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Australia, Canberra
1 Level
718 Review
27 Karma

Review on OWC Envoy USB-Powered Aluminum πŸ’½ HDD/SSD Enclosures - ASMedia 1051, USB by Todd Roybal

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Now I have a good 126 gigabyte external hard drive.

If you know that this product is specifically for the 2010-2012 MacBook Air (I have the A1369) this little miracle will save your ass. I had a water stain with my Air and fried it immediately (thanks for not making a removable battery, Apple, so in the event of a splatter the computer will fry 99% of the time as you intended. There were plenty of splatters with my MacBook Pro and it kept coming). Apple "Genius" has stated that data recovery will cost at least $600 in the event of recovery, which they don't guarantee, but it costs $600 to find out. My IT service provider said it can't be restored because the SSD drive can't be removed. They said they would look - around $1,000 to work on it with no guarantee of data recovery. So I went online, checked a few forums, and saw that the OWC Envoy was the right fit for my SSD model. I disassembled my air and indeed the SSD was riveted. I drilled out the rivet, took out the SSD, put it in the Envoy, put the Envoy in the MacBook Pro. The disc is read immediately. You can use your migration assistant to move everything, or selectively log in and restore the data you want (which I did). Oh, and all for $47. Thank you OVC. Now I also have a nice 126GB external hard drive. Couldn't be happier. Every dubious review I've read has put dollars on donuts if the person bought the wrong case model. There is one for 2010-2012 and a new one for 2012 and newer MacBook Air. New warning. I've read on several forums that the SSD in the latest models is actually soldered to a proprietary connector (typical Apple crap, planned as obsolescence). So you can check before buying OWC. and then blame the body. OWC makes this pretty clear, but as far as I can see about 1 in 10 people doesn't bother reading the specs. Good product. For real. Saved my ass.

Pros
  • Easy to read control panel
Cons
  • Minor issues