Transcend480GB JetDrive 500 SATAIII 6Gb/s Solid State Drive Upgrade Kit for MacBook Air, Late 2010 - Mid 2011 (TS480GJDM500)

I just finished installing this drive a couple hours ago in my mid-2011 MacBook Air 11". It upgraded by measly 128GB to 960GB and has dramatically increased the speed of the computer as well. It's like breathing new life into a 3-1/2 year old computer. Installation was brain-dead simple. I watched the Transcend video on YouTube before hand, and then again while I was doing the work. I was really impressed with how easy the entire process was, especially because I know how hard it is on a PC. Between Apple's good recovery software (used for copying the drives) and Transcend's end-to-end thinking, I don't know why anyone couldn't do it themselves. (Okay, you do need eyesight and finger dexterity to handle the super tiny screws, but other than that...) Before I bought, i used Transcend's charts for figuring out exactly which generation of MacBook Air I had, and for determining which of their models would work well in it. That was simple, and then i ordered the drive. I loved that the product came with a case for putting the old SSD into so it will have a new life as an external hard disk, but once I began the process, I realized how useful it was in just the upgrade process. It took 5 minutes to get the new drive attached externally to the Mac, and start Apple's recovery process to clone the existing drive onto the new Transcend SSD. My existing drive had been encrypted with FileVault. I had read there were concerns about FileVault and needing to manually disable it and unencrypt the drive before upgrading, however, that was not the case. (Perhaps it was with earlier versions of OS X, but with 10.10 Yosemite, it was not necessary.) I simply entered my admin password and the recovery tools unlocked the drive and allowed me to clone it. It took 1 hour 47 minutes to clone the drive (I had 100GB filled on the 128GB drive). When that was done, it took 15 leisurely minutes to remove the new drive from the external housing, remove the old SSD from the Mac, and swap them. (I took an extra 10 minutes to use compressed air to blow out the insides of my Mac and a q-tip with alcohol to clean the air vents, and around the edges. The results were a PC interior that looked brand new.) After booting the Mac for the first time with the new SSD, it took almost 60 seconds to get to the Apple logo boot screen. That must have been a first-time thing, because all further reboots were lighting fast--much faster than with the old SSD. I then started the FileVault encryption processes again, and that took about an hour to re-encrypt the new drive. I was so excited, i kept up the cleaning process and wiped the keyboard, outside and screen down. The Mac looks brand new now. And it runs like a charm. How is it possible that I love my 3.5 year old computer so much?I only wish I had done this a year sooner.

I bought this to upgrade my Mid 2011 13" Macbook Air with OS 10.13.6 installed. I got it to work, and it works great. But the instructions did not work at all. The way I did it was:-Back up Macbook to Time Machine, or similar backup.-Did the instructions up through reformat/erase the new SSD drive.-Installed the new drive in the laptop-Start laptop and let the OS go into a wifi recovery mode and then install a backup of the laptop from a Time Machine copy on my external HD (or similar backup device).I could not get the new SSD to make a mirror image of the laptop memory using the instructions. It said to select "container disk 2" to restore to, and mine was greyed out. All other options failed. I ended up doing the above mentioned steps and it works great. I wasted a lot of time trying to do it by the instructions.Once I got the new SSD working in the laptop I could not get the laptop to erase and reformat the JetDrive with the old SSD installed as an external drive. I had to go to my Mac Desktop (a different newer computer) and run the Disk Utility to get it to erase and reformat. After all that, it works great. The new SSD memory definitely works and is somewhat faster than the old memory. My main reason for the upgrade was for capacity (120GB to 500GB), and it does that just fine. Once I got the external JetDrive to work with the old memory its a nice to have an external drive that is really fast compared to a regular thumb drive.They need to update the directions to something that actually works. Otherwise a great upgrade that will keep my 9 year old laptop going for a few more years.

Note that I just finished installing this SSD, so my review can only cover the ease of installation and not the longevity of the product -- that said, if any issues arise in the future, I will update my review.Now, for what is so fantastic about this ... I ordered the JetDrive 500 960GB SSD for my MacBook Air 4,2 (mid-2011) ... there is some conflicting info about whether or not the 960GB works for the MacBook Air, but it does ... go to the Transcend website and/or email them directly if you have any questions.Basically, I now have a new computer for a fraction of the cost of replacing my MacBook Air, with quadruple the storage it had and double the max storage available on any new MacBook Air! I am over the moon - no more shuffling files from my computer to an external hard drive and backing up multiple hard drives and worrying if I'm approaching my max limit (yet again) ... I have nearly a terabyte of internal storage! How amazing is that?!The INSTALLATION was pretty darn easy ... I agree w/ others' assessment that the quick install guide included w/ the drive is useless (and a waste of paper), but the online video is spot on ... it seems too easy to believe, but when you finish installing, you will be a believer! The most laborious and time-consuming aspect is cloning the existing drive. Like some other people, I wound up having to install the free 30-day trial version of Carbon Copy Cloner b/c the built-in Mac disk utility wasn't up to the task (if you have a corrupt file, it will arrest the cloning process rather than skip the file and continue cloning uncorrupted files - this is pretty infuriating if it doesn't encounter the corruption until 2 hours into the clone ... CCC will skip the corrupt files and tell you what they are and continue cloning your drive). This, however, has absolutely nothing to do w/ Transcend.So once you get the drive cloned, on to opening up the MacBook Air and swapping out the SSDs ... OMG so EASY! Just like the video! I also used some canned air to blow out some of the accumulated dust inside the case, swapped out the drives, slapped the back on, booted up and VOILA! My computer and all my files were there and lightning fast!One caveat, a few passwords and keys needed to be re-entered ... so far, I only needed to sign back into Dropbox and I had to re-enter my Office for Mac product key, so make sure you have those things handy, if need be. I also did a backup before embarking on this whole process, just in case.BUT HONESTLY, BOTTOM LINE - I HAVE A "NEW" COMPUTER!!!!!!!!! I am so excited!!!! Thank you, Transcend!!!!!!!!!

Well packaged product includes everything needed to swap the SSD. In my case it was an old 2010 MacBook Air running Yosemite. I was moving from 240 to 960 Gb.Instead of using Drive Manager to clone the original disk, I used Carbon Copy Cloner. Main reason is that it handles any errors better and I did find a few during the copy.I should point out that the old MacBook is only USB 2.0 so the copy took a couple of hours.I then tried a reboot from the new cloned SSD before I opened the machine. (Hold option key during restart and select the relevant disk). It worked fine - surprising me slightly because it was across the USB connection.Then shutdown and selecting the correct supplied screwdriver tor gently open the back. TIP: I also arranged the screws in a square matching their original location for replacement.The inside of the 4 year old macbook was really clean!! Otherwise I'd have cleaned it.One screw to undo to remove the old SSD and put in the new one - note a different supplied screwdriver for this singe screw.Replace the back.Option R reboot to change the boot disk to the new one. Rename the new disk to Macintosh HD.Yay - it all works and I've now got 960Gb of disk with 824Gb still available. AND I've still got the original drive now in a neat little (supplied) enclosure....Something else...TRIM Support - a facility to optimise SSD garbage collection. Stop reading here if this all seems like Martian.Since Yosemite, TRIM support isn't directly available for non Apple SSDs except via a utility called TRIM Enabler. Apple don't allow non certified kernel extensions.You know what. I don't care.I've now got so much space and enough left over for garbage collection that the TRIM optimisations pale into insignificance. Frankly, the SSD can outrun other 2010 MacBook disk electronics in any case so it is somewhat academic.I have anyway bought the $10 Trim Enabler which includes SMART diagnostics and if I ever need to, I'd switch TRIM on for a day to let space be reclaimed, but I don't envisage doing that for a long time.So all in all. A super upgrade for a sensible price.

Used this to replace an SSD in an 11" Mac book air mid 2011. And it was simplicity itself to format the drive install a clean install of Mavericks and then replace the drive in my air. The instructions are clear and the box contains all that is required including screwdrivers The case and SSD to Sata interface means that put another formatted SSD in the case plug it in to a USB port on the air and hey presto you have an external SSD drive to increase your storage on an early air with the smaller SSD.Only problem is that Yosemite has some Apple "features" that mean this disk may not work but the known compatible disks are £260 and up so why not stay with Mavericks for a while?

This does what it says and the tools provided make it effortless to upgraded your laptop.For the Macbook Air I used Carbon Copy Clone to make a bootable copy of the existing hard drive, including the special mac recovery partition. You can use a free version of CCC for 30 days. I think I will buy it. I've used it twice now.But again, the installation of this hard drive was almost effortless. And the end result was double the storage and still super fast.

My original SSD died and I bought this to replace it. Instructions were clear & easy to follow. Doubles the capacity of my 2010 MBA and gave it a new lease of life.The kit comes with everything you need, just make sure you use the screwdrivers at the correct angle.Sadly, the data off my original SSD was unreadable, but running the mac’s Repair Tools allowed me to format the drive and I downloaded the OS and burnt a boot USB with the latest OS on another Mac. Installed a charm and working perfectly ever since.It’s overpriced, compared to most SSDs with the same capacity, but it does allow you to keep using a great laptop, which is the objective.

I have a late 2010 11" MacBook Air and have had to manage the limited SSD storage in the device. I came across this product and thought it was too good to be true! I read a few of the reviews and they all seemed reletively positive (few comments relating to the migration process, etc), and decided to purchase. I'm pleased I did, installation is simple, although I'd recommend you watch the video process prior to commencing, all-in-all it toke about 1.5 hours (most of this time is taken up during the Clone process, which the documentation states will take a few minutes). The kit has all of the required screwdriver and minimal instructions.Speed wise, my perception is that the machine seems faster on boot up and apps are loading faster.