Hard Drive Sled/Caddy Problem - screws/washers?

I have drawers and boxes of stuff and I often now use the ones that my latest computer build came with, they are standard size screws afterall and the washer is for vibration dampening but lack thereof has not been audible or noticeable in any way.

I bought some 3rd party, cheaper construction but wanted hassle free and to fit so I could swap drives w/o having to take off a sled.

The drive will still line up properly as the washer is on the outer side and not affecting alignment.

Of course I cannot see what condition the washer is in from your photo.

But have you taken the drive off, removed the screw competely, and tried to position the washer so that it has some rubber on each side of the sled?

If that does not work, those screws are not really available for less than the US$30 price of a new Apple sled. And most third-party sleds do not use those washers at all.

So what you should do is improvise. Perhaps you could cut a small piece of some sort of rubber sheet (a rubber "jar opener", perhaps) and drill a hole in the center to place between the drive and the sled.

It's not a washer, it's grommet. Half of it is supposed to be above the metal part of the drive sled, half below. Removing or inserting the stepped screw can easily pop the grommet out of the drive sled. The screws are stepped; when you screw them into the drive, the ledge on the screw tightens against the bottom of the drive case leaving a specific amount of screw so that the vibration isolition grommet does not become crushed -- the drive can flex a time bit. Hope this reply isn't too late to be of some good.

This happened to me. One grommet wasn't properly 'seated'.

I used tweezers to pull it back into position.

On a related note, A recent post on another thread points out that some drives have changed the allowed screw penetration depth to take back space inside the drive for more platters.

4 TB Hitachi drives won't fit in 2008 Mac Pro

It really appears from the photo that you could just pull the grommet back through the hole until it once again is in its proper position.

It was impossible using anything but tweezers.

Give it a try. Unless the grommet is somehow damaged/torn.

I found if I first removed the screw completely, I could remove and re-install the grommet, but not otherwise. Once the grommet was in place, I could re-Install the screw.

Grant Bennet-Alder wrote:

I found if I first removed the screw completely, I could remove and re-install the grommet, but not otherwise. Once the grommet was in place, I could re-Install the screw.

Yes, that's right. I forgot to mention that the screw should be separated from the grommet first.

Trying to pull the grommet into the hole with the screw attached doesn't really work.

It was an easy job once the screw was out.