Introduction
You can install hard drives up to 9.5mm thick.
Tools
Parts
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Use your fingers to push both battery release tabs away from the battery and lift the battery out of the computer.
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Remove the four identical Phillips 3.4 mm screws from the memory door. These screws have 4 mm diameter heads rather than the 3 mm heads on the body screws.
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Lift the memory door up enough to get a grip on it, and slide it toward you, pulling it away from the casing.
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Remove the three Phillips screws in the battery compartment near the latch. Apple was nice enough to tilt these screws at a slight angle to make them easier to remove. On the A1261 these screws have 4 mm diameter heads rather than the 3 mm heads on the body screws.
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Remove the following six screws:
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Two 14.5 mm T6 Torx screws on either side of the RAM slot.
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Four 3.4 mm Phillips screws along the hinge.
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Rotate the computer 90 degrees and remove the two Phillips screws from the rear of the computer.
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Rotate the computer 90 degrees again and remove the four Phillips screws from the side of the computer.
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Lift up the back of the case and work your fingers along the sides, freeing the case as you go. Once you have freed the sides, you may need to rock the case up and down to free the front of the upper case.
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Disconnect the trackpad and keyboard ribbon cable from the logic board.
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Remove the upper case.
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Peel up the orange ribbon cable taped to the top of the hard drive. This cable is still connected to the hard drive, so you will only be able to lift up on the cable a little.
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Lift the hard drive by tilting it from the right hand side, then lift it gently out of the lower case.
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If present, remove the piece of tape holding the hard drive connector in its socket on the hard drive.
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Remove the two silver T6 Torx screws and white (or black) rubber bumpers from the right side of the hard drive.
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Remove the two silver T6 Torx screws from the left side of the hard drive (the rubber bumpers remain in the case for the left side of the drive)
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
19 comments
On my A1212, all four rubber bumpers were attached to the hard drive.
While this is listed as moderate difficulty, I think it's on the easy side of moderate. If you're used to replacing PC parts, it won't be a problem. Worst problem is dealing with tiny screws with my big hands. I used SuperDuper to clone the drive before swapping.
Actually, you can install hard drives up to 12mm thick
spsantos -
Before upgrading to a larger HD, you'll want to "clone" your original HD using the donation-ware program "Carbon Copy Cloner" (http://www.bombich.com/). Put the new HD in an external case; clone the original; test the clone (by starting up with it), then take apart the MacBook to put the new HD in the MacBook, and the original in the external case for use as a backup, etc. (You can't just drag the contents of the original HD to the new HD, and expect it to work; not since the days of OS 9 and before.)
amiller770 -