MacBook Air 11" Late 2010 Solid-State Drive Replacement

Geschrieben von: Andrew Bookholt
  • Kommentare: 10
MacBook Air 11" Late 2010 Solid-State Drive Replacement

Schwierigkeitsgrad

Moderate

Schritte

5

Zeitaufwand

20 Minuten

Einleitung

Use this guide to upgrade or replace the solid-state drive in a MacBook Air 11” Late 2010. This MacBook Air uses a proprietary storage drive connector, and is therefore not compatible with common M.2 drives without the use of an adapter.

Before you perform this repair, if at all possible, back up your existing SSD. Then, either familiarize yourself with internet recovery or create a bootable external drive so you’ll be ready to install macOS onto your new drive and migrate your data to the new SSD.

Finally, we strongly recommend installing macOS 10.13 High Sierra (or a later macOS) before replacing the original SSD from your MacBook Air. Most new SSDs require updated storage drivers not found in versions of macOS prior to High Sierra.

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    • Before proceeding, close your computer and lay it on a soft surface top-side down.

    • Remove the following ten screws:

    • Two 8 mm 5-point Pentalobe screws

    • Eight 2.5 mm 5-point Pentalobe screws

    • The special screwdriver needed to remove the eight 5-point Pentalobe screws can be found here.

    I recommend that one of the tools you obtain is a jeweler's loupe that mounts on your glasses. It makes things easier.

    blairweaver -

    This is not correct. You need the pentalobe tool at this point.

    Duane Hellums -

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    • Wedge your fingers between the display and the lower case and pull upward to pop the lower case off the Air.

    • Remove the lower case and set it aside.

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    • In this step you will disconnect the battery to help avoid shorting out any components during service.

    • Use the flat end of a spudger to pry both short sides of the battery connector upward to disconnect it from its socket on the logic board.

    • Bend the battery cable slightly away from the logic board so the connector will not accidentally contact its socket.

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    • Remove the single 2.9 mm T5 Torx screw securing the SSD to the logic board.

    What happens if the 2.9mm t5 screw got stripped?

    Charles -

    So when i change my ssd in mac do i have to reinstall Mac OS

    sai prahalad Alluri -

    Correct, the SSD does not come with OS preinstalled. To install the OS you can completely clone your existing hard drive or you will need to create a bootable flash drive and format your SSD and create a partition in order to be able to install the OS.

    Ethan Lockwood -

    So my wife spilled a Martini on her MacAir and it no longer works and is not repairable, all her music and pictures are stored on the drive, I would like to transfer these files to another drive. What is needed to read the drive once removed?

    prastonis -

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    • Use a spudger to help lift the free end of the SSD just enough to grab it with your other hand.

    • Do not lift the end of the SSD excessively.

    • Pull the drive straight out of its socket and remove it from the logic board.

    • When reinstalling the SSD, be sure it is properly seated before reinstalling its retaining screw.

    I performed all the steps above and fitted a Transcend JetDrive 500 which was very easy however when I re-assembled and turned on all I get is a question mark in the middle of the screen, can you explain if I did anything wrong?

    Ian Ashton -

Abschluss

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

Tinte & Feder

Andrew Bookholt

578335 Reputation

3 Kommentare

is there any difference between SSD for macbook air and macbook pro...??

is that possible that we can just run macbook air only HDD..?

Rohit Lamba -

Any chance of squeezing in an SSD any larger than 256 GB?

Just bought a late-2010 11" MBA off Amazon Marketplace, which was actually advertised as mid-2011. My plan was to upgrade it with a 1 TB SSD, which wouldn't have been a problem with the mid-2011 model. Seems this is not going to work with this one, right?

mariawinter -

A bit of an oldie needs some help with upgrading his late 11" macbook air with a WD 500GB Blue SATA III 2.5" Internal SSD. Q 1 is it doable? Q2 Will I need an adapter "kit" of some kind or just be sure not to lose the screws in the process? Thanks in advance for any help. ted

Ted Buila -