Tools
Introduction
Use this guide to replace a burned-out solid state hard drive.
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Remove the following ten screws:
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Two 8 mm 5-point Pentalobe screws
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Eight 2.5 mm 5-point Pentalobe screws
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Wedge your fingers between the display and the lower case and pull upward to pop the lower case off the Air.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to pry both short sides of the battery connector upward to disconnect it from its socket on the logic board.
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Bend the battery cable slightly away from the logic board so the connector will not accidentally contact its socket.
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Remove the single 2.9 mm T5 Torx screw securing the SSD to the logic board.
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Use a spudger to help lift the free end of the SSD just enough to grab it with your other hand.
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Pull the drive straight out of its socket and remove it from the logic board.
When you've completed all these steps to replace your SSD, don't despair if the MacBook Air shows a flashing folder with a question mark when you first power up the MacBook Air.
- Power off the machine, then keep the option key (= Alt key) pressed down, power on the machine again, and keep the option key pressed down until a prompt appears.
- If you've set a firmware password, then type it in at the prompt
- You should now be prompted for a hard drive to boot from. Select "EFI Boot"
- The MacBook Air should now boot to a window showing "OS X Utilities"
- Click on the at the top left, then select "Startup Disk..."
- Select your SDD/Hard drive, and restart.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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When you say:
Remove the following ten screws:
Two 8 mm 5-point Pentalobe screws
Eight 2.5 mm 5-point Pentalobe screws
Do the 8mm & 2.5mm dimensions refer to the LENGTH of those screws, or the size of the pentalobe? That is, are there other sizes of pentalobe drivers like there are for hex, phillips and torx? When only one dimension is provided, it is usually the socket/driver size, not the screw length, maybe since the length cannot be seen when the screw is installed.
Can I suggest that you clarify your instructions so folks are confident they are only in need of _one_ pentalobe driver?
Nerdily yours,
Larry (whose iPhone 4S can now get through a day without 6 recharges thanks to ifixit.com ;-)
larryleveen - Reply
The 8mm and 2.5mm are the length of the screws. One pentalobe P5 screwdriver suffices for all the screws (P5 is implicitly the size of the pentalobe screw heads).
Michael Welham -
I sourced all the parts from ifixit, plus a magnetic project mat which I found to be very useful for organising the teardown and reassembly.
Allen - Reply