Macbook Air SSD failure?

Toshiba SSD just died after ~14 months or so in my MacBook Air 13". Does anyone know why those disks die in the first place? Is it the controller that breaks? After hearing everywhere how unbreakable the SSDs are in comparison to hard drives, I haven't done a backup in months.

According to the posts in this discussion, there seems to be a great number of people having the same problem. If anyone tells me now that SSD failure is 'extremly rare' I will know better.

I visit the apple store on monday and hope for a wonder but I doubt they will change it out of warranty. How is your experience with OWC? I have seen that they also use the Sandstorm Toshiba controller and that scares me now.

Cheers.

Same here, my MBA 2012 SSD dead after latest firmware update (not sure if they are related)... just out of warranty for 2 months....

Sad...my macbook 2007 is still working fine..............

I got my MBA back. And service center told me that they have installed another Toshiba SSD. They acknowledged though not officially declared that a number of Mid-2012 are being serviced for the same reason. It took me 3 weeks to finally reunite with my MBA.

Sorry, just saw your message. I just took mine into the store and they sorted it out. I do have Apple Care though so that made it easier for me. I've been following this since mine died though and a lot of people have been able to get their warranty extended for the one time repair of their SSD. Take it into the store, have them look at it, if they try and charge you phone apple and ask them if they can do anything to help.

After my second SSD failure in 14 months, I had to argue and get beyond the "front line," but when I did they extended the warranty and mailed me a shipping box which arrived the next business day. I took the computer to Fed Ex late afternoon 10/2, they received it 10/3, repared it and and shipped it 10/4. Because there is no weekend shipping I will not receive it until tomorrow.

This all began two weeks ago and I think since then Apple has become aware and more willing to extend warranties. I also notice that the Apple reuse company, Power On, does not have a buy back offer on the MBA mid-2012.

I was 3 months out of warranty, took my MBA to a Genius Bar and they said they'd fix it without any fight. Initially my guy quoted me $350, but he took another look at his iPad and said that apple had extended the warranty for one-time repair. I didn't have to say anything, and he said he'd never seen it before. I think they're finally figuring it out.

Thanks Zanki - I went in for my Genius Apt on Saturday; have to say they were brilliant - very understanding - and like others reporting, their systems automatically were offering the ssd's replacement free, regardless of warranty - so yes, I think this is now a 'recognized' problem, even of not official.

For those whose stores' systems automatically identified the SSD problem, what countries are you guys in?

I'm in the UK. I booked a Genius Bar apt online, went in - he ran various tests and confirmed it was defo the ssd and definitely couldn't recover anything - and then without me needing to ask he said that although it was out of warranty, his system was automatically canceling the repair charge. I don't think he'd ever seen his system do anything like it before - but I'm guessing somewhere 'higher up' they're realising that there's a sudden surge in mid-2012 128g mba's suddenly having ssd failure... I'd guess those reporting theirs failing from now on shouldn't have any probs, as it does now seem to be recognised.

Having said that, the guy I spoke to at the Genius Bar had never seen an ssd failure before - and was clearly a little shocked too; which suggests that there's not a flood of people everywhere reporting this. And is also reassuring that this isn't something that typically happens too.

I bought my MBA in US - wonder if that makes any difference? (ie were there a batch of faulty ssd's sold somewhere...?)

Either way, as I said, despite me being very distraught, they were very understanding...

I had a UK 64gb drive that failed. I'm kind of worried about the drive in my replacement computer, I have a Toshiba in this thing and I've seen one or two people mention their 2013 MBAs drive has died :/

The strange thing when I went in to Apple, I told them exactly what was wrong with the machine, that they wouldn't be able to do anything on it and they didn't even test the computer. I just booted it up using my USB and let them see the hard drive was missing in the Disk Utility (but they were already sorting out the replacement by the time I showed them), so mine can't have been the first one they had seen.

SSD in mid 2012 MBA failed two months out of warranty (and had not purchased extended coverage). Others have posted re this problem so don't think it's an isolated incident. When I contacted Apple, I was told they were unaware of any problems with the SSDs. At what point does Apple consider ssd failures a problem?

Zanki; ow no - I thought the 2013's had Samsung ssd's...? :-/

My SSD just died yesterday, after the updates of the OX system, Does anyone think it is the normaly problem? and how much I am gonna pay to repair it? i am out of warranty.

After a 3-week wait, I finally got my MBA back. I'm in the US & I made the purchase in July '12.

It was 2.5 weeks before the part I needed finally came in, plus 24-48 hours for the SSD to be installed. I got my notice by email that it was ready around the 36-hour mark.

Something's up with a certain brand of SSD's because although they ordered a particular brand (not sure if it was Toshiba or Samsung -- I forget which), another brand was sent instead. This caused a further holdup because the part numbers weren't matching up.

Anyway, not the best experience considering I had Apple Care to prevent this sort of delay, but there were a couple of Apple employees that proved helpful, for which I'm grateful.

The key with all of this is persistence. Especially when dealing with the phone reps because their responses are mostly canned and they're not really listening. Plead your case or ask to deal with someone with more authority who can address your issue.

Good luck to everyone!

I had Apple Care, so I didn't have to pay, but the work authorization showed a total of $492. You never know, it might be covered under warranty since it's the SSD. Good luck.