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Macbook Air with 1TB SSD

Does anybody know if a 1TB SSD from the newest Macbook Pro 13" fit into the newest Macbook Air?

I love my mackbook Air, but for my job as a photographer I need more space. I alos work with programs that build my pictutres and they already need about 150GB space as scratch disk.

So my 500 SSD Air is always on a limit and even on a production I have to always have a drive to store extra data/swap it from the macbook air.

This data is about 300GB per prduction.

So a 1TB Air would be just fine. But cant buy it at apple :-(

Does anybody know?

Then I buy a 13" 1TB and swap the drives.

I do not need a fast mashine, I got an iMac for the hard work at home.

Thank you,

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), SSD Upgrade

Posted on Dec 22, 2013 12:46 PM

84 replies

Nov 7, 2014 6:09 AM in response to Athan.G

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!

Athan.G

Level 1

10 points

Nov 7, 2014 8:01 AM in response to gregorymichael

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. 🙂

Nov 15, 2014 6:13 PM in response to Athan.G

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!

Nov 19, 2014 7:45 PM in response to Athan.G

Is this the same SSD from the 2013 Macbook Pro Retina? Thanks for posting this. I was considering ditching my MBA

Athan.G

Level 1

10 points

Nov 19, 2014 10:10 PM in response to Josh Smiley1

Yes Josh, this is a late 2013 retina SSD. You can find many of them on eBay. Just make sure you'll go for the LATE 2013 retina model if you have a 2013 or 2014 macbook Air.

Nov 25, 2014 1:19 PM in response to Athan.G

Hi Athan.G, do you know if I can do this with the 2014 MBA 11" 6,1?

Athan.G

Level 1

10 points

Nov 25, 2014 4:14 PM in response to paoloangeles

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 )

Jan 6, 2015 10:00 PM in response to Athan.G

An aftermarket Apple service in Bangkok just completed a similar process to install the 1TB on my Early 2014 11-inch Air with i7 and 8GB RAM. Time taken was 15 minutes. So far so good!!

Feb 28, 2015 8:44 PM in response to Thiti Vacharasintopchai

Would you be able to post pictures of the modification? Thanks!

Apr 15, 2015 7:01 PM in response to Geoffrey Chang

@Geoffrey, I just saw this. I didn't have a chance to take the picture of mine. I asked a local technician to do it. But basically the process is similar to those explained here https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5692912?start=45&tstart=0

I am sorry for cross-posting; I just want to point to my source.

Apr 23, 2015 9:58 PM in response to Athan.G

Pardon my massive ignorance, but would this have worked if you just took a little of the SSD board off the side with a dremel tool? I mean instead of cutting of the battery support?

Thanks

Apr 23, 2015 10:03 PM in response to 99%monkey

Or for that matter, a few minutes with a straight edge and an exacto knife?

Apr 23, 2015 10:36 PM in response to 99%monkey

IMHO Tampering with the SSD chip would be riskier than trimming the externals of the battery.

Apr 24, 2015 6:37 AM in response to Athan.G

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.......

Apr 24, 2015 6:38 AM in response to Thiti Vacharasintopchai

Thank you . I just looks like there is room to trim at the edge of the board. Computers are not my generation I am afraid.

Macbook Air with 1TB SSD