So Easy even grandma can do it.

My Problem

When my Macbook hard drive failed and could not be repaired, my son the certified geek recommended an upgrade to a solid state drive to improve the performance. He predicted that "there might be a compatibility problem between the newer, faster drive and the original cable", but it "might" work, so why do more and spend more than needed.

My Fix

At first I installed the new hard drive and was very tickled pleased with myself that it seemed to be working. Well, at least the light came on. But there were beach balls and crashes, so my son thought either we received a bad drive or the cable needed to be replaced. I decided to try simple things first and then move to more complex, so I just ordered the cable, used, without the bracket and sensor... just the basics, because all the cable choices said "It's really easy to harvest the bracket from the original cable".

My Advice

The photos of the step 14 of flipping the ZIF connector on the hard drive cable, pulling the sensor bracket cable out of the ZIF connector, and prying the hard drive cable up off the sensor bracket were unclear.

Would have been better to zoom in more on the parts and red highlight what you mean in this window like in other windows since they are all black little things sticking onto black other little things and if you don't know what a ZIF connector is then you fiddle with it more than need be. At some point I was wishing I paid the extra money and got the one with the bracket and sensor. ALSO, my used cable had no sticky stuff left on it and it REALLY needed some sticky stuff to hold it down. Fortunately I had some tacky strip adhesive (tape with no plastic strip) and a little piece of that did the job.

But for the most part the guide was spot on and perfect. I also learned what a Spudger tool is, but i used the tip of a short plastic flexible ruler. anything that is fairly firm and not metal will prevent needing to buy another tool.

My advice is if you are upgrading your hard drive to a newer, faster solid state model, just assume you need the cable too and do it at the same time, or you will have to do it all over again. A silicon baking sheet makes a great anti static mat to work on. and Most important, even if you have never seen the inside of your laptop case in the past, just take a deep breath and don't panic. it's not that difficult with the expert guides that iFixit provides. :-)