Reformatting mac air with faulty display

Im trying to reformat a macbook air ssd with a faulty display, it is proving to be more difficult than i thought. I have tried both using a usb boot disk and my superdrive.

I just change the startup disk in preferences and reboot the mac.

It does work but the problem is once the macbook reboots the external display doesnt show whats on the screen.

I have tried closing the lid to get into clamshell, have tried different keys or clicking trackpad.

It seems macbook will only switch over to external display when booted up normally to desktop.

But maybe there is something I can do, is there...?

Anybody got a workaround...?

This may or may not work for you. Firstly...what model MacBook Air do you have?

With some MacBook Air's...the SSD can be removed. Here is an example procedure:

Replacing MacBook Air 13" Mid 2011 Solid-State Drive - iFixit

This removed SSD can then be placed into an external enclosure:

OWC OWCMAU3ENVOY (*) Envoy USB 3.0/2.0 Enclosure... in stock at OWC

Then this "external SSD" can be plugged into a 2nd Mac for reformatting.

HTH,

- Nick

Yea mine is the 2011 model, I do believe the ssd can be removed. My mac air is the 13 inch mc965, a1369.

I will give that a try...cheers...

Although, I have the new retina display macbook pro, it also has a 128gb ssd, are these drives the same, could I just swap them over, which would save me spending money on a usb enclosure..

mrblue said:

Although, I have the new retina display macbook pro, it also has a 128gb ssd, are these drives the same, could I just swap them over, which would save me spending money on a usb enclosure..

Click to expand...

I think that you understand the importance of knowing the exact computer model in question...so we need to know the exact model retina MacBook Pro you have.

- Nick

Edit: Just did a quick check (without knowing the exact retina MBP model)...and it looks like the shapes of the SSD's in the 2011 13" MBA and 2012 13" retina MBP are different.

Ah sorry, just realised there has been two releases of the pro with retina display. I only bought the mac a few weeks ago and I was under the impression this was the latest pro, ive went to about my mac and it says late 2012. Whats the difference between the 2012 and 2013 version...its 13 inch aswelll..

mrblue said:

Ah sorry, just realised there has been two releases of the pro with retina display. I only bought the mac a few weeks ago and I was under the impression this was the latest pro, ive went to about my mac and it says late 2012.

Click to expand...

Yes there have been two releases of retina MBP's...and of course there is also the 13" model and the 15" model (parts are not always interchangeable). So there was not enough info provided earlier to give the best recommendations.

mrblue said:

Whats the difference between the 2012 and 2013 version...its 13 inch aswelll..

Click to expand...

Here's a link explaining things (basically very similar):

Differences Between 13” 2012 & 2013 Retina MacBook Pro @ EveryMac.com

Back to the main question. It appears that the SSD's between the two computers in question are different:


Mid 2011 13" MacBook Air SSD:





Late 2012 13" retina MacBook Pro SSD:



Bottom line...they don't look swappable.

- Nick