Back in July my iMac refused to upload images to my blog.To overcome the problem I turned to MacBook Pro where everything worked fine except being an old Mac using an outdated operating system it was snail pace slow and took forever to process RAW images..
Then I remembered that I’d mothballed my old Mac Mini and it’s resurrection commenced.
First I had to load Photoshop CS6. All went well until Adobe called for the key to my copy of Photoshop CS5 extended before CS6 would load.
Being a bit of a bower bird I located the vital key, uploaded the numerals and bingo, all went well for about ten milliseconds before my power board flipped its circuit breaker. OK thought I, switched the breaker back on and OH no, same thing. Tried again and wow, mini burped, screen illuminated, the Apple logo appeared and then so did the dreaded bloody rainbow coloured revolving wheel.
After four or five more attempts with the mini and efforts to get my beloved Photoshop CS6 disk released I was stumped. It was was firmly lodged in the mini. How to retrieve it. All methods know to man failed.
Off to the nearest Apple store, only 60 miles away. Mini in hand. Fantastic service too. ‘How long have you had it’? I was asked. ‘Quite a while’, said I. ‘What’s the matter with it’? ‘My Photoshop disk is stuck in it’. I replied.
With that the Apple engineer peered at the back of the mini case, entered its serial number into his computer and told me the Mini was ‘Vintage, can’t be repaired because parts are no longer available’. ‘After all,’ he said,’It was made in 2007′.
I enquired how I could open the case as there were no visible screws. My Apple man smiled as only a genuine computer nerd can, and proudly informed me that there were no visible points of entry. I’d already alluded to that fact.
Back home with a new Mac Mini under my arm I turned to the traditional blokes method of opening an object when all else fails; a screwdriver and a bit of brute force. On this occasion a hammer was unnecessary.
The good news is that after totally destroying my old mini I retrieved the CS6 disk undamaged and have now successfully uploaded it to the this new mini.
For your absolute amusement, hereunder are a few images of my handiwork. No need for the images to have titles, they speak for themselves.
I’ve got a few ideas about the names of these parts but as this is a family oriented blog, their names shall remain unrecorded. I’m sure you know where I’m coming from.
However, the next image is a positive sign of my computer savvy and undoubted capacity to recover, intact, a disk stuck in a vintage Mac Mini.
Hoo roo for now.
CREAKINGBONES 
Lol I’m dying to know the names!! Anyway, good to see the innards of the Mini. Glad you got the disc out without breaking the DVD!
Thanks – but the words, my lips are sealed for the sake of the innocent..
PHOTO-ESSAY-JOURNALISM IMPACT.
WHAT DOES DIGITALLY REMASTERED MEAN?
Yaay you saved it !
More good luck than good management.
Brilliant story 🙂 I’m always scared of my computer breaking and losing my photos, but uploading them to online storage takes ages! And now, for some reason, I can’t copy any files to a hard drive (which works good with another computer, so I think, it’s just my mac playing up). Oh, the modern age technology! Can’t live with you and can’t live without! 🙂
Creakingbones you may be, but you’re a Mac surgeon! I’d love to hear the names too. I know your lips are sealed but I don’t think your fingers are, are they?
Technology…sigh…I had a huge techno war at work today. At least you got your disk back 🙂
Vintage = 2007! LOL Man we must be positively prehistoric ☺ Good read ☺
Yes, a great read and I have just the right vision of the PC nerd! I’m not a Mac person (shock horror!) although the rest of the family ‘get’s’ it, I don’t. It sounds like you had success albeit expensive 🙂
Thanks for the comment. I’m yet to find anything cheap that has even the remotest connection to computers, be they PC or Mac. Tis a licence to print money. Mac here in Aus is hundreds of dollars declarer than the same item in the States, even taking the exchange rate into account. Keeps nerds employed so it’s not all bad.
Ah, the old Mac Mini. I had one that I hacked into a server back in 2006.
To open one of those, you just need two sheetrock spatulas. Turn the Mac Mini upside down, slide in one spatula on either side of the base, and it pops right out. Piece of cake. Instructions for taking it apart are here: https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac+mini+Model+A1283+Teardown/659
Once I had it open, then I maxed out the RAM and replaced the CPU. The included hard drive was a slow laptop disk — and since the Mac Mini had an internal SATA connector — I simply cut a hole in the chassis for the SATA cable and connected a server-class SATA drive to the Mini motherboard, using an external sled housing for the new drive. Worked like a champ.
I eventually sold that Mac Mini to my dad for his consulting business, and it’s still in service with him.
I wish I lived next door to you. I would make you my best friend forever.
Oh no that’s so sad…I would have suggested looking on ifixit.com. Oh my, 2007 vintage!? There is no hope for us. That’s the only trouble with Apple and many other companies these days no-one builds things so that you can repair them and get replacement parts.