Recently I picked up a PowerBook,
and while I expected it to be “okay”, I did not expect to fall in love with OS
X the way that I have. I am completely smitten. So much so that I had to pick
up a Mac mini so that I would have a desktop Mac solution (and because it just
calls your name when shopping at the Apple Store). The 80 GB version struck my
fancy, but soon I realized that I am not one that enjoys playing mouse cursor
beach ball all that much. The mini had half a gig of RAM in it, but the
4200-RPM drive was just holding me back. It was time to upgrade to a 5400 RPM
100 GB drive. Rather than taking it in to a service center where they would
overcharge me, I did it on my own. If you want to upgrade your Mac mini’s hard drive, read on
for our tutorial which takes a look at backing up your data, replacing your
hard drive, and restoring your data.
Okay, let me preface this by saying
I know how hard it can be to bring yourself to pry open your quaint little Mac. The thing is, if
you bring it to a service center, they will pry it open themselves and charge
you for doing so. While it is daunting, it really is a great learning
experience.
MATERIALS
USED:
- Mac mini
- Replacement hard drive
- Thin putty knife
- Small Phillips screwdriver
(magnetized preferred)
- iPod
- Backup 2.02
The first thing I did was back up
everything to the iPod photo. The easiest way to do this is to reset the iPod,
holding the Select and Menu buttons. Once the iPod reboots, hold down the
Select and Play/Pause buttons to enable Target Disk Mode. The iPod will now act
as an external hard drive. Start Backup, and select everything you want to
save. I chose just about everything. Once everything is backed up to the iPod,
you are good to go as far as proceeding with the upgrade.
So, to get started you are going to
need to disconnect everything and turn your Mac mini upside down. Looking at
the underside of the computer, it becomes obvious that there is no simple way
to open it up. As noted in multiple places elsewhere, time to get out the putty
knife. Be sure it’s clean and dry. Now shove it between the white plastic and
the metal casing. Push it down until it stops, and then push firmly towards the
center of the mini. You should hear a few satisfying pops. Do note that a pop
and a crack are two different things. The crack is bad.
After popping the two sides and the
front, you can lift the innards of the mini away from the cover. Now it’s time
to go to work. At this point it’s time to break out the small Phillips
screwdriver. The first think you want to do it remove the DVD drive. There are
six screws in total holding it in place. The two in back are the most difficult
to get out unless you have a small, thin screwdriver. After the six screws are
out, the drive is easily slipped out of the daughterboard. You will notice that
the hard drive is right underneath the drive, but it cannot be removed just
yet. Lay the disc drive somewhere safe, and move on.
The next thing you need to do is
remove the black housing from the motherboard itself. Now, if you have Bluetooth and/or
Airport Express built-in to your Mac, you will need to unclip the antennas so
they do not get in the way. They do look sensitive, but do not worry.
Unclipping them from the casing is a snap, and the wiring is durable. There are
three screws holding his housing in place, which are all located in corners.
Once the screws are removed, you can lift out the casing.
There is one more piece that needs
to be removed before you can get to the drive. The cooling fan is the easiest
part to remove in this process. There are four tiny screws holding it in place.
Remove them and the fan slides right out, giving you access to all the screws
you will need to deal with to get that hard drive out.
Four larger screws hold the hard
drive in. Remove them all, and the hard drive can be pulled away from the
daughterboard. At this point you just need to work backwards. Put your new
drive in the old drive’s place. Be sure to align the pins correctly – the set
of four pins, which are at the right side of the drive, do not need to be
plugged in. Screw in the hard drive, and your replacement is set. You can now
screw in the fan, black casing, DVD drive, and replace the wireless antennas if
you have them. You can plug everything in and test it before replacing the
cover if you wish.
If your drive is brand new, this is
where you will want to know what you are doing. I would have saved myself a
good hour of frustration if I knew how to proceed at this point. Luckily, John
Battistini was hanging out in #gizmodo and knew exactly what I was doing wrong.
What happened was that after putting everything back together, I put in my
Tiger installation disc, but the only drive that the setup process was allowing
me to install on was my iPod. I took apart and put together the mini another
two times before I went to seek help. It turns out that you need to go into the
Utilities menu and format the disc to prep it for the OS X installation. Once I
did that, everything went smoothly.
After going through the initial OS X
setup, I downloaded the Backup 2.02 program so that I could restore from the
iPod. My backup was about 27 GB, and the restore took about 10 minutes. Once
complete, I rebooted and just about all of my settings were the way I left
them. There were a few programs that needed to be reinstalled, but it was no
big deal.
As for the actual hard drive
upgrade? I have noticed a definite speed increase. We will have a follow-up
article looking at the drive we used. The only real hurdle in this process is
popping the cap off of the computer. The fear of breaking or damaging the
aesthetics of the mini always loom in your mind when you pick up the putty
knife. Quench that fear, and it really is a breeze.
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