Screws on the side of hard drive are threaded!!

[Mugs]

Hey guys. I'm changing my stock 320gb hard drive for a 500gb scorpio blue and everything was going fine till I got to the part where you have to take the four screws off the old hard drive... I used a T6 Torx screwdriver but the screws were as soft as a marshmallow and have totally threaded Plus they didn't move in the slightest when I turned. So now I don't really don't know what to do and I was wondering if you guys could help! Thanks.

 

[harvy3317]

Mugs, Black and Decker makes a really great set of bits for screws that are stripped. I remember seeing them at my local walmart for around $5 - $10. I have heard they really work great and after you get them out, then call apple about getting replacement screws or check your local apple dealer or stores in your area that fix apples so you can get new screws.

Hope this helps,


-Harvy

 

[jamesr242]

LOL, I think you mean "stripped" not "threaded". You stripped the head on the screw. Just go to home depot or lowes and get a screw extractor. Make sure to get one that is roughly the same size or slightly larger (at the tip) than the hole on the bolt that you just stripped.

 

[m85476585]

Can you grip the head of the screws with pliers? I don't remember what they look like?

This should be obvious, but were you turning them the right way?

 

[tenderidol]

There are ways to remove stripped screws, but in your case you are lucky, because you can hold them with pliers as suggested above and remove them that way. It should work (make sure you have some nice pliers and you are turning the screws counterclockwise)

Now, trying to remove stripped screws that were embedded into the laptop case was something (had to do that when I had a XPS m1330).

 

[mikes70mustang]

LOL, I think you mean "stripped" not "threaded". You stripped the head on the screw. Just go to home depot or lowes and get a screw extractor. Make sure to get one that is roughly the same size or slightly larger (at the tip) than the hole on the bolt that you just stripped.

I think OP means cross threaded, which would mean OP stripped the threads, but OP appears to have stripped the head. Something tells me OP shouldn't be doing this his or her self.

 

[davidlv]

+ "stripped" is correct, all screws are "threaded" to begin with.
I changed the HD in my Macbook Pro with a pair of needlenose pliers, twice, until I finally found a proper T6 Torx tool. Just be careful and go slowly, gripping hard so the pliers do not slip. It works but it is slow going, so take your time.

 

[jamesr242]

Oh yeah, make sure you only grip the hard drive from the sides when you're doing this. You can mess up a HD by putting pressure on the top. Don't ask me how I know

 

[Bill Gates]

When I changed the hard drive in my MBP, two of the screws were a different type than the other two, and I had to use a different tool to remove them. Luckily I had a full mini screwdriver set with me.

 

[Boiler]

Mugs, Black and Decker makes a really great set of bits for screws that are stripped. I remember seeing them at my local walmart for around $5 - $10. I have heard they really work great and after you get them out, then call apple about getting replacement screws or check your local apple dealer or stores in your area that fix apples so you can get new screws.

Would someone get "blacklisted" if she asked Apple Store for replacement screws?
Can one buy them without giving her name or computer number?

Also, are there other places that will sell the 4 hard drive screws for a 17 umbp?

 

[harodude]

Since the drive is user replaceable, there should be no reason why you'd be blacklisted. I had to take the bottom pan off to get to the main board, hdd, etc, and the 10 screws holding it in place keep unscrewing (loosening) and falling out. Pretty frustrating, as I havnt purchased a case yet. Anyone know if some blue lock-tight would do the trick or???
I had to use pliars to get the screws off the stock drive, and transferred them to the new drive, which went smoothly.

 

[Mugs]

Hey everyone! Thanks a lot for all the responses. yer I did mean stripped oops! Lol. I'm going to give the pliers a go and see what happens. And btw I have done this before and I was turning anticlockwise. I do know what I'm doing but this time the screws just didn't move and stripped straight away. :-S but thank you for all your help.

 

[mfous]

I've just removed a HDD from my MacBook Pro mid 2010 and wanted to put it inside a DVD caddy.

The same issue with the screws:too soft and Torx T6 does not do the job!

But with some nice pliers I finally made it!
It needs some effort (don't go loose just a bit slow to prevent any accident).After you feel it went a bit loose, just continue with your fingers.

Thanks everyone!