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I resurrected my old Macbook Air 2013 last weekend with a replacement SSD (the last one failed totally with nearly no warning). In the meantime I had some longe
by therealmarv 6y ago
I resurrected my old Macbook Air 2013 last weekend with a replacement SSD (the last one failed totally with nearly no warning). In the meantime I had some longer Ubuntu laptop time as a short term replacement.
Kudos to the software Carbon Copy Cloner. Everything is as before and lost only 4 weeks of data because of an old image (but that's okay, not super important).
Lessons learned:
- Test your backup strategy and your backups !!
- External APFS or HFS drives cannot be read by Linux (especially if encrypted with FileVault). Maybe I will switch to Veracrypt + NTFS (or FAT32) for external drives in the long-run.
- Restoring in recovery mode from a sparseimage did not worked out. A real 1:1 copy on an external drive is better and immediately bootable.
- Installing macOS Mojave on a bigger USB stick is slooow (3 hours?), the same goes for booting, but it seemed the only option for me to use Carbon Copy Cloner to restore to the internal ssd.
- Do more regular backups
- Maybe monitoring the internal SSDs health in future? The software drivedx looks interesting.
- side note on Linux: pinch and zoom gesture on trackpads is totally non existent on Linux desktop (even Windows is better with this). There are not even interfaces for it as far as I've seen.
- mobilio 6y agoCCC already save mine life two times!
- TENACIOUSANT 6y agoCCC absolute lifesaver and worth the money every time
- thelittleone 6y agoI had mistakenly assumed my MBP 2015 SSD was removable / replaceable but turns out Apple started soldering the SSD to the motherboard and in doing so eliminated perhaps the most bulletproof disaster recovery strategies in the cosmos... a USB caddy. Instead they put a proprietary SSD access port on the logic board for accessing the SSD. And in the case of my dead 2015 MBP, that port was unable to access the SSD. Bravo apple.
- PascLeRasc 6y agoThe 2015 Macbook Pro? As in, it has Magsafe and Thunderbolt 2? You can indeed remove and replace the SSD, all you need is one of these adapters and then you can put in any M.2 NVMe you want. I'm using an Intel 660p in my '15 MBP, I can answer any questions you have about the upgrade process. [1] https://www.amazon.com/Sintech-Adapter-Upgrade-2013-2016-2013-2015/dp/B07FYY3H5F https://www.amazon.com/Sintech-Adapter-Upgrade-2013-2016-201...
- thelittleone 6y agoMy apologies. That was meant to be 2016 when touchbar was released. I had the previous gen with removable SSD and did use a caddy for that when it’s logic board died.
- MonaroVXR 6y agoYou can also use the tool called Super-duper and with Time machine you can boot from a Time machine "back-up" if I believe so.
- phs318u 6y agoWow. It must be the time of year. My MBA13's SSD also died a few weeks ago. I just ordered an OWC replacement (and battery too). However, I'm only going to restore macOS long enough to move my TimeMachine backup (/home only) into something readable by Linux. Catalina was the last straw for me. At the moment I'm writing this having installed UbuntuStudio on the SDXC card. The drive is deathly slow compared to SSD but it's working. EDITED to add: I'm doing some homework to identify my next laptop. It won't be an Apple. Ideally something with an aluminium chassis, 13" screen, 32GB RAM, and 512GB SSD. i7 or AMD equivalent. Suggestions welcome!
- willtim 6y agoWhy specify aluminium? For example, Magnesium alloy is 30% lighter and less prone to warps and dents. For Linux, I would consider a ThinkPad (T or X series) or a Dell XPS developer edition.
- phs318u 6y agoAluminium was my lazy way of saying non-plastic. I’d rather it dint than crack. Thanks for the tips.
- therealmarv 6y agoRazer Blade Stealth 13" 2020 or the newest Dell XPS 13" (but that is not aluminium).