Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

9

Time Required

                          25 - 40 minutes

Sections

4

  • Lower Case
  • 2 steps
  • Battery Connector
  • 2 steps
  • Hard Drive
  • 4 steps
  • Hard Drive
  • 1 step

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Introduction

What you need

Step 1

              Lower Case
  • Remove the following ten screws securing the lower case to the upper case:
  • Three 13.5 mm (14.1 mm) Phillips screws.
  • Seven 3 mm Phillips screws.
  • When removing these screws, note how they come out at a slight angle. They must be reinstalled the same way.

Remove the following ten screws securing the lower case to the upper case:

Three 13.5 mm (14.1 mm) Phillips screws.

Seven 3 mm Phillips screws.

When removing these screws, note how they come out at a slight angle. They must be reinstalled the same way.

1024

Step 2

  • Using both hands, lift the lower case near the vent to pop it off two clips securing it to the upper case.
  • Remove the lower case and set it aside.

Using both hands, lift the lower case near the vent to pop it off two clips securing it to the upper case.

Remove the lower case and set it aside.

Step 3

              Battery Connector
  • For certain repairs (e.g. hard drive), disconnecting the battery connector is not necessary but is recommended as it prevents any accidental shorting of electronics on the motherboard. If you do not disconnect the battery connector, please be careful as parts of the motherboard might be electrified.
  • Use the edge of a spudger to pry the battery connector upwards from its socket on the logic board.
  • It is useful to pry upward on both short sides of the connector to “walk” it out of its socket.

For certain repairs (e.g. hard drive), disconnecting the battery connector is not necessary but is recommended as it prevents any accidental shorting of electronics on the motherboard. If you do not disconnect the battery connector, please be careful as parts of the motherboard might be electrified.

Use the edge of a spudger to pry the battery connector upwards from its socket on the logic board.

It is useful to pry upward on both short sides of the connector to “walk” it out of its socket.

Step 4

  • Bend the battery cable slightly away from its socket on the logic board so it does not accidentally connect itself while you work.

Bend the battery cable slightly away from its socket on the logic board so it does not accidentally connect itself while you work.

Step 5

              Hard Drive
  • Remove two Phillips screws securing the hard drive bracket to the upper case.
  • These screws are captive to the hard drive bracket.

Remove two Phillips screws securing the hard drive bracket to the upper case.

These screws are captive to the hard drive bracket.

Step 6

  • Lift the retaining bracket out of the upper case.

Lift the retaining bracket out of the upper case.

Step 7

  • Lift the hard drive by its pull tab and pull it out of the chassis, minding the cable attaching it to the computer.

Lift the hard drive by its pull tab and pull it out of the chassis, minding the cable attaching it to the computer.

Step 8

  • Remove the hard drive cable by pulling its connector straight away from the hard drive.

Remove the hard drive cable by pulling its connector straight away from the hard drive.

Step 9

              Hard Drive
  • Remove two T6 Torx screws from each side of the hard drive (four screws total).
  • You’ll need to transfer these screws to your new hard drive if you’re changing drives.
  • If desired, peel the pull tab off your old hard drive and transfer it to the side of your new drive.
  • If you are installing a new hard drive, we have an OS X install guide to get you up and running. Many recent Macs may be able to use OS X Internet Recovery.

Remove two T6 Torx screws from each side of the hard drive (four screws total).

You’ll need to transfer these screws to your new hard drive if you’re changing drives.

If desired, peel the pull tab off your old hard drive and transfer it to the side of your new drive.

If you are installing a new hard drive, we have an OS X install guide to get you up and running. Many recent Macs may be able to use OS X Internet Recovery.

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

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Author

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                    Miroslav Djuric

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Oliver - Apr 17, 2014

Reply

Hi everyone! I have a question.

I’m not a super expert in computers, but I’m hoping to learn from this intelligent website.

I have a Laptop MacBook Pro 15’ late 2011, and I would like to replace the hard drive to a higher so then I can update with better programs: like Adobe CC.

what I have is system Lion, memory 16 GB 1333 MHz DDR3, processor 2.2 GHz Intel Core i7

what would you suggest me for a better performance with up to date art programs?

Regards

woestmab - Jun 8, 2014

Oliver,

If I’m understanding you correctly you want to replace the HDD with a larger capacity drive. In that case, for the most part, it won’t improve the performance dramatically. A solid state drive would be the biggest improvement in terms of drive speed. The overall storage size won’t really speed up the machine it will just give you more room for programs and storage.

Hope that helps,

-b

Joe - Aug 13, 2014

One upgrade is to increase spindle speed. Typically you’ll have a 5400 rpm drive from Apple unless a faster drive was ordered (look up your drive’s number on the Hardware Report on About this Mac). A 7200 rpm will give you better access times but will come at greater power consumption (shorter battery life). You’ll be trading cost and capacity for speed with solid state drives (SSD) as they are typically smaller capacity but have no moving parts to wait for and may have lower power consumption. Hybrids (SSHD) combine both, and of this writing, go up to 1TB. They also will come with 5400 rpm speed for lower power consumption than 7200 rpm and will use the SSD part for frequently used data to increase speed. Just make sure the SSD or SSHD is compatible with your Mac and that any drive selected is no taller than 9.5mm or your bottom cover won’t close.

wresnick - Jun 13, 2014

Reply

It caused an error upon reinstall of the OS. You forgot to mention that disconnecting the battery would reset the date, and installing the OS without resetting the date would give a general message about the process failing with no mention of a problem with the date.

Getting into terminal mode and typing: date mmddhhmmyyyy will reset the date. The hours and minutes go in the middle and the first mm is the month.

reichman - Jun 16, 2015

Reply

Phillips #0 Screwdriver! not #00, that’s too small.