You can skip this step if you bought your putty knife from iFixit. Putty knives purchased from iFixit come with pre-ground edges. You'll need a putty knife in order to open the case. A 1.5 inch thin putty knife will work well, but you'll want to grind the edge down. Rub the putty knife's short edge back and forth on a sheet of all purpose rough grit sandpaper (100 grit will work fine) until it attains a beveled edge. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s998 Place the mini upside down on a cloth and turn it so that the apple leaf faces you. Insert the putty knife into the seam between silver outer case and the white plastic. If you have trouble, you can insert the putty knife at an angle or grind the knife's edge down further. Push the blade down until you meet firm resistance (roughly 3/8 of an inch). /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s999 Pull directly back on the putty knife until the white plastics pops up. Don't worry about bending the putty knife too far or breaking the plastic tabs. Just continue to pull back on the putty knife until the case pops free. Repeat this procedure on the other side. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1000 Grasp the white lower case beneath the vent and rotate it up and away from you, pulling it free of the upper case. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1001 If your mini does not have Airport installed, then skip this step. Grasp the Airport antenna board and lift it off of the two plastic posts holding it in place. You may need to push back the black plastic tab jutting through the lower left corner of the board. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1002 Remove the yellow tape securing the power button cable to the black plastic framework. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1003 Remove the three black Phillips screws securing the plastic framework to the logic board and lower case. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1004 Grasp the optical drive and mass storage unit in one hand and lift up enough so that you can see beneath it. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1005 If your mini has neither an Airport card nor a Bluetooth board, you can simply lift the optical drive up and away. Otherwise, you need to disconnect the Airport and/or Bluetooth antenna cables first. With your free hand, pull the Bluetooth cable up from Bluetooth board and unplug the Airport antenna cable from the right of the Airport card. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1006 Remove the three long, black Phillips screws from the corners of the fan. These screws are strongly threaded, and will offer significant resistance. There is no screw in the bottom left corner. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1025 Lift the fan out of the computer. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1026 Peel up the yellow tape securing the speaker and fan cables to the bottom of the hard drive. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1027 Use a #1 Phillips to remove the two screws attaching the right side of the hard drive to the plastic framework. You'll need to angle the screwdriver down to get access to the lower right screw. Be sure to apply steady force to the screws and turn slowly so as not to strip them. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1028 Use the same screwdriver and steady force to remove the two screws attaching the left side of the hard drive to the plastic framework. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1029 Use a spudger to pry the hard drive away from the interface board. Wedge the flat end of the spudger between the interface board and the far right side of hard drive and wiggle back and forth until the hard drive slides out about a sixteenth of an inch. Then move to the other side and repeat the procedure. Go back and forth until the hard drive slides free. When reinstalling the hard drive, make sure that you don't slide the top pins into the lower row of holes. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1030 Lift the hard drive out of the assembly. /Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-PowerPC-Hard-Drive/268/all#s1031