MacBook Pro 13" Unibody 8x SATA SuperDrive (Used)

My Problem

The battery of my MacBook Pro 2009 ran like a turtle,

The SuperDrive had breathed his last.

My Fix

Honestly, I was pretty scared at first. In the shop where I bought it they told me not to do it alone, because definitely not it would work (due to static electricity, the possible failure of the screws and spare parts that not comply,, and bla .. bla .. bla).

You know what? People behind iFixit were very kind and very professional; order on the site was easy and the delivery was simply perfect. I was able to change the spare parts in a very short time (10 minutes). It was easy and nothing has exploded! I'm so proud! Thank you!!!

My Advice

Do not be shy or conditioned by a thousand fears: dare!!

My Problem

My laptop SuperDrive stopped burning DVDs, which is kind of important to me. The Apple store would have taken 2-3 business days to repair. I use the laptop for business so taking 2-3 days off just because of a laptop repair was a nonstarter.

My Fix

It went surprisingly quick -- the only uh-oh moment was when I tried to disconnect the audio connector by pulling on the wires and ended up pulling the wires out of the connector. I was able to reinsert them using a really fine pair of tweezers and an eye loupe.

The entire upgrade took about an hour, which is about the amount of time it would take me to drive to and from the Apple store. And I was able to repair it on the weekend when it was convenient.

My Advice

Buy the packet of screws before beginning -- it's super easy to lose one. Be sure you have some decent quality tools, an eye loupe, industrial quality tweezers (I'm not kidding), good screwdrivers. Consider them an investment.

I have pretty good dexterity and eyesight -- even so I found this to be a bit of a challenge. The instructions at iFixit were perfect.

My Problem

After about five years as my main system, my Macbook Pro was grinding and beachballing and taking hours to do five minute tasks. I'd also lost use of the disk drive. The shops all wrote it off as "cheaper to buy a new one", but I was pretty sure they were wrong.

My Fix

It was honestly pretty uneventful! The instructions were thorough, the kits were complete. It took about half an hour. The longest part was waiting for my files to transfer from my external drive.

My Advice

Worth it - do it!

My Problem

The old optical drive was making awful, awful sounds and would work only rarely.

My Fix

The repair went very smoothly. Some of the steps were a little trickier than I'd expected. It was more difficult to detach some of the cable than it seemed they should be. But for the most part it was good. No big surprises.

My Advice

I should have read all the comments before I started. There were a few that would have made me more careful on a few steps, and a few that might have made me try a simpler approach on a different step.

My Problem

Existing optical drive would take in the disc, try to read it, then spit it back out. Would not boot from optical.

My Fix

Removed old Optical drive and replaced with the optical from ifixit.com. Tested and it works as it should. Delivered very quick. Thanks for the quality of service and product!

My Advice

The model MacBook Pro I changed the drive from was very easy to work with. Minimal cable and parts removal. Having the proper tools also helped.

My Problem

hard drive corruption - have heard hd data cables in this model are sometimes faulty, and wanted to make sure the customer wouldn't be coming back soon due to any possible hardware faults (and optical drive choked on a disk after behaving badly for a while)

My Fix

The guides are great. It went smoothly and quickly with one exception - swapping hard drive, hd cable and optical drive could have been done within 1/2 hour I think, had I not hit snag mentioned in "The Enlightenment..."

My Advice

step 5 of optical drive replacement for unibody 13" - I'm not sure how to improve the wording, but would ask of someone who might know 'how do you slide a part that is glued?' and 'in what direction should it slide?' I fought a bit with this in disconnecting the camera connector - and considerably more connecting it back. Or perhaps a better pic?