I have an Independent Apple repair business here in Oregon. This issue is really not an issue. Apple was not trying to prevent anyone from replacing hard drives. Apple was trying to save money by using the built in sensor in the HDD instead of adding their own external one. I have used many other temp sensors from other Macs for this. My reasoning is that if I have to alter the cable I may as well make it easier on the next tech by adding an external Apple temp sensor from another Mac. The temp senders Apple uses are surprisingly standardized. I have checked them with an infrared thermometer and they appear to have similar specs.