Chosen Solution
Hey guys, I am in a real panic right now. I have opened my late 2013 macbook pro to replace the thermal paste and after that, it would not boot normally. It started 1-2 times and reached my user screen but after inserting my password it would not continue. After that I restarted again, I reset the SMC and the PRAM - still nothing. Then I started with Cmd + R in safe mode but the hard drive cannot be found neither on the startup disk or the nor Disk Utility. One more thing I noticed is that the fans are not working at all during all that, is that normal? I am sure that I did not mess up anything when i opened the laptop for the paste. What can I do guys? I am kinda desparate. Is the hard disk dead? Did i do something else wrong? Suggestions?
Disassemble and reassemble once again is usually the first thing to try. Certainly check for any paste which has gone astray, and check all connectors are seated properly, in particular any ribbons are fully inserted into their sockets. But if you still have no joy I’d guess there’s a very good chance your data is still there. Remove your hard disk and plug it into a SATA-USB adapter and you should be able to read it on another computer.
