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My 2012 Air SSD failed also. Took it into geek squad for the repair. Apple said they wouldn't honor the warranty because it was an open item.
 
MBA 2012 SSD failure

I really wonder how common this is - I had the SSD on my 2012 Mac Air fail about three weeks ago, a month out of warranty. When I went to the Mac store they wouldn't budge about replacing it (which surpirsed me as I've had good luck with them before).

I have a new SSD coming in the mail, and have been booting with an external in the meantime. Still sucks though - most hard drive companies have warranties of three-five years on hard drives. Maybe my next laptop I'll think more seriously about Applecare. I'm used to Macs being more reliable.

EXACTLY

Just two days ago my SSD apparently crapped out. I tried using the resets mentioned above (SMC, VRAM, etc.) but in recovery it doesn't see the SSD at all. Thirteen days past warranty!!!!?!?!!?!?!?

I live in Lexington, KY, and I went to the local Apple Store. She pulled off the back to make sure the connection wasn't the problem, pulled the SSD slot and re-inserted it. Nada.

She told me that ordering the SSD would cost like $400 but Apple had a partner or program where a flat fee of $280 will cover all repairs. BUT there is only a 90=day warranty on those components!

I have had multiple PCs, but my wife and I decided last August to each buy a MBA 2012. We bought an iPad in March 2012. We were thinking of buying iPhones next month when the new ones come out.

But now...I feel like all the "blah blah" about Mac reliability is just like other "blah blah" = smart marketing. SHould you have to buy an extra $100 or $200 service plan (AppleCare) for peace of mind? Isn't it better for the consumer for them to spend more on the SSD component and charge the appropriate price, instead of lowballing on cheap crap?

Anyway, admittedly I'm feeling burned since it lasted till exactly one year, just past my warranty, and I am reluctant to spend another $300 that may fail after 3 months...
 
I use SuperDuper, but CarbonCopyCloner is similar. Both work well. I have three external HDDs that I rotate for clone copies of the entire boot HDD. One is kept in a fireproof vault. I don't bother with Time Machine since my usage habits don't involve that much change on data/apps.

It is a LOT easier to recover if you have a clone than from a Time Machine backup. The clone boots easily and a lot faster than TM. Also the clone doesn't use up CPU/disk time when you are not making a copy.

I also use SuperDuper on an external HDD but I also let Time Machine run via a Time Capsule on all my Macs.

WhY? Because these backup systems though NOT the same are complimentary. A Clone type back up is a 'snapshot in time'. True it will quickly bring back a lost total SSD or HDD. However, if you are actually working on a project and/or have made any additions or changes to your files....you will have lost whatever you have subsequent to making a SuperDuper or CCC clone. However, with Time Machine you have constant access to your storage files as they were a mere hour (max) prior to your disk failure (or accidental deletion of a needed file).
 
I also use SuperDuper on an external HDD but I also let Time Machine run via a Time Capsule on all my Macs.

WhY? Because these backup systems though NOT the same are complimentary. A Clone type back up is a 'snapshot in time'. True it will quickly bring back a lost total SSD or HDD. However, if you are actually working on a project and/or have made any additions or changes to your files....you will have lost whatever you have subsequent to making a SuperDuper or CCC clone. However, with Time Machine you have constant access to your storage files as they were a mere hour (max) prior to your disk failure (or accidental deletion of a needed file).

I used to have Time Machine running since I have plenty of HDDs around, but I started having trouble with it - it would freeze on "preparing"... so I decided it wasn't worth it for me.
 
Kind of OT but also mentioned multiple times in this thread: What's the difference between a Clone of your HD vs. the Time Machine backup capability all Macs have? I've been using the latter because it came with my 2012 Air and didn't know the former existed.
 
Kind of OT but also mentioned multiple times in this thread: What's the difference between a Clone of your HD vs. the Time Machine backup capability all Macs have? I've been using the latter because it came with my 2012 Air and didn't know the former existed.

A clone is a single snapshot in time... and is generally made with a cloning program such as Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) or SuperDuper (SD). This is best when you want to make a hardware change (such as changing your HDD/SSD) or something else when you want the computer to be an exact duplicate of its current state.

Time Machine... and most other "true" backup solutions track changes to your drive... so you can "turn back the clock" and recreate your drive... or a subset of your data to a previous point in time.

Some people only use clones, and in my humble opinion... that are leaving a HUGE hole in their backup strategy. In fact, I personally do not consider a clone to be a real backup.

So... while I think that clones are great... and something that I use myself... I think that relying on just clones is a big mistake. Instead, having a clone in addition to a real backup is very solid plan.

Personally, I use:

1) Time Machine/Time Capsule for local (fast) backups
2) Crashplan+ plus for cloud (offsite) disaster recovery backups
3) CCC for cloning my personal media

All three have very different and specific roles. Time Machine is my primary backup... and what I use if I need to restore to a new machine.

Crashplan+ is an offsite, automatic backup, that continually monitors my computer (every 15 minutes)... and backs up changes to the cloud. If my house burned down, or someone stole my computer and backup drive together... I still have 100% of my data saved offsite.

CCC makes a nightly clone of all my personal media to a thunderbolt drive directly (and continuously) attached to my iMac... so that if anything ever happened to my primary computer... I could move clones of my media (Aperture library, iTunes Library, FCPX library, Camcorder Videos, etc) over to my wife's iMac (or my MBA)... and continue working without any interruption while my computer is repaired and/or replaced. Note that this is not really a "true" backup. Since it is cloned every night... If I was to totally screw up a project, but didn't notice it until the next day... there would be no way to "turn back the clock" because my clone would have already been modified. While CCC does maintin some history of what has changed... it is really MUCH too complicated to effectively "turn back the clock" without causing a series of user errors.

CCC is also used to make a clone of my personal media onto a pair of HDDs that are rotated offsite periodically. Generally, I will rotate the pair when I do major work to one of my libraries. This is an extra copy of my media that is under my direct control and stored away from my computer (actually, in my corporate office). Hence... even if all of my other backups failed... I would still have all of my personal irreplaceable media up to a very recent timeframe.

I generally will not delete original data (ex: SD cards from my cameras) until all of my backup programs have completed... and I have manually moved my most recent data to my offsite location.

Hope this helps

/Jim
 
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Mine also. 14 months after purchase. Fortunately UK educational purchases come with an automatic extra 2 years warranty so it's being fixed free of charge. The Genius Bar engineer said it was the third one he'd had in the last week. Quite a shock.
 
A clone is a single snapshot in time... and is generally made with a cloning program such as Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) or SuperDuper (SD). This is best when you want to make a hardware change (such as changing your HDD/SSD) or something else when you want the computer to be an exact duplicate of its current state.

Time Machine... and most other "true" backup solutions track changes to your drive... so you can "turn back the clock" and recreate your drive... or a subset of your data to a previous point in time.

Some people only use clones, and in my humble opinion... that are leaving a HUGE hole in their backup strategy. In fact, I personally do not consider a clone to be a real backup.

So... while I think that clones are great... and something that I use myself... I think that relying on just clones is a big mistake. Instead, having a clone in addition to a real backup is very solid plan.

Personally, I use:

1) Time Machine/Time Capsule for local (fast) backups
2) Crashplan+ plus for cloud (offsite) disaster recovery backups
3) CCC for cloning my personal media

All three have very different and specific roles. Time Machine is my primary backup... and what I use if I need to restore to a new machine.

Crashplan+ is an offsite, automatic backup, that continually monitors my computer (every 15 minutes)... and backs up changes to the cloud. If my house burned down, or someone stole my computer and backup drive together... I still have 100% of my data saved offsite.

CCC makes a nightly clone of all my personal media to a thunderbolt drive directly (and continuously) attached to my iMac... so that if anything ever happened to my primary computer... I could move clones of my media (Aperture library, iTunes Library, FCPX library, Camcorder Videos, etc) over to my wife's iMac (or my MBA)... and continue working without any interruption while my computer is repaired and/or replaced. Note that this is not really a "true" backup. Since it is cloned every night... If I was to totally screw up a project, but didn't notice it until the next day... there would be no way to "turn back the clock" because my clone would have already been modified. While CCC does maintin some history of what has changed... it is really MUCH too complicated to effectively "turn back the clock" without causing a series of user errors.

CCC is also used to make a clone of my personal media onto a pair of HDDs that are rotated offsite periodically. Generally, I will rotate the pair when I do major work to one of my libraries. This is an extra copy of my media that is under my direct control and stored away from my computer (actually, in my corporate office). Hence... even if all of my other backups failed... I would still have all of my personal irreplaceable media up to a very recent timeframe.

I generally will not delete original data (ex: SD cards from my cameras) until all of my backup programs have completed... and I have manually moved my most recent data to my offsite location.

Hope this helps

/Jim

Same exact strategy using the same programs/services. Just sent a son off to college and have him set up the same way. Just upgraded my Crashplan from a single user to family. Great service.
 
Has anyone done a hardware test yet?

I sat with the Genius engineer as he ran it through a series of tests. It wouldn't boot on its own - just a long pause after the chime followed by a flashing folder with a question mark. The test was fine for everything except the SSD storage. Nothing was read. He said it might be a software issue triggering some kind of catastrophic fail. Certainly something to worry about for those without longer warranties as it seems to happen AFTER twelve months.
 
EXACTLY

Just two days ago my SSD apparently crapped out. I tried using the resets mentioned above (SMC, VRAM, etc.) but in recovery it doesn't see the SSD at all. Thirteen days past warranty!!!!?!?!!?!?!?

I live in Lexington, KY, and I went to the local Apple Store. She pulled off the back to make sure the connection wasn't the problem, pulled the SSD slot and re-inserted it. Nada.

She told me that ordering the SSD would cost like $400 but Apple had a partner or program where a flat fee of $280 will cover all repairs. BUT there is only a 90=day warranty on those components!

I have had multiple PCs, but my wife and I decided last August to each buy a MBA 2012. We bought an iPad in March 2012. We were thinking of buying iPhones next month when the new ones come out.

But now...I feel like all the "blah blah" about Mac reliability is just like other "blah blah" = smart marketing. SHould you have to buy an extra $100 or $200 service plan (AppleCare) for peace of mind? Isn't it better for the consumer for them to spend more on the SSD component and charge the appropriate price, instead of lowballing on cheap crap?

Anyway, admittedly I'm feeling burned since it lasted till exactly one year, just past my warranty, and I am reluctant to spend another $300 that may fail after 3 months...

Call AppleCare, plead your case. Explain that you took it into the Genius Bar and they confirmed the failure but said you were 13 days outside of your limited warranty. They may just make an exception for you and agree to repair it at no charge. Worst case they will just reiterate what the Genius said. Doesn't hurt to ask. I wouldn't take "no" right away though, speak to higher ups as needed.

I've seen several Macs further outside of warranty get taken care of, but I've also seen Macs closer to their warranty get declined. Hopefully Apple can take care of you!
 
Are all of these 2012 128gb/64gb machines? I've noticed the majority of ssd failures are the Toshiba SSD drives with the sandforce controller.... Any Samsung or Sandisk failures yet?
 
I'm a very long time lurker here bit just got around to signing up.

My June 2012 13" MBA (128gb Toshiba) also had an SSD failure, right at the 14 month mark. It came suddenly with no prior indication of problems. It booted to the flashing question mark folder. When using internet recovery, disk Utility could not detect any partitions at all and only showed a 32kb Sandforce device. Yes, you read that correctly - that's kb, not mb or gb!

Luckily I had Applecare and they replaced the drive after the genius confirmed it was toast. Everything else checked out fine using their hardware test at the genius bar.
 
I'm a very long time lurker here bit just got around to signing up.

My June 2012 13" MBA (128gb Toshiba) also had an SSD failure, right at the 14 month mark. It came suddenly with no prior indication of problems. It booted to the flashing question mark folder. When using internet recovery, disk Utility could not detect any partitions at all and only showed a 32kb Sandforce device. Yes, you read that correctly - that's kb, not mb or gb!

Luckily I had Applecare and they replaced the drive after the genius confirmed it was toast. Everything else checked out fine using their hardware test at the genius bar.

Evil Sandforce strikes again... After losing data with Sandforce SSD's I've avoided them like the plague. Seems only Intel and OWC seems to know how to make mostly reliable Sandforce based SSD's. I'm lumping Toshiba with OCZ now...
 
ssd is not detected

I called Apple support, he told me he can give me a free support: that is, I can search on the home page in the support forum.

Or I pay 49 EUR and he supported me further phone.

Then he gave me the hint: it may be due to the company goods.

So I tried to install the firmware here is the link with description

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1655

But when you install it say that I do not need the update.
 
Anyway, admittedly I'm feeling burned since it lasted till exactly one year, just past my warranty, and I am reluctant to spend another $300 that may fail after 3 months...

This is why I went with the OWC. It is cheaper than Apple's option and gives you a three year warranty on the SSD.
 
Greetings to everyone!

I'm joining your team:

MB Air 2012, 11 inches, bought on 14th of September 2012. 128Gb Toshiba SSD's dead.

First signs appeared during the spring, but I thought that it might be an issue caused by lacking of a free space (I was lazy enought to clean the disk from some trash files), but then they had disappeared and the laptop seemed to be ok, for a while.. :(
Then in the beginning of August I got the same scenario, and decided to google my problem. I found out that there is a plenty of people who've faced the same situation, hah, strange feeling when you realize that you are not alone, but at the same time there's nothing to be proud of :D
So yesterday I returned back to Finland after my summer break in Russia, and went to the local reseller. I should add that I do really envy to people, whose SSDs are completely broken, so the system can't even recognize them. In my case sometimes, from time to time the SSD tries to get back to life. :mad:
You could imagine what a shame it was when I brought my MacBook to the service station, and after a few failed attempts to boot (the standard question mark's folder) it finally succeeded and booted my MacOS :rolleyes: . Hopefully the service man said that he saw enoght to believe that problem does exist, and sent it to Apple.
Now I'm ready to pray that Apple will be convinced enoght to replace the SSD, becouse my warranty expires in two weeks, and I don't now what to do if they ship my laptop back without fixing it. But.. Maybe if it's a known issue they will replace the SSD anyway, who knows.
Now I feel really worried about this stuff cos my studying starts on 4th of September, and since I'm an IT-ingeneer-to-be I couldn't imagine my studying without my machine :(

PS: I'd never imagine that my first post here will be about apple's hardware failure.. O tempora, o mores..
 
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Greetings to everyone!

I'm joining your team:

MB Air 2012, 11 inches, bought on 14th of September 2012. 128Gb Toshiba SSD's dead.
.....

Wow, this is starting to be more widespread. Funny how there's no reports of widespread Samsung/Sandisk SSD failures. Anyways, hopefully Apple do the right thing and extend the warranty or do 'goodwill' repairs as the Toshiba drives seem to have a much higher failure rate than the others.
 
Well, yep, I'm wondering why they still haven't started the exchange/repairing program for those machines, becouse as I can see it affected quite a lot of Toshiba's drives..
 
Sergey.P:
If the service tech sent it back to Apple I'm hopeful that means they will replace the SSD.
Since you're still under warranty you might want to consider buying Applecare while you still can. (I thought the EU warranty was longer than 1 year?)

magbarn:
I think you're right about this being more widespread and we might be seeing the first failures coming in now. Time will tell if it becomes a more common issue or if it's just isolated to a few unlucky people. I've read isolated posts here & there on macrumors and on the apple.com discussions of other 2012 SSD failures and in many cases they are the toshiba 128gb with sandforce controller. Perhaps a bad batch went out?

To make things even more interesting, on my MBA - the replacement SSD is also a toshiba, again. I hope the new one holds up better than the original drive.
 
Apple's warranty in Europe is a black sheep for me yet. The service tech mentioned that in fact it covers 2 years period since the date of purchase, and after the first year I'm still able to fix the product in some electronic shops with no fees taken. I do hope, that I'll never have to fix the SSD in my MBA anymore (at least in the closest future ;) ). But since you've mentioned that your replacement is also a Toshiba drive - I have to confess that it's probably the biggest fear for me, to get the replacement from Toshiba. As the Russians say: "don't step on the same rake twice." :)
 
This is the best SSD for MBP - OWC Mercury 6G - http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/SSD/OWC. They are sandforce based & highly reliable! My issues with SSDs have completely vanished off after switching over to this SSD! cheers, sandforce!!

Another vote here for OWC, after my drive failed a few weeks ago and it was replaced by Apple I installed the 480GB :)cool:) OWC drive and put the 128GB unit into the nifty little enclosure they provide. New drive is fast (very fast) and installation took me 15mins doing it myself in the office.
 
My Toshiba 128GB SSD just failed on me a few days ago... I'm 2 months off my warranty damn... Repairs costing me an estimated £400... Still deciding whether to repair it or just get a new laptop.

New Mac owners, take a serious look at AppleCare. I didn't as it didn't cross my mind that my laptop would die in less than 2 years...
 
Just thought I'll say I found this thread very useful and good to know that I'm not the only one. Mid-2012 MBA with 64Gig Toshiba SSD. Failed just after 10 months (which makes it within the warranty period and me a very lucky person indeed).

I had a chat with one of the guys from the authorised Apple repair shop here in Christchurch, New Zealand (the same outfit does repairs and are the local authorised repair shop for almost all the major brands of computers and cellphones, so they had seen quite a bit of stuff), and he wasn't surprised at all when I told him "SSD failure, Toshiba". He didn't even start up the computer to check it. I asked if he had seen any Samsung SSDs fail and he said yes, but the overwhelming majority of failed SSDs were the Toshiba's and they had failed within the first year.

I asked him if he could replace it with a Samsung (or anything other than the Toshiba with a known problem), but he said Apple will only allow him to order the exact same part as replacement under the warranty programme, which I suppose is fair enough except that it's silly to replace it with a drive known to fail prematurely...?

I am now seriously contemplating AppleCare before the first year is over, but feel that I shouldn't have to be "blackmailed" into buying it because Apple has a bad product.

Suppose if I don't get AppleCare, and the drive fails again, what would my options be? Would I be able to get the tools and a third-party replacement drive and fit it together on my own?

And hello! This is my first post :)
 
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