SSD failed

Wait ... you send your disk to somebody and then you complain with Apple? I would have gone directly to an Apple Store.

Said that, your computer, except you purchased an AppleCare, is no more covered with warranty. Is sad to hear that you had this issue, but unfortunately this can happens.

CatherineH99 wrote:

The area I am in unfortunately does not have an Apple Store.

OK. You didn't say where, but you named a particular repair shop that I'm seeing is located in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia. If that's the case, the the closest Apple Store would be in Brisbane, which is rather far away.

I would have wanted to see a detailed description of what the issue was. I'm guessing you already ran Internet Recovery and checked to see if the drive was showing up (make sure to select View>Select All Devices) in Disk Utility. If the drive was completely missing, then yes the only thing that can be done is a new SSD unless the SSD was somehow loose from the socket. If I had the tools I'd first open the case and make sure the SSD was properly seated in the socket.

And yes these things do happen. However, with an SSD there can be drive corruption (repairable) or sometimes even a complete catastrophic failure. However, depending on the capacity of the SSD, the replacement cost is nowhere near the price you were quoted, and most people could do this themselves with basic tools (P5 pentalobe and T5 Torx screwdrivers). It's not like the current MBP models, where the SSD is a permanent part of the logic board, although it is a proprietary interface where commodity/industry standard SSDs won't work. Here's a salvage 256 GB SSD sold in the United States for $109:

OWC SSDR12S256S (*) 256GB Apple/OEM PCIe SSD for... at MacSales.com

Other than that, OWC and Transcend have aftermarket replacement SSDs. They do come in funky capacities (240/480/960 GB) but that's not a big deal. You'd need to inquire with OWC about international shipping, but you should be able to find a place that sells the Transcend modules. I found this:

Transcend JetDrive 725 TS240GJDM725 240GB SSD for 15 inch Macbook Pro Retina (Mid 2012/Early 2013)with USB 3.0 Enclosure…

The other thing that can be done is to boot off an external drive. It's not the most elegant solution, but it does work. An external SSD might even be fast enough that it's not noticeable.

Yes, I would recommend the salvaged drive from OWC. Especially since it's an Apple OEM product. These drives have a special interface (PCIe) and special firmware that allows them to work with Apple products. Therefore I would expect the "genuine Apple" product to work just fine.

I just had a client that tried to replace the SSD in his MBA Late 2013 using OWC's 1 TB drive. He had firmware problems and couldn't get OWC's firmware upgrade to work so he returned both. (He bought 2!) and OWC was very good about accepting both returns (~$1300.

On a separate note I just had an OWC SSD drive fail that was just over 2 years old. OWC, again, graciously allowed me to return it for a free replacement even though it was a week over the warranty period.

OWC, awesome!

Also cautionary note, that drive failed like a candle being snuffed out! No warning just suddenly DEAD! So I need to follow my own rule about backing up. I did have one, just not as new as I'd liked.

CatherineH99 wrote:

Yes I am currently in Rockhampton as I just came over from South Africa a month ago when my computer decided to act up...

You sound like you know what's going on so would you recommend the $109 drive from MacSales?

Thank you so much for the response, I had a feeling there would be an alternative even though the Mac Choice people told me that was my only option.

If you can order that, I think it may be your best option. The process is actually quite simple. You're probably also past any Warranty or AppleCare period, although I'm not sure about the battery. Still - if you replace with an OEM drive I think you're pretty safe.

spudnuty wrote:

Yes, I would recommend the salvaged drive from OWC. Especially since it's an Apple OEM product. These drives have a special interface (PCIe) and special firmware that allows them to work with Apple products. Therefore I would expect the "genuine Apple" product to work just fine.

I just had a client that tried to replace the SSD in his MBA Late 2013 using OWC's 1 TB drive. He had firmware problems and couldn't get OWC's firmware upgrade to work so he returned both. (He bought 2!) and OWC was very good about accepting both returns (~$1300.

On a separate note I just had an OWC SSD drive fail that was just over 2 years old. OWC, again, graciously allowed me to return it for a free replacement even though it was a week over the warranty period.

OWC, awesome!

Also cautionary note, that drive failed like a candle being snuffed out! No warning just suddenly DEAD! So I need to follow my own rule about backing up. I did have one, just not as new as I'd liked.

Apple uses a unique pinout and the interface itself may be nonstandard. Some people insist on trying adapters, but it's rolling the dice regarding whether they work.

As for SSDs, of course they're not subject to mechanical failures like with rotating hard drives, but they can still fail. They are extremely complicated. There's probably more computing power on an SSD controller than on a 15 year old computer.

So you're in Rockhampton, Australia? I don't think OWC US ships to Australia, however there is this:

https://www.macfixit.com.au/owc-australia?gclid=Cj0KCQiAw9nUBRCTARIsAG11eifG2rtJ a6psgdT8tx41tc0kALT8qzaa6LzJmrIjqDDBLhXS…

and:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/SSDAP12R240/

The installation is rather simple but you'd need special tools.

OWC Tool Kit for servicing Apple MacBook Air and... at MacSales.com

If you're not comfortable doing that and an internet restore then take it to a specialist who can do the installation and restore for you.

"Apple uses a unique pinout and the interface itself may be nonstandard. Some people insist on trying adapters, but it's rolling the dice regarding whether they work."

In working with MBAs and MBPs I've seen 4 different PCIe interfaces that I refer to as:

fat-fat

skinny-skinny

fat-skinny

skinny-fat

As far as I can tell the fat-fat was only on the 2012s.

This one looks like skinny-fat which I just worked with on a MBA 2013.

Yes, they do ship to Australia. I just picked an SSD at random and chose a postal code in Sydney to ship to:

Not bad - regular mail is less than $10.

That's great! From Woodstock, IL to Aust. for $10 is really reasonable.

The OP should go for the Genuine Apple refurbished part then!