Bill, I’ve replaced several drives in the Mini’s both the kind where you had to use two putty knives to spread the sides apart and the more recent models where the bottom comes off.
I did all of these without the tool, and believe me, getting the old drive out and the new SSD in is a bear, not enough room…then one day I was at Johnathan Fletcher’s house and he tore one of mine apart and used the tool… Grief, what a help….there are two holes in the motherboard, the tool goes in the holes and you move the entire mechanism “out” of the case…you don’t move it far, 1/4 inch, possibly 1/8 and now there is plenty of room to work. Once installed use the tool to move everything back flush inside the case.. Jonathan says that wherever he purchases his SSD’s they send the small kit with the drive, it has all the small screwdrivers, torque drives and the U shaped tool to move the innards. John > On Nov 27, 2017, at 9:56 AM, Bill Rising <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hi all, > > I finally got sick of my 2014 mac mini and its abhorrently slow performance > (likely due to the crappy stock 5400rpm stack of spinning rust). So... I'm > getting and SSD to replace the internal drive. > > When looking on iFixit for the repair instructions [1], I saw that iFixit > says that I should get a Mac Mini Logic Board Removal Tool [2]. This looks > like something that old coat hangers are made for... but just in case, does > anyone have a feeling about the true necessity of such a device? > > Bill > > [1] They are very long, so it'll be a nice evening project > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.ifixit.com_Guide_Mac-2BMini-2BLate-2B2014-2BHard-2BDrive-2BReplacement_32815&d=DwIFAg&c=OAG1LQNACBDguGvBeNj18Swhr9TMTjS-x4O_KuapPgY&r=F2GFXrjLFqVo3VwvIlo_XYeEiRRjHv15rxcenz7A21woG2aFGcrzndoSsskxfmOs&m=Hb37skIAuEUTr_eV5paI48vLvh6mKacN3ssT30fuJys&s=NlsktXVrehijJszIoGJjZCwuOQdUVqG32Vir5HDH8s0&e= > > [2] > https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.ifixit.com_Store_Tools_Mac-2DMini-2DLogic-2DBoard-2DRemoval-2DTool_IF145-2D159-2D1&d=DwIFAg&c=OAG1LQNACBDguGvBeNj18Swhr9TMTjS-x4O_KuapPgY&r=F2GFXrjLFqVo3VwvIlo_XYeEiRRjHv15rxcenz7A21woG2aFGcrzndoSsskxfmOs&m=Hb37skIAuEUTr_eV5paI48vLvh6mKacN3ssT30fuJys&s=Qr6wYK46uZfvdwcORX9NnyRFwaNTbVN-qy_WnnbTQHY&e= > _______________________________________________ > MacGroup mailing list > Posting address: [email protected] > Archive: > <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.mail-2Darchive.com_macgroup-40erdos.math.louisville.edu_&d=DwIFaQ&c=OAG1LQNACBDguGvBeNj18Swhr9TMTjS-x4O_KuapPgY&r=F2GFXrjLFqVo3VwvIlo_XYeEiRRjHv15rxcenz7A21woG2aFGcrzndoSsskxfmOs&m=VfknViHpq1u6gf_BUbzVp-wKQg_FXQ9YfxzZoIRVGqI&s=C3nug1X8YjJnVA6WSCLbSlqSul1q9TdqSc3DS9CjLPU&e=> > Answers to questions: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup/> _______________________________________________ MacGroup mailing list Posting address: [email protected] Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/> Answers to questions: <http://erdos.math.louisville.edu/macgroup/>
