Razer Blade Pro (2014) 17" Hard Drive SSD Replacement

Introduction

These instructions will guide you through the disassembly of a Razer Blade Pro 17” laptop and replacement of the primary hard drive. This guide is intended for those with some experience with small hand tools, like screw drivers and tweezers, and computer equipment. Don’t worry if this is your first repair attempt, I’ll include some tips along the way for those not too familiar with computer equipment. For this Instructable, I replaced the stock 256 GB solid state hard drive with a mSATA 1 TB Samsung 850 EVO (MZ-M5E1T0BW)

Tools Required

T6 Torx Screwdriver

0 or 00 Philips Screwdriver

Small, thin pry-tool (I use an iSesamo with all my repairs, about $5 on Amazon)

you may be able to get away with using a guitar pick

Tweezers (good to have, but not absolutely necessary)

Materials Required:

Replacement Hard Drive

must have a mSATA connector and form factor

Bootable USB Media (for operating system installation or recovery)

4GB or greater for a clean Windows 8.1 x64 installation

WARNING: Following these instructions will void your warranty with Razer. The standard Razer warranty is 1 year from date of purchase and the extended warranty is 2 years from date of purchase.

WARNING: Avoid contacting the battery. Piercing the battery will cause an explosion resulting in possible injury or death.

Create bootable media for software reinstallation or re-imaging.

• My computer came with Windows 8.1.
• The product key (needed to install Windows) is printed on a sticker located on the bottom cover.
• Reinstallation media for Windows 8.1 can be downloaded at:
  • https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/...

Note: You should test your installation media before disassembling your computer to make sure it’s bootable and configured correctly.

After preparing installation media, power off the computer. Do not sleep, do not hibernate, do not restart; Shutdown completely and unplug everything.

After the green ring around the power button stops pulsing and the green light on the front left edge of the computer turns off, close the lid and flip the computer over, logo side down.

With the hinge side away from you, remove the 12 black stickers around the edge of the computer. You can keep the stickers to reuse, or toss them. They are not necessary for reassembly.

Remove the 12 T6 torx screws around the edge. They are all the same, there is no need to keep track of them.

Note: There are two slots with circular holes instead of torx heads. These are not screws, nor are they removable.

Use a thin pry tool to lift it up away from the body, starting at the power adapter port at the upper right hand corner. It is easiest to pry each corner separately.

Note: There are small retaining clips all around the edges. It will require some force to remove the cover. Be sure all of these clips are disengaged before trying to completely lift away the cover. Do not remove one side and try to lift up only that side. This will break the retaining clips.

On the lower right side of the body, you’ll see two cloth wrapped cables over the hard drive. Each end of each of the two cables has a piece of adhesive tape over it. Remove the tape from both cables on the right side only and set aside for reuse. Tweezers may make this easier.

Note: You should pull from the bottom left corner to prevent the cloth cable wrapping from tearing.

Use a pry tool to lift straight up on the cable connectors to disconnect them and fold them back slightly.

Note: It’s easiest to lift up on the short lower edge first.

Remove the single screw holding down the hard drive. It will pop up slightly by itself. Lift it up and pull it straight out of its connector.

Insert replacement hard drive into the slot at an angle. It will only go in one way.

Note: Be sure slot on hard drive matches slot on connector. Nearly all of the gold contact surface on the hard drive will disappear inside the connector.

Gently push the hard drive down so it is parallel with the computer and replace the retention screw.

Note: the hard drive should feel springy and easily come back up when let go if it’s not screwed in place.

Press both cables back into their respective connectors and replace the adhesive tape back over them.

Press the rear cover back into place until there are no gaps around the edge and replace the 12 T6 torx screws.

Plug in and power on the laptop.

Press or to enter the BIOS and check to make sure your computer recognizes your new hard drive.

Note: This can be found under Boot/ Boot Option #1

Proceed with the reinstallation or recovery of your operating system from your bootable USB device.