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MacBook Air 13" Mid 2011 Solid-State Drive Replacement

Introduction

Use this guide to upgrade or replace the solid-state drive in a MacBook Air 13” Mid 2011. This MacBook Air uses a proprietary storage drive connector, and is therefore not compatible with common M.2 drives without the use of an adapter.

Before you perform this repair, if at all possible, back up your existing SSD. Then, either familiarize yourself with internet recovery or create a bootable external drive so you’ll be ready to install macOS onto your new drive and migrate your data to the new SSD.

Finally, we strongly recommend installing macOS 10.13 High Sierra (or a later macOS) before replacing the original SSD from your MacBook Air. Most new SSDs require updated storage drivers not found in versions of macOS prior to High Sierra.

What you need

  1. MacBook Air 13" Mid 2011 Solid-State Drive Replacement, Lower Case: step 1, image 1 of 1
    Tool used on this step:
    P5 Pentalobe Screwdriver Retina MacBook Pro and Air
    $5.99
    Buy

    • Before proceeding, power down your MacBook. Close the display and lay it on a soft surface, top-side down.

    • Use a P5 Pentalobe driver to remove ten screws securing the lower case, of the following lengths:

    • Two 9 mm screws

    • Eight 2.6 mm screws

    Edit

  2. MacBook Air 13" Mid 2011 Solid-State Drive Replacement: step 2, image 1 of 1

    • Wedge your fingers between the display and the lower case and pull upward to pop the lower case off the Air.

    • Remove the lower case and set it aside.

    Edit

  4. MacBook Air 13" Mid 2011 Solid-State Drive Replacement, Battery Connector: step 3, image 1 of 2 MacBook Air 13" Mid 2011 Solid-State Drive Replacement, Battery Connector: step 3, image 2 of 2

    • As a precaution against accidental discharge or shock, disconnect the battery connector from the logic board.

    • Grab the clear plastic pull tab attached to the battery connector and pull it toward the front edge of the Air to disconnect the battery from the logic board.

    • Be sure to pull the connector horizontally toward the battery, and not straight up from the Air, or you may damage the socket on the logic board.

    Edit

  5. MacBook Air 13" Mid 2011 Solid-State Drive Replacement, Solid-State Drive: step 4, image 1 of 1

    • Remove the single 2.9 mm T5 Torx screw securing the SSD to the logic board.

    Edit

  6. MacBook Air 13" Mid 2011 Solid-State Drive Replacement: step 5, image 1 of 2 MacBook Air 13" Mid 2011 Solid-State Drive Replacement: step 5, image 2 of 2

    • To avoid damaging its socket, do not lift the end of the SSD excessively.

    • Slightly lift up the end of the SSD and pull it straight out of its socket on the logic board.

    • When reinstalling the SSD, be sure it is properly seated before reinstalling its retaining screw.

    Edit
Finish Line

86 other people completed this guide.

8 Comments

If I replace the SSD with another one purchased from iFixit, will it appear as an external or internal drive?

At my job, it's standard to encrypt drives. I purchased an SSD from another vendor and because it showed as external, couldn't be encrypted. I just want to avoid this problem before purchasing one from here.

flux1968 - Reply

Muito bom o roteiro, deu certinho.

ahdesiqueira - Reply

This should really be rated as easy. Took less than 5 minutes thanks to this excellent guide.

Tyler Berry - Reply

Absolutely spot on. Thanks Andrew! The only potential pitfall in this job is getting the right replacement SSD (or, if you're extracting the SSD to use elsewhere, getting the right caddy.)

Ben Godwin - Reply

anybody knows if exist any hdd to replace the ssd?

I have a mb air 13 mid 2011 in my hands and it has behaviour a mac(/pc) with a hdd damaged? same noise, same latencies, same way to damage files…

and over the top “informations about this mac” says it is a macbook pro 13

never seen in my life…

smoker_man2004 - Reply

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