Struggling with Apple engineering (Mac Pro)
I put 2 750gb drives in a Mac Pro to run Leopard. Now I want to get them out, so they can go in a Linux PC. I’ve spent at least an hour struggling with the stupid things, and losing.
They were a bit odd to get in, but they’re almost(?) impossible to get out. The drives are inside plastic guides, and only the edges stick out. I can’t get a good grip on the top & bottom because the PCB (circuit board) is at the bottom and fragile. I can grab the left & right edges, but all I can do is wiggle. I removed a fan screw so I could have some more room to work; I loosened a drive bracket screw, but only a little bit, and stripped my philips screwdriver some on the process — thus also the screw-head, of course. I would take the whole drive cage out, but it has 2 screws at the far (un-removable) side of the case, and I’d need to do quite a bit more disassembly to get at them.
I’ve been loosening the plastic cage — basically just wiggling it to soften it up — with a flat-head screwdriver. It’s visibly looser, but the drives are still quite stuck. I’ve been prying up on the left edge of the drives with a flat-head screwdriver — there’s a lip I can just get a bit of a grip on — but only moved 1-2mm so far, and I have to hope I don’t damage anything by prying at the drive like this. I can see I’ve already scraped black paint off the drive.
Fie!
Perhaps this is why they came up with a totally different drive mounting design in the similar-looking Mac Pros.
jkb said,
December 15, 2007 at 12:00 am
I’m assuming you mean the drives are stuck in a Power Mac G5 and not a Mac Pro. What you need are a set of picks similar to these: http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00940749000P?keyword=pick I have a set that are extended length I’ve used a few times to get out drives stuck in G5s. I use the pick that has a right angle bend. The pick is long enough to get behind the drive and pull it out from behind. Best I can tell, the reason the drives occasionally get stuck is because the mounting screws were not tightened into place completely.
jkb said,
December 15, 2007 at 12:06 am
I’m assuming that you mean a Power Mac G5 rather than a Mac Pro. I’ve had to get stuck drives out of a few G5s. Best I can tell, the drives get stuck because the mounting screws haven’t been tighted to be flush with the side of the drive. To get the drive out, I’ve always used a set of long handled picks similar to these (though not these; couldn’t find the same models online): http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00940749000P?keyword=pick
I use the pick with the right angle bend. You stick the pick underneath the drive and put the end of the pick against the back of the drive and pull/push the drive out.
jkb
reppep said,
December 15, 2007 at 1:46 am
@jkb
Thanks. I did eventually get them out, by prying against a thin protrusion on the left side with the edge of a flat-head, while jamming another flat-head between the right side of the drive and the plastic cage, wiggling back and forth. I was able to force enough give to get the drives out, with lots of wiggling and waggling. The screws weren’t loose, on either drive.
But those could have helped, although for this I’d prefer something not sharp at all.