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Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
#51441 04/04/19 08:59 AM
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I saw an attractive offer on a M.2 Intel 660p 1Tb SSD. PCIe NVme 3.0 x4 interface. Form factor: M.2 2280. 22mm x 80mm.

Will this work in my early 2017 MacBook Air?

I've been on iFixit and About This Mac and various other websites, but can't find the spec of the SSD that's currently in it. Will any M.2 SSD work?

I saw in About This Mac, that the mounting point thingie was MS-DOS formatted, which is why I wondered if any M.2 SSD would work.


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
freelance #51460 04/05/19 07:40 AM
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As per Apple MacBook Air (2017) Review & Rating | PCMag.com, the SSD in your MacBook Air is NOT user serviceable...

Quote:
Like all Mac portables, internal components aren't upgradeable after purchase....

The SSD is soldered to the logic board.

Originally Posted By: Apple
Gotcha!


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
artie505 #51464 04/05/19 01:13 PM
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I know the RAM is soldered to the board, but iFixit has a step-by-step tutorial on how to replace the SSD. The kit they offer is expensive and I'm looking for something like 1 Tb, as I've already got a 256 Mb SSD in it. Following their link to the Crucial SSD, there is a specific note from Crucial that they do not make any Mac-compatible M.2 SSDs. Hmmmm...

iFixit

Reading to the bottom of the page, I see the Samsung SSD they recommend needs an adapter.


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
freelance #51466 04/05/19 03:15 PM
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Without the actual Model number and configuration of your MacBook Air I cannot tell for sure, but OWC lists three different 1TB drives for what I am guessing is your machine and they have excellent installation videos as well.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
freelance #51469 04/05/19 06:15 PM
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Well, I'll be doggone!

I've heard "no user-serviceable parts" so many times that it never occurred to me that it might not be fact.

I'll be sure to keep it in mind when I buy my next MBP...it's worth a bunch of bucks.

Many thanks!!! smile


The new Great Equalizer is the SEND button.

In Memory of Harv: Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. ~Voltaire
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
joemikeb #51474 04/06/19 08:27 AM
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Thanks for the link. It looks interesting, if expensive, so I checked out Amazon UK for prices here. Reviews of the OWC 1Tb SSD were not favourable – mostly complaining about heat, over-active fans and cases being warped. Oops. Suddenly, 256Mb seems like plenty of space!


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
freelance #51477 04/06/19 03:36 PM
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You could use an external drive of any flavor to off-load larger items, like photo or music libraries, if not already doing something like that.

From my experience with my 128 GB SSD MacBook Air, as long as the System and frequently used apps are on the SSD, you are benefiting.


On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
Ira L #51480 04/06/19 10:30 PM
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Originally Posted By: Ira L
You could use an external drive of any flavor to off-load larger items, like photo or music libraries, if not already doing something like that.

From my experience with my 128 GB SSD MacBook Air, as long as the System and frequently used apps are on the SSD, you are benefiting.

My son and daughter do that and it works well.

I used to feel cramped with a 1TB drive, but since I moved the Photos and iTunes Libraries to iCloud along with currently inactive data files and now I am using less than 200GB of storage on my boot drive.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
joemikeb #51486 04/07/19 03:55 PM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
[quote=Ira L]...but since I moved the Photos and iTunes Libraries to iCloud along with currently inactive data files and now I am using less than 200GB of storage on my boot drive.


I'm with you. My current drive, a 256Mb SSD, only has the OS and apps on it, and still has 157Gb of space left. I use other (internal) hard drives to store everything else. That arrangement works fine for me.

I have not been able to bring myself to trust "the cloud". I do have five files I like to refer to when I'm "on the road" that are entrusted to Dropbox (nothing sensitive). That's very useful. If the cloud "explodes", I have copies at home.

But, my MacPro 5,1 is almost ten years old and I am trying to plan for life with an iMac.


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
freelance #51487 04/07/19 05:55 PM
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Originally Posted By: freelance
But, my MacPro 5,1 is almost ten years old and I am trying to plan for life with an iMac.
I thought that I would miss my 2008 Mac Pro when I got my iMac, but the iMac is much faster and the Retina display is superb. You won't be disappointed.


Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
jchuzi #51496 04/08/19 03:00 PM
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Quote:
... and the Retina display is superb. You won't be disappointed.


My friend has a 5K screen and it is lovely. Trouble is, I've got years of photos I've resized to fit my 1920x1200 24" Dell monitor screen. I can see hours of work ahead of me! Good thing I'm retired...


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
freelance #51497 04/08/19 03:14 PM
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Originally Posted By: freelance
My friend has a 5K screen and it is lovely. Trouble is, I've got years of photos I've resized to fit my 1920x1200 24" Dell monitor screen. I can see hours of work ahead of me! Good thing I'm retired...


I don't know what you do with all your photos, but if you just want to occasionally view them without the hassle of resizing, you may be able to (temporarily) reset your monitor's resolution to 1920x1200: System Preferences>Displays>Display tab>Resolution scaled


On a Mac since 1984.
Currently: 24" M1 iMac, M2 Pro Mac mini with 27" BenQ monitor, M2 Macbook Air, MacOS 14.x; iPhones, iPods (yes, still) and iPads.
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
Ira L #51498 04/08/19 05:48 PM
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I like to use suitable photos as Desktop images, scaled to fit. So, 5120 x 2880 x 72 ppi, I guess. That's seriously big!

Fortunately, I resisted the temptation to shoot smaller JPEGs to get more on a SD card, so I've got large files to work with.

I'll digress even further: I bought an A3 plus Canon printer years ago for my photography, and I bought a box of A3+ paper – 20 sheets. I still have 17 left. With the bigger screen, I'll finally have a rationale for buying that fancy camera.


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: Replacement SSD for MacBook Air 7,2
freelance #51532 04/12/19 01:10 PM
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There are many sources for external cases or cables that directly connect to SSD mechanisms and provide you with USB3 connectivity to your computer. These are fairly light and easy to carry with only only cable. I have been using these for several years - even include a volume that has full duplicate of internal SSD (just in case something really bad happens to the internal one, you can reformat it and copy the contents back from external to internal, if it is not completely fried).

For reasons that the "Air" model was or may not be readily upgradable, I have stayed away from it from the beginning and have used MBPro(s). The recent versions of 13(something)" is light enough to travel with, has decent enough performance (minus the dedicated video processor like its bigger sibling).

I'm with you on shooting with the largest image size setting your camera permits. I save photos in camera's native RAW version + largest & least compressed jpeg.



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