MB Air (Original) - Dead

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Level 1

13 points

MB Air (Original) - Dead

My Mac Book Air (MBA) model number A1237, has crapped out. It will not boot properly. I can hold OPTION and power on, and get to see a screen showing the "Macintosh HD" and a "Recovery HD". I'm assuming that the drive in this MBA has been partitioned this way? Anyway, if I select the Recovery HD the laptop boots up into a grey background with Mac OS X Utilities running. I can go to Disk Utility and see the 80.3 GB SAMSUNG HS0... is red. When selected, I get a message "This drive has a hardware problem and can't be repaired."

I thought that perhaps I could avoid this sort of thing in the future by replacing the HD with an SSD (possibly from OWC). They have a good tutorial video on replacing the MBA HD with one of the SSD units - I think I can handle it. Gulp.....

OK, if I purchase one of the SSD drives, my next hurdle is how to get my stuff back. I've been using Time Machine (TM) across our wireless network and have a very current backup of the MBA on an external Newer Technologies hard drive. With the Mac OS X Utilities running from the Utilities partition, I can physically USB connect my TM backup drive and see all my backups. But, if the HD is replaced with an SSD, the Mac OS X Utilities partiton isn't going to be there.

So, question one: is there any reason why I cannot purchase one of the OWA 120GB SSD units to install in this laptop?

Question two, the big one - once the SSD is installed, how in the world can I restore my TM backup to the SSD?

Thanks, Jim

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on Apr 16, 2012 3:22 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 16, 2012 4:06 PM in response to Stampguy

I'm supposing you did not make a recovery disk?

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

If you had, this would be just too simple.

You then have two choices I can think of right off. (there may be others that other people may suggest)

after installing your new SSD.....

1) Buy a Lion Flash install drive from the Apple online store. 70 bucks. Partition the drive, then Install the OS from this and then use Setup Assistant to import your TM backup. DO NOT USE MIGRATION ASSISTANT.

-or-

2) Install your old drive in an enclosure, boot from it, then use the recovery partition to partition and recover/install a TM backup to the new SSD.

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Answer 2

Stampguy Author

Level 1

13 points

Apr 16, 2012 5:23 PM in response to SP Forsythe

Well, I DO have a fully operational iMac running 10.7.3 and it is less than a year old. However, it does not have a recovery HD on it. The only thing I can think of that caused this is that I had a 2.999 year old iMac that crapped out, Apple gave me a brand new replacement, and did a Migration Assistant from my TM backup to this new iMac. Based on what I've read, I think I can't make an external recovery disk w/o having a recovery HD on my machine. Is that true? Will the operational iMac be of any help in getting the TM stuff restored to the MBA?

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Answer 3

Stampguy Author

Level 1

13 points

Apr 17, 2012 8:51 AM in response to Stampguy

Got no replies on the last question, but I did find out that the 120GB SSD drive from OWC runs $319, plus shipping - yikes!!!

Thinking about a plan B - anyone have an educated guess / estimate what the Apple Store would charge to replace the HD in this laptop with another 80GB drive? The tech guy at OWC said they do not carry those drives, and that Apple was my only option.

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Answer 4

JoeyR

Level 6

8,305 points

Apr 17, 2012 1:17 PM in response to Stampguy

It's going to be tough to find a drive. Those machines use a 1.8" PATA ZIF drive. Apple may carry them, you can also search online for a 1.8" PATA ZIF drive (and throw MacBook Air in the search just to confirm). You can find a few of them out there. They're not widely used, so the price is sometimes at a premium.

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Answer 5

Stampguy Author

Level 1

13 points

Apr 17, 2012 4:04 PM in response to JoeyR

I did a google search and found some on Amazon.com, although the ones they have are 120GB and my dead one is 80. However, they also are selling a 128GB RunCore Pro SSD for $237, which is more in the ballpark than the $319 from OWC.

Review posters on Amazon have mentioned that Apple wants about $300 just to put in another crappy 80GB, 3,600 RPM hard drive. Doesn't sound like a good option to me. I'm up for doing the SSD install, but what I don't know is how I'm going to get the Time Machine data restored. SP Forsythe posted that I would need to use an Apple OS X Lion Thumbdrive ($70). But, I thought I read that this only works if you already have Snow Leopard installed.

I have a Snow Leopard Family Pack install disk, but no DVD drive for this MBA. Is there a way to use the internal DVD drive on my iMac to do the install, even though there is no OS on a new SSD drive? Or do I need to plop down another $80 for a USB-attached Super Drive, put my Snow Leopard DVD in that, and try to make the MBA boot from it? Then, get Lion re-installed, then restore my data files from TM?

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Answer 6

Stampguy Author

Level 1

13 points

Apr 27, 2012 7:47 PM in response to Stampguy

Just for the curious minds out there, my problem is solved. I purchased the RunCore Pro SSD from Amazon (it was delivered in three days!) along with a MacBook Air SuperDrive. Removed the dead dard drive, installed the SSD, hooked up the SuperDrive with the Snow Leopard DVD in it, installed Snow Leopard, then re-installed Lion from the App Store. Piece of cake. The MBA now boots up a lot faster, I have oodles more "disk" space, and don't have to worry about a head crash in the future. I'd certainly recommend this path for anyone whose old MBA hard drive craps out.

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Answer 7

captfred

Level 7

26,446 points

May 6, 2012 7:18 PM in response to Stampguy

Based on your experience I decided to replace the 80 Gig drive in a original MBair with this SSD.

WOW, This original air with SL is now faster than my 2011 MBair!!

It was easy and well worth it. Thanks for sharing this.

Captfred

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