Disassembly of Macbook for HDD Replacement?

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fubar569

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 16, 2003
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I normally dont tread here, but im doing a favor for the g/f...

her friend has a macbook - 2ghz core duo, 512mb ram, 60gb hdd, etc etc...

it seems the HDD took a crap. no boot at all...
put in the MAC OS X DVD and it will boot to that, but the Disk Utility sees no hard drive whatsoever and gives no options to install anything to it...the only drive it sees is the DVD drive

Now it won't spit the DVD back out of the drive!

im thinking both issues need solved with a new SATA HDD - i can get a WD 60GB for about 55 shipped new and thats all the person wants back in it...

However, how do these godforsaken things come apart?

you'll have to forgive any outward jabs against apple or any comments and such...im just a PC guy at heart...and trying something new for a change...

PS...these specs arent bad at all for a laptop...if it would run XP i might consider one ;) lol
 
simple: ifixit.com

summary:
turn laptop off (duh?)
take out battery (use a quarter to turn that little dial on the bottom)
use a small philips head screwdriver to remove the little metal panel around the edge of the battery compartment
on the left side of the battery compartment you should see a little tab, pull it out
tray + HDD slides out
use the small torx driver (I got mine off with vice grips cause I didn't have the driver I needed) to remove the HDD from the tray
put new drive in tray and reinstall the screws
slide tray + HDD back in
reinstall metal panel
reinstall battery
lock battery in (turn that dial back to where it was)
boot to install dvd and format the drive
 
There are detailed instructions on apple.com

It's very easy to do on a macbook.
 
fubar569 said:
I normally dont tread here, but im doing a favor for the g/f...

her friend has a macbook - 2ghz core duo, 512mb ram, 60gb hdd, etc etc...

it seems the HDD took a crap. no boot at all...
put in the MAC OS X DVD and it will boot to that, but the Disk Utility sees no hard drive whatsoever and gives no options to install anything to it...the only drive it sees is the DVD drive

Now it won't spit the DVD back out of the drive!

im thinking both issues need solved with a new SATA HDD - i can get a WD 60GB for about 55 shipped new and thats all the person wants back in it...

However, how do these godforsaken things come apart?

you'll have to forgive any outward jabs against apple or any comments and such...im just a PC guy at heart...and trying something new for a change...

PS...these specs arent bad at all for a laptop...if it would run XP i might consider one ;) lol
Click to expand...
if its an intel (which it is) it will run XP :p
 
have her take it to the Apple Store Genius Bar...it's probably under Apple Care. She DID get Apple Care, didn't she?:rolleyes:
 
it's for her room mate, and he did not get apple care...but right now i bet he's wishing he did!

I told him me replacing it is not an issue - i can do it...just needed some tips and such...and for him to order me what i need to fix it...which he's doing right now...

i wish it did have XP - or i could just learn the mac OS X...i like the looks, i love the specs, the laptop itself isnt overly gawky like my toshiba...it actually IS a portable laptop (apparently with good battery life according to him)...

maybe i can borrow it for a few days when its fixed? lol

thanks alot guys...
 
i would get a bigger HD...i have a 60gb with my macbook...im really thinking about get a 300gb, im running vista on mine btw;-)......i use bootcamp and vm fusion....
im really thinking about selling my rig(the one in my sig) and getting a 24" imac and just bootcamp'ing vista on that puppy:D
 
i got the macbook black, 1g 2ghz and a 120g HD, and i get over 3 hours battery with things like web / IM, playing a DVD i cut down to about 2 hours.
 
so battery is comparable to my toshiba...i'm sporting a core 2 duo 1.66ghz, 2gb ram, 160gb hdd, 15" widescreen and a geforece go 7300 w/ 256mb seperate dedicated video memory - it also overclocks well on the graphics side...

basic stuff is about 3hrs - serious gaming about 1-1.5....mixed i get about 2 or so...
 
MrGuvernment said:
i got the macbook black, 1g 2ghz and a 120g HD, and i get over 3 hours battery with things like web / IM, playing a DVD i cut down to about 2 hours.
Click to expand...

Damn, I get 4 hours on mine... are you turning down the screen brightness?
 
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