Macbook Air Rev A HD Replacement problem

[will0407]

I am attempting to fix my friend's Rev A macbook air. He took it to a genius bar and they quoted him £210 to fix it (£151 + vat for the HD and £24+vat for labour). Diagnosis was it needed a new HD.

I bought this from ebay, 99.9% sure it's the correct drive: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181481492039

A little bit cheaper as well! Anyhow, I've followed an ifixit guide and switched the HD's, seemed relatively straight forward. When I boot from my Lion USB, I go into disk utility and the hard drive does not appear. I tried putting the old one back in but that also doesn't show up.

Prior to attempting this it booted to a grey screen with the folder icon and "?". It still does this so I'm wondering if it is something other than the HD?

Anyone have any ideas as to what the issue could be? I was careful to put the corresponding screws back in the right place and all connections seem to be solid and correct

 

[g-7]

Check if the ZIF ribbon is seated properly. Also, when I was replacing a HDD in MacBook Air Rev. A with an SSD, I had to mount the drive upside down (!) for the ZIF ribbon to be installed correctly. Apparently the connector is reversed in this MacBook model. Be careful not to bend the ribbon too much, you might damage it.

 

[will0407]

Check if the ZIF ribbon is seated properly. Also, when I was replacing a HDD in MacBook Air Rev. A with an SSD, I had to mount the drive upside down (!) for the ZIF ribbon to be installed correctly. Apparently the connector is reversed in this MacBook model. Be careful not to bend the ribbon too much, you might damage it.

Interesting, I'll try flipping the drive tomorrow.

Tried flipping the drive and also using snow leopard booth rather tahn lion. Still no luck.