Up Your Storage Capacity and Efficiency With a Refurbished SSD
A refurbished SSD is an economic way to optimize storage or boot-up time on your chosen devices, and there are plenty of refurbished SSDs to choose from on eBay. Learn the handful of key details essential to narrowing down your choices.
Is each drive only compatible with the same brand computer?No, each brand of drive is compatible with any other brand. A refurbished SSD is engineered to install easily into any brand of laptop or computer of your choice. What's most important is to select a compatible interface. The wide array of refurbished SSD products on eBay boasts items whose titles and descriptions always specify the compatible interface. To confirm compatibility, look for one of the following interfaces and match it to the interface in your computer (consult your owner's manual):
- Serial AT Attachment (SATA)
- Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)
- Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe)
- Mini SATA (SATA over a mini PCIe connector)
- Next Generation Form Factor (NGFF, m.2): Replaces SATA
The refurbished SSD products in this category are designed for internal installation, so your prospective hard disk drive (HDD) can be internal or external. You can install multiple internal drives over the same interface, even different types of drives (hybrid), but it's just as easy to simply connect an external HDD via USB. You also can swap out refurbished SDD drives as needed without any complications or glitches whatsoever.
Are there refurbished SSD with enough capacity for system files?Absolutely. Refurbished SSD products range in storage capacity from several dozen gigabytes to hundreds upon hundreds. A minimum of 100GB is advisable if you intend to utilize your SSD for system files. Since refurbished SSD is a flash memory product, it reduces boot times dramatically. Reserving an SSD just for system files is feasible, as well, with either a second SSD or an HDD for media storage.
Do you need special refurbished SSD for Apple?No, you do not. Providing you have the correct interface, you can install any SSD. However, Samsung manufactures many SSD for specific Apple laptops. There are also comparable refurbished SSD for Apple laptops by original equipment manufacturers that are not Samsung or Apple but also work in an Apple laptop. Depending on the year of your Apple laptop, you may need to do the following:
- Connect: Connect the SSD to your Mac with a SATA-to-USB connector (available on eBay)
- Format: Format the SSD
- Clone: Clone your current HDD to the SSD
- Disconnect: Disconnect and remove your HDD
- Install: Connect and install your SSD