# Paging MacTech -- Archaic PowerMac Maintenance question **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 8, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paging-mactech-archaic-powermac-maintenance-question/467015 "2008-10-08T16:26:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paging-mactech-archaic-powermac-maintenance-question/467015/1 "2008-10-08T16:26:03Z")
I have a PowerMac 6500/275 that I need to remove the hard drive from before I ship it off to eBay (corporate data destruction requirements). I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to remove anything but the motherboard tray. Help? ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paging-mactech-archaic-powermac-maintenance-question/467015/2 "2008-10-08T17:25:41Z")
the 6500’s hard drive is located under the front bezel, slide the machine to the front of your desk, so the front is just over the edge, barely, put your hand under the bottom of the front bezel and give it a strong tug It’ll pop off with a loud “SNAP”, it’ll sound like you’re breaking it, but you’re not, those are the friction clips releasing The hard drive is mounted vertically on the lower left hand side of the front plate, on a plastic sled, put your thumb in the cutout, push the lock tab towards the drive and gently pull it out some models of 6500 used cabling to connect the hard drive, others used “cartridge style” edge connectors (it’s an adapter that slides into the power and ATA connector disconnect the cables, and you’ve performed a Drive-Ectomy 🙂 (just don’t ask how to get the ZIP drive out, it’s a royal pain… ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paging-mactech-archaic-powermac-maintenance-question/467015/3 "2008-10-08T17:32:25Z")
Wow, a Mac of the same vintage as the PowerMac 8100/80 system that I just gave away to my friend! ---
**Author:** ![MacTech](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MacTech](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacTech)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paging-mactech-archaic-powermac-maintenance-question/467015/4 "2008-10-08T17:44:08Z")
Yeah, but the X100 systems, especially the tower cases, were a royal pain to work on, especially if you had to add ram or change the clock battery, you had to remove the logic board! I was so happy when Apple released the X500 and X600 series with their easy-open cases ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paging-mactech-archaic-powermac-maintenance-question/467015/5 "2008-10-08T17:47:46Z")
> [@MacTech](#): > > the 6500’s hard drive is located under the front bezel, slide the machine to the front of your desk, so the front is just over the edge, barely, put your hand under the bottom of the front bezel and give it a strong tug > > It’ll pop off with a loud “SNAP”, it’ll sound like you’re breaking it, but you’re not, those are the friction clips releasing > > The hard drive is mounted vertically on the lower left hand side of the front plate, on a plastic sled, put your thumb in the cutout, push the lock tab towards the drive and gently pull it out > > some models of 6500 used cabling to connect the hard drive, others used “cartridge style” edge connectors (it’s an adapter that slides into the power and ATA connector > > disconnect the cables, and you’ve performed a Drive-Ectomy 🙂 (just don’t ask how to get the ZIP drive out, it’s a royal pain… Thanks! I eventually had to pry the friction tabs with a slot screwdriver to get the damn things to disengage, but other than that your directions worked fine. I’d actually found the bottom releases and couldn’t figure out what they were supposed to be releasing. =P Fortunately the only thing I need to remove is the drive, the rest of it’s just going to eBay or the dump.