Possible to Access Macbook Air SSD via USB?

[Fixx42]

Hello all,

My girlfriend's Macbook Air died this morning. After 2.5 years of toil, we lay it down to rest.

According to the Apple Store technician who worked on it, the SSD died. I'm skeptical of this, however, as the computer doesn't turn on at all - nothing happens when you press the power button. I would expect an error or a partial boot if this were an SSD issue.

It's time to buy a new laptop anyway, but if possible I'd like to recover her data for her. I would be quite grateful if someone here could tell me how I might hook the SSD up to my Windows laptop (or alternatively, I'm sure I can get access to a working Mac) to attempt to access her files. Is that something that might be possible? Can I use, for example, a SATA to USB adapter as I would for an ordinary HD?

Alternatively, please feel free to tell me that I'm totally barking up the wrong tree, and the SSD probably is dead after all.

Many thanks,
Fixx

 

[Weaselboy]

I'm with you. Normally if the drive dies it will still chime and try to start then give you a ? on the screen since it can't access the drive.

Assuming the internal flash drive can still be read, you can buy one of these external enclosures from OWC and read the data on another Mac. They only have models for 2010-2012 MBAs.

If the MBA would try to boot, you could try and access it using target disk mode and a Thunderbolt cable to another Mac that supports Thunderbolt. But with this thing not even trying to boot, target disk mode is not going to help you.

 

[andyrugbyref]

I'm with you. Normally if the drive dies it will still chime and try to start then give you a ? on the screen since it can't access the drive.

Assuming the internal flash drive can still be read, you can buy one of these external enclosures from OWC and read the data on another Mac. They only have models for 2010-2012 MBAs.

If the MBA would try to boot, you could try and access it using target disk mode and a Thunderbolt cable to another Mac that supports Thunderbolt. But with this thing not even trying to boot, target disk mode is not going to help you.

Yeah I second this, find out what SSD it has in, get an adapter and try and see if it works