Hard Drive Cable- Do It Yourself

My Problem

For the third time in a year in the hard drive cable in my 2010 MacBook Pro 13" failed. When I would try booting up, it would stop halfway and my mac would shut down. I could boot from an external hard drive just fine, but the computer had a hard time reading information of the internal hard drive. I could access information and files on the hard drive, but it was slow. I first figured it must be a hard drive issue, so I upgraded to an SSD and also upgraded RAM from 4GB to 8GB. When those didn't fix the problem, I knew it was the hard drive cable again.

My Fix

Learning from past mistakes, I decided to order my hard drive cable from ifixit this time around. The box came and it was packaged beautifully. The cable wasn't perfectly flat. I bought a new one that also had a bracket already attached. (Honestly the bracket is the hardest part of installation, so not having to worry about that was a huge stress reliever.) Following instructions shows how easy replacing this cable is. It took me about 6 minutes to take out the old one and install the new one. After installation and putting the cover back on, I turned on my mac and with the addition of the SSD and RAM, it booted up perfectly and faster than ever.

My Advice

1. You can do this fix by yourself. The first time my hard drive cable failed, I took it to an Apple Repair Store and it cost me about $170 to fix, and that cable only lasted about a year until it failed. After doing it myself, I have no idea why they charged me $170.

2. You'll find cheaper options through other online retailers. Don't be fooled. The second time my hard drive cable went out, I purchased one through Amazon, and it was sent to me in an envelope and the cable was bent and such. (This cable ended up only lasting about 4 months.)

3. Buy a hard drive cable that has the bracket already attached. It will make your life so much easier.

4. Purchase your hard drive cable from ifixit. It might be a few dollars more than other options, but the shipping was fast, it came properly packaged, and you'll feel more comfortable purchasing from a retailer that will be able to guide you through installation.