Rather than buying a special tool, this video shows making one from a metal coat hanger. Sliding out the Mac Mini motherboard requires a special tool that's simply a U-shaped metal rod.

However, getting to the hard drive requires an abomination in my opinion. At this point of the video the WiFi antenna was already removed.įollowing that is the cover over the hard drive. There are several pieces to remove in order to get access to the hard drive. This is more tightly packed than I remember from the 2012 Mac Mini I owned once. When removing the metal plate be careful because of the WiFi antenna wire. The black round part is the WiFi antenna. Pay attention to which comes from what hole, since you have to put them back in the correct holes. While these are special screws, the corresponding tool is readily available and looks like a simple allen wrench. This is held down by 'tamper-resistant' TR-6 screws. On the other hand this step is fairly straight-forward to perform. And of course the Intel NUC is a better Mac Mini than the Mac Mini. With 2012 and earlier Mac Mini's you had fairly easy access to the innards. The bottom kind of simply snaps off as shown in the video.Īpple should be embarrassed over degrading the upgradability. With this model you use a simple pry tool or some kind of stiff card. In 2010 and before you were required to use a putty knife to open the machine. In 2012 and before this round bottom easily twisted off and you had fairly easy access to the innards. The Mac Mini 2014/2014 was a departure from previous models. Start by removing the bottom of the machine.

Mac mini 2014 hard drive replacement