MacBook Air electrical fault

[elmo-93]

My MacBook Air of just over 1 year old is no longer working. For a few weeks a message was popping up saying that the start up disk was full, so I deleted as many old files as I could and emptied my trash, thinking that would be enough. However, two days ago whilst using my macbook it froze, and when I restarted it, the screen remained grey. Soon after, a flashing file icon with a question mark appeared.

After googling this, I found that this was supposedly a common problem with a number of online fixes, with the flashing image simply meaning that it could not detect the start up drive. I had an appointment at my local apple store today to get the problem fixed, but sadly it was not as simple as thought. I was told by apple that the problem is in fact an electrical fault with the SSD and so that needs to be replaced. I was quoted £325 for the new drive, but an even greater cost are the numerous photos and precious files that I have been told are lost forever.

Whilst my documents have been backed up, many photos I fear are lost forever. Is there any way that the previous files on my macbook can be transferred or is it true that they are lost forever? Finally, as my warranty has just run out (literally), I am not covered for the repairs. However, I have been advised to make a consumer rights claim as the product I was sold (by pcworld) is faulty and should be repaired by them? Has anyone experienced a similar problem? You expect such a product with a price tag of £1000 to last longer than just over one year.

 

[blueroom]

If you're in the UK, you may be able to get the unit fixed under warranty based on the UKs warranty laws.

You didn't back up your photos, why not? Time Machine makes that sort of thing easy.

 

[skinny*k]

I don’t know how your MBA was tested, but Apple is among those that will replace major componants rather than repair minor problems; doing that is faster, cheaper, and more profitable. It just may be that your problem is a corroded or broken connection, so there is a fair chance that your drive is actually good; I suggest that you get a second opinion from someone that does componant level repairs, even though you will have to pay for the time it takes them to diagnose the problem.

It might well be that the drive is bad, in which case there is only a small chance that your data can be recovered; Google “ssd data recovery” to find your options.

Good luck, Elmo, and I hope that you’ll back-up your important files in the future.

 

[whtrbt7]

So if you start getting the "start up disk is full" message, that means that you need to clean up not only non-essential files but also system files. If you don't leave nearly 4-8GB free for system use, the drive can crash due to overuse of writeable sectors that are free. If you don't empty out enough space, it can be seen as an abuse of the SSD. The photos may not be completely lost. If you still have the SSD, you can hook it up to an external drive chassis and attempt recovery of some of the information by using recovery software. Since you are using a MBA, you will also have to have another hard drive attached externally to aid with the recovery since you need a place to restore the files. If the SSD is really fried, you won't be able to recover anything. I've had several users ask me about this problem and now they actively manage their storage on their new drives.