1. Dual Hard Drive Flex Cable For Macbook Pro 13

Mac Forum question SATA I want to keep my original hard drive in the Mac Mini PLUS have the SSD for my main drive. Its very cool that there is no particular hardware order. (I didnt know this at first and had completely taken my Mac Mini apart.) When you turn the MINI updside down to get in, then my original hard drive is on the bottom. But closed up and sitting on gthe desk like it should the hard drive is on the top. My issue is I purchased a second SSD SATA cable. When I went to plug in the new SSD CABLE IT WANTED TO PLUG INTO THE EXACT SAME PORT AS THE ORIGINAL ONE. I FOUND OUT THERE ARE 2 CABLES but in discriptions I see people writing this cable is for TOP drive or bottom drive.

Is that upside down or closed? Any clarification of which SATA cable I need would greatly be appreciated. Remember when the unit is closed, then the drive is on top.

Another way of putting it is all I have to do to install the new drive now is to just slide the new drive in (studs attached). With the botom it will be on top of existing drive. Close the unit up, turn it over and set it on desk and the new drive is on the bottom. Sorry for being so redundant I just want to be sure. If you go to 'About This Mac' System Report SATA, it will tell you what Apple considers the bays to be.

Dual Hard Drive Flex Cable For Macbook Pro 13

My stock drive is in the caddy directly underneath the Wi-Fi grate('Lower'), and my SSD is below when installing ('Upper'). Upper HD Flex Cable (076-1413) Lower HD Flex Cable (076-1412) OWC has the kits for each install location ($29.00 for standard 'Upper' upgrade; a little more for the other) with the appropriate flex cable. Probably the same price for the kit here, as a cable by itself elsewhere. I used it with great success. Summary: Upper/Top = directly underneath Wi-Fi grate in caddy Lower/Bottom = outside of caddy. See: NOTE: A small number of 2012 units were shipped with the drive mounted in the upper drive bay rather than the more typical lower bay shown in this video.

If you have a 2012 or later model, you will want to determine the configuration of your Mac mini's drives prior to ordering. To do this, open Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app and click on the grey drive icon at the left-edge of the window. If you see 'Lower' after the 'Connection ID' at the bottom-left corner of the window, you may proceed using the standard installation instructions.

If you see 'Upper' then you have a special configuration which will need, and you will need to also refer to the. The lower bay is the one under the wifi antenna.

Guitarbodydotnet wrote: I FOUND OUT THERE ARE 2 CABLES but in discriptions I see people writing this cable is for TOP drive or bottom drive. Is that upside down or closed? Any clarification of which SATA cable I need would greatly be appreciated. There are 2 SATA ports on the main board. Which one is your HDD plugged into? The left or the right? My Mac Mini 2012 came with the HDD installed in the bottom bay (under the WiFi antenna grate) and plugged into the 1st SATA port on the left.

The dual drive kit I purchased from iFixit.com came with a SATA cable that plugs into the 2nd SATA port on the right. The drive occupies the top bay which is underneath the system board and is inserted into a bracket. So, the TOP bay is the one where the drive has to be inserted into a bracket and the entire Mini parts have to be removed to get to that bracket. The BOTTOM bay is the one underneath the WiFi antenna grate and closest to the round cover that has to be removed to get inside. See: NOTE: A small number of 2012 units were shipped with the drive mounted in the upper drive bay rather than the more typical lower bay shown in this video.

If you have a 2012 or later model, you will want to determine the configuration of your Mac mini's drives prior to ordering. To do this, open Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app and click on the grey drive icon at the left-edge of the window. If you see 'Lower' after the 'Connection ID' at the bottom-left corner of the window, you may proceed using the standard installation instructions. If you see 'Upper' then you have a special configuration which will need, and you will need to also refer to the. The lower bay is the one under the wifi antenna. If you go to 'About This Mac' System Report SATA, it will tell you what Apple considers the bays to be. My stock drive is in the caddy directly underneath the Wi-Fi grate('Lower'), and my SSD is below when installing ('Upper').

Upper HD Flex Cable (076-1413) Lower HD Flex Cable (076-1412) OWC has the kits for each install location ($29.00 for standard 'Upper' upgrade; a little more for the other) with the appropriate flex cable. Probably the same price for the kit here, as a cable by itself elsewhere. I used it with great success. Summary: Upper/Top = directly underneath Wi-Fi grate in caddy Lower/Bottom = outside of caddy.

Boy I wouldn't know with out taking it apart again since I didn't see they were designated by the port but rather top drive bottom drive. I agree, my drive that was installed factory would be the top drive. Right under the chassis rather than under the WIFI setup.

So the SATA flex cable I need is for the lower/ bottom drive which is under the wifi rig. I did what I guess most people do, googled SATA CABLE FOR DUAL OR SECOND HARD DRIVE. Found one, bought it's d it would absolutely not plug in to the port (now I remember farthest from the power supply. Apple Footer. This site contains user submitted content, comments and opinions and is for informational purposes only. Apple may provide or recommend responses as a possible solution based on the information provided; every potential issue may involve several factors not detailed in the conversations captured in an electronic forum and Apple can therefore provide no guarantee as to the efficacy of any proposed solutions on the community forums. Apple disclaims any and all liability for the acts, omissions and conduct of any third parties in connection with or related to your use of the site.

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Owners of a Unibody MacBook Pro laptop are probably already aware that failure of the hard drive flex cable is a common issue. While it affects just about the entire Unibody lineup, the Mid 2012 MacBook Pro 13″ (Model A1278) is especially prone to this type of failure. What is it that makes the Mid 2012 release special in this regard? A design flaw in the flex cable that seems to be compounded by the properties of the aluminum housing. Our repair services department noticed this issue when they’d replace a bad cable, only to have the customer return a few months later with another bad cable. And possibly again with yet another bad cable.

It didn’t matter if we used a used cable or a new cable in the replacement. Customers kept returning with the same persistent issue. We had to figure out what was causing the issue and find a solution. If you’re in need of one of these notorious flex cables, we guarantee our cables with a lifetime warranty.

So if it ever fails, we’ve got your back. MacBook Pro 13″ (Mid 2012) Hard Drive Cable. Analysis Of The Flaw The cable runs from the logic board SATA connector, across the optical drive and then underneath the hard drive, finally connecting to the SATA connector of the HDD. Though this keeps the cable nice and secure, it also sandwiches it between the hard drive and the metal casing. In theory, it seems great, but unlike the exterior aluminum surface which is machined to an extra smooth finish, Apple skimped on machining the interior surface to match.

This hasn’t been an issue with most of the MBP Unibody laptops, but the 2012 MBP 13″ hard drive cable was made a bit too thin. Flat flexible cables (FFCs) are supposed to be thin, but the 2012 hard drive cable doesn’t quite have enough of the plastic film base which surrounds and protects the internal wires. Any time the computer is moved around, minor shifts of the hard drive and hard drive cable create friction between the cable and the coarse aluminum.

Over time, this can result in exposure of the wiring embedded in the cable. Even a microscopic tear can be enough to ruin the cable entirely. And I do mean microscopic.

We had to look through our microsoldering microscope with the highest magnification lens just to see evidence of the damage Not All Cables Created Equal This MacBook’s cable originally was manufactured with part number 821-1480-A printed on it. Apple offered this particular laptop (order number MD101LL/A) for a whopping four years due to high demand for the Unibody series of notebooks, and at some point wised up and began shipping computers with a revised version of the cable. The new cables now included a different part number; 821-2049-A and later 821-2480-A. These cables were designed with a thicker plastic film and offered more protection to the wires. We verified the difference while examining some cables we’ve come across in used computers. This is great news if you were able t get Apple to replace the cable, but new condition cables widely available on the internet may have these part numbers printed on them, but are not the revised cable design.

Manufacturers caught on to the fact that the new part numbers were more sought after and they simply started producing the same old cables with the new part numbers. To date, we’ve never been able to find new condition cables with the improved design. And believe me, we’ve been searching. Yes, but luckily there’s an easy preventative measure that only requires some supplies you probably already have lying around. All you need to do it yourself is a Phillips PH000 screwdriver and some ESD safe tape.

You probably have some common electrical tape which will be perfect for the task. If you need a screwdriver. How To Perform The Preventative Procedure 1. Remove the ten screws which secure the bottom case and remove the bottom case.

2. Disconnect the battery! Always disconnect the battery before attempting any work on your device. 3. Remove the two hard drive bracket screws along with the bracket so that the hard drive can be removed. 4. Disconnect the hard drive from the hard drive cable and set the hard drive aside.

5. Gently lift up the wide segment of the hard drive cable (the segment not adhered in place) to expose the aluminum underneath and apply tape to the aluminum surface where the hard drive cable will rest. 6. Apply a strip of tape to the top and bottom of the wide segment of the hard drive flex cable. You’ve successfully prevented your Mid 2012 A1278 hard drive cable from catastrophically failing when you’d least expect it. Strip a screw in the process? Check out our. Now we can’t guarantee your hard drive cable will continue to work forever.

Remember, these flex cables fail with some frequency in all of the Unibody MBP laptops. The internal wires are made especially thin and sometimes fail for seemingly no reason at all, but this procedure takes only minutes to perform, costs almost nothing, and gives your cable the best chance at surviving for the long term. I have a question about my MacBook.

I recently had my girlfriends hard drive cable replaced after her machine wouldn’t boot up and it works like new again. I have noticed my MacBook to be slowing down and constantly getting the spinning wheel when performing multiple tasks, and takes forever to boot up. I am curious if my hard rive cable is beginning to fail or if there is another issue. I am going to have a SSD put in and add more RAM so I want to know if this is something that should be fixed first.

So I Read more ».