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Use this guide to completely replace your mini's hard drive. Completing this guide requires rubber cement to stick the old thermal sensors to your new hard drive.
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Place your thumbs in the depressions cut into the bottom cover.
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Rotate the bottom cover counter-clockwise until the white dot painted on the bottom cover is aligned with the ring inscribed on the outer case.
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Tilt the mini enough to allow the bottom cover to fall away from the outer case.
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Remove the bottom cover and set it aside.
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Remove the two 11.3 mm T6 Torx screws securing the fan to the logic board near the antenna plate.
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Lift the ear of the fan nearest the RAM up off the standoff secured to the outer case.
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Lift the fan out of the mini for enough clearance to access its connector.
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Carefully pull the fan cables upward to lift the fan connector up out of its socket on the logic board.
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Remove the fan.
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Remove the single 3.5 mm T6 Torx screw securing the cowling to the heat sink.
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Lift the cowling from the end nearest the antenna plate.
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Rotate the cowling away from the outer case and remove it from the mini.
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Remove the following screws securing the antenna plate to the mini:
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Two 6.6 mm T8 or T9 Torx screws
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Two 5.0 mm T8 Torx or 2.0 mm Hex screws (either will work)
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Slightly lift the antenna plate from the end closest to the RAM.
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Carefully pull the antenna plate straight away from the circular rim of the outer case.
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Use the tip of a spudger to carefully pry the antenna connector up off the AirPort/Bluetooth board.
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Remove the antenna plate from the mini.
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Remove the following three screws:
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One 5.0 mm T8 Torx or 2.0 mm Hex screw (either will work)
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One 16.2 mm T6 Torx screw
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One 26 mm T6 Torx standoff
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Carefully pull the wires for both hard drive thermal sensors upward to lift their connectors up and out of their respective sockets on the logic board.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to pry both the hard drive and optical drive connectors up out of their sockets on the logic board.
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Insert a Mac mini Logic Board Removal Tool into the two holes highlighted in red. Be sure it makes contact with the outer case below the logic board before proceeding.
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Carefully pull the tool toward the I/O board. The logic board and I/O board assembly should slightly slide out of the outer case.
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Cease prying when the I/O board is visibly separated from the outer case. Remove the Mac mini Logic Board Removal tool.
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Simultaneously push the two plastic clips on the far left and right sides of the I/O board toward the middle of the I/O board and pull the I/O board slightly away from the outer case.
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Lift the hard drive from the edge nearest the logic board and remove it from the mini, minding the RAM socket and any cables that may get caught.
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Remove the strip of tape covering the hard drive connector.
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Remove the hard drive cable by pulling its connector straight away from the hard drive.
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Remove the piece of tape covering the thermal sensor attached to the edge of the hard drive.
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Carefully peel the thermal sensor off the end of the hard drive.
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Remove the two 6.2 mm T8 Torx screws from the side of the hard drive.
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Carefully peel the hard drive cover off the hard drive.
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Hard drive remains.
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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These instructions and a little common sense can also be used to replace the lower hard drive in the server version of the Mac Mini. Luckily that was the drive that had failed in my case. Replacing the upper drive looks like a tougher proposition.
Fantastic guide, thank you very much Mr. Bookholt!
As with the above commenter, I accidentally mistook the fan's standoff for a screw and removed it while removing the fan. Also the top right fan screw's standoff came out along with it. I edited the guide with a note on this.
While replacing the antenna, it wasn't immediately clear why the screws weren't lining up, until I realized that two of the screws were in the (otherwise free-floating but for the back grommets) hard drive, I also added a note on that.
STEP 15: If you don't have the time to purchase the Mac Mini Logic Board Removal Tool, the round stock on a large binder clip is PERFECT for the job. It requires a little bending and cutting but it worked perfectly!!
And as jon jon stated, it works like a lever - not a pull. You can feel it kind of click in to the lever points below.
Bravo to ifixit.com for the easy to follow instruction!!
Hey, what about the 2nd harddrive? how does that come out?
This was a superb guide. Thank you very, very much.
Ok, just did here. 1 tera HD working fine. Thanks iFixit, for repacking my tools because the Brazilian mail lost them. So, for those who want to do the same, just have in mind that not ALL things happen just like the how-to. I have to figure out What to do with the logic board removal tool... And, no, I did not fuss with those initial thermal stuff, because they are impossible to unplug. I only fuss with the HD thermal.
