Installed new hard drive, forgot EMI shield

I would consider this a big deal. It's a wonder that you were able to slip the EMI shield into position without it being screwed onto the drive. Although it probably helped with the vibration, I would think that the excess vibration that's occurring could become damaging to the drive or to your MacBook. I wonder if you might be able to fit some sort of clamp on the drive to pull it out. That or possibly a slight jarring of the MacBook while tipped up so as to let gravity prevail might unplug it.

I am not going to take mine apart to see if this is feasible but how about applying some strong glue (I would use J-B weld) onto a similar strip of plastic, then insert it under or over the drive and use something to press it onto the drive. When the glue has set you will have a tab to pull on.

Alternatively, is there any way to take a bicycle spoke and gring off the larger part of its elbowed head such that you have a simple hook that could be fished into the opening, hopefully finding something on the drive to pull on. Maybe you can actually get your hook behind the connector end of the drive.

Both of these ideas are things that we do routinely in similar types of situations so they can work for some situations. However, if you are careless or not too handy with your hands you could easily do more harm than good.

Message was edited by: Gregory Mcintire

If you have watched any of the MacBook take apart videos they show that taking the hard drive out, the normal way, is one of the first things that has to be done in order to take the computer apart.

I would expect the Apple specialist to perhaps charge you more than the hard drive is worth. If that were the case then you have nothing to loose by drilling a hole in the end of the hard drive and screwing in a screw to use as a handle to pull the drive out.

At least try gluing something onto the end of the hard drive to use to pull it out. JB-Weld is really quite strong. It could then be sanded and/or ground off the end of the drive and perhaps without even harming the drive.

For that matter, if you were to learn how much the apple specialist would have to charge you and it is indeed more than the cost of the drive, then using needle nose pliers the grasp the hard drive does not sound like the wrong way to go about it. Sacrifice the drive to have the lowest possible repair cost.

Message was edited by: Gregory Mcintire

I just got too curious so I took out my battery and L bracket and discovered that it would be easy peasy to remove my hard drive with a simple hooked piece of wire. Maybe it would work better using two hooked wires. I could very easily hook the bottom side of the two end-most screw holes that are used to secure the thin metal lid on the drive.

Next I dug out an old 30MB iBook drive from my stash and discovered that it too would be easy to hook and pull. I have included a scanned picture of it and the hook that I use for this type of take-apart stuff.
http://members.all2easy.net/gregory/HDhook.jpg

On my MacBooks Hitachi drive I would be able to hook one of the holes that is shown in the jpg. Maybe not possible on the drive in the jpg. The Macbook drive has those holes kind of recessed so to speak.

On this jpg though it would be even easier yet to hook the corners of the casing as it is recessed. Might be kin of hard to see.

However, your drive may be all different. The reason I mentioned bicycle spokes is that they are common, very stiff and small enough I should think. The hook in my jpg is smaller than a spoke, just for reference. You undoubtedly have some piece of wire on something that could be cut bent and used.

Just go to any local elementary or middle school with your wire cutters in hand. You shouldn't have any trouble finding a variety of spoke types. But, be decent about it and only take a spoke that is already broken, one that is probably going to eventually cause more problem to the little cyclist if left hanging and flopping around.

I figured this out, since I just did this yesterday. What I was able to do was to slide the EMI shield over the hard drive. Then I took two pieces of that thick mounting tape. I put one piece on the edge of the hard drive and another piece on the little plastic pull tab. I pushed to two pieces of mounting tape together, turned my MB on its side the the hard drive was pointing down and gave it a little tug. The hard drive pulled out easily. I then removed the mounting tape and installed the EMI shield on the hard drive and re-installed. Good luck!

Bravo and kudos!

Congratulations!!

I've heard of the vibration problem before but haven't noticed it at all in mine. It's only a 120GB Seagate but I don't think the size would matter. One discussion that I read on that exact drive was about a 50/50 of those responding.

"My Macbook is still vibrating though, and not just where the drive is but all over the case. But I guess it's normal with some 7200rpm drives...or is it?"


I can slightly hear the white noise caused by the air turbulence in my 200 GB 7200 RPM Hitachi but any vibration is undetectable.

Google for reviews including user reviews of your model drive, as well as other models. Some 7200 RPM drives are quite rough while others are not. At least this is what I recalled reading before I bought one. I don't remember which drives were which though.