[krillbee]

Someone is interested in having me replace their hard drive for them. They said that Apple refused to do it, as their dealers are supposedly not supposed to perform this operation. One apple place said they would do it but they'd have to charge nearly $700 for it.

I told the guy hard drives arent so bad to replace in notebooks and that I could do it for him for a small fee. Am I going to run into something hairy?

[krillbee]

Here's a set of instructions that he emailed me, to show me how involved this process was:

------------------------------------------------
I decided to post this to the list in the event someone else tries
installing a new hardrive in their iBook. Hopefully this will save you
time and frustration as it is not easy. Note, watch the screw near the
CDROM (you have to pop the CDROM loading tray out to see it)- otherwise
you may break the case. I have a rev. A iBook so things might be different
on newer ones.

I wish you luck on installing your harddrive. Apple does not allow
dealers to install or replace the harddrive in iBooks so you will be
totally on your own.
The first time taking apart the ibook took 3.5 hrs and is VERY
INVOLVED! You will need a #8 star screwdriver to unscrew your case (which
I borrowed from my apple dealer). The #8 is not easy to find, most
computer kits come with a larger or smaller one but rarely a
#8. Supposedly some Walmarts carry a computer kit with a #8 but not all).

(I'm tired so my grammer is a bit lax, you'll see why after reading the
instructions)

Basically you will completely disassemble your ibook and all connections.
Steps:
1. Remove your battery.
2. Remove the 6 screws on the bottom of the case making a note of where
each one goes.
3. Eject the CDROM (use a pencil and press the small circular eject
button. There is a screw holding the plastic around the keyboard.
4. Popup out the keyboard and remove your airport card if you have one.
5. Unscrew the metal platter which the airport card sits on (two screws
on the right and take it out. (make a note of these screws)
6. There is a small brown ribbon which goes to the touch pad and hooks
into the motherboard in a white snap. Pull the top of the white snap up to
release pressure and then pull the ribbon out.
7. Dissconnect the keyboard, it has a plastic loop where it hooks into
the mother board to make it easier to release. Be careful not to scratch
the motherboard!
8. There are three screws which hold the plastic piece that surround the
keyboard to the mother board case, remove the three screws (two on top and
one on bottom) Make a note of them.
9. Next job is to remove the plastic case surrounding the
keyboard. Becareful as the speaker is still connected and you may not
beable to get at it till after you have unsnapped the plastic surrounding
the keyboard.
10. Using a butter knife (something dull and strong but not sharp!) pry
up the case which surrounds the keyboard. Do so by starting at the back
near the screen on the side. Once the back is up push the rest foward. It
may take some force to unsap the front.
11. unplug the speaker wire.
Now the fun begins!

12. First, remove the CDROM by unscrewing the nut on the lower lefthand
side and disconnecting the cable to the moterboard. I found that the only
way to get the CDROM out was by having the drive open at the same time and
sliding it forward at an angle.
13. Next, unscrew the screws holding the foil down (top center) and peal
it back to the screen (it is glued in the front).
13. Below the foil is the modem board. Disconnect the cable going to the
modem and the one remaining screw holding it down. Pull the board up and
out of its socket.
14. Time to detach the screen from the computer. There are two cables
which run into the screen, detach both from the main board by pulling at
their sides on the plastic connectors (don't pull the wires themselves!!)
15. Next unscrew the rest of the screws around where the modem board was
(should be about 5).
16. Remove the two screws holding the screen to the computer. Becareful
as the weight of the screen pulling up as you unscrew one side may put
extreme stress on the mother board.
17. Unscrew the screws holding the modem socket in (you know, where the
telephone cord plugs in). Don't try pulling the whole unit out, it will
come out when you remove the metal casing surrounding the motherboard.
18. Unscrew one screw on the left (small skinny screw) and any other
screws in site. The metal casing surrounding the motherboard and modem
connector should come off easily.
19. Remove the three nuts holding the metal bracket holding the
harddrive in. Becareful as the metal bracket will spring out and possibly
damage components.
20. Grab the plast strap to the harddrive connector and pull up. After
you have the harddrive out, gently pry out the black connector which locks
into the harddrives pins. Don't pull one side of the connector out and
then the other as you will bend the pins and perhaps break them off in the
connector.
21. Put the computer back together with the new harddrive. Hooking the
monitor back on is tricky since since there are two white clips that hook
into the blue (or whatever color) bard at the bottom of the screen. Really
a pain.

Boot the computer with a MacOS 9 CD (or 8.5) by holding down the 'C' key.
Use drive setup to format the harddrive.
Goodluck,

[Hi I'm Ben]

Originally Posted by krillbee 

Someone is interested in having me replace their hard drive for them. They said that Apple refused to do it, as their dealers are supposedly not supposed to perform this operation. One apple place said they would do it but they'd have to charge nearly $700 for it.

I told the guy hard drives arent so bad to replace in notebooks and that I could do it for him for a small fee. Am I going to run into something hairy?

it's not hard, but be prepared to take a lot of screws out of your laptop and spend some time with it. I draw a diagram of the laptop for each layer and section i took out and placed the screws within the diagram. It's really the only way I could ensure I wasn't losing all the screws. I still ended up with 4 left over. $700 to replace a HD? I should just replace iBook HDs for a living!

[krillbee]

haha, i just heard back from the guy. it turns out he is going to buy a small firewire drive, and just carry that around with him and his laptop! I guess thats one would to avoid taking a notebook apart or paying someone to!

[4JNA]

just FYI, ifixit has some great take apart guides. the one for the 933 is HERE if you want to take a look and see what a lot of fun you missed...

[spencers]

Its a pain in the butt. took me about an hour to do in a client's iBook.
just do NOT forget to change the screws that are actually on sides of the hard drive. Can't have the hard drive moving around inside the case!