Gadgetory

it's been almost five years and that one's brand new Mac Mini may not be looking so good I bet you're wishing you went with a bigger hard drive where that has filled up or simply died there's no Gnaeus spend your hard-earned cash buying a new model or paying someone to swap out your faulty one I'm dan Graziano and I'm going to show you how to replace the hard drive in Mac Mini models from 2005 to 2009 the Mac Mini is like Apple's forgotten stepchild the company redesigned the small computer in 2010 adding some new ports along with a removable cover that gives users quick and easy access to the memory and hard drive while the process to get inside is a little more difficult for older models it's nothing you can't handle to get the job done you'll need to their paint scraper or a putty knife a small Phillips head screwdriver a pair of tweezers and a replacement 2.5 inch hard drive or solid-state drive I also recommend picking up a can of compressed air to clean away all that dust that has been building up all these years make sure to work on a static free surface like this wood table and to discharge any electrostatic build-up before handling any internal components you should also transfer your old data to a new hard drive by using a program like time machine or superduper the cover on the Mac Mini is held in place with small clips that must be dislodged with the putty knife gently shimmy the knife in between the cover and the case while slowly working away around the devices for edges once the clips on three sides are dislodged you can lift up the cover on the inside of the device you must remove three antennas the two on the left simply lift out while the larger one the right is held in place with a small clip that must be squeezed from the bottom to be removed under each antenna or springs don't lose these as they're required for reassembling the device for now simply place them aside for screws which can be found here here here and here must be unscrewed to remove the CD drive before you pop the drive out be sure to detach the ribbon cable using your fingernail or tweezers the hard drive is located on the back of CD Drive and is held in place with four screws after unscrewing them the temperature sensor on the top of the device then using the tweezers for help gently lift the drive out of its socket once it's removed don't forget to peel the two anti-static cushions off of the old drive and place them on your new one then slide the new drive into the slot replace the four screws and reattach the heat sensor place the CD drive into the case and secure it with the four screws the three springs should be placed on their corresponding antenna post followed by their antenna themselves also remember to reattach the ribbon cable to the CD drive replace the cover and push down evenly around the edges of the device until it clips in for more information check out my article on how to cnet.com and feel free to hit me up on Twitter with any questions or comments I'm dan Graziano Pristina thanks for watching