My Problem

The optical drive had stopped working, and I was trying to breathe new life into the 2007 MacBook

My Fix

Repair went great! In around an hour I had it opened, replaced, and ready to go. I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the existing drive to the new SSD, and then booted from it.

Boot time dropped from 35+ seconds to under 20. Transfer rates and app launching greatly improved with M4 SSD.

My Advice

There are LOTS of screws on this iFixit. Be sure to keep track of which ones go where. Also, I was left with about 2 screws at the end. Oh well!

My Problem

My optical drive died. A new one was too expensive. So I decided to replace it with a new hard drive using this drive enclosure.

My Fix

Perfect, everything just fit on its place.

My Advice

Print the guide and follow it.

My Problem

I replace my optical drive with a SSD.

My Fix

The installation was easy, no problem.

But when I install the OS on the SSD and boot from it, I can no longer enter sleep mode. I've tried to google the problem but have found nothing about that kind of behaviour. Anyone got a suggestion?

My Advice

Nope, installation was easy and the guide was good.

My Problem

The laptop was feeling pretty slow with it's 5400rpm drive and the DVD drive hadn't worked for years anyway. With the buzz about Mountain Lion's Fusion drive technology reaching a peak I thought I'd give it a go.

My Fix

The repair was simple - although I had a bit of trouble squeezing the Samsung 830 into the Optibay mount. Used the net guides to create a fusion drive and installed ML - all was good - until I noticed that the machine wouldn't sleep. Did a lot of trouble-shooting and ended up solving the issue by swapping the SSD to the existing HD slot and fitting the 500GB spinner to the Optibay mount. Feels like a new laptop now - definitely worth the upgrade.

My Advice

1. Put the SSD into the existing 2.5" slot or the machine won't sleep.

2. Google "how to enable TRIM on Mac OS for non-apple SSDs"

My Problem

I tried to purchase a new external hard drive to help me with add more storage to my old 2008 macbook pro. I couldn't find a solution until I came upon the ifixit site.

My Fix

As soon as the package arrived, I started to transfer my existing files on my old 200 gig drive to my new 750 gig drive. It took about 4 hours. When all was ready, I installed my new 750 drive and then installed another 750 drive where my old cd rom was. Now my computer has 1.5 tb. It's working like a champ......

My Advice

Very satisfied with the outcome and will be using this site as much as needed.

My Problem

Le ventilateur gauche était hors service, j'ai donc décidé de remplacer les deux afin de repartir sur de bonnes bases. Et tant qu'à ouvrir la machine, j'ai remplacé mon Superdrive qui ne fonctionnait plus par un optique Bay dans lequel j'ai mis le disque dur d'origine. Et j'ai acheté un nouveau disque plus gros. Enfin, j'utilise l'ancien pour faire les sauvegardes TimeMachine des données personnelles.

My Fix

Grace au guide mis à disposition par iFixit j'ai pu ouvrir la machine sans problème. Un seul petit problème à signaler au remontage, la nappe du clavier n'était pas bien fixée. Donc un petit coup de stress lors de la tentative de démarrage car rien ne se passait ! Du coup, démontage puis remontage et c'est reparti...

My Advice

Vérifier que toutes les nappes soient bien enfoncées à fond avant remontage...

My Problem

I bought a new MacBook Pro. It shocked me through the case -- not a static discharge, but a proper shock. I decided it wasn't worth the money for something I didn't want to touch, so I returned it to apple and decided to extend the life of my 2008 Macbook (version 3,1) by another year or two to save some cash.

The optical drive would read, but not write. Since I barely used it anyway, I decided to put a 64gb SSD in the main HD slot for the OS and applications, and a 500gb platter in the optical slot for my media.

My Fix

Fairly straightforward. Before undertaking this yourself, check out my advice, too, especially if you are new to opening up your MacBook (like I was!). Nothing exploded, all worked well in the end by following ifixit's guide, but there were some steps that could use some clarification.

The repair probably took me about an hour, but I was being (overly?) cautious on a few steps -- I'm always paranoid about breaking connectors that I've never seen before. And wowsers, was the inside of that MacBook dusty! Definitely have some air-in-a-can availble to clean up while you're in there.

I installed the SSD, did a clean install of OS X 10.6 from a DVD, then removed the optical drive and replaced it with the platter drive. I didn't measure times, but booting seemed faster without the platter drive. Plenty snappy both ways, and wow does the SSD let big programs like Office open up quick! The 500b drive is for music, movies, etc.

I've read that the Mac boots more readily from the main HD, so that's where I put the SSD. The big drive is in the optical slot, and it can be ejected. The Finder symbol for the optical slot HD looks the same as the SSD -- it does not look like an external device.

Overally, a fun little project that was definitely worth it to me. Just be careful and you can eke a few more months or years of service out of your aging MacBook.

My Advice

Placing the HD in the enclosure: I couldn't track down any actual directions for this. The video is terribly vague, and there doesn't seem to be any written documentation beyond replacing the optical drive. What I did: slot in the drive, pop the plastic spacer in behind it (words up), and use two screws in the bottom. It came with four screws total, leaving me with two spares and making me nervous, but I have no idea what else to do with them. See photo.

Definitely some advice to share, in case you run into any of my small frustrations with the project. I'll go by step numbers in the current guide.

Step 6 (removing screws from rear of battery compartment): I needed a #000 phillips, not a #0 as stated.

Step 11 (lifting the upper case): Be careful! The front edge of my upper case cracked/splintered right along the edge. A little epoxy seems to have fixed it up well enough, but it's a repair I wish I didn't have to make. See photo.

Step 18 (foil tape on optical drive): I had trouble getting it to re-stick when I put it back on the replacement, but smoothing it out with the spudger really helped it get a grip again.

Step 20 (removing optical drive screw): First, there's not just the bluetooth cable: it's a rat's nest over this thing. It took me a few minutes to figure out what the picture was referring to, because I couldn't even see a screw at first. I used the pointy end of the spudger to hold everything to the side. Be extra careful when you remove the screw, cause if it gets lost below the cables, you'll be cursing. See photo (the screw's hiding under all that wire.)

Also in that step, replacing this screw is --why-- you leave the bracket loose in step 29 when you replace it. The hole in the bracket didn't line up for me when I replaced the drive, and I had to loosen the bracket to let the hole slide back into place. Still took some convincing with the spudger, but it --does-- slot back into place.

Step 30 (BT holder): Try to keep some of the glue on the underside of this. Mine really wanted to leave it on the old drive, but it won't re-stick on the new one without it. Also, replacing it on the new drive was a bit awkward -- it spans a gap.

My Problem

My DVD gave way and I wanted more HDD space as my current SSD is only 240GB for OSX.

My Fix

Took a very short time to install as I opened up before. Still you have to be very careful when you install the small little parts when you detached the whole DVD. Those screws are pretty small. Those with fat fingers, please do take note as it's not easy to put back those screws.

My Advice

Same as per iFixit advice. Make sure you put your screws in the right order. Make sure you all get the right tools before you begin. Put a white paper as your base before you start anything as white base is easier to detect all the small parts when you open it up and place them.

I was so excited about turning it on that I forgot to take some photos of it.

For now, it's SSD Sandisk Extreme 240GB on original HDD bay. Dead DVD taken out and add additional 750 WD 7200rpm. I have nearly 1TB of HDD space. To those who think the early 2008 Macbook Pro is slow, after putting on the SSD and additional HDD, I need not carry an external HDD which is a hassle at time.

I did not want to replace another DVD drive as nowadays, we hardly use it. Plus you can have external slim DVD drives which does not need external power which is light and cheap.