Q: Macbook Air SSD failure?

To be fair I don't know the purpose of Apple changing the connector on a standard drive, and there may be a valid reason for them doing so.  So let me restate what I wrote: Not being able to complete simple repairs with standard components may turn me off of Apple products.  I'm not knocking their quality, and I love that I can access my mac mini rather easily, but I find tinkering with this MBA (It's fixed - typing on it now) a headache.

The repair took Apple a week to complete.  Well probably 5 days to get the part, and 15 minutes to pop the drive in ;-)

Ognar 

   To be fair I don't know the purpose of Apple changing the connector on a standard drive,

micro-sata adapter on the SSD in the Air......reason being a conventional SATA connector would be illogical to place in the ultrathin macbook Air.

There is no "standard" component in almost ALL mfg. of 'ultrabook' style computers. There are countless reasons for same.

Nothing is "repaired" inside the Air, its ... "remove bad/broken part A, toss for recycles......grab new part A and insert" 

As a former laptop repair person, the days of "fixing" things inside laptops ended a long time ago. As such there is nothing to "fix" inside the Air, just replace.

Its all... "remove broken....toss it.....insert new"

You should be happy the AIr is so incredibly simple with only one moving part.

Sorry your SSD failed, ....computers break down, however having countless 1000s of laptops thru my hands, the Apple is far superior in build, reliability, etc,,.... as your yourself admit.

And you have to admit from below pic, there is scant little to replace in the Air, far far far less than conventional laptops. 

Here is my survey result asking the failure rate of Macbook Airs in an online community....

I know this is not scientific or well-controlled survey, but hope to give you a rough idea at least about the high failure rate in 2012 model compared to other models.

Reported SSD Failure Issues and Failure Rate

1. Macbook Air 2008 Model: 0 out of 1 (0%)

2. Macbook Air 2009 Model: 0 out of 1 (0%)

3. Macbook Air 2010 Model: 1 out of 14 (7%)

4. Macbook Air 2011 Model: 2 out of 14 (14%)

5. Macbook Air 2012 Model: 10 out of 31 (32%)

6. Macbook Air 2013 Model: 2 out of 26 (8%)

Here is the link to the survey. If you click the "결과보기" button on the page, you can read the survey questions in English though it's a Korean community.

http://cafe.naver.com/inmacbook/879835

Hi All,

I would like to update the latest status of my MBA mid-2012.

After reading through all the posts here, I made a call to the Apple Hotline again and explain my issue. I also mentioned about this topic. The person on the phone asked me to send my MBA to the service shop to confirm again if It's the SSD failure. He gave me his name so I would have to call back him once the investigation is done.

I went to the service shop. The guy confirmed that It's the SSD failure. I called back to the hotline. Finally, they gave me free of charge to change the SSD.

Thanks everyone here for sharing your cases. They are very helpful.

For the people here who are still thinking that the SSD failure is a rare case, please go and talk to any Apple service providers, you will found that there are many failures happened to MBA-2012. SSD is out of stock very places here in Bangkok as well as some other countries.

PS. my case is about 1 month out of warranty.

Regards,

Congrats beavery

Yesterday my macbook air mid 2012 also ssd failure.

i can't understand.

why using toshiba ssd? maybe they are know this problem.

and why dont doing recall??

i want replace ssd another brand from apple.

its important problem.

like use time bomb.

I got the same issue yesterday on my 13' MBA Mid-2012 purchased December 2012

Was working when it just freezed and restarted with the question mark folder that appeared and when check with Disk Utility, SSD of 32k only in list.

Fortunately still on warranty but had to left it in store.

I got the same problem too (20. sep. 2013) I am 1 month after the warranty...which is sad....so you can imagine. I am changing the statistics! Somebody should do something about it. It is impossible to pay for it, if it is not our mistake and problem...Is it on purpose? SSD that can work just for 1 year and thats it?

I may report this issue to Consumer Reports soon with the link of this thread. Does anydoby think that this is gonna work? Or any good idea to urge Apple to take action about SSD failure in 2012 MBA?

My MacBook Air was purchased 6/2012. While still under warranty, the SSD failed--maybe 6 months ago. Today it happened again. Two SSD failures, on a 15-month-old 13" MacBook Air mid 2012 model. When I spoke to a non-Apple emply who is supposed to be an "expert" in Macs, he said that it is not an uncommon failure.

Is the repair really $800? I was expecting closer to $200.

The problem is that it is strongly suspected that a specific SSD model has much higher failure rate.

Here is another survey's result....

Failure ratio of Toshiba SSD in MBA 2012: 47% (21 out of 44)

Failure ratio of Samsung SSD in MBA 2012: 4% (1 out 26)

....

Ask your expert whether 47% failure ratio can be considered as the "common" phenomena.

Or the difference between 47% and 4%.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1633123

gloostar,

Add me to another macbook 5.2 (256gb ssd) failure list. I do think a broader survey is required and we cannot conclude whether the issue is toshiba / samsung - I do think it has something to do with the firmware corrupting the controller. Just a hunch. but a broader survey of this phenomenon is warranted. Interestingly a cluster seems to be happening after august, about a year the macbook air was released.

No conspiracy theories needed - we just need numbers and quickly.

Happened to me as well,

1 year 3 months of ownership, thankfully I have Applecare.
I made a video showing my work around as I wait for the replacement part to arrive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6LEykaS7Iw

starting to wonder if it's linked to the pulled firmware upgrade.

Add me to the list. MBA 2012 13" - SSD failure.

I'm disappointed. I only got one year warranty because i expected reliability. I wanted Apple quality but I've had to repair this computer more than other computers I've owned. Now this happens out of warranty. Wish me luck that they'll repair! So nervous to call.

Happened to me as well in august, my SSD drive is also failure! 128GB MBA 2012