The M2 Macs can no longer be used at all once the internal SSD fails. Is this correct?

jwhitt wrote:

It may be rare but SSD drives do fail. See this thread where there are several accounts of failure. Macbook Air SSD failure? - Apple Community

That was over ten years ago. Those early MacBook Air SSDs did have a noticeably high failure rate. But even then, it was battery life, not reliability, that was/is the Air's selling point. Modern SSDs are much more reliable.

jwhitt wrote:

It may be rare but SSD drives do fail. See this thread where there are several accounts of failure. Macbook Air SSD failure? - Apple Community

This is one good reason for maintaining a data backup.

Components, drives, screens, ports, logic boards, ... sometimes fail. Anything mechanical can fail. The rate of failure is low.

jwhitt wrote:

It may be rare but SSD drives do fail. See this thread where there are several accounts of failure. Macbook Air SSD failure? - Apple Community

So my anecdotal experience is:

2013 Macbook Air -- SSD failed in 2020, was replaced

2010 Macbook Air -- SSD still working, showing some degraded SMART parameter readings

Several thousand Mac laptops at place of employment -- all SSDs, never heard of an SSD failure. Have seen other things fail on them -- camera, screen, keyboard, battery ... never the SSD.

I think the risk of a new Mac Studio internal SSD failure is now, with modern SSDs, vanishingly small.

etresoft wrote:

steve626 wrote:

So my anecdotal experience is:

2013 Macbook Air -- SSD failed in 2020, was replaced

2010 Macbook Air -- SSD still working, showing some degraded SMART parameter readings

Several thousand Mac laptops at place of employment -- all SSDs, never heard of an SSD failure. Have seen other things fail on them -- camera, screen, keyboard, battery ... never the SSD.

I think the risk of a new Mac Studio internal SSD failure is now, with modern SSDs, vanishingly small.

That matches my EtreCheck data:

https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/edbc3339-2f0b-4e82-9d7f-477c49531694

That's very interesting data. We have very few MacBook Airs where I work, almost all are MacBook Pros. It would also be interesting to sort the SSD failures by age of SSD or Mac.

steve626 wrote:

So my anecdotal experience is:

2013 Macbook Air -- SSD failed in 2020, was replaced

2010 Macbook Air -- SSD still working, showing some degraded SMART parameter readings

Several thousand Mac laptops at place of employment -- all SSDs, never heard of an SSD failure. Have seen other things fail on them -- camera, screen, keyboard, battery ... never the SSD.

I think the risk of a new Mac Studio internal SSD failure is now, with modern SSDs, vanishingly small.

That matches my EtreCheck data:

jwhitt wrote:

I want to buy a Mac Studio with M2 processor but not if the internal SSD dying bricks the entire Mac. So is it true if the internal SSD dies you can't boot from an external SSD drive? I can't believe Apple would do such a disservice to it's Mac users.

Reports on the internet say that the Mac Studio has a pluggable internal SSD component. If your internal drive fails and you manage to find a replacement SSD, you can plug it in. But there are several caveats to this...

The procedure may not always work in the future. Apple really likes its "security enclaves" so swapped out parts might not work. Plus, future versions of the hardware might have the SSD built right into the logic board. Most notebook-style Macs work this way. You can't have a SSD failure. There is only a logic board. If that fails, the entire machine is "bricked".

There is no way to tell if you could boot from external if the internal fails. You would have to reduce your system security and configure an external boot device. Then, you would have to find some way to test it. I have literally never heard of a dead SSD. For some reason, Mac Studio users abhor usage of the internal SSD. It is too fast for them or something. They will only boot from external. But since the super-fast internal never fails, no one knows whether the external boot would still function if the internal ever did fail.

Building on learned colleagues excellent point

Have a Rescue Plan is a given when dealing with computers

The 3 - 2 - 1 Method has usually kept me afloat

3 Backups using 2 different methods and 1 Backup Off site incase of Natural or Un-Natural Disasters including the Drive failure

steve626 wrote:

That's very interesting data. We have very few MacBook Airs where I work, almost all are MacBook Pros. It would also be interesting to sort the SSD failures by age of SSD or Mac.

I did that. They are all early MacBook Airs. But even here, these are "failed" in EtreCheck's terms. That means that EtreCheck had to prematurely cancel one of the hard drive performance tests. But it was obviously still working because it generated an EtreCheck report.

Interesting. Do you have the number of devices broken out by SSD/HDD?

So, from a population of people most likely having some sort of problem with their Mac, around 5% have a failed drive.

There is a possible use case/user factor involved in the laptop numbers. My initial assumption is the MBP owners spent more and likely take better care with it, or maybe use it more as a desktop than a laptop. Or, parents opting for the cheaper laptops in the hands of their children. The failure rate you noticed in the Airs may just be piling onto the fact that those two might take more abuse than the MBPs.

Barney-15E wrote:

Do you have the number of devices broken out by SSD/HDD?

I do have that data, but once you start subdividing it like that, it is no longer statistically meaningful. I just don't have that many users.

I think those early MacBook Air SSDs just didn't have modern SSD technology.

Yes, that is true. in over 30 years of using Macs. I’ve never had the internal drive fail.

Yep.

Same here, no internal drive has ever failed. Until retired, my 2013 iMac with a 1TB Fusion drive was flawless for ten years.

Well then, knowing what you know now, from the many contributions already posted.

One can only guess what the next step might be - right ?