MacBook Air Won't Start Into macOS — Failed SSD, Putney SW15
A MacBook Air in Putney SW15 wouldn't start into macOS. We diagnosed a failed internal SSD, fitted a replacement drive and reinstalled macOS to get it working.
Mac Support for Business — Small Offices in London
Apple-first IT support for offices running a handful of Macs — with a real workshop behind it when the hardware gives up
4.8-star Google rating
25+ years experience
90-day warranty on repairs
Insured, 25+ years
Last updated: August 2026
Overview
The small Mac office that nobody else wants to serve
A design studio with six Macs. An architect's practice with a dozen and a plotter. A production company with four Macs and one stubborn Windows box that runs the accounts. These offices are all over South West London, and they are oddly badly served: Apple-specialist IT firms are built for estates of fifty seats and upwards, while general IT companies still treat a Mac as somebody else's problem. We are neither. Macs come over our repair bench every working day, so we know how they actually fail and how long they really last. We have supported mixed Apple and Windows offices from the same Putney workshop for over 25 years. Getting Outlook behaving on macOS, or a Mac and a PC sharing the same printer and the same files, is ordinary work here rather than an exception.
Support for offices running roughly 3 to 20 Macs
Mixed Mac and Windows networks treated as normal, not a complication
Microsoft 365, Outlook and OneDrive working properly on macOS
Hardware repaired on our own bench, with same-day turnaround available
3 to 20 Macs
Mac & PC together
Repairs on our own bench
What you get
What every mac support for business job includes
Established and insured
We have run our Putney workshop for over 25 years and the business is fully insured — worth knowing when someone is coming into your home or office. Security and network work is led by a CISSP-certified consultant.
Same-day turnaround is available on many jobs — ask when you book and we will confirm availability and any additional cost before we start.
Features
What Mac Support for Business Covers
Advice From People Who Repair Macs
MacBooks, iMacs and Mac minis cross our bench every working day — screens, batteries, drives, logic boards. That hands-on experience is what shapes the advice: we know which models age badly and which faults are worth spending money on.
Mixed Mac and Windows Offices
Very few small offices are purely Apple. There is usually a PC running an accounts package, or a machine tied to a specific piece of hardware. Making the two share files, printers and email properly is routine work for us.
Microsoft 365 on macOS
Outlook on Mac, OneDrive syncing without duplicating half your desktop, SharePoint libraries that open when you click them, Teams behaving itself. Microsoft software on Apple hardware has its own quirks and we meet them weekly.
Hardware Backup at the Counter
When a Mac stops, you can carry it into 66 Lower Richmond Road in Putney rather than post it away and hope. Repairs carry a 90-day warranty, and same-day turnaround is available when a deadline will not wait.
Backups That Have Been Tested
A Time Machine drive nobody has looked at since 2023, or cloud storage mistaken for a backup. We set up something that genuinely restores your work, then prove it restores rather than assuming it does.
No Minimum Number of Macs
Three Macs is a perfectly reasonable size of client. Apple-specialist providers usually want a far larger estate before they will engage at all, and we have no threshold to clear before you can pick up the phone.
Process
How We Pick Up a Mac Office
Simple steps to get your problem solved quickly and professionally.
1
Look at What You Have
A walk round the office or a screen share: which Macs, how old, what they run, where the files live, and what everybody complains about most often.
2
Fix What's Biting
The recurring irritations first — the sync that never finishes, the Mac that will not see the printer, the machine that takes four minutes to wake. Quick wins before anything ambitious.
3
Put the Basics Right
Accounts, email and shared access sorted properly, backups configured and test-restored, and the ageing hardware identified before it fails rather than afterwards.
4
Stay Reachable
From then on you have a number that a person answers. Most things get resolved remotely; when a machine has to come in, it comes to our bench in Putney.
In Depth
What to Expect
Prefer the quick version? The sections above cover most needs. Expand any topic below for more detail.
Why small Mac offices struggle to find support
If you run a handful of Macs and have found it strangely hard to buy proper support, there are structural reasons for that:
- Apple-focused IT providers are generally built around large estates, and often will not engage with an office of five or ten machines
- General IT companies are Windows shops by habit, and a Mac question tends to get a vague answer or a referral
- The Apple Store handles the hardware but does not look after your email, your shared files, your network or your printers
- Freelance Mac consultants exist, but are one person deep — when they are on holiday or ill, so are you
- Almost nobody publishes a price, so comparing options means several meetings before you learn anything useful
We sit deliberately in that gap: a workshop counter for the hardware, and people who support Apple and Windows offices side by side every week.
Mac and Windows in the same office
Mixed offices cause most of the day-to-day friction we get called about. The common flashpoints are predictable, and all of them are solvable:
Shared files and permissions
Macs and Windows machines handle file names, permissions and network shares differently, which is how you end up with folders one side can open and the other cannot. Set up deliberately, it simply stops being an issue.
Printers and scanners
The classic symptom is a printer that every PC can see and no Mac can, or scan-to-folder that works for half the office. Usually a driver and sharing problem rather than a fault with the printer itself.
Email and calendars in step
Shared mailboxes, calendars and contacts should look the same on a Mac in Outlook, on a Windows machine and on a phone. When they do not, it is nearly always how the accounts were added in the first place.
Software that only runs on Windows
Plenty of accounting and industry packages are Windows-only. Sometimes the answer is one PC in the corner, sometimes a hosted option — we will tell you which is proportionate rather than pushing a rebuild of your whole setup.
Nobody should have to choose their computer based on which one the IT company prefers. A mixed office is perfectly workable when someone sets it up on purpose.
What we cover — and what we don't
Worth setting out plainly, because it is rarely obvious from an IT company's website what is actually on offer:
- Everyday support for the Macs your team works on — faults, software, accounts, access and the things that waste ten minutes a day
- Microsoft 365 on macOS: Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams configured so they behave the same way for everyone
- Mixed Mac and Windows networks — shared folders, printers, Wi-Fi and the connections between them
- Hardware diagnosis and repair on our own bench in Putney, with a 90-day warranty on the work and same-day turnaround available
- Backups configured and test-restored, so recovery is something you have seen work rather than something you hope for
- New Macs specified, bought, set up and handed over ready to work, with the data moved across from the old machine
- What we do not do is central remote control of every Mac from an administrative console — pushing settings, restrictions and wipes to machines from a dashboard is a separate specialist product line, and not one we offer
If that kind of central control is genuinely what your business needs, we will say so and point you elsewhere rather than take the work and improvise. Our support is hands-on and per machine, which is what an office of this size usually wants anyway.
Not sure what you need? We're happy to help.
Pricing
How Mac Business Support Is Priced
Ad-hoc Mac support is charged per job: remote sessions typically £40–£90, in-store diagnostics £40–£80, and onsite visits £90 per hour including travel. Offices that would rather have a predictable monthly figure can take our support plan at £55 per user, per month, with no minimum number of users. Hardware repairs and parts are quoted separately after diagnosis and carry a 90-day warranty.
Per-job or monthly · No minimum users · 90-day warranty on repairs
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
How many Macs do you typically support in an office?
Most of our Mac business clients run somewhere between three and twenty machines — studios, practices, consultancies and small production teams. There is no minimum: three Macs and a shared printer is a perfectly normal client here. Larger Apple-focused providers usually want a far bigger estate before they will engage, which is precisely the gap this service exists to fill. If you want the wider proactive side as well — maintenance, security and backups looked after month to month — that sits under managed IT support.
We have Macs and a couple of Windows PCs — is that a problem?
It is the normal case, not a problem. Almost every Mac office we support has at least one Windows machine, usually because a piece of accounting or industry software only runs there. We handle shared folders, printer access, file naming and permissions across both, and we are as comfortable in Windows as in macOS. Where the fix needs someone looking at the actual network in the actual room, our onsite IT support covers the visit.
Can you make Microsoft 365 work properly on our Macs?
Yes, and it is one of the most common reasons small Mac offices call us. Outlook on macOS behaves differently from its Windows counterpart, OneDrive can make a real mess of a desktop full of client folders, and shared mailboxes and SharePoint libraries often need setting up deliberately rather than accepting the defaults. We configure accounts, mail, calendars, shared access and file sync so the Macs and any PCs are working from the same setup — see Microsoft 365 setup for the wider migration and configuration work.
What happens if a Mac breaks in the middle of a project?
You bring it to the counter at 66 Lower Richmond Road in Putney, or we collect it — free collection and return is available across South West London. It is diagnosed on our own bench rather than sent away to a third party, you get a quote before any work starts, and the repair carries a 90-day warranty. Same-day turnaround is available when a deadline demands it and carries a surcharge, which we confirm at the point of quoting. Our MacBook and Mac repair page covers what we handle, from screens and batteries to logic-board level work.
Can you specify and set up new Macs for us?
Yes. We will advise honestly on what specification the work actually needs — a video editor and a bookkeeper should not be buying the same machine — buy it on your behalf if you want us to, set it up, move the data across from the old one, and hand it over ready to work. The old machine gets wiped properly or kept as a spare. It is purchase and setup only: we do not lease hardware or arrange finance.
Do you look after backups for a Mac office?
Yes, and it is usually the first thing we check. A great many small Mac offices have a Time Machine drive that stopped working quietly some time ago, or cloud file sync being treated as a backup when it is not — deleting a file in a synced folder deletes it everywhere. We set up something appropriate for the size of the office, then test a restore so you know it works before you need it, rather than finding out afterwards.
Do you support Macs remotely, or does someone have to come in?
Both, and remote handles more than people expect. Software faults, email and Microsoft 365 problems, sync issues, permissions, slow machines and configuration are all fixable over a secure screen share, usually far quicker than arranging a visit. Anything physical — a failed drive, a swollen battery, a screen — needs the machine on a bench, and network problems are often better seen in the room. We will tell you honestly which it is rather than booking a visit by default.
Where is your workshop, and what are your opening hours?
The workshop and shop counter are at 66 Lower Richmond Road, Putney, SW15 1LL — you can walk a Mac in during opening hours, which are 10:00–18:00 Monday to Friday and 10:00–17:00 on Saturday. We are closed on Sundays. Office visits cover Wandsworth, Richmond, Merton, Kingston and the surrounding South West London boroughs, and remote support reaches further afield. Ring 020 7610 0500 or send us the details through the contact form.
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Coverage
Service Areas
We provide Mac Support for Business — Small Offices in London across South West London
Serving Wandsworth, Wimbledon, Putney, Clapham, Balham, Tooting, and surrounding areas.
View all service areasRunning an Office on Macs With Nobody to Call?
Tell us how many Macs you have, what keeps going wrong, and which Windows machine is causing the arguments. We will tell you plainly what is worth fixing, what is worth replacing, and what you can safely leave alone.
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