A while ago (few weeks ago), my MacBook Air 11 (2011) [i5, 4gb RAM, 128gb SSD] left USB port stopped working and I decided to restart it to see if that will fix the problem. However, my attempt on restarting the laptop was extremely difficult as it only shows a blank gray screen at boot up. I finally was able to get it to boot up and fixed it temporarily... Then stopped working again. I decided to reboot my laptop again... and unfortunately, it was unable to reboot and cannot get it into recovery or anything. I tried to get the laptop to boot into... Diagnostic, Recovery, and Safe Boot... No go. I also reset the PRAM and SMC, also no go. I took it to Apple about a week ago to see what they said about it... Told me to ship it off to Apple out of warranty repair and will cost $200 or more for diagnostic/repair, anywhere ranging from $200-$400 which was out of my budget for repairing an old laptop. They told me it could be anything from a dead logic board to the top casing/keyboard area not functioning. Also, my MacBook Air have a defective webcam/ambient light sensor (took it in last year to Apple and got quoted $400+ to replace the screen/webcam/ambient light sensor), so that's one more reason why I don't feel like it's worth repairing. My question is, how can I erase all the data off my SSD? I tried using a OS X Yosemite USB and didn't work, wasn't able to get the laptop to boot by holding option and selecting. Is my only option to format the SSD would be taking apart the bottom and buying a M.2 SSD Enclosure to format it on another computer? The enclosure + screwdriver to open this thing up would cost me at least $30... and only using it one time basically so I want the cheapest option I can get. I plan on selling the laptop as is after formatting it on eBay or elsewhere to see what I can get for it... So that's why I want to get rid of my personal data on the SSD.
Nope, nothing. Just a blank white screen with the boot chime. Tried using USB bootable drives, nothing either.
I guess the other options are: 1. See if a friend has an enclosure which you can borrow to erase the device. 2. Go to a local computer repair shop and ask nicely if you can either borrow or just erase the hard drive, preferably a small store. Otherwise, just invest in $30 to erase the SSD and then either keep it or sell the tools. Given it will allow you to sell on ebay reassuringly then the expense is warranted.
1. Nope.. Not many people I know would have one especially when people rarely upgrade their SSD on their MacBook. 2. Don't have much small shops in the U.S. Guess my only option is to buy the enclosure and tools myself and maybe keep it afterwards.
lol just get the little usb to ssd connector, it came with my evo :trollface2: although yours is a m2 cause apple hehe
Yeah.. already have regular SATA enclosures, but Apple laptop uses M.2 PCI-E for their SSD instead...
Get a second mac laptop and put it in Target mode. Connect both laptop with fire wire or Thunder bolt wire. On your MBA hold down the option key and power on. See if you can boot off the taget mode laptop.
