Replace or upgrade the hard disk in a Macbook Pro the quick and easy way

I've found many good tutorials on the web for upgrading the hard disk in a Macbook Pro (mine is the late 2006 model), but they were all a bit too invasive for my taste, and included unneeded steps that introduce an unnecessary margin for errors. Here's how I did it - YMMV, do this at your own risk:

First, back up your data onto an external USB drive. I use SuperDuper! to make backups, and it works great for this scenario as well. You can use the free version for our purpose, but consider buying the full version, it is a great backup tool. You will need two screwdrivers: a small Phillips head screwdriver and a T-6 Torx screwdriver. These are usually part of the various sets you can buy for fine-mechanical purposes, available at your favorite computer store.

When you are going through the process or removing the screws, make sure that you don't lose them and keep them separated from each other to avoid losing track of which screws go where. An easy way to do this is to take a piece of papaer, and divide it into 8 spearate blocks by drawing lines on it with a pencil, and numbering the blocks from one to eight. Put the screws you will be removing in the various steps in the related blocks, and you will always know which screws go with what step of the procedure.

Start by removing the battery: push the two sliding catches next to the battery and it will come right out.

Next, open up the memory (RAM) compartment. Below the battery there are three small Phillips screws holding the memory cover on, unscrew them and lift the cover off.

You don't need to remove the RAM modules, leave them where they are.

You will have to remove a fair number of screws. Start at the RAM modules, where you will find two Torx screws. Use your T-6 Torx screwdriver to remove them. Next, remove the four Phillips screws on the bottom, near the back of the Macbook Pro, close to the hinges.

At the inside of the battery compartment, at the front edge, are two Phillips screws you'll need to remove.

At the left and right side there are eight Phillips screws to remove, four on each side.

The last two screws before are at the back, next to the hinge. Remove these two Philips screws and you are ready to open up your Macbook Pro.

Turn the notebook right-side-up and open up the screen. Put your hands on either side of the keyboard, back by the hinges, and carefully pry the top of the notebook open. This may require a little wobbling, but don't just pull it hard, be gentle, and don't open it up too far; there's a cable attaching the keyboard to the motherboard. Rock the top panel back and forth a little until it the front part loosens and can be taken off by sliding your finger under the panel towards the front.

Do not remove the connector that attaches the ribbon cable to the motherboard, just slide the top panel to the righ tto reveal the hard this that is underneath, in the bottom left corner of the main enclosure.

To remove the hard drive, first pry loose the ribbon cable that runs vertically across the disk starting from the back, including the small connectors at the front. Just slide your finger underneeth, and it will come loose. Notice how the small red and black cables to these connectors are routed, so that you can put them back in exactly the same way to ensure that the case will close properly again after reassembly.

Then, remove the two Philips screws on the right side of the disk that keep the bracket in place that keeps the hard disk secured down.

Next, take the hard drive out of the notebook slightly. Remove the SATA connection from the back of the drive, and remove the drive completely.

There are four little plastic dampeners on the sides of the hard drive that you just removed. Take them off the old drive, and put them on the new one.

To install the new hard drive, go through all the steps of the procedure in reverse. First, plug in the SATA connector, put the disk into the case, put in the bracket on the right of the disk and screw in the two screws that hold it down. Stick down the ribbon cable by gently pushing on it; ensure that you reroute the cables just as they were before. Replace the cover panel, starting from the front, snapping it in place by applying gentle pressure. Ensure that there are no gaps showing that could be caused by cabling getting caught between the top panel and the body. Now put in all the screws, reversing all the steps, and then boot up your Macbook Pro.

It will show you the external startup disk; select this as your boot medium, and your notebook will boot from it. You may see a message that informs you that the disk you just inserted is not properly initialized; click 'Initialize', and Disk Utility will start. Select your new disk, and label it with with your fsavorite description of your main drive, and select 'erase' to format it.

Now run SuperDuper! again, and let it copy all the data from your external disk to your new internal one, reboot - Done!

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