I can only give a vague description as it wasn't my macbook but someone in my class. Also, yes, I am one of those non-technical people who call an ssd a harddrive. :*
But I feel this topic is derailing. I only referred to the macbook air situation as I didn't want it to happen to my new macbook pro. I too feel it's highly unlikely for this to have anything to do with the arduino, maybe it was just a really bad coincidence.
Anyways, my question would something like this:
be sufficient and will the voltage loss interfere (much) with my projects?
Also I was thinking would it be possible to have something like a seperate breadboard or something with a switch on it, turning the arduino on or off, but still alowing the user to upload code to it while it's "off". In that case I would be able to unplug it, hook it up to a battery and turn it on, hence removing any possible harm to the computer.