FYI - Best workaround for Macbooks with failed internal SSD

[udayrulz]

Hi all,

I have been looking for a good economical solution to fix my Macbook 12" which has a busted SSD. As the SSD is soldered on the board, Apple only offers full logic board replacement for >£300 which doesn't make sense given the price of new M1 Macbook Airs.

The obvious solution is to install the OS on an external drive but given the single port on the laptop, I had been struggling to find a workable solution until I stumbled upon Anker's powerexpand hub which has a built in internal SSD and also has pass through charging. I installed everything yesterday and the performance is fairly good with read speed of 400 mb/sec. I think this is the best solution apart from logic board replacement/repair.

 

[EugW]

I stumbled upon Anker's powerexpand hub which has a built in internal SSD and also has pass through charging. I installed everything yesterday and the performance is fairly good with read speed of 400 mb/sec.

Link and/or model name for device?

I see on their website they have multiple different PowerExpand devices, but the ones I found don't seem to fit your description.

 

[udayrulz]

Link and/or model name for device?

I see on their website they have multiple different PowerExpand devices, but the ones I found don't seem to fit your description.

PowerExpand 4-in-1 SSD USB-C Hub

The Anker Advantage: Join the 55 million+ powered by our leading technology. Built-In Storage: Store your movies, photos, music, and more on the integrated 256GB SSD, and transfer files at up to 400 MB/s. Increased Port Options: Get more from your laptop’s USB-C port with the addition of a 4K...

uk.anker.com

Let me know if you need any further help.

 

[mk313]

Hi all,

I have been looking for a good economical solution to fix my Macbook 12" which has a busted SSD. As the SSD is soldered on the board, Apple only offers full logic board replacement for >£300 which doesn't make sense given the price of new M1 Macbook Airs.

The obvious solution is to install the OS on an external drive but given the single port on the laptop, I had been struggling to find a workable solution until I stumbled upon Anker's powerexpand hub which has a built in internal SSD and also has pass through charging. I installed everything yesterday and the performance is fairly good with read speed of 400 mb/sec. I think this is the best solution apart from logic board replacement/repair.

If you don't mind me asking, were you able to boot up before you got the external SSD? I have a 2015 12" with a bad something (I can't find the repair order I got from Apple, so can't remember if it was an SSD or something else, but I couldn't boot up at all). I wonder if I have a similar scenario to you, or something else entirely. It would be great if I could rehab this computer for $100.

 

[udayrulz]

If you don't mind me asking, were you able to boot up before you got the external SSD? I have a 2015 12" with a bad something (I can't find the repair order I got from Apple, so can't remember if it was an SSD or something else, but I couldn't boot up at all). I wonder if I have a similar scenario to you, or something else entirely. It would be great if I could rehab this computer for $100.

Yes, the laptop would switch on but immediately show the missing drive icon meaning I couldn't boot into the OS itself.

Something like the picture below -

 

[mk313]

Yes, the laptop would switch on but immediately show the missing drive icon meaning I couldn't boot into the OS itself.

Something like the picture below -

Thank you