Silicone 2.5" Hard Drive Enclosure with USB 2.0 Cable

My Problem

My laptop hard drive was loading to the login screen, but would crash/shutdown half way through login. After many failed attempts to fix the issue, I decided it would be more beneficial to upgrade my slowing machine.

My Fix

The replacement of hardware is the easiest part. Reinstalling the OS and transferring the non-corrupted files is the time suck with projects like this. Take your time with the file transfer and don't rush through it.

My Advice

Hopefully you had a recent backup of the valuable data in your hard drive. I have done a repair similar to this before, but this time I used the silicone drive enclosure to format the new drive and install the updated OS. After the OS is installed on the new drive, the setup computer will see that as the startup disk. Be sure to select the correct startup disk on the computer you are using for setup, and then eject the freshly installed drive. Install the new drive in the machine you are fixing.

My Problem

I'm a developer, and my computer was having trouble handling running a virtual box while running several browser tabs, listening to music and having our company chat app open. It never crashed, but the fan was constantly going and I noticed the memory pressure was often very high.

My Fix

I upgraded my RAM from 8GB to 16GB and from a 500GB spinning disk HD to a 1TB hybrid drive. The repair cost me ~$290 from iFixit (including parts and repair kit) and only 45 minutes of my time, as the repair can be done easily in tandem. In order to get a new computer for work it would have cost me north of $2,300 to get a Macbook I would consider upgraded enough for the job my work demands. For ~10% of the price, I'm thrilled to say my Macbook can handle the job like a champ now. Although I do notice the battery life is a bit shorter, so be conscious that if you're asking your existing machine to do more work in the same amount of time, it will drain the battery more.

My Advice

For me the two sticking points (~3 minutes each) were getting the bottom RAM chip to seat correctly and getting the HD to connect correctly in the provided HD USB connector.

For the bottom RAM chip, it helped to take time making sure the slot was angled up so I could slip the chip in. At first I think I was trying to insert it in a way that would not allow me to push it in far enough to press down flush to the battery.

For the HD USB connector, it unfortunately is an unfriendly user design, as ensuring a solid connection between the HD and USB case is shielded by a horizontal inch or two of rubber. My only advice would be to go slowly and make sure that it is fully inserted. Mine was only partially connected initially and Disk Utility would throw an error when trying to partition the disk. This lead to a google search, and eventually trying again to seat the HD correctly and feeling it slide in. Once the connection was solid, I reconnected the USB cable and had no issues with the rest of the process!

I also highly recommend super duper, but be prepared for the process to take a while. I had about 400GB of data to copy from my old HD to the new one, and the process took ~7 hours (it is completely passive, I just let it run over night). This allowed me to boot off the USB HD and ensure it had a working copy of my OS and files before having to install it, which was immensely reassuring.

My Problem

My hard disk was limping along at abysmal speed, draining my battery every hour and was starting to go corrupt as evident in my finder window. Desperate need of a new HD.

My Fix

Super simple and straight forward. Had my trusty iFixit tool kit and a silicone HD enclosure with USB connectors. (yeah, firewire would have been faster but much more expensive.)

I installed a Crucial, MX 512G SSD and it is a dream. I wish I could have afforded the 1TB. 1st world problems.

Replacement is 20 minutes but USB data transfer of 374GB took 6 hours. FYI.

My Advice

Be safe and scan your system before you transfer. I used SentinelPro, BitDefender, MalwareBytes and ClamXav. All showed a clean system.

Carbon Copier is a fantastic program for transferring data with a free 30-day period. Don't waste your time with Disk Utility!

My Problem

MacBook wouldn't boot up any longer.

My Fix

Swapping the hard drive was real easy. Getting the OS loaded took a little more effort.

My Advice

Don't forget to format then new drive. Once I figured that out, things went much better, but it still took two tries to get the OS downloaded. The bonus, if you can call it that, is that the old drive can be read when connected on USB. I'm glad I bought the external case.

My Problem

Recently, I augmented the RAM and put a new SSD hard drive into my old late 2006 core 2 duo white mac book.

I heard a guy at a computer store say that the best thing you could do was to clean out your computer, but I didn't believe him. Anyhow, I realised my computer was definitely overheating when it started shutting down from using Netflix and bugging when watching video on the web.

So I did a bit of research, and decided to try cleaning the whole thing out and see if it made a difference (it did).

My Fix

The repair went very well, thanks to Ifixit guides and various Youtube videos.My macbook was really very dusty inside (even had alot of dog hair!) And it felt just like when you clean your kitchn our your car after you let the dirt accumulate for a while. Definitely ssomething I recommend. Also it was alot of fun to get to know and see everypart of my computer like that. It works much better now, I recommend this operation to anyone who has an aging computer, makes a world of difference (it works like new now!) It does not over heat anymore, which makes the fan less noisy, so it works faster, smoother and is very silent.

My Advice

You'll need to be informed to do this, you don't want to mess anything up. It took me a lot of time before I felt confident to do this, especially because I depend on my comouter for work and studies. I did not want to have to buy a new macbook in a hurry! Also, do not hesitate to spend a little more money to get better quality stuff. For example, I first got the cheapest screwdrivers I could find. But they rapidly stripped the gentle screws in my macbook, and made taking it apart a drag. So I bought a better quality set, and had no more problems. I also strongly suggest to clean the heatsink and the fan completely, especially if your computer is as old as mine. I am pretty sure replacing the cooling paste and cleaning out the heatsink and fan was what made a major difference.

So basically, to those of you who are wondering wether you should buy a new macbook or try to fix your old one: fix youre old one! If it has a good cpu, it is good to go! That is pretty much what it boils down to. The core 2 duo intel cpu is very decent, and will allow you to do all Internet-word processing tasks you need to do. If you are going to take it apart, might as well also install SSD hard drive and RAM, which will also greatly increase performance.

Also, install an app such as Istat which will allow you to monitor your CPU temperature and regulate fan speed (this is super important). That will keep you informed on what is going on. Check the specs of your cpu on intel or amd website, and make sure it stays well below it's maximum official heat limit (intel core 2 duo can reach 100 degrees, and I realised it went up to 90 really fast when multi tasking). You can do this by augmenting fan speed and reducing multi tasking when you see it is working too hard.

This is a bit like your car. If you drive with the RPM at maximum all the time, it is going to overheat.

Good luck! (and trust Ifixit)

My Problem

My partners Mac book pro died of the age old problem,the suicidal glass of liquid H20 that dived of its own free will across her laptop, causing said mac to go to that great mac store in the sky.

After many varied techniques of drying and with every appendages crossed finally approached the genius desk at local mac store to find that even Dracula could bring this body back from the dead.

Mother board gone and various other organs deep kentucky fried.

Store unable to suggest ways of getting data of hard drive except by replacing entire inner workings at the cost of $2000+ and then no guarantees.

So bough brand new pro for $1600 with all the bells and whistles.

And tripped the light fantastic to your friendly ifixit video archive to learn how to retrieve data.

My Fix

Easy as ordering a large slice of lemon pie, following my handy Ifixit video and with my handy $13 purchases at the ready, which arrived 3 days after ordering them in Australia from the states, faster than the man of steel can change in the oldie telephone booth.

Repairs and recovering of full data took 10 mins. And a very happy partner. And a host of spare partners for my own pro, long may it live.

My Advice

Never give up the ghost in the machine, and what ever the Apple Wizards recommend always double check from a separate independent source, love the product not so sold on the after service.

Ya got to love Ifixit

My Problem

My Macbook would not start up. It was strange because I had just used it an hour ago and there were no signs of trouble. Every sign pointed to one devastating problem: my hard drive crashed. Worse still, I hadn't backed up my drive in months. So many family pictures and documents were lost. So I thought. I purchased a new hard drive at a local computer store, only to find I couldn't get it to work. It seemed I no longer had a laptop--just an expensive paper weight.

My Fix

I bought a new hard drive cable from iFixit, knowing it was my last resort (well, a new logic board was a last resort but so expensive, I probably would've just bought a new computer). I used iFixit's reliable (I've used their guides for years) and visually detailed guide to take my Macbook apart and install the new cable. In all, it probably took about 10 minutes. To my surprise, the hard drive had not crashed after all. It was merely a bad cable! All those pictures and documents that I thought were lost forever were back!

My Advice

I was surprised how much dirt and dust gets inside the Macbook. While you're repairing your laptop, go ahead and clean it out. I used a can of compressed air to blow away the debris. Otherwise, this repair is a snap. I've taken apart dozens of devices over the years and the Macbook Pro was one of the easiest.

My Problem

We had an older MacbookPro with plenty of RAM and a nice i7 but a slow HD.

My Fix

Easy. Cloned the Drives, cleaned my desk off for a work space, cracked the machine, swapped the drive, closed the case. Not problems at all. Machine runs much faster now!

The most time consuming part was cleaning my desk.

My Advice

The rubber HD enclosure was a nice touch. Made cloning the drive easy.