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OWC DIYs Won’t Void Your Mac’s Warranty

Thursday, May 2nd, 2013 | Author: OWC Larry

Macs are beautifully built machines. They’re solid, sleek and easy to use. While powerful from the factory, their performance and capabilities can be improved immediately and/or over time with user-installed upgrades like more RAM, larger and faster hard drive, a performance SSD, even adding a second internal drive to a Mac notebook. This upgrade capability allows a Mac owner to truly realize the maximum use-life of their technology investment. Unfortunately though, there exists a misconception among some users and even technicians that opening the machine voids the warranty.

We address this topic directly with customers via our support portals and are happy to inform you here of the same fact: upgrading your Mac does not void its warranty.

This consumer protection is owed to the little known Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act of 1975. Put simply, the act states that a company can’t require you to upgrade with only its own branded parts to retain the warranty. This important act protects your rights as a consumer and allows you to install OWC upgrades with peace of mind confidence.

However, the warranty doesn’t cover any damage incurred while installing upgrades. That’s why OWC’s free, step-by-step “how-to” DIY videos are extremely easy to follow for even advanced upgrades. See for yourself how easy it is at macsales.com/installvideos. If, however, after watching our videos, you’re still not comfortable performing one or more upgrades, OWC offers Turnkey Upgrade Programs for many Mac models, or you can opt to hire a professional.

At OWC, we strive to educate consumers – and help them save time and money – by encouraging a DIY philosophy. Now you can give your Mac the boost it needs (our award-winning SSDs and memory are a great place to start) and know that OWC and your warranty still have you covered!

Category: Tech Tips

OS X 10.8.3 Now Offers Fusion Drive Possibilities For Non-Fusion Drive Equipped Macs

Monday, March 25th, 2013 | Author: OWC Michael, OWC Chris S., and OWC Ron

We’ve been waiting and waiting for Apple to release the next version of OS X Mountain Lion in hopes that the next full version would have all the necessary components to setup a Fusion drive on any Mac capable of installing a hard drive and SSD together. A little over a week ago, Apple released OS X version 10.8.3 and, with one small caveat, our hopes were fulfilled.

The Profusion Of Fusion Confusion

But before we get to showing you exactly how to setup your own DIY Fusion drive, I’d like to dispel some mis-information that has been floating around the web. Up until now, most of the reports you’ve read about creating your own DIY Fusion drive on a machine have been incomplete. There have been many tutorials on how to create a Core Storage volume that have been labeled as “how to create a Fusion drive”. They are two similar, yet different drive configurations. I’ve addressed a lot of this information in comments on the OWC Blog, but figure it would be a good idea to review and further explain what a Fusion drive actually is as opposed to a Core Storage volume. Article Continues…

Category: Tech Tips

Two More Installation Videos Posted

Monday, December 3rd, 2012 | Author: OWC NewsFeed

With all the crazy activity last week, including Cyber Week specials, Fusion Drives, and coverage of the new iMac, you might have thought we forgot about any other Mac models. Don’t worry, we haven’t.

We’ve got two more videos for you this time around. The first rounds out our upgrades for the 2012 Mac mini, where we show you how to replace the existing drive, not just add a second one.

The other one is for you fans of the 13” MacBook Pro with Retina display. Here, we show you how to replace the stock SSD with a larger-capacity OWC Mercury Aura Pro SSD.

As always, you can find all our Instructional Series of videos in our Tech Center, on our YouTube channel, and as iTunes Video Podcasts.

Creating your own Fusion Drive

Wednesday, November 28th, 2012 | Author: OWC Chris S. and OWC Ron

One of the newest technologies available with the latest Macs is the ability to have what Apple calls a Fusion Drive. This is essentially a Solid State drive and a platter-based drive combined into a single volume. Apple’s underlying Core Storage technology then uses the SSD for the OS and frequently-accessed files, which will benefit from the speed, while placing lesser-used files on the larger, but slower platter-based drive.

The practical upshot of all this is that Fusion gives you roughly the performance of an SSD, while also taking advantage of the plentiful storage of platter-based drives. However, you don’t need to have a Fusion Drive from Apple to do this; with the proper command-line version of Disk Utility, you can create your own array with any platter-based drive and any SSD.

Of course, there are a few caveats to this setup (or the stock Fusion Drive, for that matter) that you should consider before committing to a Fusion setup. We’ll discuss those in a bit. First, though, let’s look at the process of actually setting it up.

Article Continues…

Category: Tech Tips

Apple Data Migration Assistant Makes Upgrading to a New Mac or New Drive Painless

Wednesday, October 17th, 2012 | Author: OWC Larry

We all know the physical and emotional pain of trying to assemble a new item. Maybe it’s your new kitchen table and your significant other has been yelling at you for weeks to finish it (did we say yelling? We mean, “providing help and guidance”). Maybe you’ve considered duct tape as a viable option to replace a few screws. Maybe you’ve been rushed to assemble a new toy for your child on Christmas morning just to find out you have literally every kind of battery but the one it takes. Whatever it is, here at OWC we understand and try to accommodate you so you can get back to business.

We do our best at OWC to make sure that all of our videos make the process of replacing a drive easy. Our DIY kits for laptops and Mac minis make sure you have everything you need. And most importantly, we realize that the most vital part of an upgrade—and this applies to a new Mac as well as to a drive upgrade—is getting back to using that system without skipping a beat.

The good news is that Apple makes this incredibly painless, and there are just three simple steps we recommend for the best results. Article Continues…

Category: Tech Tips