The trouble with the Apple MacBook Air is that you can run out of storage quickly once you start making home videos and taking lots of photos. The best answer is to do a MacBook Air SSD upgrade at home. Of course, you can store your media on external drives, but who likes their data scattered around? It's much easier for regular people to handle their photos, video, and documents on one main drive — and that brings us right back to a MacBook Air SSD upgrade.
Can You Do a MacBook Air SSD Upgrade?
I recently purchased a 64 GB Sandisk Flash Drive in order to use it for some videos I had recorded of the class I teach (I used the QuickTime player on my Mac to record the videos). The videos had begun to start to take up too much room on my hard drive, so I tried exporting the videos (which I believe are in a.mov format) to the Flash Drive. When I tried doing this, a notification popped up. How to Back Up Photos on a Mac Using a Flash Drive. Mac computers are known for their user-friendly operating system and easy-to-access features. This not only applies to editing home movies and creating personal webpages, but also includes basic functions like backing up files and documents.
Turn on your Macbook Pro or Air Connect the HyperDrive PRO USB-C adapter into your MacBook's USB-C ports. A light will appear to indicate that the adapter has power Plug in your desired accessories such a mouse, keyboard, memory card, external display or charging cable. A SSD replaces a hard drive by combining Flash memory with a standard 1.8-inch or 2.5-inch hard drive enclosure. The new MacBook Air instead mounts Flash memory directly to the motherboard, which takes up much less space and allows the MacBook Air to have an incredibly thin form factor.
I recently purchased a 64 GB Sandisk Flash Drive in order to use it for some videos I had recorded of the class I teach (I used the QuickTime player on my Mac to record the videos). The videos had begun to start to take up too much room on my hard drive, so I tried exporting the videos (which I believe are in a.mov format) to the Flash Drive. When I tried doing this, a notification popped up. How to Back Up Photos on a Mac Using a Flash Drive. Mac computers are known for their user-friendly operating system and easy-to-access features. This not only applies to editing home movies and creating personal webpages, but also includes basic functions like backing up files and documents.
Turn on your Macbook Pro or Air Connect the HyperDrive PRO USB-C adapter into your MacBook's USB-C ports. A light will appear to indicate that the adapter has power Plug in your desired accessories such a mouse, keyboard, memory card, external display or charging cable. A SSD replaces a hard drive by combining Flash memory with a standard 1.8-inch or 2.5-inch hard drive enclosure. The new MacBook Air instead mounts Flash memory directly to the motherboard, which takes up much less space and allows the MacBook Air to have an incredibly thin form factor.
While the MacBook Air is sealed and slim, you can still open the case and upgrade the solid-state flash storage (basically, a newer type of 'hard drive') with a larger solid-state drive (SSD). Is it easy? Yes and no. If you're moderately handy — or have a friend who is — you can likely perform a MacBook Air SSD upgrade at home. Here's how:
How To Use Flash Drive With Macbook Air Pro
1. Identify Your MacBook Air Model
Finding the right solid-state flash storage module to fit your MacBook Air is a little harder than finding a new SSD drive for an older MacBook Pro. The 11-inch and 13-inch MacBook Airs from different years each require different specs, so you need to figure out which MacBook Air you have. Apple has a handy page that will help you identify your MacBook Air model number, along with the description, which is what you need to know when it comes time to buy your upgrade drive. The description is something like '13-inch, Mid 2012' or '11-inch, Late 2010.'
2. Find the MacBook Air SSD Upgrade Option to Fit Your Model
How To Use Flash Drive With Macbook Air 2
Basically, you have two good choices of manufacturers now, OWC and Transcend. You can buy direct from OWC or get Transcend's kits from Amazon.
Backup device for macbook pro. Transcend's new JetDrive 500 and 520 MacBook Air SSD upgrade kits come with the tools you need, including a handy enclosure for your old drive.
OWC's Aura Pro + Envoy is basically a kit that includes the SSD storage module, the correct Pentalobe and Torx screwdrivers, and a cable and case to help transfer your data to the new MacBook Air SSD upgrade drive. OWC has product pages set up for each MacBook model year and offers MacBook Air SSD upgrade installation videos to help you install your new drive: OWC Aura Pro + Envoy for:
- MacBook Air Mid 2013, 2014, 2015 models
- MacBook Air 2012
- MacBook Air 2011
- MacBook Air 2010
- MacBook Air 2008-2009
- MacBook Air 2008
Transcend's kits also include the SSD, screwdrivers, and case. Transcend's JetDrive 500 in 240GB or 480GB fits:
- MacBook Air Late 2010 (Note: 480GB does not fit 11-inch Air)
- MacBook Air Mid 2011
Transcend's JetDrive 520 in 240GB, 480GB, or a whopping 960GB fits:
- MacBook Air Mid 2012
Macbook air for web development 2018. As of right now, OWC is the only manufacturer who has created a Mid 2013, 2014, or 2015 MacBook Air SSD upgrade option in the form of a traditional internal solid-state drive. This was a pretty cool feat of engineering, and it means that you can upgrade up to 1 TB of storage in your MacBook Air. If you're backing up your iPhone 7 . . . or a family of iPhones, having more onboard storage on your MacBook Air is a great way to manage all this.
Note:What if you don't want to open your MacBook Air case?
The TarDisk Pear system is a tiny drive that you can combine with your built-in drive to create a single 'fused' storage system on your MacBook Air or Pro.
Don't despair, you have two cool options, both of which are tiny flash-based drives in the shape of camera memory cards. They plug into the SDXC card slot on your 13-inch MacBook Air.
For all intents and purposes, the Transcend JetDrive Liteacts like a little USB thumb drive — but it fits flush into the SDXC card slot instead and appears on your Mac like an external drive that is always on, always available. It appears as a separate storage option to your Mac's operating system. Quite handy.
The TarDisk Pear system, on the other hand, also uses the SDXC card slot but it combines with your built-in storage to form a single 'fused' drive. If you want a near-permanent — but easy storage solution for your MacBook Air — the TarDisk Pear system might be your best bet.
Moving on, back to the traditional SSD replacement process. . . .
3. Clone or Transfer Your Data to the New MacBook Air SSD
While I prefer Carbon Copy Cloner, which is a third-party app that you can use to create one-off clones of your drives (with the free trial period) or manage ongoing backups, you can also use Apple's Time Machine, or boot into recovery mode and use Apple's built-in Disk Utility to get the job done — the latter of which, by the way, is the method that Transcend recommends. Note: These MacBook Air SSD drives are exposed modules and are a bit more fragile than your average enclosed hard drive. Consequently, you should have a backup of your important data before you get to the point where you open the case and start handling the drives. There are a lot of ways you can back up your data, but the easiest way is to buy an external hard drive and use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your entire drive as a bootable backup to your external drive. Alternately, you can simply copy over your important photos, videos, and documents. (The key benefit of an external drive is that you can store it somewhere that is not your home — if you face a flood or fire, your important family photos will be safe.)
4. Check Out Video Walkthroughs and Online Guides
OWC provides video guides on its website, but the Transcend video below also shows you the basic MacBook Air SSD upgrade process, and it is fast and clear, despite the jaunty soundtrack:
After you watch the guides, if all this seems too risky or scary for your skills and personality, find a buddy who has done it before — or have your local computer store do it for you.5. Perform the MacBook Air SSD Upgrade
The data cloning process might take a couple of hours, but the actual MacBook Air SSD upgrade installation should take less than 30 minutes, even for newbies. Just make sure that you're in a relatively stable and clean environment, and if you're really worried about frying your system with static electricity, consider buying an anti-static mat. Personally, I've never bothered. Call me reckless and proceed at your own risk. Last of all, go slow. Place the tiny little screws in a bowl so they don't roll off your desk and get lost in your carpet. What's Next? Enjoy your new storage capacity and congratulate yourself on extending the life of your MacBook Air. Plus, now you have a handy external portable hard drive.
Get the MacBook Air SSD Upgrade Gear:
- OWC MacBook Air Aura Pro + Envoy SSD Upgrade Kits (most options for most models)
- Transcend JetDrive Lite (slips into SDXC card slot)
- TarDisk Pear system (slips into SDXC card slot and makes a ‘fused' drive)
