Macbook Air help with hardware please

Rowee

Rowee

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Hi All

I have a macbook air (late 2012 version which I've been told is the same as the 2013 version?). It only has a 60gb hdd and I want to upgrade to at least 120gb, 60 just seems so limiting.
I've had a look online (and on the dreaded fleabay) and Macbook Air hard drives seem to be 1: hard to come by and 2: particularly expensive for the storage you get.
They seem to just be 1.8" hard drives, am I missing something?
Most of the 1.8" drives that do not specify "Macbook Air" are as cheap as expected, but are they compatible?

I thought a hdd was fairly standard and Mac specific is not required, but maybe the connections are different?

Anyway, if anyone knows anything that will help me it would be very much appreciated.

Thanks muchly :)
 
The drive on a MacBook Air 2012 is not a HD but a SSD, that's why it is so small. I have to say that I didn't realise the 2012 model had SSD's as low as 64gb. Where did you buy it from?

Steve
 
Just checking and it does seem that the 11in air 2012 could have a 64gb SSD. Also as far as I am aware the 2012 model is not the current one.
 
The SSD is special sized, as linked above.

Also, I believe the screws used on Macbooks are special screws.
 
I didn't think you could upgrade the gubbins in a Macbook Air yourself. Or possibly at all.
 
Thanks for the replies all. Maybe I should speak to an apple store before I do too much. The hdd info is very useful though. I think I assumed I could use the 64gb sparingly, taking advantage of an external drive for storage. Unfortunately the OS and applications on the mac currently absorb about 40gb of the drive, which doesn't leave room for much else. I recently hit it's limit when trying to install the sims for the wife, which needs 6gb to download from Origin, then an additional 6gb to be able to unpack it, followed by a 5 gb update, plus 5gb to be able to unpack the update. Seems ridiculous when storage is so cheap nowadays, the SSD thing explains that a little I guess.
 
Check to see if you can clear space on the SSD. My son has a 64GB version and soon used it all up. Some repeated cleaning with alternative (free) software eventually freed up about 2/3 of the space. Apparently backups can be pearticularly hazardous to mac ssds.
 
I bought a new 512gb version on flee bay for around £300 and performed the upgrade flawlessly, it voids all warranty but was worth it in the long run, just keep looking about for a second hand version if you are still keen. An MBA is unfortunately very limited but it can be a little gem when required :)
 
You could do what seems to be quite common these models (going by forum responses when I was researching it myself) which is to pop a big SD card in the slot and expand your storage that way. I've done this myself with a Sandisk Ultra and it's really fast.
 
trencheel303 said:
You could do what seems to be quite common these models (going by forum responses when I was researching it myself) which is to pop a big SD card in the slot and expand your storage that way. I've done this myself with a Sandisk Ultra and it's really fast.
Click to expand...
no SD Card slot on the 11in air :(
 
It is in 64gb, you have to click the drop down "size name".
 
Rowee said:
Unfortunately the OS and applications on the mac currently absorb about 40gb of the drive, which doesn't leave room for much else.
Click to expand...

That sounds an awful lot. People seem to rate DriveSlim for reclaiming space. It helps you delete things like unused printer drivers and foreign language files. The saving can be surprising.

I'd also run OmniDiskSweeper (free and rather good) to find out what's hogging the space.
 
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