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Remove SSD from the MacBook Air

Edited by Grimm, VisiHow, Eng

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Steps

Video: Remove SSD from the Macbook Air

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You're watching VisiHow. In this tutorial, we will show you how to remove the SSD from a Mac computer.

Remove ssd from macbook air.mp4-canvas266 095606.jpg

Steps

1
To start with, we will need screwdrivers
.
In this video, those are in the yellow case. A different set of screwdrivers can be used, but whatever type we have, we will need to select the smallest Phillips head available.

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2
In this video, we close the screwdriver case
.

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3
We move the case out of the way
.
We won't need it.
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4
Then what we need to do is simply flip the Mac over and put it onto its top
.
If we are concerned about scratches on the top of the Mac, we need to make sure to put something soft under it. In this case, the SSD will be taken out of the Mac. The Mac will be recycled because it has an unfortunate irrecoverable problem with the RAM.

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5
Next, we take the screwdriver and put it into each of the small screw heads
.
Then, we take the screws out.
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6
When we've taken a screw out, we set it off to the side
.
We may want to include it with the Mac if we want to close its lid.

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7
Once we've finished taking the screws out of the Mac, we can pull up the cover for the headphones and USB
.
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8
Alternatively, we put a small object like fingers under the casing where the fan housing is
.
This should cause the case to lift up. It may not lift up evenly. Once we get the sides up, we pull the case up.

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9
We set the case off to the side
.
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10
We can locate the primary area
.
This is where the keyboard sits.
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11
We can locate the fan area
.
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12
Also, we have the SSD
.
It is powered by the Mac. What we are going to do now is remove the SSD. In order to remove the SSD from the Macbook Air, we're going to need to know where it is. It's near the fan and headphones. There are a series of holes cut in the top of the casing. They serve to diffuse heat as the drive may get hot sometimes during its operation.
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13
To remove the SSD, we need to remove its connecting cable first
.
This can be done by slowly lifting the black flap. When we've pulled it out, we'll see that the cable will be lifted. We do not want to yank the cable all the way out. This is not necessary. All that we are going to do next is prepare the drive to be removed.
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14
We take the same little screwdriver that we've used at the beginning
.
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15
We take out the case screws
.
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16
Once the four screws have been removed, we are going to simply lift the drive up a bit
.
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17
When we've lifted the drive, we pull out its attachment on its side
.
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18
Once the attachment is out, we will notice a secondary piece connecting the drive to the bottom
.
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19
There is also another piece powering the SSD on the side
.
To pull the power piece out, we simply firmly grasp and pull it. That will pull it out.
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20
We lift the drive
.
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21
Then, in order to pull the other piece out, we simply pull up the SSD slowly by the sides
.
This will pop the drive out of its place. The SSD will be pulled out.
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22
Now what we are going to do is we remove the drive from the housing
.
In order to remove the drive from the housing, we need to firmly hold the drive.
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23
We take the four screws out of the housing and set them off to the side
.
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24
Once all of the four screws have been removed, we lift off the casing and set it off to the side
.
We will see now that this will be the solid-state drive.
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25
We turn the SSD over
.
The drive will be out of its case. We will have the solid-state drive with the attachment. In this video, the solid-state drive is a Toshiba 128 GB drive.
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26
We can easily place this SSD drive into another housing or case and reuse it with another system
.
We can also simply copy our data off it and then recycle it.
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You've been watching VisiHow. This is a tutorial on how to remove the solid-state drive from the Macbook Air. Thank you for watching! Have a great day! Please leave comments, questions, or suggestions in the area below.