1 TB 5400 RPM 2.5" Hard Drive

Mein Problem

I had a hard drive with 160 GB of space. I do a lot of graphic art and multimedia work and my disk space was full and it began a kernel panic that would cut my machine off in the middle of projects. Grrrr!

Meine Reparatur

The repair was straight forward and simple :)

Mein Rat

Make sure to download a hard drive cloning program like SuperDuper!

Also, if you disconnect your battery connector from your logic board make sure to plug it back in. I forgot and powered up! Luckily the connector went back into place when I closed it back up...whew!!

Mein Problem

Needed more storage space for my VM's and to make use of Bootcamp

Meine Reparatur

I started out with a 500GB drive on my early 2011 MBP, and thanks to the hard drive from iFixit and their repair guide, I was able to expand my storage to 1TB. I just wish I could purchase the hybrid drive, but I did not need the extra tools that came with it. Other than that, I believe I'll be making good use of this drive. I can finally make use of Bootcamp on my laptop!

Mein Rat

Get acquainted with the steps before you put your hand to the task!

Mein Problem

I needed a larger HD.

Meine Reparatur

So-so. Some steps were not described: removal of fan and shroud screw fasteners (Torix #6), and separation of the adhesive tape holding the plastic film onto the existing drive prior to removal of its major connector.

Worst was failure to boot after installation. All attempts produced an exclamation mark image above "apple.com/support" text. Suspecting faulty installation I took the Mini to Apple and discovered the drive needed to be formatted--an option not available until a Genius did genius stuff. After that, all went well.

Mein Rat

Search the web for other videos-that worked for me.

Mein Problem

Broken optical drive on my old machine I don't have the heart to replace with a flashy new model, libraries are wayyy too big for the 160gb original HD and don't use compact disks too often anymore, so decided to add a TB

Meine Reparatur

so easy! Doesn't even screw in just sits right where optical drive was.

Mein Rat

Remember to keep the PATA cable from the optical drive as you do not get a new one! And as always with older MacBooks pre unibody don't mix up the screws as they are different sizes and shapes

Mein Problem

So, I had a friend over, and we were doing some drinking, and I had my Macbook (Mid 2012 Unibody) plugged up to the tv. Apparently after I went to sleep my friend started feeling sick. He ended up vomiting and I suppose he couldn't make it to the bathroom, because he ended up throwing up in the empty pizza box beside my Macbook... well... mostly... I woke up the next morning to a puddle of puke about the side of a pancake on my open computer, right on the keyboard, and by the looks of it, it'd been there for a few hours. I immediately shut it off and pulled the battery, but the damage was done. I cleaned it off and let it dry for a few days before turning it back on (amazingly, it still ran). Several keys were inactive or triggering other commands, my trackpad was being janky, my hard drive was making weird noises, my battery life had decreased by about half, and my optical drive was completely broken. I'm a working DJ, and learning music production and sound design, so obviously this was a very big issue for me.

Meine Reparatur

I ordered all the parts (at least I thought I did) and got them in the mail a few days later. I downloaded iFixit's mobile app for iphone (SUPER HANDY!) and got to work. I had to disassemble the entire machine in order to replace the upper case, and then as I was putting it back together I was able to just swap out old parts with replacements. I opted to get a hard drive caddy and swap out my optical drive with a second hard drive (now rocking 2tb of storage, it makes me very happy) since I have the external superdrive for the Macbook Air. With iFixit's guides on the app, it was a breeze from start to finish and I got it all done in a matter of hours. I consider myself a handy person, but I know nothing about computer repair, so for me to be able to flawlessly repair it to fully functioning status was a pretty great feeling. Couldn't have done it without the step by step guide with greatly detailed pictures. I discovered a couple days later that my airport/bluetooth card was also damaged by the incident, which is not a huge deal, just an inconvenience and I plan on replacing it when I get my next paycheck.

Mein Rat

If you're replacing your upper case on the Unibody model A1278 (not sure about other models) the guide doesn't mention it, but you need to pull the battery level indicator off of your old upper case and transfer it to the new one. Another thing I didn't know that fortunately didn't bite me in the hind quarters, was the risk of static shock. I didn't know this was a thing, but a simple static shock discharged from your body to your computer's sensitive inner parts can practically destroy your computer, so before going into your computer's innards, make sure to look up online how to ground yourself so that you don't risk killing your beloved computer. Lastly, if you decide that you also want to replace your optical drive with a second hard drive and intend to use apple's external superdrive, be aware that the drive was only intended for use with Apple computers that do not originally have an optical drive, so it's not a "plug and play" accessory. You have to go online and find directions for rewriting one of the scripts so that it will allow the drive to be used, just be careful because an incorrect sudo script can seriously mess up your computer.

OH! And for the love of all things holy and unholy alike, MAKE SURE YOU KEEP ALL THE SCREWS SEPARATE AND WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE COMPONENT! I cannot stress this enough. You will save yourself a major headache. I used sandwich bags and labeled them with a sharpie.

Mein Problem

Last year, my laptop was ruined after sitting in a pool of water on my bed. I accidentally left my brand new water bottle on my bed with the flip lid not fully closed. My laptop was plugged in at the time of the disaster. I left the laptop in a pizza box full of rice while I went on a pilgrimage through Spain and Portugal. When I returned, the laptop would not turn on so I brought it in to a repair shop. They initially installed a new hard drive and then told me I would need a new keyboard so I requested to have the new hard drive taken out and the old one re-installed because the cost of having it repaired in a shop would have not been worth it. I have an interest in repair so I decided to tackle to repair myself.

I found iFixit while Googling my laptop model and was happy to find such a user friendly step-by-step repair guide. I was also happy that you could also purchase the parts directly from the site.

The installation of the new hard drive and upper case went very smoothly, however, upon completion, I noticed that my optical drive was not working. So I used a USB flash drive to install the 'Start-Up' software.

Mission accomplished!! Out with the old and in with the new!

Meine Reparatur

AMAZING! My optical drive is still not working but I will probably end up installing an additional hard drive to replace it. Mostly everything now-a-days is downloadable anyway. The installation of the hard drive and upper case went so smoothly, I was so surprised!

Mein Rat

Be careful not to mix the screws up. I used scotch tape and labeled each step but I still managed to mix a few up and loose a few.

Thank-you iFixit! I'm so happy with my experience!!!

Mein Problem

Nothing wrong, but never use my Optical Drive and saw a way to add an additional HHD.

Meine Reparatur

Opening the back of a unibody Macbook Pro is like taking apart a watch. Things are really packed in there. I had previously upgraded the main HHD and added ROM, but taking out the Optical Drive was a bit tricky. However, all went well and it powered up and recognized the new HHD right away.

Mein Rat

Slow and delicate work. Make sure you have a good work surface and plenty of light. Remember which screws go where. Make sure you have the proper tools.

Mein Problem

This Mac Mini I bought through ebay last year, but the guy that put it on ebay - had not upgraded anything on it (except for upgrading the OS to OS X Snow Leopard)

Meine Reparatur

I installed a 1TB drive not once, not twice but three times - thinking that the computer was not recognizing it (dummy here ((me)) forgot to create a partition for the computer to write the information on first). Except for that little detail, the installation went beautifully - except for the bumps I kind of expected while putting it back together.

Mein Rat

Six words - "Plan it out step by step". Because no matter how smart you think you are, you're still only human - you can still forget something along the way or just miss something due to oversight.

Mein Problem

MacBook Pro would no longer startup. Did troubleshooting and determined that the hard drive was the problem. Ordered a new one.

Meine Reparatur

Using the fantastic iFixit guide, I EASILY replaced the hard drive, Installed OS X and was back up in no time.

Mein Rat

Just make sure to keep the parts that you remove in order. Makes it much easier to put back together.