MBA rev. B, drive swap mod for 1.8" micro-sata

[scorpio01]

i was just wondering if Samsung mSATA SSD OP used is any faster then SSD like these one here

Samsung
http://www.ebay.com/itm/19071158777...AX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_500wt_1210

or

Toshiba
http://www.ebay.com/itm/25111492935...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649#ht_1398wt_1172

i can get Toshiba 128GB for around 90 - 100 USD here in Hong Kong.


WBR

 

[Syss]

sorry i know its an old tread but at first an awesome mod idea thanks!

so now i found this little adapter: http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Cables-LIF-Adapter/dp/B009H79TLI

would the mod become easier with this adapter? and the origin hdd cable will not become destroyed i think? would it work?
I would be very thankful for some help!

 

[arnydorianm]

sorry i know its an old tread but at first an awesome mod idea thanks!

so now i found this little adapter: http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Cables-LIF-Adapter/dp/B009H79TLI

would the mod become easier with this adapter? and the origin hdd cable will not become destroyed i think? would it work?
I would be very thankful for some help!

The adapter cable is OK but there isn't available space inside the MBA... that adapter scope is to use a LIF-SATA hard-disk into a rack or something like that outside of the MBA... inside... the only option to use SATA hard-disk is that one described in page 1.

 

[Valiran]

Hello all!

Sorry for resurrecting an old post but a client of mine just gave me his old MBA Late 2008 with the SAmsung LIF HDD inside.

The MBA works well but is laggy, due to the 4200rpm HDD.

So I looked to buy a LIF SSD but they are quite expansive (price per GB) and it's very very difficult to find a 1,8" SATA SSD.

So best way today, in my opinion is to buy a mSATA SSD. Like 50*30*3 mm so it fits.

But I don't know how to interface it with the ********** LIF connector.

I've got like 20mm lenght space need the SSD inside the MBA so maybe a little adapter could fit, but impossible to find too.

Any help would be welcome

(sorry for my english i'm french)

Nice day!


link to the mSATA SSD I want to use -> http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00146189.html

 

[Valiran]

I put a little bump because I have a free 100eur coupon for the website i've linked before, but it ends on november 1st, so if this SSD work I can mob the MBA for nearly nothing

Also, i've found this adapter from amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Aleratec-mSAT...&qid=1381711134&sr=1-9&keywords=msata+adapter
or
http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Ca...qid=1381711134&sr=1-12&keywords=msata+adapter

I think both can fit inside with the mSATA SSD attached, but just to be sure I need a confirmation.
Also maybe I can directly solder mSATA to the LIF cable but I didn't find any "pin matching schema".

Please help me

 

[RedTomato]

Count me in too.
The HDD on my girlfriend's Rev B MBA 2,1 A1304 Macbook Air has died so I;m looking for replacing it with a SSD. The prices for the LIF 1.8'' SSDs are outrageous so I;m looking at other options.

So far, the best idea I've found is to use a 1.8'' Compact Flash to LIF adaptor.

Something like this:

http://uk.startech.com/HDD/Adapters/Compact-Flash-CF-to-ZIF-LIF-Adapter~ZIF2CF

http://www.amazon.co.uk/compact-flash-ZIF-1-8-ADAPTER/dp/B0039O8SKS/ref=pd_cp_computers_1

That should fit into the 1.8'' drive bay, then a 64GB CF card is about £40. 64GB isn't a lot of space, but it will make the MBA very useable as a writing / email / surfing machine.

Hopefully the adaptor height won't be too high, but I might be able to cut away some of the unused plastic.

What do you think? Won't be as fast for serial transfer as a SSD, but the random access should be far faster than a HDD so the MBA should feel a lot faster.

Of course, all my problems would be solved if there is now a small LIF to SATA adaptor available that will fit in the space.

 

[Valiran]

This is ZIF adapter, you need, like me, LIF adapter.

 

[RedTomato]

This is ZIF adapter, you need, like me, LIF adapter.

You are right. I'm still looking for a LIF24 to Compact Flash adaptor. However I have found this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/ADAPTER-Apple-Macbook-ribbon-cable/dp/B009CARNR2/ref=pd_sim_sbs_ce_2

This is a LIF24 to SATA adaptor. It is intended to let a computer connect to the Air's HDD via a SATA cable. I wonder if it would work backwards? i.e let the MBA connect to a SATA SDD via the internal LIF24 port?

There is so little space inside the Air I'm not sure if it would work. You'd need a gender-changer, something like this (too tired to work out if a male-male is needed or female-female):

http://www.lindy.co.uk/cables-adapt...28/sata-female-to-female-gender-changer-p7086

 

[Valiran]

Yes we need a female SATA to a female LIF connector...

 

[digitalica]

NEW NEWs

hi people, I'm new around here, hope that this info will help and sorry if this is not the right post....

I've been lost in the ocean trying to find the cheaper way to put an ssd into my MBA rev 2,1 , runcore and all other ssd are too expensive or they need the famous soldering thing to be done...

surfing like hell i found that some LIF / SataII ssd's are produced by samsung, and toshiba (actually while I'm writing I lost some links ) check it out

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-8-128GB-S...e-Macbook-Air-MB940LL-A-MC233LL-/261269198554

http://www.ebay.com/itm/SMMCRE28GQD...?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item4d19db7175

this I think would avoid doing solderings, the samsung one is around 550read/250write and slightly less IOPS than OWC aura pro.

Said this, what would you do?
Would you Mod the cable, buy a lif sata2 ssd or buy the owc aura pro???

consider that with owc you would be safe from future problems, with lif/sata ssd you would have no problems till the ssd brokes.... the difference is on about 50€ ...

(for who feels safe soldering, since november 2013 this is on the market, very cheap!)
http://www.crucial.com/eu/store/partspecs.aspx?IMODULE=CT120M500SSD3


thanks

 

[reukiodo]

this I think would avoid doing solderings, the samsung one is around 550read/250write and slightly less IOPS than OWC aura pro.

The OWC Aura drive is the only replacement that I've found uses the standard microsata connector. The difference is that the OWC drive comes with the microsata cable to connect a standard microsata drive to the MBA's logic board. However, OWC will not sell this cable separately.

 

[AzLIGHT]

Thank topikstarter !!! I have all happened only because I enjoyed his experience !!! And my decision to get cheaper finance. And also, it is now very easy to upgrade.
Sorry for my English, I use Google-translator.

 

[reukiodo]

Thank topikstarter !!! I have all happened only because I enjoyed his experience !!! And my decision to get cheaper finance. And also, it is now very easy to upgrade.
Sorry for my English, I use Google-translator.

This is indeed quite impressive!

But why did you cut the corner off instead of using the entire top part of the LIF2SATA adapter? Are those resistors not needed?

 

[RedTomato]

This is indeed quite impressive!

But why did you cut the corner off instead of using the entire top part of the LIF2SATA adapter? Are those resistors not needed?

Could someone explain what AzLIGHT did with the adaptors? I can't follow the image sequence

 

[Needleroozer]

Could someone explain what AzLIGHT did with the adaptors? I can't follow the image sequence

It looks to me like he took a micro-SATA to mSATA converter and then soldered the LIF24 connector from the SATA to LIF24 converter onto the mSATA board to get a LIF24 to mSATA converter.

The only aspect of the SATA to LIF24 converter that is important here is that it breaks out the data and power signals from the LIF24 connector: the data signals are routed to the SATA data connector, and the 3.3V from the LIF24 connector is routed to that rectangular solder pad.

Micro-SATA and SATA share the same pin spacing and layout for their seven data pins, so the trick is getting the SATA pads from the LIF24 board to a condition in which they can be soldered to the micro-SATA data pads on the micro-SATA to mSATA board.
To do this, he desoldered both the micro-SATA and SATA connectors from the respective boards and then cut the boards down so that the seven SATA data pads could be placed adjacent to each other and soldered together (picture 6).

The red jumper wire connects the 3.3V from the LIF24 connector to pin 1 of the micro-SATA power connector, which is connected on the board to the 3.3V pins for the mSATA SSD.
In other words, it connects the MacBook Air's 3.3V supply on the LIF24 connector to the mSATA SSD.

It's a very elegant modification.

This is indeed quite impressive!

But why did you cut the corner off instead of using the entire top part of the LIF2SATA adapter? Are those resistors not needed?

The capacitors and linear regulator there are to step the 5V provided by a full-size SATA connector down to 3.3V for the drive connected to the LIF24 connector. Since the MacBook Air provides 3.3V over the LIF24 connector, the extra circuitry for the converter was not needed.

 

[RedTomato]

It looks to me like he took a micro-SATA to mSATA converter and then soldered the LIF24 connector from the SATA to LIF24 converter onto the mSATA board to get a LIF24 to mSATA converter.

The only aspect of the SATA to LIF24 converter that is important here is that it breaks out the data and power signals from the LIF24 connector: the data signals are routed to the SATA data connector, and the 3.3V from the LIF24 connector is routed to that rectangular solder pad.

Micro-SATA and SATA share the same pin spacing and layout for their seven data pins, so the trick is getting the SATA pads from the LIF24 board to a condition in which they can be soldered to the micro-SATA data pads on the micro-SATA to mSATA board.
To do this, he desoldered both the micro-SATA and SATA connectors from the respective boards and then cut the boards down so that the seven SATA data pads could be placed adjacent to each other and soldered together (picture 6).

The red jumper wire connects the 3.3V from the LIF24 connector to pin 1 of the micro-SATA power connector, which is connected on the board to the 3.3V pins for the mSATA SSD.
In other words, it connects the MacBook Air's 3.3V supply on the LIF24 connector to the mSATA SSD.

It's a very elegant modification.



The capacitors and linear regulator there are to step the 5V provided by a full-size SATA connector down to 3.3V for the drive connected to the LIF24 connector. Since the MacBook Air provides 3.3V over the LIF24 connector, the extra circuitry for the converter was not needed.

That is amazing. Many thanks for explaining. It seems like this could be possible with a couple of hours soldering practice? I've only ever tried to solder something once or twice in my life, but this seems not too complex, thanks to AzLIGHT and your explanation.

The MBA I was asking about seems like it is dying for other reasons, so I probably won't try this, but it is useful to know.

 

[Needleroozer]

That is amazing. Many thanks for explaining. It seems like this could be possible with a couple of hours soldering practice? I've only ever tried to solder something once or twice in my life, but this seems not too complex, thanks to AzLIGHT and your explanation.

The MBA I was asking about seems like it is dying for other reasons, so I probably won't try this, but it is useful to know.

Yes, it's a fairly simple soldering job. The hard part, in my opinion, is removing the SATA and micro-SATA connectors from their boards (getting all those pins hot at the same time is not easy), though you could probably go at it with a pair of diagonal cutters and reduce it to a bunch of single pins to desolder, one at a time, if you didn't need to keep the SATA connectors intact.
The actual soldering shouldn't be too hard, though you will want wire that's somewhat small for the 3.3V jumper.

 

[AzLIGHT]

Needleroozer correctly wrote. just so I did. Difficult it may be the fact that the flexible ribbon cable will have to be cut on the sides. Because the Chinese connector LIF slightly less than he did. Just do not forget to turn on the SSD disk support MAC OS. On the latest versions of MAC OS it is done simply. And in the old MACOS, this can only be done with special commands from the terminal. If you do not activate it, then I think that, after a while, there will be loss of SSD performance because the MAC OS will not give TRIM command.

 

[Mormislaw]

Thank topikstarter !!! I have all happened only because I enjoyed his experience !!! And my decision to get cheaper finance. And also, it is now very easy to upgrade.
Sorry for my English, I use Google-translator.
View attachment 625563
View attachment 625564
View attachment 625565
View attachment 625566
View attachment 625567
View attachment 625568
View attachment 625569
View attachment 625570
View attachment 625571
View attachment 625572

Wow. I love it! I’m planning to do it with this method today. Would anyone still be interested in a tutorial on YouTube about doing this conversion AzLights method?

 

[fraser34]

Hi, guys,
If anybody is still interested in this topic …

I have Macbook Air A1304 late 2008- mid 2009 Rev.A
I purchased it with no hard drive and thought it will be easy to find one.
But now I see it’s not.
And I want to buy SSD for it, of course!
So I did a lot of googling and found 2 main things:
Macbook Air 2009 A1304 Rev.A has 24pin LIF connector
Macbook Air 2009 A1304 Rev.B&C has 40pin ZIF connector.
I checked eBay and found SSDs sold, as the sellers say, for Rev.B&C
NEW 128GB LIF THNSNC128GMLJ SSD REPLACE HS12UHE FOR APPLE MACBOOK AIR A1304

Description on red says:

“ Replace Samsung MMDEO28GXMSP Toshiba MK1639GSL MK2239GSG THNS128GE8BMDC
This SDD is only for MBA rev. B (Late 2008 A1304 MB543LL/A, MB940LL/A ) & rev.C (Mid 2009 MC233LL/A , MC234LL/A) , NOT for Rev.A
(Macbook air Rev.A HDD is HS082HB or MK8025GAL). It can't work in any other laptop “​

But look on the picture:
You clearly can see 24pins.

So, does it mean this SSD (more likely) will work with A1304 Rev.A and seller just misrepresented the item he is selling or I’m missing something?

What do you think, guys?
Thanks

 

[reukiodo]

If I remember correctly, the early 2008 (rev A) uses PATA format interface while the late 2008 and 2009 use SATA interface, so if you attempt to connect the SATA drive directly to the PATA interface, I'm very sure it won't work, but I'm not sure what would break.

 

[reukiodo]

Why not buy something like https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/221833347437 and get a nice SATA-based M.2 SSD?

 

[fraser34]

Why not buy something like https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/221833347437 and get a nice SATA-based M.2 SSD?

I have Macbook Air A1304 late 2008- mid 2009 Rev.A with HDD cable with 24pin LIF connector.

 

[reukiodo]

Then there are only 3 paths to take:
1. Original Apple Mass Storage Cable + 24pin LIF drive
2. OWC Cable + SATA drive
3. custom soldered adapter as described earlier in this thread + SATA drive

Personally I went with the OWC route as its cable is the cleanest solution and allows me to make an easier upgrade in the future if I so need.

 

[reukiodo]

I think you are mistaken in that the Rev A refers to the original early 2008 MacBook Air (MBA1,1) where Rev B refers to the late 2008 MacBook Air (MBA2,1) and Rev C refers to the 2009 MacBook Air (MBA2,1):

early 2008 - MacBookAir1,1 - rev A - 40pin ZIF - PATA
late 2008 - MacBookAir2,1 - rev B - 24pin LIF - SATA
2009 - MacBookAir2,1 - rev C - 24pin LIF - SATA