How to back up a failing MBA rev a 80 gb disc?

[jiE]

Hello. my friend has a macbook and has no backup, and it is starting to fail. It is incredibly slow in OS X, and impossible to backup anything from there. What options are there? Is it possible to buy some equipment to mount the hard disk in so that I can access it from my mbp?

 

[jiE]

anyone please?

 

[heyloo]

Have you tried getting the MacBook Air go into Target Disk Mode? If you're able to get another Mac with thunderbolt port, connect the two and

Once the two computers are connected, simply boot up the healthy Mac login. On the other computer, hold down the “T” key and hit the power button. With a little luck, the previously non-booting machine’s HDD will appear on your functioning Mac’s desktop. Voilà, you can now successfully copy those files to your working Mac and run the dead machine to an Apple Store.Target Disk Mode

(You'd be using Thunderbolt, not FireWire)

As far as replacing the hard drive goes, doing a quick search gave me this: ifixit: macbook air rev a hd upgradable with samsung 120gb hs12yha and try iFixit Q&A

Good luck!

 

[KPOM]

Have you tried getting the MacBook Air go into Target Disk Mode? If you're able to get another Mac with thunderbolt port, connect the two and (You'd be using Thunderbolt, not FireWire)

As far as replacing the hard drive goes, doing a quick search gave me this: ifixit: macbook air rev a hd upgradable with samsung 120gb hs12yha and try iFixit Q&A

Good luck!

Target Disk Mode won't work since the older MacBook Air doesn't have a Thunderbolt port.

Probably the best solution is to get a cheap external USB 2.0 hard drive, and back up the contents of the old Air using Carbon Copy Cloner.

 

[heyloo]

Target Disk Mode won't work since the older MacBook Air doesn't have a Thunderbolt port.

Probably the best solution is to get a cheap external USB 2.0 hard drive, and back up the contents of the old Air using Carbon Copy Cloner.

Whoa, I didn't realize Rev.A didn't come with either a Thunderbolt or FireWire port...ugh...thanks for pointing it out, @KPOM.

I guess CCC would be the way to go at the point like @KPOM suggested. Seems to be the 80GB HDD on these MBAs have caused a lot of problems. People are suggesting SSD for these, from what I'm reading.