Non Removable SSD in Surface Pro (2017) or Surface Laptop

Yes this is a rant. So I have read/watched the tear down reviews from ifixit on the Surface Pro (2017) and the Surface Laptop. I was already let down with the fact the devices did not have a modern USB type C connector but when I read their tear down reviews I was horrified and appalled at the fact that they made the choice to make the hard drive non removable. Yes Folk you cannot replace the hard drive on either of the two devices. This is by far the dumbest mistake Microsoft has made in my opinion since removing the Start button on Windows 8. I do hope that they receive enough push back from users that they quickly change this mistake and release another version within the next year and not multiple years. This is supposed to be a pro devices not that cheap $70 tablets they keep on trying to pawn off on us at the Microsoft Store. I mean come on what happens if the mother board that everything is soldered to goes out. How can a IT department recover the data. So I have to go and tell my executive who had to have the red one with carpet keyboard that their data is all gone! FRIED! More like your FIRED!

I will be telling any one who ask me if you want a Surface buy the Surface Pro 4 and skip the new models or buy the knock off versions.

Did some high up at Microsoft saying the devices were built for future ? Well not if you need to repair them. Make sure you buy the extended warranty your going to need it are you may WannaCry. And forget upgrading thats a thing of the past.

Here is the best quote from their articles.

“Yeah, Microsoft impressed us—by being way worse than we expected.“

Surface Laptop ifixit.

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Laptop+Teardown/92915

Surface Pro (2017)

https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Microsoft+Surface+Pro+5+Teardown/92362

Microsoft I hate you right now,

-Brian

Proud owner of a Surface Pro 4.

Conversation 15 comments

  • StevenLayton

    17 June, 2017 - 4:29 pm

    <p>Im as bigger fan of ranting from time to time, but I'm assuming the executive has never heard of backing up? Regardless of what storage medium the expensive device he's using has? Kit goes pop occasionally.</p>

    • illuminated

      20 June, 2017 - 3:43 am

      <blockquote><a href="#126412"><em>In reply to StevenLayton:</em></a></blockquote><p>"Kit goes pop occasionally" Love this :D</p>

  • jimchamplin

    Premium Member
    17 June, 2017 - 10:45 pm

    <p>There's ways to get data from a dead device. I saw a MacBook Air which had a logic board that fried and Apple was still able to recover the data from the soldered-in SSD.</p>

    • adamjarvis

      18 June, 2017 - 8:09 am

      <blockquote><a href="#126417"><em>In reply to jimchamplin:</em></a></blockquote><blockquote>Macbook Airs don't have a fully integrated soldered-in SSD, it's always being removable. Macbook Pro 2016 w/touchbar is the model with a fully integrated soldered-in SSD, onto the motherboard, like the new Surface Products.</blockquote><p><br></p>

  • ChristopherCollins

    Premium Member
    18 June, 2017 - 12:58 am

    <p>Soldered in components are the new normal for ultrabooks… I don't understand your rant. If you are in a business and you do not have a backup plan in place, the blame for unrecoverable data should go to you, not a device.</p><p><br></p><p>Surface laptop comes with O365 for a year, which gives a terabyte of space to keep important things in the cloud (where they belong anyway for cross device/multi platform access).</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

    • adamjarvis

      18 June, 2017 - 8:03 am

      <blockquote><a href="#126430"><em>In reply to ChristopherCollins:</em></a></blockquote><p>My Surface book fell from the overhead locker while collecting my things (the case was open), on a recent plane trip, hitting the metal armrest. The laptop had a cloud sync facility, but all the work on it for the last 2 days had to be recovered by extracting the removable m.2 SSD from the device. Not an option on a new Surface 5 Pro. </p><p>Apple macbooks w/touchbar have target disk mode, so you still have a chance of recovery if it boots but say the graphics/display are damaged, preventing it reaching the login screen.</p><p>The policy of an fully integrated SSD is completely stupid for a "Pro" device, and both Apple and Microsoft will lose some sales as a result. I've switched to a Lenovo, never cared that much for the Surface Pro anyhow.</p>

      • lvthunder

        Premium Member
        19 June, 2017 - 6:58 pm

        <blockquote><a href="#126472"><em>In reply to adamjarvis:</em></a></blockquote><p>If the data is valueable enough I'm sure DriveSavers will have a way to get the data off.</p>

  • rameshthanikodi

    18 June, 2017 - 1:25 am

    <p>Having the SSD on the logic board directly is how they're able to deliver battery life improvement, and I bet you more people care about battery life than replacing the SSD which almost never goes bad anyway.</p>

    • harmjr

      Premium Member
      19 June, 2017 - 11:39 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#126447">In reply to rameshthanikodi:</a></em></blockquote><p>Thank you I did not know this. Good Point.</p>

  • Rcandelori

    Premium Member
    18 June, 2017 - 8:11 am

    <p>What nonsense. Although it's something nice to have, the chances of most people bothering with a SSD replacement on one of these devices is virtually nil. Even the Surface Pro 4 requires a rather complicated process and special tools, with a high risk of damaging the components. </p><p><br></p><p>Furthermore, many other manufacturers are following the same route. I don't understand your rant.</p>

    • harmjr

      Premium Member
      19 June, 2017 - 11:37 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#126478">In reply to Rcandelori:</a></em></blockquote><p>Since reading everyone comments: I have looked at the Dell and HP surface clones knock offs and both of them still have removable SSD matter of fact HP Elite x2 apparently is really repairable.</p><p><br></p><p>I am also annoyed that this limits those who are on a budget from buying the cheaper model like I did and later when SSD prices crash slapping a 1TB into this device. I did this successfully on my Asus EP 121 tablet several times and the device worked well until 2016 and that was only because I wanted Windows 10 and it just didn't cut it.</p>

      • jimchamplin

        Premium Member
        20 June, 2017 - 7:28 am

        <blockquote><a href="#126743"><em>In reply to harmjr:</em></a></blockquote><p>If you’re on a budget, you’re not buying a Surface Laptop. </p>

        • harmjr

          Premium Member
          20 June, 2017 - 8:22 am

          <blockquote><em><a href="#127000">In reply to jimchamplin:</a></em></blockquote><p>Why not? I bought my Surface Pro 4 (i5 8gb ram 256gb ssd) for $970 plus a type cover on amazon the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Alcantara </span>one for $130. Total cost around $1,100 plus tax. At some point about a year and a half from now I will upgrade the hard drive to a 1TB on Amazon costing about $300 and making the device feel like new again. Costing $1,400. Now granted Microsoft does not sell this exact configuration but if they did I am betting it would cost new around $1,900. This is they way I have bought my personal machines for years.</p>

    • harmjr

      Premium Member
      19 June, 2017 - 1:48 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#126478">In reply to Rcandelori:</a></em></blockquote><p>I use to have an office where we had 6 of the Asus EP 121 and one of the owners spilled coffee on it and I was able to just slap the 64gb ssd into of the "less important employees" EP 121 and get the boss back up and running. I didn't have to re-image it or nothing it just worked. Didn't have to listen to hours of <em>my TO: box in outlook does not have everyone emails</em>… Yes I used to work for grown children.</p>

  • TechnologyTemperance

    20 June, 2017 - 3:50 pm

    <p>Honestly, I don't know if you really want many of these thin-and-light machines repaired nowadays (excluding Apple from this statement). Haven't seen many that come apart easily, and I've seen some good wear-and-tear put on by the people taking them apart.</p><p><br></p><p>Also, I wonder, once you move past the enthusiast/pro group.. does anyone still fill up a hard drive? I can't think of one "average joe" I've come across recently who was out of disk space (unless they had gigs of pirated movies from torrents on their machines).</p>

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