Hitachi GDR-3120L Xbox 360 DVD Drive Disassembly
Use this how-to tutorial to replace a laser or install a new lid or even swap out the PCB

In this tutorial we will completely disassemble the drive itself.  This presumes you have already disassembled your 360 to get to the drive.  Once the drive is in your hands take a look at the photos below.  And keep in mid if you are delving in to this just to replace the laser or just the PCB some of the steps will not be necessary. 

		Hitachi GDR-3120L Xbox 360 DVD Drive
		The Hitachi GDR-3120L has shipped with numerous firmware revisions during its tenure.  Auto-flashers and scripted firmware tools have made firmware modding the Hitachi very easy.  But, unlike the Samsung drive, it is possible to brick your Hitachi drive if care is not taken to ensure you are following the correct procedures. Some revisions include: 46DH, 47DG, 47DJ, 59DJ ,78FK

	The drive beckons you...  take me apart.  you used to have a working xbox 360 and now you get disc read errors.. open me OPEN ME!
	You'll find two sets of screws on the bottom of the drive, ones in green are for the top lid the ones in blue are for the bottom lid.
	Take off the outside four screws and you can remove the top lid
	Two more and the bottom lid comes off too.  Notice the three white ribbon cables attaching to the circuit board.  We will be removing all those, only one of them has a clasp to release before removing the cable.  All the narrow width cables just slide in and out of their connector, but the wide one has a clasp to release prior to removal.
	Removing the circuit board, you find a wide ribbon cable with a brown clip.  Run your fingernail down the edge and pull it in the direction that the cable will be leaving the connector.  The brown clip will pop free on one side repeat the removal procedure on the other side of the clip. and the cable will slide out with little resistance.
	Remove this one from the connector.
	The cable on the left in this photo is disconnected.  Notice the wide cable we disconnected a couple steps is still connected.  At this point I recommend also disconnecting the cable at the laser end as well.
	We find that the rear of this cable is connected with some tape once removed it leaves the cable connected to the laser.  Alternatively you can leave this cable taped to the board and just disconnect at the laser end as described above.
	The board removed
	Bottom view of the front of drive - notice the white plastic piece just up and to the left of the gray circle in the middle of the black plastic.
	Slide it to the right and the tray pops out.
	Gently pull the tray out the rest of the way. You can opt to leave the tray in for most repairs.
	You'll note it stops at the end, these are the stops that are hitting.
	Square up with your thumbs
	Give her a push like you mean it
	Its off
	Bottom view, notice that the laser in the middle of the drive rides on two rails one gray plastic and the other silver.  We will be removing the silver one.
	Loosen this screw
	Push in on this spring loaded white plastic piece and pull up to release the laser
	grab on
	lift out
	Be sure to lay it down lens up.
	To remove the motor we are using a T8 driver.
	Three screws.
	Its out.
	Note that the motor can come apart, its normal and only held on by a magnet.
	Don't loose the two little springs!
	There is one spring at either end of the motor.
	This is as far as we are going to disassemble.  The re-assembly steps are the reverse of above.

-Llamma
-Rhino