability etc). When you warranty and offer applecare on expensive devices, you want these warrenty claims to be low.
* Apple's mode has been to integrate / tighten things up - that is their design philosophy. They are going to integrate as many chips into one as they can (ie, you won't be even able to unsolder a T2 chip because there won't be one). There stuff, again, is meant to be used as an integrated whole, there is no mix / match here.
* They are going to solder memory as well down - you won't be able to replace that either. Then they are going to try and integrate memory into same package as CPU / GPU. I realize this makes folks mad, but it's what they do and it's been very successful for them. I think some of their LPDDR stuff only comes in a solder on format (and M1 is going towards even more integration - I actually like mix and match on my desktops so don't use macs so not following so closely but I know they were thinking of literally not even soldering but integrating fully).
* I saw first hand a number of claims BTW where replacement batteries had been put into macbooks and iphones as part of resales and people then went and complained to apple or about apple online when those batteries had problems. I think even when replaceable, they've added warnings in these cases. But it goes to show the quality in the mix and match department is hit and miss.
Frankly, it's probably 95%+ of their millions / billions of devices that won't get an upgrade. They've done same with airpods, no removable batteries. A ton of companies, again, or COPYING these designs.
Re: Apple Silicon Macs can't boot from external drive if internal drive failed
#260Earlier quoted context omitted.
I finished the life of a SSD in a single year of regular use; it was great to find it should not happen, but it did.
What drive? What was the end of life behavior you observed? Catastrophic failure, or SMART data showing wearout?