Did I do that? Apple blushes, recalls MacBook Airs for faulty SSDs

By Nick Mokey October 18, 2013

macbook air recall disassembly — A disassembled MacBook Air. Image used with permission by copyright holder

If the hard drive on your MacBook Air imploded on you recently, if may not have been the Old Fashioned you spilled on the keyboard last month after all. As it turns out, a number of recent MacBook Airs have faulty solid-state drives (SSDs) that have been causing them to fail.

Apple recalled the affected computers on Friday with a bulletin posted on its support pages. It covers MacBook Airs sold between June 2012 and June 2013 with certain 64GB and 128GB flash drives. To see if your drive could be teetering on the brink of oblivion, you can download the MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.1 from the Mac App Store, which will flag machines that need the fix.

If you’re one of the lucky losers, Apple will replace the drive at a retail store or authorized service providers – sorry, you’re not getting a whole new MacBook. In the meantime, Apple also recommends you lay off operating system updates and new apps, which could send your drive over the edge. And of course, backup your data while you can.

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