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Featured Guide

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

5

Time Required

                          20 - 30 minutes

Sections

1

  • 2.5" Hard Drive
  • 5 steps

Flags

2

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Introduction

What you need

Step 1

              2.5" Hard Drive
  • Lay the Surface face down on a padded surface
  • Be careful not to scratch the screen when laying it face down
  • Remove the four rubber feet at each corner concealing the Torx screws
  • Remove the four Torx screws under the rubber feet.
  • Two screws on the upper corners are longer than two screws on the lower corners.
  • Attach suction cups to the bottom cover and then pull on the suction cups to free the bottom cover.

Lay the Surface face down on a padded surface

Be careful not to scratch the screen when laying it face down

Remove the four rubber feet at each corner concealing the Torx screws

Remove the four Torx screws under the rubber feet.

Two screws on the upper corners are longer than two screws on the lower corners.

Attach suction cups to the bottom cover and then pull on the suction cups to free the bottom cover.

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Step 2

  • Remove five torx screws holding the two fans to the midframe
  • Remove the two fans
  • The fan connectors are behind the midframe and not yet accessible. Let the fans hang loosely until you can access the connectors.
  • Four large torx screws and four small torx screws hold the midframe to the upper frame.
  • Remove four large torx screws holding the midframe
  • Remove four small torx screws holding the midframe

Remove five torx screws holding the two fans to the midframe

Remove the two fans

The fan connectors are behind the midframe and not yet accessible. Let the fans hang loosely until you can access the connectors.

Four large torx screws and four small torx screws hold the midframe to the upper frame.

Remove four large torx screws holding the midframe

Remove four small torx screws holding the midframe

Step 3

  • Slowly remove the midframe
  • Be careful: the speaker on the midframe is still attached to the motherboard
  • Detach the connectors for the two fans and the speaker

Slowly remove the midframe

Be careful: the speaker on the midframe is still attached to the motherboard

Detach the connectors for the two fans and the speaker

Step 4

  • With the midframe removed, it is also possible to replace the M.2 SSD during this step
  • The hard drive is underneath the heatsink so the heatsink must be removed
  • Remove four spring loaded torx screw labeled 1 to 4
  • Remove three torx screw labeled 5 to 7
  • Remove 5mm hex mounting post
  • Use a spudger to remove the heatsink assembly from the motherboard

With the midframe removed, it is also possible to replace the M.2 SSD during this step

The hard drive is underneath the heatsink so the heatsink must be removed

Remove four spring loaded torx screw labeled 1 to 4

Remove three torx screw labeled 5 to 7

Remove 5mm hex mounting post

Use a spudger to remove the heatsink assembly from the motherboard

Step 5

  • Remove three torx screws holding the hard drive brackets
  • Remove 5mm hex mounting post
  • Remove the hard drive and disconnect the SATA/SATA power cable
  • Remove four torx screws holding the hard drive brackets to the hard drive
  • On reassembly, be sure to clean the CPU and GPU and heat sink and reapply thermal compound to the CPU and GPU

Remove three torx screws holding the hard drive brackets

Remove the hard drive and disconnect the SATA/SATA power cable

Remove four torx screws holding the hard drive brackets to the hard drive

On reassembly, be sure to clean the CPU and GPU and heat sink and reapply thermal compound to the CPU and GPU

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

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                    The Raptor

Member since: 11/27/2016

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Carlos Idrobo - Dec 28, 2016

Reply

Thank you for this step by step guide to replace the “Hard Drive” Here are a few measures that I took before drive replacement:

  1. have to turn off drive encryption

  2. I cloned the drive to the new SSD drive (I used Samsung 850 PRO 1TB) using Acronis True Image

  3. Replaced the drive followed your instructions.

  4. Turned ON the Surface Studio and success! no issues and better performance.

vanstar7 - Jan 15, 2017

Does changing to a SSD drive cut down on the fan noise?

Carlos Idrobo - Jan 26, 2017

vanstar7 - January 15

No, fan noise level does not change, the heat that is been produced comes mostly from the processor.

Cesar De la Torre - Jan 30, 2017

Reply

I upgraded to to a SATA SSD 2TB and a M.2 NVMe SSD 1TB and wrote my experience here:

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/cesarde…

Trevor Tirrell - Oct 2, 2020

Blog moved

http://cesardelatorre.azurewebsites.net/…