Macbook Air with 1TB SSD

Hi
I finally managed to upgrade my 2014 MBA to 1TB SSD. I purchased a 1TB apple SSD from ebay and althought it is wider and it doesn't fit, I removed the battery to make it fit just to see if it works. After confirmed it works, I trimmed the battery frame a little bit and now it fits OK. The read/write speeds are amazingly fast, up to 900+ mb/s and now I'm super happy with my MBA. Of course I void the warranty, but if anytime I'd need it again, I can place a new battery and the original SSD and the warranty will be active again. ;-)

Hey Athan.G! Tnx for your brave story!
Didn't you archieve your steps — in order to put it on ifixit or so?

Would be really helpful for all others, still a bit wurried about achieving such a fantastic challenge; pimping a shiny new mba... =;)))

Great news :-) It's a shame neither Apple, nor third parties offer a 1TB solution out of the box for our MBA's... though Transcend is selling 1TB SSD's for the 2012 MBA's, so I still have hope that one day they come to their senses and start selling versions for the 2013/2014 MBA's as well 😉

Athan.G,

How is your laptop doing? Has the battery life been affected?

I'm interested in doing this as well. Can you explain a bit about how you performed the surgery? I understand that you trimmed away some of the battery case, but what about the battery itself? Did you simply press the drive into the battery? Is the battery a bit like putty?

Knowing that batteries have known explode, do you think you may have done something that puts you at a larger risk for a spontaneous combustion or explosion?

—Gene

Hello Geneous.

My MBA is doing just fine !!!! Battery didn't affected by any mean !!!
Since one picture equals a thousand words, I'll upload some more detailed photos as soon as I find some time to open my MBA again and even further, to remove the battery so you'll be able to see the trimming I did in detail. Hold the line. 😉

Athan.G - Looking to do this to my MBA '14 as well. Great work on figuring this all out!

What is the current status of your MBA?

How much did you actually have to 'trim" off of the battery?

Does everything work flawlessly?

Thanks so much!

Hey gregorymichael !!!
My macbook works flawlessly so far !!!! Not a single problem !!! 🙂

Regarding your questions I uploaded some detailed photos to my dropbox public folder.
Here you are: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/01b5s9xycu0v4dd/AABK8Hh-ehO2oPS5EYEROY0La?dl=0
Hope I helped as much as I can. 🙂

Wow! Great photo's and job well done.

Glad to hear everything is working like it should. (why wouldn't it haha!)

Now to find a cheap 1TB ssd, and I'll be modding my own very soon.

Again, cheers!

Hi paoloangeles

Not 100% sure, but I think you can't do this mod on the 11 inch MBA, regardless of the battery trimming, since there's no space due to the motherboard's components.
Just search for some 11" MBA internal photos to see the SSD's surrounding area. Some components there, are much closer and there's no space for the wider 1TB SSD (and of course you can't trim the motherboard... :-P )

Pardon my massive ignorance but would it not be easier to trim the edge of the chip board? Dremel tool or xacto knife? Ilooked at one of the old memory boards I have and there is no printing close to the edge? Computers are not my generation, but I can replace parts.......

Hi

I am thinking of doing the same thing. I have both a Macbook Pro late 2013 and a Macbook Air 2014. The SSD modules are different (the MBP is wider). My questions are: Is your MBA still functioning? Did you make a groove in the battery frame to make the ssd to fit?

I have a mid 2013 MBA and i would like to upgrade to bigger ssd. My problem has been looking for the correct one. It seems like removing a little of the battery case seems simple enough, especially on a out of warranty MBA.

Do you guys have any info on SSD replacements? where i can get them?

Can you tell us where you got your Late 2013 rMBP 1TB SSD? Transcend and OWC don't seem to offer anything for MBP or MBA after early 2013. Pardon my ignorance. Obviously I know about eBay, but is there anywhere you can get these items commercially? Thanks.

Per Darrza's reference, OWC landing page now has their Aura SSD internal replacement PCIe SSD for MacBook Air (mid 2013 thru current) with 1TB capacity between $597 and $649 depending on whether you buy only the drive, or the drive and external enclosure for the removed SSD. These are also available for MacBook Pro Late 2013 thru 2015 at same price points.

I do not believe that this storage solution is faster than current Apple factory solution (up to 512GB), but a good deal for older MBA and capacity need.