Mac mini Late 2014 Hard Drive Cable Replacement

The bottom cover is clipped onto three screw posts.

Pry near, but not right on the screw posts.

Use the plastic opening tool to pry the bottom cover up off of the Mac mini.

Lift and remove the bottom cover.

Remove the following TR6 screws from the antenna plate:

Three 4.1 mm screws

Three 1.9 mm screws

With the I/O ports facing you, flip the antenna plate to the right to allow access to the antenna cable connector.

Remove the single 3.4 mm T6 screw and washer from the antenna cable.

Use the point of a spudger to lift the antenna connector straight up off its socket on the airport card.

Carefully pull the antenna cable out from the gap between the power supply and case.

Remove the antenna plate from the Mac mini.

Remove the two 12 mm T6 screws from the fan.

Loosen the 27 mm T6 captive screw–it will get removed with the fan assembly.

Lift the fan straight up to free the captive screw from its hole in the logic board.

Pull the fan away from the SSD until you can easily access the fan connector.

Use the point of a spudger to lift the fan connector straight up out of its socket on the logic board.

Remove the fan from the Mac mini.

Remove the 2.6 mm T6 screw securing the SATA cable connector bracket.

Remove the SATA cable connector bracket.

Use the flat end of a spudger to lift the SATA cable connector up off of its socket on the logic board.

Use the tip of a spudger to disconnect the IR sensor cable connector by prying it straight up from its socket.

The following three steps only apply to Mac minis equipped with a PCIe SSD. Skip the next three steps if your Mac mini only has a hard drive.

Remove the two 2.6 mm T6 screws securing the PCIe SSD cable bracket.

Remove the PCIe SSD cable bracket.

Lift the PCIe SSD connector up off its socket.

Remove the single 16 mm T6 screw securing the logic board.

Insert the Mac mini Logic Board Removal Tool into the two holes highlighted in red. Be sure the rods make contact with the case under the logic board before proceeding.

Carefully pull the tool toward the I/O board. The logic board and I/O board assembly should slightly slide out of the outer case.

Cease prying when the removal tool makes contact with the opening in the rear case.

Pull the DC-In cable connector straight out of its socket on the logic board.

Carefully slide the logic board assembly out of the Mac mini, minding any cables that may get caught.

Use tweezers or your fingers to pull the clip away from the AC-in socket, and remove it from the Mac mini.

To free the power supply from the case, grab the AC-In connector, which acts like a latch.

Rotate the AC-In connector 90 degrees counter-clockwise.

Remove the 8 mm T6 screw securing the power supply.

Slide the power supply out of the mini, minding any cables that may get caught.

Remove the single 8 mm T6 screw securing the drive tray.

Lift the drive tray up out of the Mac mini.

Remove the four (two on each side) 6.5 mm T8 screws securing the hard drive to the drive tray.

Lift the hard drive up and remove it from the drive tray.

Lift up the ribbon cable and carefully peel away the black tape underneath. It secures the SATA cable connector to the PCB of the hard drive. Failing to remove the tape will almost surely cause the contacts soldered to the flex cable to rip from the connector housing, as the retention force of the contacts in the housing is quite low.

Pull the SATA cable connector straight out of the hard drive.

Carefully peel off the two black, square-shaped sticky pads (one visible in picture) from the corners of the hard drive, and stick them to your new hard drive in the same locations.