- How To Upgrade Macbook Air Hard Drive Capacity
- Changing Ssd In Macbook Air
- How To Upgrade Macbook Air Hard Drive Look Like
- How To Upgrade Macbook Air Hard Drives
My boss was running out of space on his Mid-2011 13-Inch MacBook Air so we decided to install OWC’s after-market 480GB SSD upgrade along with their enclosure for the old drive so you can continue to use it as an external drive. Here’s how to upgrade yours as well.
In this video I will be showing you how to replace the storage drive in your MacBook Air or Pro Retina for much cheaper by using any regular M.2 SATA Solid S. Hi Friends, My cousin got this MacBook Air and now he is unable to sync the iPhone because of some storage issues (he thinks), however he would like to upgrade the storage now. Macbook how to reduce pdf size.
Hardware
- MacBookAir 4,2 Model A1369
Tools Needed:
- Pentalobe Screwdriver (for the proprietary screws in the bottom of the MacBook Air)
- T5 Torx Bit (for removing the screw from the SSD)
- Spudger Pry Tool (for disconnecting battery connection on MacBook)
Step 1: Order a MacBook Air SSD upgrade kit.
I recommend OWC and have purchased a lot of after-market Apple hardware from them. Here is a link for the part we purchased. It comes with the tools you’ll need (a proprietary pentalobular screwdriver and Torx head screwdriver) as well as the external case for mounting the old drive.
Other World Computing Envoy Portable, Bus-powered USB 3.0 storage for the old MacBook Air SSD |
Step 2: Back up your data.
Even though you are not going to be deleting your old data I would still recommend having a backup before you complete such an upgrade. If you are not backing up make sure to buy an external drive and either use the free Apple Time Machine built into OS X or buy something like Carbon Copy Cloner. I use both.
Step 3: Power off your MacBook Air and unplug the power cord.
You definitely wouldn’t want the computer running when you did this upgrade.
Step 5: Download the iFixit manual from ifixit.com.
You cannot hardly beat their tutorials and I always print out a copy of them for using to keep all the different sized screws straight–this is the most helpful tip I can offer on this repair. Here is a link for the tutorial I used for this repair.
Step 5: Remove the lower cover.
Place the MacBook Air upside down on a non-abrasive surface and remove the 10 screws from the bottom of the case. These screws have pentalobular heads on them so do not try to unscrew them with a phillips or torx. The middle two top screws (that bridge the vent) are longer than the others so make sure to keep them straight.
Mid-2011 MacBook Air case screw locations |
I tape the screws on the printout exactly where they came from so there’s no question what to do when I reassemble:
My iFixit pdf printed out to tape the screws on their location of the picture |
Step 6: Carefully remove the lower case cover and set it aside.
Refer to the ifixit.com picture above to see where to put your fingernails. Below you can see the SSD outlined in red (excuse my blurry picture, it does the trick though):
Look how much space the 4 batteries take up! |
Step 7: Take static discharge precautions.
I never wear an anti-static wristband but you do want to be careful not to discharge the static on your body onto the electronics of your computer. Once you’ve opened the cover make sure to touch the metal body of the computer to ensure there is not a static charge built up on your body.
Step 8: Disconnect the Battery Connector.
![Air Air](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/mDftNlxqnhw/maxresdefault.jpg)
To below and left of the SSD there is a battery connector with a clear tab below it. Pull the clear plastic tab straight down. Do not lift up or you could pull the connector off the motherboard. The battery wires will bend to allow you to pull the connector out. You can lay the male end of the battery connector on top of the female slot on the motherboard.
Pull the clear plastic battery connector tab straight down (parallel with the surface of the motherboard) to disconnect |
Step 9: Remove the 2.9 mm T5 Torx screw from the right side of the SSD.
Location of the single T5 torx screw securing the MacBook Air SSD |
Step 10: Pull the SSD straight out.
You may need to very slightly lift the right end of the SSD up to be able to grab it but do this as little as possible. Pull the SSD to the right straight out of its socket. You can rock it up and down slightly from the right end to get it to come out.
Step 11: Install the old SSD in the external housing (if you ordered one).
This is what you get in the box (minus the mess on my desk!):
Pardon my mess–here’s what came in the box. |
One thing to note is that there are two different length screws supplied with this OWC case and the longer one goes on the thick end. The case is wedge shaped to be similar with the wedge shape of the MacBook Air ?
Mounting the original MacBook Air SSD in the OWC Envoy Enclosure |
Step 12: Install the new SSD.
Insert the new SSD into the slot and carefully slide it in. Note that the replacement SSD has a pink heat sink sponge on the top side of it. Line up the screw hole and reinstall the original torx screw.
Step 13: Reconnect the battery.
I forgot this when I was putting this MacBook back together and had to take the case back apart. Don’t make that mistake–you don’t want to tighten those case screws more than necessary. Luckily the battery connector not being plugged in didn’t cause any problems spatially when I put the cover back on.
Don’t forget to reconnect the battery |
Step 14: Install the cover and reinstall the 10 case screws with pentalobe heads.
Don’t forget that the center two screws on the top are the long ones.
Step 15: Connect your old SSD to the MacBook Air and boot to the recovery partition of the old drive.
Press the power button and then immediately press and hold the command button.
How To Upgrade Macbook Air Hard Drive Capacity
Booting to the recovery partition by holding Command-R |
Step 16: Run disk utility to do a block-by-block clone of your old SSD to the new SSD.
I referred to OWC’s method 2 on this page because this Air is running OS 10.7. Click on the Restore tab at the top and then drag and drop the old drive as the source and the new drive as the destination. Note: I was only able to select the drives by dragging and dropping. I learned something in this step because until now I was unaware you could do a carbon copy clone of a drive using Disk Utility. That’s cool.
Cloning your old SSD to the new SSD using disk utility |
Time to copy SSD over: approximately 1 Hour
Step 17: Disconnect the external drive and boot up.
Lots of extra space available now:
365.4 GB of free space after upgrading–that was more than we had in total to begin with |
Mission accomplished!
Other thoughts/lessons/failures:
I tried to connect the encased old SSD via USB to my other MacBook and the MacBook Air in target mode via lighting cable and was going to try to copy the old drive to the new with Carbon Copy Cloner but my computer would not even recognize the Air when I hooked it up. It may have been because the internal (new) SSD had not been formatted yet. If I had gotten real desperate I would have taken the new SSD back out of the Air and then placed it in the enclosure and then tried to format it first and then tried the above described setup again. Using disk utility from the recovery partition worked great though so I didn’t need to.
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Apple shipped most MacBook Airs and all Retina MacBook Pros with solid state storage(SSD), upgrading these machines for extra capacity and speed is generally as simple as picking a new drive. Today’s post looks at the SSD upgrade of all: the MacBook Air.
There's one situation that your MacBook Air is old enough to be out of warranty, you may need a new SSD which will make the old device much faster and durable. There are many ways that you can use to upgrade your old SSD. It's typically easy in older Macs, which you often can replace yourself. Let’s look at how to find out if you can upgrade the SSD in MacBook Air in year 2019.
Common Situations You Need to Upgrade MacBook Air SSD
Summarily, the two common situations in which you’d better upgrade MacBook Air SSD including:
- MacBook Air SSD is full or running into low disk space.
- MacBook Air SSD is corrupted or damaged, and unrepairable.
With time goes by, there are more files on the MacBook Air SSD. Less space will influence the performance of your MacBook.
Releasing space for new data doesn't help lot in improving things. Many users reported that their MacBook Air SSDs became full soon again as new data occupied the drive space quickly.
The proper way for MacBook Air expand storage is to upgrade MacBook Air SSD to a larger one. That is, you can replace MacBook Air SSD with a new and larger one especially when you want to save more data on your MacBook Air and experience the smooth running speed.
Why Need to Upgrade MacBook Air SSD
Some of you may choose to ask Apple Support for help to replace MacBook Air SSD. But, there is something you need to know: you need to send the device to the support center and it will take days to complete MacBook Air SSD replacement.
Besides, there should be some privacy information on the SSD. Once you send it to a stranger, you will be in the risk of privacy leakage.
Additionally, if you are using a mid-2012 model or even earlier, the machine is on “Vintage” list of Apple, which means the company has disconnected the support for the device.
Actually, it is not a difficult job to replace MacBook Air SSD by yourself. If you have a proper SSD for MacBook Air and enough tools to disassemble and assemble the laptop, you will be able to perform a MacBook Air SSD replacement in a few minutes.
In the following contents, we will show you the exact things you should do to upgrade MacBook Air SSD. You’d better follow every step strictly. Drawing tools for macbook pro.
Step 1: Select SSD and Tools
Not all kinds of SSDs can be used to replace your original MacBook Air SSD. You need to select a proper one from the formal purchase channel, like Amazon, Newegg, eBay, and more.
For MacBook Air expand storage use, you need to choose an SSD that has larger capacity compared with the original MacBook Air SSD.
Usually, the alternative SSD comes with installation tools. However, if there are no such kinds of tools, you also need to purchase them together.
If the SSD of the MacBook Air is corrupted and you want to recover data from it, you need to buy a suitable MacBook Air SSD enclosure together. After MacBook Air SSD replacement, you can install the previous SSD into the enclosure, connect it to your computer, and then use a data recovery software to get your files back. In the last step, we will tell you how to rescue your data from the damaged SSD.
Step 2: Back up Data on the MacBook SSD
After buying a MacBook Air SSD from the internet, you can make full use of time to do something meaningful, such as backing up your data on the MacBook Air’s original SSD. A well-known method to back up Mac data is to use Time Machine, which is a built-in backup feature of Mac.
Time Machine can automatically back up all of your files on MacBook Air, such as apps, music files, photos, email, documents, system files, and more. Once a backup is created, you can restore your files from the backup if the original files are deleted from the machine, or the SSD of your MacBook Air is erased, replaced, or corrupted.
Before using Time Machine to back up your files, you need to prepare an external drive that is large enough to save the backup file.
Step 3: Replace MacBook Air SSD
After receiving your needed MacBook Air SSD, you can go to remove the old SSD and then install the new one in the device.
Here is a detailed guide:
1. Close the MacBook Air and unplug the power.
2. Lay it down on a soft cloth and flip the device over.
3. Remove the screws from the bottom of the case and put them into a place where you can find them easily.
4. Lift the case bottom off. In this step, you can also clean the dust and debris in the device to reduce power consumption,solve the laptop overheating issue, or fix other kinds of issues.
5. Pop off the battery connector to disconnect the battery.
6. Remove the screws that are used to secure the SSD and then gently pull the drive out of the slot.
7. Install the new SSD to the slot.
8. Tighten the screws to secure the SSD.
9. Re-connect the battery to your MacBook Air.
10. Reassemble the laptop bottom case.
See! It is so easy to replace MacBook Air SSD with a new one. Every ordinary user can operate it smoothly. Next, it’s time to make the new SSD bootable.
Step 4: Make MacBook Air Boot from the New SSD
Usually, some MacBook Air SSDs are advertised to have macOS pre-installed. In this situation, you can boot the device directly.
If there is nothing in the new SSD, you will have to do something to make the MacBook Air bootable.
Remember that you have used Time Machine to back up your original files and system in step 2. Now, you can directly restore both macOS and your files to the new SSD with Time Machine.
In case there is no available backup file, you will need to perform a clean install of the operating system on the MacBook Air. To use Windows or macOS, or both, you can have your own choice. Now, you can search for a guide on the internet on your own.
Step 5: Rescue Data from the Damaged/Corrupted MacBook Air SSD
After the above four steps, you can use the MacBook Air as normal again. In this step, we will talk about how to rescue data from your previous SSD if it is damaged.
No matter you are running Windows or Mac, you always have the chance to rescue data from a damaged SSD with a third-party file recovery tool.
Take out the MacBook Air SSD enclosure you have bought and then install the original MacBook Air SSD into it. After that, connect the enclosure to your computer
If You Are Running macOS:
MiniTool Mac Data Recovery is specially designed to restore your digital files on Mac computer. Its Demo Edition allows you to recover 1MB files. You need to enter the MiniTool download center to get this free Mac data recovery software.
Here is a guide on how to recover data from a corrupted SSD using MiniTool Mac Data Recovery.
1. Open the software to enter its main interface.
2. Select theDamaged Partition Recovery.
3. The software will show the drives it can detect. Then, you need to select the one you want to recover data from and press the Full Scan.
4. When the scanning process finishes, you will see the scan results including deleted and existing items. Then, you can go to find the files you want to restore one by one. The Type and Find features of this software can help you locate the needed files easily.
5. If you want to use this software to recover more than 1MB data, you can update it to a full edition and then check your needed items and press the Save button to choose a proper location to store them.
While if you're running a Windows OS, you can check out the post - Rescue Data from the Damaged/Corrupt…on Windows for reference.
Changing Ssd In Macbook Air
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How To Upgrade Macbook Air Hard Drive Look Like
MiniTool Solution
Category: Data Recovery Services Profile: MiniTool Solution Ltd. is a software development company based in Canada. As a dedicated software development company, MiniTool Solution Ltd. provides customers with complete business software solutions in the data recovery and partition management industry.
Category: Data Recovery Services Profile: MiniTool Solution Ltd. is a software development company based in Canada. As a dedicated software development company, MiniTool Solution Ltd. provides customers with complete business software solutions in the data recovery and partition management industry.
How To Upgrade Macbook Air Hard Drives
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