Introduction
The hard drive is critical to the life of the device. The hard drive is a key piece of the time capsule, so awareness and moving slow through the steps is beneficial to ensuring no problems when the repair is made. This guide is do-able by anyone, but will not consume much time. If the user wants to add more storage then a replacement of the hard drive is a popular choice.
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Turn the device upside down to reveal the rubber section of the back plate. Using a metal spudger, carefully wedge the blunt tip into the space between the aluminum back plate and the rubber, separating the two pieces.
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Depending on air temperature and how set the adhesive is, you may need to spend some time warming the back plate with a hot plate (on low) or hair dryer.
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The fan affixed to the back plate is connected to the logic board. A small wire must be detached to fully remove the back plate.
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Pull the base of the wire close to the logic board and the connector will pop off.
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Peel off the adhesive backed foam from the top of the drive.
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Lift the drive straight up and out of the device.
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Remove the SATA connector and power connector from the end of the hard drive by simply pulling the cables straight away from the connection points.
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To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
8 comments
What’s the max hard drive a Time Machine can take?
ice2257 -
This answer: What's the biggest HDD that will fit on my Time Capsule? suggests that you can use pretty much any available drive. If it could take a 4TB in 2014 (one of the answers), I don’t think there would be any limit practically speaking.
odaiwai -
Great guide. One note. My unit was quite old and the rubber mat was brittle. Even with a heat gun and spudger I still tore it in several places. This might be avoided by heating up a cloth in a microwave first and applying it to the rubber before beginning to pull it off. Just a thought.
The epoxy cementing the rubber pad to the aluminum base is a lot stronger than the rubber itself. The rubber is likely to tear as you remove it; I had to use a putty knife to clear the screws. It's worth hanging onto the branding near the Ethernet ports, for future identification (model number, serial number, Ethernet ID, AirPort ID); you can fashion a replacement pad out of neoprene rubber.
adlerpe -
Mine completely ripped I have no back cover now its in multiple pieces…. mine was giving off way to much heat and hard drive errors so I decided to replace hard drive and fan wish me luck BUT if yours is overheating do not expect to get back off without ripping the rubber to
William -
Using a fan to heat the plate up was helpful
Michael Zimmermann -
I wish I read Michael Zimmermann’s suggestion before I tore the first half into about 15 pieces! On the second half I used a hair dryer to heat the rubber. With enough heat and a very slow steady pull on the rubber it came of as a single piece :-)
mfred2 -
Do I need to put back on the rubber? will it overheat if I don’t?
Strider -
It is almost impossible to keep the bottom rubber covering intact in one piece. The rubber is covering the whole base section and it won’t be a problem without it I guess. This is not an epoxy because it is still gummy and sticky. This is like the adhesive used on the double side tapes. Goo Gone worked well to remove those residues.
Kenn Sakurai -
The rubber cap like bottom can be replaced with easy to cut in shape cork sheet will do. Just rip off the thin strip where the serial number for the ID and other info that might be needed later. Have it glued or put on a clear tape and put it on the side of the white plastic sidewall will do.
Kenn Sakurai -
With age, the rubber becomes brittle. It is best to heat it up with a hair dryer before trying to gently peel it off.
SirDeck -
Mine was probably about 10 years old at this point. I used a clothes iron (flatiron) set on medium heat ("permanent press"), and a piece of "parchment paper" from the kitchen between iron and rubber. After 30 seconds or so, the glue was softened enough that I could lift off the rubber, a little at a time using a putty knife. It all came off in one piece, with essentially all the glue still attached to the rubber. My thanks to the person (forgot the name, it was on one of the "drive replacement" articles for one of the other model Time Capsules) who suggested the iron.
Paul Koning -