My Problem
I bought a 2nd hand Macbookpro. I wanted a reliable laptop for presenting and the old PC just wasn't cutting the mustard (even as a Hackintosh). The laptop was fine but only had a 200gb hard drive...just not enough for it to be useful and it seemed daft to go to the local authorised repair place knowing I could do this easily with the right tools and a bit of guidance from ifixit.
The upgrade kit took care of all the parts of the process including setting up the drive before I put it in.
My Fix
Well....it was all going okay, I got the screws out, in the right order.
The warning about the clips over the superdrive were very useful.
The keyboard and drive connections came away with a little encouragement and the spudger.
It all went back together nicely, no surprises with any part of the process....unti
Nothing.
Opened it all up again, made sure everything was connected but it back and again nothing. I started to panic.
And here is the lesson for anyone else doing this. Never ever attempt anything like this if you've got an important once in a lifetime photoshoot the next day. You've organised the hire of some very expensive gear and the idea is you're going to tether the laptop. The laptop appears to have died. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would be going to the local Apple store in the morning to buy a new Macbook Pro.
But....I decided that if it was dead then it wouldn't hurt to put the old drive back in and voila...it worked again. I breathed a huge sigh of relief. The photoshoot would go ahead as planned.
The next day, after the shoot this time, I started again. As I'd been through the process about 5 times by now I knew what was to be done and had the new drive in in about 10 minutes. This time the little b*stard fired up first time.
It's all working fine, I have plenty of room on the drive. The laptop appears to be running a little quicker and my heart is beating a little slower than the evening before.
My Advice
Oh yes. Only make a significant change to your computer if you're not under any pressure. I don't know what didn't work the first time but I'm sure I've knocked a couple of years off my lifespan due to the panic.
Written