MacBook Pro 17" Models A1151 A1212 A1229 and A1261 Hard Drive Replacement
Featured Guide
This guide has been found to be exceptionally cool by the iFixit staff.
Replace the hard drive in your MacBook Pro 17" Model A1151, A1212, A1229, or A1261.
- Author: iRobot
- Difficulty: Moderate
You can install hard drives up to 9.5mm thick.
Sections
- Battery 1 step
- RAM Shield 2 steps
- Upper Case 7 steps
- Hard Drive 5 steps
- Hard Drive 2 steps
Tools
Edit Step 9 ¶
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Do not yank the upper case off quickly. The case is attached to the logic board via a ribbon cable.
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Lift up the back of the case and work your fingers along the sides, freeing the case as you go. Once you have freed the sides, you may need to rock the case up and down to free the front of the upper case.
Edit Step 16 — Hard Drive ¶
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Remove the two silver T6 Torx screws and white (or black) rubber bumpers from the right side of the hard drive.
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You'll need to transfer these screws and bumpers to your new hard drive if you're changing drives. Make sure to put these on the right side of the drive when looking at the label with the SATA connector at the far end.
Edit Step 17 ¶
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Remove the two silver T6 Torx screws from the left side of the hard drive (the rubber bumpers remain in the case for the left side of the drive)
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You'll need to transfer these screws to your new hard drive if you're changing drives.
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If you are installing a new hard drive, we have an OS X install guide to get you up and running.
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While this is listed as moderate difficulty, I think it's on the easy side of moderate. If you're used to replacing PC parts, it won't be a problem. Worst problem is dealing with tiny screws with my big hands. I used SuperDuper to clone the drive before swapping.
Actually the tools you only need are the T6-Torx and the Phillips screwdrivers. Everything else is optional for this operation. By the way: thank you, for the guidance! :)
azolee1848, · Reply
Excellent guide. For anyone who's replaced PC parts before the job is a piece of cake. Tip: Use a muffin tin to put the screws from each step in a different muffin hole in order. Easy to reassemble. I used SuperDuper to clone the new drive.
Before upgrading to a larger HD, you'll want to "clone" your original HD using the donation-ware program "Carbon Copy Cloner" (http://www.bombich.com/). Put the new HD in an external case; clone the original; test the clone (by starting up with it), then take apart the MacBook to put the new HD in the MacBook, and the original in the external case for use as a backup, etc. (You can't just drag the contents of the original HD to the new HD, and expect it to work; not since the days of OS 9 and before.)
amiller770, · Reply
Can I put more than two gigabytes of RAM in?
mine has 2g＊2＝4 gb ram in. you should be fine
on mac forum it suggested to put 4gb and a 2gb in a1261.
I made the mistake of wanting to do a clean install of OS and start fresh after installing a SSD. Now I can't install most browsers on OSX Leopard. Does anyone know what is the most current version of OS I can put on this system? (disk or download) Can I get to Snow or Lion?
2006 17" MackBook Pro Model#A1151
2.16 GHz Intel Core Duo
Memory: Two 1GB 667 MHz
Hard Drive: Corsair Force GS: SSD 128GB
When reassembling, please be careful not to screw into the wrong spot. I accidentally screwed into the DVI port and it was hard to remove the screw after that. I had to disassemble the whole thing again, only to find that I couldn't remove the screw from within as it was encased. After much scraping and prodding with a sewing needle, I was able to get that screw out. Phew!
isotope434, · Reply
Be very careful not to bend the screw tabs on the top case the perimeter screws attach to. Bending them causes them to quickly fatigue and potentially break off. When reassembling the top case, be sure the tabs are all *inside* the case before reseating it. If you get resistance, pull the case back up, check the tabs and reseat the top case again.
Disconnecting this cable is optional, if instead you tip up the top case ~75 degrees, propping it up with something non-metalic (wedged in or by the battery compartment). Unplugging a connector from the main circuit board always carries slight additional risk.
amiller770, · Reply
It's not really necessary to disconnect the trackboard/keyb
Russ Greene, · Reply
Tape is on the top and bottom of the HD.
amiller770, · Reply
On some models there is tape holding the connector onto the drive. You will need to carefully remove this before the connector can be detached.
Care should be taken to avoid squeezing the hard drive cover (especially in the area over the platters). It is best to only hold it edgewise and never as shown in the photos.
HELP! My enclosure does Not just slip off or anything when i remove the 4 screws!!!!!!
Its not supposed to. Just the screws and the bumper.
Don't forget, new drives need to have a partition created on them before it being recognized by the mac for OSX installation. Boot the installation CD and when it loads, select "Disk Utility" and create a new partition, then it will recognize and show the hard disk so you may select it for installation of OSX.
On my A1212, all four rubber bumpers were attached to the hard drive.