The Tech Bench

The MacBook Air is a sleek, beautifully designed laptop except for one thing, the hard drive.

In order to achieve it’s thin proportions, the Air uses a 1.8″ hard drive (most desktops use 3.5″ and most laptops use 2.5″)

1.8″ hard drives can be found in iPods, Zunes, and other ultra portable laptops (Sony T Series.)

What makes this 1.8″ drive even more expensive/ hard to find special is that it is very short (5mm instead of the standard 8mm) and uses different ZIF/LIF connectors depending on the rev. This can make upgrading or replacing the hard drive in the Air difficult.

So what drives and external enclosures work for which MacBook Air?

Rev A MacBook Air (Original MacBook Air)

There are 2 drives that we know will fit and work in the original Air. An 80GB Samsung that we install for $245, and a 64GB Samsung SSD (pictured) that is so expensive, that we don’t offer or recommend purchasing.

These drives are PATA and use the 40 pin ZIF/LIF connector. External enclosures for these can be found here and here.

Rev B and later MacBook Air (Late 2008 to 2009)

There are two drives that we know will fit, a 120GB and a 128GB SSD (available from Apple or AASPs like ourselves.) The interface is a SATA II LIF 1.8″ 5mm and we have not been able to find a compatible external enclosure.

Right now, most 1.8″ connections are proprietary to the laptop manufacturer (Sony and Lenovo use one interface, Apple uses another.) As more and more ultra-portables come to market, we should see some more standardization in the drive height and connectors (more capacity, lower prices.)

In the meantime, we’ll announce when any new MacBook Air compatible drives become available.

[ MacBook Air Repairs & Hard Drive Upgrades ]