Anybody Installed OWC SSD's in 11" yet?

[mangrove]

Would like some hints on how it went, if successful, etc. How do you clone the OEM hard drive to the new SSD's?

Just got my 240GB's today with 2 screwdrivers. Did not look at the OWC tech support pages yet.

Your first hand experience can be much better. Thanks.

 

[weckart]

Would like some hints on how it went, if successful, etc. How do you clone the OEM hard drive to the new SSD's?

Just got my 240GB's today with 2 screwdrivers. Did not look at the OWC tech support pages yet.

Your first hand experience can be much better. Thanks.

Not installed one, but you could work out the cloning yourself, surely? You have two usb ports for starters.

 

[mangrove]

Not installed one, but you could work out the cloning yourself, surely? You have two usb ports for starters.

The new Aura sticks are not directly compatible with USB. Of course the OSX comes on U SB now, but before pulling the original stick out and then trying to install OSX,I wanted to hear about others experiences.

The above might get me OSX, but not a clone which is what we all want.

Since I am a novice, how do 2 USB ports help me with installing and cloning a memory stick SSD?

 

[Lone Deranger]

The new Aura sticks are not directly compatible with USB. Of course the OSX comes on U SB now, but before pulling the original stick out and then trying to install OSX,I wanted to hear about others experiences.

The above might get me OSX, but not a clone which is what we all want.

Since I am a novice, how do 2 USB ports help me with installing and cloning a memory stick SSD?

You could get something like 'Get Backup Pro' from the Mac Appstore to clone your Apple SDD to an external USB HD, making sure the clone is bootable. Swap out the Apple SSD for the OWC SSD and boot into OSX off of the clone. From there, run 'Get Backup Pro' again to clone back from the USB drive to the OWC SSD. Restart and done.

Disclaimer: Haven't tried this myself, but I see no reason why this wouldn't work.

 

[axu539]

either way, you're going to need an external drive so that you can make a clone. I would actually suggest carbon copy cloner for the software.

 

[jamesryanbell]

either way, you're going to need an external drive so that you can make a clone. I would actually suggest carbon copy cloner for the software.

I second that suggestion. (CCC)

Great software.

 

[fs454]

I second that suggestion. (CCC)

Great software.

Third that suggestion. Carbon Copy Cloner is simple, easy and gets the job done.


Clone your SSD to an external drive, then clone the external to the new SSD?

I've never had to clone something I didn't have a USB or Firewire interface for, haha

 

[dgdosen]

So - has anyone installed one of these?

Do the screws get ruined? Do you need to replace the screws like iFixIt recommends?

 

[Jman14]

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This might be a silly question, but what's the advantage of OWC SSD?

 

[hfg]

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This might be a silly question, but what's the advantage of OWC SSD?

OWC claims their SSD is faster than the stock one in the Air, plus they have larger sizes which can fit in either the 13" or 11" Air.

 

[jamesryanbell]

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This might be a silly question, but what's the advantage of OWC SSD?

Larger storage capacities (180GB, 240GB, 360GB) and they're faster drives (as compared to stock drives that come in the MBA).

Just an opinion, but as far as bang for the buck, the 240GB one is the one to get. That'd be super awesome to have in the 11.6".

 

[Jman14]

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This might be a silly question, but what's the advantage of OWC SSD?

Larger storage capacities (180GB, 240GB, 360GB) and they're faster drives (as compared to stock drives that come in the MBA).

Just an opinion, but as far as bang for the buck, the 240GB one is the one to get. That'd be super awesome to have in the 11.6".

That's good to know. Might have to be something I invest in at some point.

 

[rovitotv]

When will the price drop happen?

I would love to get one of these things but the prices are very high!!!
180 GB is $499.99
240 GB is $579.99
360 GB is $1,179.99 almost the same cost as my Mac Air 11" Ultimate

My only hope is that the prices decreases like everything else. It would be cool to have that much storage on board my 11" but not so cool I would drop over $500. I bet this time next year they will be half price?

 

[Jman14]

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Oh wow! Maybe I won't get one then! Haha

 

[axu539]

So far, I've only heard about these drives from one thread. The machine worked fine for like a day or something, then the computer no longer recognized the drive. He RMA'd the drive, and I haven't heard anything since. It might be that the Toshiba SSDs in the MBAs have very specific firmware. I don't know. Anyone else have any experiences with the OWC ones?

 

[acron1]

Or you could use "Time Machine" and back up your current drive to an external drive... install the new SSD and reinstall the OS with the provided USB stick... once OS X is installed you can use the "Time Machine" image to restore the MBA to the state it was before the drive upgrade...
However you decide to do it, do tell what your experience was like and if you can run some benchmarks before and after it would be real nice

 

[newdeal]

So far, I've only heard about these drives from one thread. The machine worked fine for like a day or something, then the computer no longer recognized the drive. He RMA'd the drive, and I haven't heard anything since. It might be that the Toshiba SSDs in the MBAs have very specific firmware. I don't know. Anyone else have any experiences with the OWC ones?

I have no experiance with these OWC drives, however I had a OWC mercury extreme that crapped out after 4 days and was no longer recognised, I got a new one after being assured this had never happened to anyone before and the second one did the same thing after a month so I demanded a refund. Also from a speed perspective the SSD in the air booted faster with a slower CPU than the OWC SSD did in my 2.26 macbook pro...if you are upgrading for a speed difference it would be unwise. If you are upgrading for more storage you probobly should have gotten a macbook pro and put an ssd in an optibay and a 500gb main hdd in to get your storage for a price that isn't insanely high

 

[hfg]

I would imagine the high cost of a replacement ssd drive would be a lot easier to accept if there were some way to re-use the removed also-expensive ssd that came with the Air.

OWC needs to come up with a usb enclosure to hold the old ssd and provide it as part of the upgrade kit.

-howard

 

[hfg]

I have no experiance with these OWC drives, however I had a OWC mercury extreme that crapped out after 4 days and was no longer recognised, I got a new one after being assured this had never happened to anyone before and the second one did the same thing after a month so I demanded a refund.

I also had a OWC Mercury Extreme SSD fail after several days installed in a Mac Pro. It was replaced quickly with a new one which had worked fine ever since.

The first drive was mounted above a standard hard drive in the optical bay using the OWC dual drive mounting kit as shown in their ads. Perhaps that caused the ssd to overhead or something, I don't know. I installed the replacement in one of the icydock holders and mounted it on the standard disk tray in the Mac Pro.

-howard

 

[dgdosen]

Yet still - nobody has actually installed one in the new mba's? Hello - OWC rep? Are you out there?

 

[Acorn]

i read about 1 person that had installed it and there are 2 issues that im aware of. The first Issue is the ssd bows upwards when screwed in. Its not alot, but you can clearly see it. The second is the reason of the first. The original mac ssd only has chips on 1 side. so there is nothing touching the memory underneath. The OWC ssd has chips on both sides. this causes the bowing but also may cause some other issue because if the memory gets hot or if the ssd gets hot they are both touching each other. Unlike the original ssd which doesnt have that problem because as mentioned before the original only had chips on 1 side. so nothing touches the memory on the original.

someone needs to install a OWC chip and then monitor the temp of the mem bank and see if them touching effects either component. yes its soldered on but it still has a sensor. i dont know what is its range is though.

 

[jhr3uva90]

I fully endorse Carbon Copy Cloner.

 

[Thiol]

i read about 1 person that had installed it and there are 2 issues that im aware of. The first Issue is the ssd bows upwards when screwed in. Its not alot, but you can clearly see it. The second is the reason of the first. The original mac ssd only has chips on 1 side. so there is nothing touching the memory underneath. The OWC ssd has chips on both sides. this causes the bowing but also may cause some other issue because if the memory gets hot or if the ssd gets hot they are both touching each other. Unlike the original ssd which doesnt have that problem because as mentioned before the original only had chips on 1 side. so nothing touches the memory on the original.

I think this is the reason that people have been reluctant to move the Toshiba 256 GB SSD from an 11" to a 13" MBA. Someone in another forum got it to work, but noted the same contacts that you observed. So it's possible, but no one knows if there are (and there may be none) any issues with all the contacts.

 

[RussRamz]

Multiple OWC 240GB SSD Failures!

OK...

I'm on my second 240GB SSD for my 11 inch MBA. My second one just failed minutes ago! I'm done with OWC. They aren't reliable at all. Not recommended. I'll stick with the OEM 128GB SSD and my 15 inch MBP...

 

[tech324]

I heard the new MBAs will have SSDs that will have read/write speed in the 400MB range. That would be awesome.