You are absolutely right. It would have much too easy to make the drives accessible and user-replaceable. Anyone who has worked on the iMac knows what I am talking about...

It can be really hard to get a secure grip on the drive. But here is a helpful tip for you. Simply use the big T9 (sic!) Torx screws that secure the antenna plate to the top of the drive (actually it’s the bottom of it since the drive is upside down…). Screw these back into the drive again about halfway, and you suddenly have two good handles! The use them to pull out the old drive and then to easily position the new drive.

When you install the second, more accessible drive, you can insert a thin wooden or plastic ruler under the drive to easily and correctly position the metal pins in the rubber grommets. I don't know, however, if the ESD protection is really needed on a modern SSD since they already seem to have adequate protection. But ALWAYS wear ESD protection yourself!

This is the main problem with the design of this model I think. If Apple had only used a square lid with rounded edges and made of the same metal as the rest of the case, and just a tiny little bit bigger than the logic board, then everything would have been user-replaceable, including the drives and the logic board. But alas... Someone decided against it.

The antenna plate is precision made but of very thin metal that can easily be bent. Try to avoid bending the plate and inspect it before reassembly.

The more accessible drive can be hard to position because there is more space available than one might imagine, particularly since many of the newer drives are thinner than the original ones installed there. Use a long, thin tool like a spudger or a wooden or plastic ruler and lift the end of the drive up so that the metal pins get correctly positioned in the rubber grommets.

As has already been mentioned several times by other people, do not remove the logic board if you are just going to replace the most accessible drive, the one I call the top drive but Apple calls the lower drive. If you are about to replace the drive below it, the one closest to the metal top case, then you will have to remove the logic board. Some genius designed the Mac mini this way. ;)

There is no need to remove the antenna connector if you are only replacing *most accessible* drive, which Apple calls “lower” for some reason when it is actually the “upper” drive! Just remove the four screws that hold the antenna plate and move the plate to the left and out of the way.

The screws marked in red are T9 Torx, not T8. For the screws marked in orange, use the proper tool, 2 mm Hex, and nothing else.

Step 1: Always wear ESD protection.