Rubber HD thingies

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When I was installing my new WD 320GB HD i made the mistake of putting it in upside-down. No biggie I though, but i was wrong. I seem to have messed up these lil rubber bumper thingies.... They were causing the right-side-up HD to not insert fully, so i pulled them out, they were bunched up anyways. I tried putting them back in, smoothing them out and pressing them against the sides of the case were I assume they belong, but they still get dislodged. Is it ok to keep using my macbook with them removed? Will it damage anything? And to put the rubber strips back in place, do I have to take the case apart???
 
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I'm not to sure exactly what your describing but i think they are spacer type things designed to keep your HD in nice and tight.. Can you easily move your hd around? like is it a tight fit? if it isn't then i'd say its probably not the best thing for it as if you were to drop your macbook or bump it you could do some damage to the SATA connector.. and you don't want that.. or i could just have completely mis understood what you were describing :).

PS: if its tight then i'd say dont worry :)
 
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They help fit the drive in snugly. Sounds like what the Macbook Pro has. If you place them in the same way as they were on the old drive you shouldn't have an issue.

My biggest worry is you putting the drive in upside down. That I wouldn't expect to work and maybe even damage the drive or the Macbook. As far as I know, you can't go reversing the pins to the connector. I can't remember, but shouldn't the connected be notched in a certain way that allows the drive to be connected only one way.

There are several online guides including a video (in different sizes) at the bottom this Other World Computing page.
 
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You might have to take the case apart, check out www.ifixit.com

If it's the rubber bumper I think it is? That bumper is held on to the macbook frame by a couple of screws. They can easily pull through.
 
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It has a wee bit of "wiggle" room but the connectors are fine. I Double checked them ad its seems that he drive was just upside down but not "mashed" into the connectors. The ribber guides seem to have tiny little holes for screws. I'm normal pretty good taking things apart. But I get really nervous taking apart my laptop. Everything is so tiny and fragile. Would an Apple store or service center be able to put them in for me? How much would I end up paying? Oh and heres a pic of them.

DSC00142.JPG
 
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they are supposed to have some adhesive on them. and yes you definitly need them.
 
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they keep the drive vibrations down.
they keep hard bumps to the laptop from hurting the drive.
finally, they keep the drive in there snug, so it doesnt wiggle around, something it should NEVER do.

go to apple, tell them what you need. show them, i bet its over 50$
 
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I would say 1/2 hour to 1 hour job. So easily $50+

The macbook is easy to take apart.

The only tip I have is for reattaching the keyboard cable. Reach through the battery compartment from underneath with your right hand while holding the keyboard with your left hand.
 
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I'll try some minor surgery when I have the entire day to do it. Maybe Tuesday.
 
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I followed the instructions on ifixit. It took me maybe, 15 minutes to open up the case, install the rubber guides and put everything back together. It was real easy!
 
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hard drives will work, the right way up and on there sides.

they get very very tempermental upsidedown, from my experience
 
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Like I said, I know better than to jam or force something in a blind hole like that. When I realized tat after a few times of the upside down hd not working, I tested it as a firewire disk to see if it still worked, if the drive fit the connector, etc. Once it did, I flashed a light inside the macbook n saw it was my error in sides that had caused all this. As the groove in rubber sliders is offset (and having the drive upside down puled them off.)
 
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I followed the instructions on ifixit. It took me maybe, 15 minutes to open up the case, install the rubber guides and put everything back together. It was real easy!

And you save an easy $50-$100 bucks.
 
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If its so pricy, maybe I should get into the computer repair business, instead of the auto repair one!!
 
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If its so pricy, maybe I should get into the computer repair business, instead of the auto repair one!!

yeah man repair the customers cars and computers at the same time!
 

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