My Problem

Funny story, I was moving back to the US after living in Japan for 4 years. Moved out of my house and was staying with a few friends for a span of about 3 weeks before heading back stateside. In the midst of this, one day my Macbook Pro simply froze. I'm used to clocking my machine's ram until things can slow to a crawl, and figured simply it was time to for a bi-monthly (or so) restart. But the machine never booted after that, and I got the question mark of death. I had been lazy about my Time Machine backups, and thought I'd for sure lost all my data. I decided I'd worry about it when I got home.

Right after landing, I decided to cut my losses and ordered a new hard drive (upgraded from 500 gb to 750gb) . However, after installing, the brand new hard drive did not boot, which REALLY made me worry. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that my old hard drive booted externally, meaning it was not a hard drive issue after all, but most likely a problem with the cable.

My Fix

I was comfortable with installing a hard drive, but had never installed a hard drive cable before (much less in a MBP), so I was really apprehensive about doing this. Still, I ordered it from iFixit and followed the instructions. It was really not so bad, and in around 20 minutes everything was in and I started the machine and crossed my fingers. FIXED!! (Sorry, I forgot to take pictures)

My Advice

For this who encounter what they believe is a hard drive failure, you should really check to see if that's actually the problem and NOT the hard drive cable. I ended up getting a brand new hard drive that wasn't required, though as I had been planning to upgrade anyway, this was not a problem for me. I placed the old one in an enclosure case and now use it for time machine backups!

My Problem

I thought my hard drive had died. I was getting the international "no" symbol at startup, then a folder with a question mark in it. I bought a new hard dirve and installed it, but still no luck. This is when I thought it could be the cable. Turns out it was!

My Fix

The process was fairly simple, since I had already replaced the hard drive. I just had to take it a few steps further to replace the cable. Works like a charm now!

My Advice

If you think you have a malfunctioning hard drive, consider the cable. Especially with these models of Macbook Pros. Looks like other people have experienced it too.

My Problem

I frequently swapped out hard drives, so frequently, I forgot they were actually attached to a cable, so without thinking, pulled and ripped the thing apart.

My Fix

I knew what I was doing, but even then, the exchange was very simple and only took me a few minutes.

My Advice

Don't be too scared of working on the interior of your computer (though try not to be as clumsy as I). Follow the advice, particularly grounding yourself before working, but don't be too terrified about touching things in your computer.

My Problem

I was swapping out my 500 GB hard drive for a 1TB hard drive when my fingers slipped holding the old drive, it rotated outward and down. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but after reassembly, the machine wouldn't boot and no bootable drives were found...opened it up again and found that my cable had torn, ever so slightly. After cursing and screaming at my fumbling fingers, I went straight to ifixit and ordered a replacement drive cable (and a spare).

My Fix

Following the online directions and installing the cable was a snap as I had also purchased the proprietary 5-point driver to remove the battery (now I am set for when my battery tanks in a year or so). Completed install, used SuperDuper to copy 500 GB to new 1 TB drive, had a big stretch and then rebooted...whamo! All functioning perfectly. Thanks ifixit!

My Advice

Macs are so well designed that nearly all fundamental hardware failure modes can be handled by the modestly competent home user....done slowly, with ifixit's directions and making sure you have any special tools.