I recently bought a used 17″ iMac for use in my kitchen – Emeril & Iron Chef vids, recipes, iPhoto collection and, of course, iTunes. The iMac had 1GB RAM and a 160GB hard drive. I thought that might be enough, but once I transferred a few Emeril videos and half of my iPhoto library, I had only 3GB left over. Clearly, 160GB is olde schoole.
So I set out to increase the RAM to 2GB and pop in a new 500GB hard drive. My first task, opening the iMac case. Apple makes this harder than opening other, earlier cases. They use Torx screws instead of phillips screws. Home Depot has sets of Torx screws for $10 and eBay has similar sets for $8 to $15.
Here’s the iMac opened up on the operating table. I didn’t disconnect the LCD 100% from the iMac. I left the video connector attached and used the foot of the iMac as a nice stable holding spot during the surgery.
In this pic, the insides of the iMac are exposed. A late note about warranties. This completely voids the warranty on the iMac. I don’t care, but if you try any of this, you should consider preserving your warranty. Unlike repairs on most Macs, opening Intel iMacs results in obvious cosmetic scarring inside. It’ll be 100% clear to any Apple tech that your iMac has been opened and messed around with.
Here’s the 160GB SATA hard drive. It’s tucked tightly inside the case.
Luckily, it’s very easy to remove. Two screws and a little slight of hand, and the drive pops right out.
See?
Unplug the SATA power and data cables.
Carefully remove the HDD heat sensor. There’s a glue-like substance underneath. Try not to tear it.
The new 500GB drive is back in place. I secured the heat sensor on with some electrical tape. It may give a slightly inaccurate read due to the thin insulation, but it’s fine. Again, be gentle with the adhesive.
With the hard drive secured and the LCD replaced, I screwed the internal Torx screws back in.
A little more electrical tape to affix the thick tinfoil-like metal sheeting back to the inside frame of the iMac case.
Aligning the top of the front bezel onto the case is important. It can be a little tricky, so take your time. It may take a few tries. The best way to tell if you have it right is to see and/or hear the metal clips snap into place. The back side of the iMac will also be snug against the bezel. If the setting isn’t right, the bezel and frame will be slightly misaligned and will feel sloppy. A tight, clean fit is desired.
Tighten the Torx screws on the bottom of the case to complete the surgical process.
Boot the iMac into FireWire Target Disk mode and clone the old drive to the new, blank 500GB drive. I used Carbon Copy Cloner. Because I had to clone a drive with around 150GB+ of stuff on it, the whole clone process took about 4 hours. Egads.
With cloning done, the new 500GB iMac boots up just fine. I had about 320GB free at that point. After moving the rest of my iTunes, photos and cooking vids, I had about 220GB free. We’ll see how long that lasts. A nice 1TB drive may be in order sooner than I expected.
Post op, I hooked the iMac up to some speakers by way of an Airport Express unit. It’s a very nice setup. It’s not a brand new silver & black iMac, but this is fine for me. Besides, it’s likely to get some ragu on it now and then, so I’d rather have an oldie in la cucina mia.
My only question about this is after you finished, was the new 500Gb drive significantly hotter than the 160Gb drive? I have put many 250 ~ 500 Gb SATA drives into fan-less external cases, only to experience tremendous heat build up. Did you do a “before and after” test of the drive temperature?
Steven – I did some casual temperature comparisons and there was no significant increase in temperature. There was no increase in noise, either. Just increased storage space and system speed.
Jason
You successfully took apart an Intel iMac? I’m impressed. In fact, it leads me to ask you something.
My own Intel iMac sustained some case damage a while back. The monitor’s fine and it still runs great, but the outer plastic looks like it was hit with acid rain.
My question is, when you were taking yours apart, did it look like it would be possible to do a heavy-duty case mod on this kind of iMac? I mean either safely covering the existing plastic or replacing it entirely, whichever turns out to be the more practical option. I’ve been trying to see if anyone’s even attempted something like that, and so far this is the closest I’ve found.
Unique – the iMac can be taken apart and the case can be cleaned, repaired, etc. It may be tough to maintain the perfect high-gloss look if you do some serious work on the exterior, but it’s possible. It’s not a simple project, though, so be prepared for some manual labor and trying of your patience. =)
Excellent! Well, since I was intending to do a full-blown Art Nouveau/Steampunk sort of thing, preserving the original gloss of the case isn’t an issue. (Actually, the gloss on mine is past the point of repair, hence why I’m going so all-out on the sucker.)
So, thank you! You’ve given me hope of being able to do what I want to do on it.
Hi i already did this to my imac replaced the old Seagate 160GB with a 500GB Seagate drive aswell and didnt notice any difference in temperature and the drive noise is even lower than the old one, i dont plan to do anymore swapping since the process is a bit tricky and if your not carefull you can damage the screen or a cable. GL
Hi, My logic board on my 2006 17″ Intel iMac is fried and Apple want about $1000 for the repair (a write off).
I want to get the HDD out, but this article made me think… is it easy to change the logic board?
I’ve seen them for sale for $450, which should save the machine and my wallet!
Hey Dan – you can certainly replace the logicboard in your iMac. If you can buy one from a reputable website, they’re probably going to have proper instructions for replacement.
If you do decide to replace the LB yourself, just be cautious and keep a record of each part that you unscrew or remove, noting carefully where it goes for when you start rebuilding. If some worker in China can put together dozens of those things in a day, I’m sure the average home geek can handle rebuilding 1.
On the other hand, you may be able to find a used 17″ iMac on eBay or craigslist for less than the cost of a new logicboard. You could just pop your hard drive out of the dead machine and put it into the used but functioning system. =)
Whichever way you go, good luck!
Thank you for posting the info. Can you provide some instructions on how to open up the iMac?
Hello Dan,
Thank You very much for the instructions. I have trouble removing the monitor screws (Photo-9 from the top). They are deep inside. I am able to unscrew them, but I am not able to get them out in spite of using a screw driver with a magnetic tip. Can you mail me the brand name of the screw driver you have used or any tips in getting the screws out without loosing them in the computer.
Thanks
Greddy
Hi I am also hoping to upgrade my 17 inch imac but how do I know which internal drives are compatible with it? Cheers, Jeremy
Jeremy,
Any 3.5″ SATA hard drive should work just fine in your 17″ Intel iMac. Check newegg.com for great deals. I recently found a 1TB drive for $79 (after $30 rebate).
If your iMac is the older PowerPC (G5), then you may want to check the specs, but it’s probably got a SATA drive as well.
Good luck with your upgrade!
Jason
Nice explanation. How do you connect and power the old drive for that cloning, can you explain that a little?
Hi Bill,
The easiest way to clone your drive would be to get an external hard drive enclosure. Check out the “Thermaltake BlacX” drive dock (http://jasontomczak.com/2008/03/30/thermaltake-blacx-drive-dock-best-40/) that I wrote about earlier. It’s one of the best tools you can have, especially if you’ve got lots of SATA hard drives sitting around.
It’d be good to get the newer, larger drive, put it in the BlacX drive dock, run CarbonCopyCloner to copy the existing/smaller drive onto the newer/larger, then do the transplant surgery as shown above. Just make sure you don’t clone the blank drive onto the existing drive, otherwise you’ll wind up with two blank drives instead of two OSX drives. That’d be a huge bummer.
Good luck!
Just wondering if the drive needs to be 5400rpm or 7200rpm? Also with the hard drive heat sensor, can you use rubber cement or other adhesive to hold it down? And finally is it possible to put in a new 1tb hard drive and boot up using OSX and do a fresh install without having to clone? Thanks.
Hi Kris! Good questions – easy to answer.
1. It doesn’t matter if it’s a 5,400 or 7,200RPM drive. Frankly, you could put a Raptor 10,000RPM drive in there and it’d just kick butt.
2. I’m sure you could use a tiny, tiny bit of adhesive to keep the sensor on the drive, but it’s probably better to use some very thin (but strong) tape. Electrical tape is good, so is scotch tape (a type of which Apple used in MacBook Pros for a long time).
3. Yes, you can put a 1TB drive in clean and boot with your OS X installation DVD. There’s no need to clone from another drive. I’ve done that several times.
(If you’re installing Leopard, just make sure you format the drive correctly – GUID Partition Table, OS X Extended (Journaled). Installing Tiger is a snap – format as OS X Extended (Journaled).)
Have fun!
Thanks for the quick response Jason. I have Tiger already installed on my imac but have the leopard upgrade disc. Do you know if it is possible to install the upgrade leopard on a new hard drive or must I first install Tiger then upgrade?
Kris,
Good news – there’s no need to install Tiger first. You can install Leopard directly from the upgrade DVD you purchased. Instructions should be in the box or on Apple’s website (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1544).
Jason
Jason thanks again. One more question, I hope my final one. I am actually going to be taking the 1tb hard drive out of my windows based PC. If I erase the hard drive on my windows PC first would there be any problem installing Leopard OSX on it?
Kris – no need to wipe the drive, even if it has XP or Vista on it. Just put it in the iMac, boot up from the Leopard installation DVD and format GUID Partition Table, OS X Extended (Journaled). Leopard is pretty smart when it comes to formatting a drive and knowing how to install itself.
Sounds good. I will give it a go. Thanks again Jason.
Hi Jason – I was just told by an Apple ‘genius’ That my IMac’s slow operation is due to a failing hard drive. I want to replace it with a 500GB WD Carviar (has a 160GB stock). My question is the tech said that I should slide a credit card on the back upper part of the case when trying to separate the 2 half’s of the case. I noticed you did not mention this in your disassembly process. Do you have any other illustrations showing the process? Thank for all the info on this site.
Hi Thomas,
I didn’t need to use the credit card trick to get my iMac case open. It seemed to open without any coercive measures; quick and easy. If you feel the case needs to be pried apart, first looks for any remaining screws. Some of them are small and/or hidden. If all screws are removed, prying with a credit card is fine (though I would probably use something a little less important, like an old gift card, a Staples rewards card, etc).
Good luck!
My Fiance and I purchased a 17″ intel Imac for her mother and little brothers 3 years ago. about a week ago, they tried to turn it on and the machine would not boot past the apple symbol with the little scrolling thing underneath. They cannot afford to buy a computer for themselves. The geniuses said it was not worth fixing and had to be ram, hd, or logicboard. I had extra ram laying around and it cleary wasn’t the memory. Your detailed instructions are greatly greatly appreciated.
This may be impossible to answer, but I was wondering if this problem is likely to be solved by swapping the sata hd with an extra new one I had laying around, or if its far more likely to be a failed logic board. I just don’t want to waste my time. I work 50 – 80 hours a week, and only want to fart around with this thing if I have a fighting chance.
Hi Ted,
First of all, nothing is “not worth fixing”. So long as there’s no obvious water damage to the system, I would certainly take the opportunity to get your iMac working once more. The whole hard drive swap doesn’t actually take that long (I think I did mine in less than an hour) and it could net you a working computer. Worst case scenario, it still doesn’t work. You can still eBay the machine (without the hard drive, for security reasons) and wind up with a decent portion of a new iMac paid for.
Before you do the hard drive swap, I would try to boot the buggy iMac from an external source. There are three options: 1) connect it to another Mac using the Firewire target-drive method and see if you can see OS X, 2) boot using an external hard drive with OSX installed, or 3) the easiest, boot from the iMac’s OS X installation DVD.
Any of these should give you an insight into what’s really going on.
Good luck! I hope you salvage the machine. Just don’t throw it out. =)
I tried to boot from multiple external sources. No luck. Thanks for your input. I’m going to try the hard drive swap
All I can say is thank you thank you thank you……Macs have always been a mystery to me. I always thought that they were the computer that never died but could also never be opened up, upgraded or fixed in the rare case that they quit on ya. This Imac was taken to the genius bar before I even heard it was broken and they said it was toast….not worth fixing and to just buy a new one. ALL it needed was a hard drive…thanks heaps for your help.
Hey Ted,
Congratulations!! I’m very happy it worked out for you and your fiancee’s family. =)
Jason
Jason
My Intel iMac has just been to meet a UK genius at the Cambridge store. The problem I confronted him with was the increasing number of one pixel wide vertical lines gradually appearing on the screen. he said the LCD was failing but was not aware of this happening on other machines.
He quoted £300 to get a new screen fitted. What do you – or other readers – make of that? Is it something others have come across? Could I fix it based on your instructions on getting into the case? I opened up our DV SE to extract an undersized CD ROM so am not terrified of rolling up my sleeves and going in. I’ve even got a set of Torx drivers!
Any suggestions?
Nick
My iMac’s logic board failed a few months after I bought it and was replaced by a local Apple authorized repair facility under warranty. Now that it’s been opened, is it safe to upgrade the HD and not have to worry about voiding the warranty? Is there any way of them knowing the case has been opened again? I’m still covered under AppleCare’s extended plan. At the rate I’m going now, I’ll be out of HD space long before the warranty expires.
Hi Nick,
The lines of dead pixels are rare but certainly not a new situation. The iMac isn’t the only machine that experiences this. Some models as far back as the PPC Powerbooks had this or similar issues. It could be the LCD itself or it could be a problem with the video card or the paper-thin video cable inside the case (ribbon could be loose). Did your Apple store rep do a hardware diagnostic check? Have you hooked the iMac up to an external LCD to see if the lines follow to a new screen (hinting strongly at the video card)?
You may want to investigate replacing the LCD yourself. I don’t know what LCD prices are like in the UK, but here in the former colonies, compatible LCD panels are cheap and the replacement is dirt simple.
Good luck!
Hey Tim,
According to Apple (verify at Apple.com/support or by calling your local Apple store), if you do a non-standard upgrade to a warrantied machine, should anything go wrong with the computer because of that upgrade, then the resultant problem would not be covered under warranty.
For example, if you were to open the case, swap the hard drive and then six weeks later the hard drive goes psycho and causes direct damage to an adjacent part on the logic board, then the resultant damage will not likely be covered by Apple (if they can clearly tie the cause to the replacement hard drive).
Conversely, if you swap the hard drive (one of those new 2TB drives would be awesome!) and a few weeks later your iSight camera stops working, there’s little to no chance that Apple would tie the iSight issue to the new HDD. In this situation, you’d be safe and Apple would likely perform the iSight replacement with all the speed and accommodation they’re known for.
Again, you can verify this online or by calling Apple. Once you feel confident that your warranty is safe, jump in. Just be careful when doing the work – be in a clean, dust free space, do your best to avoid fingerprint oils, don’t sneeze into or near the case, etc. =)
I have a imac intel core 2, where can I purchase a internal hard drive. My computer is running very slow and the mac guys told me that I would need a replacement. Am in Ohio (us) Thanks.
Hey Tony,
Without a doubt, the best place to get a new hard drive is newegg.com. Best prices, best selection, etc., etc.
You may also want to take a look at an application called “Onyx”. You can find it by searching “onyx” on versiontracker.com. Onyx (which is free) will scan your drive for errors and fix them. It’ll clean out cache and a ton of other helpful things. Check it out.
Good luck!
here a link for the aluminum, models 2007
http://www.amfiteatar.org/content/view/155/78/lang,en/
thanks for the help
Kiiiiiin
Hi Jason,
I’ve an A1208 iMac Intel Core 2 Duo with 160 GB ATA drive. A couple of days ago, the machine froze. I mean it was frozen in time. I tried Restart, no luck, just white screen with Apple’s logo and little flowery thing, keeps circling. I tried “command” on startup, no luck, I tried “Shift” key on startup, no luck. I tried, the “command-option-P-R” simultaneously pressing (from Apple’s manual) on startup, no luck. I took the machine to the “genius” at the Apple store, he hooked up an external drive and tried to reboot, he couldn’t get it to boot. He ran software diagnostics, which detected “minor repair needed to hard-drive” message appeared. So the conclusion, I need to replace the hard-drive. However, the genius said that it’s Apple’s policy that old drive has to be returned to Apple, I cannot keep it if I agreed to get it replaced by the Apple store. Well, obviously, I did not agree and brought back the iMac back home, I just was not comfortable letting him remove the old drive and ship to Apple. So any how, while researching on the net, I came across your website, and after reading all of the above, I have decided to swap my hard-drive and will follow your surgical steps above that you have provided. The question for you is, how do I retrieve the data from the old drive? Can the old hard drive be repaired or diagnose what “exactly” is wrong with the old hard drive? I’ve lots of financial data and thousands of family photos which have sentimental value. I want to retrieve the data from the old drive (once I complete the replacement surgery) using do-it-yourself at home and I do not want to spend $300 or $500 somewhere else as they do not guarantee the retrieval process.
Thanks in advance and am looking forward to your response,
Sam.
Hey Sam,
Sorry to hear about the trouble you’re having with your iMac. It sounds like there are some seriously screwy Disk Permission errors preventing basic access – either that or there’s an actual hardware problem. The Apple tech should have been able to boot the iMac with the external drive he attached. Unless he used the wrong version of the OS X boot disk on your machine, it really should have booted right up.
Replacing the drive is simple – you can probably get it done in 30-40 minutes. Just be methodical and don’t misplace or confuse screws. Once the old drive is extricated and the new drive is in, you’ll need to reinstall OS X. Bummer, but necessary. After that’s done, connect your old hard drive to an external USB or FireWire enclosure. If you don’t have one, I’d suggest buying one at a local Fry’s, Staples or Office Depot. If the store you visit doesn’t have external enclosures, just find a super cheap external drive on sale – like a 160GB or 250GB drive – that you can take apart and pop your old iMac drive into. Most enclosures run no more than $30, while external drives can cost $80 to $190 retail. (Newegg.com has both for much less $$.)
Once connected, you’ll hopefully see the drive show up on your desktop as an accessible drive. If so, start moving data over. If it doesn’t show up, open Disk Utility (in your Applications/Utilities) folder and see if Disk Utility can see the drive. You may need to run “Repair Disk Permissions” and/or “Repair Disk” on the drive. Just don’t format it or allow Disk Utility to “initialize” the drive. If you format or initialize, *poof!* – data goes to the big drive in the sky.
With any luck, you’ll be able to pull all your data from the old drive just by connecting it via USB. I would highly suggest that once that’s done you look into Mozy.com. I have used both the free and paid services for a while now (free at home, paid at work) for my critical data and I love it. I also use DropBox (http://www.getdropbox.com/), but Mozy is probably what you’d benefit from most.
Good luck!!
Great! Jason.
Thanks for your assistance and sharing your knowledge on this. The new drive is on it’s way from Newegg and I’ll replace old one sometime next week. I’ll update you how it goes. Thanks again.
Sam.
This is a fantastic tutorial!
My imac [same specs as yours] has recently started making a tell tale clicking on boot and takes a while to find the system folder. It’s still booting but it definitely needs an upgrade and soon.
I was wondering what the best size drive to get would be? I remember these models had the options of coming with a 250 or 500GB drives, but a lot of people above mentioned attempting 1TB drives.
Are 1TB drives prone to any issues or anything? Would it get too hot or something for this model imac to handle?
Would 500GB be “safer” than a 1TB? Input appreciated! I’m on newegg right now and found some good WD drives just not sure which to pick up!
Thanks!
Heya smo – go for the 1TB drive if you can lay down the extra cash. There are almost no heat differences whatsoever, so don’t worry about that in your iMac. I had a 1TB drive in mine (after the 500GB) and it was just fine. When selecting a drive on newegg.com, just sort the results by “best rating” and find the most-loved drive. You’re more likely to get a long, long-lasting drive that way and not a dud. =) Personally, I like Western Digital, and I think that’s what Apple is putting in the new iMacs released last week.
Jason
PS – smo – this one looks awesome:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
It’s got 32MB cache instead of 16MB. Mo’ better.
Jason
Wow Jason!!!
Thanks so much for getting back to me! That’s the exact drive I was looking at too, so after your recommendation i sprung right for it! I got an external HD for backups too. I work in animation and now and then I’ll end up working on a production from home and get stuck with these files that I feel like I need to hold on to forever, and they just muck things up. I spent the better part of last year trying to put things on backups or dvds because that 250GB just doesn’t cut it! I think this TB drive will totally come in handy! Now I just have to track down my torque screwdriver and some electrical tape…and hope that my drive doesn’t fail before my newegg order gets here…I’ll let ya know how it turns out! Thanks again!
Hi Jason,
I’ve installed the new 1TB drive successfully. I’ve also installed the new memory modules totalling 3GB.
New problem: When I press the power button on, the light on the Mac keeps “blinking”. It does not do anything else. So then I tried again, this time I pressed “option” key with Power button, no luck, again the light keeps blinking. This did not happen prior to installing the new 1TB drive.
I also inserted the Mac OS X cd to install Operating System and pressed “C” option, but no luck. However, It does not recognize the CD although I hear it spin a couple of times. The screen on the iMac is blank (black).
Please let me know if I did something wrong during the installation? could it be the new drive? or the memory modules? Should I switch back to the old memory modules?
Thanks in advance,
Sam.
hi Jason,
An update to above. I think it was the new memory modules hence the light kept on blinking. So re-installed the old memory modules, and it restarted. No more blinking light on the iMac.
Question: now I’m installing the Mac OS X, but it says “select destination” but the drive is not recognized.
So I went to “Disk Utilities”, and there I do “see” the new drive on the left pane. What steps do I need to take from here to install the Mac OS X?
Thanks in advance,
Sam.
Hi Jason,
An update, finally I was able to install the Mac OS X on the new 1TB drive.
I had to “erase” the new drive from the “disk utility” to be able to install the Mac OS X.
The iMac is running exceptionally well.
Your surgical instructions above are accurate.
Couple of things I would like to mention to your readers:
Keep a small magnet handy since those tiny LCD screen’s screws that hold the LCD screen are non-magnatized as these tiny screws have tendency to fall inside either while removing them or while screwing them back in. It’s difficult to get those tiny screws out with the fingers. So I used a small magnet to lift them out. But be careful, you don’t want that magnet around any other metallic components, you’ll end up screwing up something else.
However, the overall time to open the iMac, undoing the foil, removing the LCD, and putting LCD back in, and the iMac cover was about 45 minutes total time. Replacing the drive it-self was only 3 minutes.
It’s the time it takes to work with those tiny screws, removing them, and inserting them back in, was the longest. You have to be extremely patient to work with those tiny screws as there’s is just enough room inside to insert the “torx” screw driver to screw and unscrew the tiny screws.
Applying tapes to the aluminum foil and the black sticky foil was art work. I used the tiny “flat head” screw driver to carefully remove both films from all sides. This foil is so soft like in “kitchen foil” that it will tear some while you are removing it or undoing from the LCD screen. But if you work very slowly and cautiously, the foil is pretty easy to “undo” with small flat head screw driver.
Overall, it was an excellent experience putting in the 1TB hard-drive in my iMac. I was done with this project in about 45 minuters and $99 (price of the drive)
with the help of the guru, Jason.
Thanks,
Sam.
Hi Samir,
Thanks for the comments and extra tips! I especially like the idea of having a tiny (low-powered) magnet for pulling (or rescuing lost) screws. It sure beats holding a splayed iMac upright and shaking screws out. =)
Congratulations on the successful surgery! Hopefully your iMac is running faster with that 1TB hard drive.
I replaced the HD in my white 17″ Intel iMac this morning. Since your blog comes up as one of the first results in Google, I hope you don’t mind me adding notes from my experience.
I recommend putting a pillow under the body of the iMac. Helps it lie flat and not stress the leg/foot.
You will need a #8 Torx screwdriver – all the screws you deal with are #8. If you have a screw & socket driver set, it probably won’t work. The screws on the LCD assembly are about an inch down in there, you need some reach into a skinny space.
I recommend a magnetic screwdriver. Again, the screws for the LCD are down in there; it is easy to drop one, and then it is a pain to fish out. I didn’t have a magnetic screwdriver and I ended up putting a tiny piece of that gummy rubber stuff they use to stick gift cards to cardboard inside the screw head – it worked very nicely.
On the topic of gift cards: I recommend a gift card or credit card as one of your tools. It is useful in working the metal tape loose and then sticking it back together. I was able to get away with only a couple tiny tears. I didn’t bother with electrical tape to put it all back together; I just stuck it back to itself.
Dealing with the metal tape that covers everything is a _PAIN_! Definitely the majority of my time was spent working it free and then keeping it out of the way when reassembling. If you’re not patient: 1. Don’t try this procedure at all. 2. You might be better off just ripping it and going with tape to hold everything together.
I unplugged the temperature sensor before removing the drive. Outside the machine, I was much more willing to pry and gouge it off with a screwdriver than when it was inside. I was able to keep enough of the glue on the temp. sensor that I just stuck it on my new drive with no tape.
Watch your cable routing when reassembling. My SATA power cable wound up outside the black handle and I had to take the handle off again to reroute the cable.
I put in a 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.12. $60 from Newegg. This drive has only one platter and is thinner that the original drive; hopefully that will allow better airflow and not mess up the airflow.
The process took me about 2 hours, most of that was spent CAREFULLY working the tape apart. OS is installing now.
Jason,
Thanks for the pics and info. I just replaced a failing drive in my 24″ with no trouble whatsoever. The patient is conscious and responding well to cloning.
Cheers,
-c
Hey Chrissy – that’s great news! I’m glad everything went well. =)
Jason, below is a list of Seagate Barracuda’s (the drive in my 2006 Intel iMac). Will all these fit, connections good, or is there certain tech language to get the right type.
I have never dealt with these type of hard drives before. And your help would be much appreciated. Thanks
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=50001305%2040000014&Manufactory=1305&bop=And&SpeTabStoreType=0&Order=PRICED
Hey Dave,
All you need to worry about is whether your iMac uses SATA drives or older ATA. Seeing that it’s a 2006 iMac, you can use any SATA drive you want. There’s no need to stick with Seagate. I’d suggest you go with one of these drives (depending on your budget):
500GB – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136320
1TB – http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284
Personally, I’d go with the 1TB drive just for sheer awesomeness. Study the SATA drives listed on newegg.com and pick one that you feel has the right tech specs and has excellent customer ratings.
Good luck!
Thanks Jason, I went with the WD 1TB you recommend. 160 to 1000 GB, I am glad my HD failed, just hope Time Machine backup goes well. We will see
Jason,
I have an iMac, 24″ white Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 GHz (iMac6,1). Can you tell me if I can install a 1.5 TB drive? I’ve read different comments on various websites but can’t get a clear answer.
Thank you,
Pat
Hi Patric – You should be fine with a 1.5TB SATA drive in your iMac. My only suggestion is to make sure that you read reviews about the drive you plan to use before actually buying it. There have been numerous failures reported with the 1.5TB drives currently on the market. It’s a problem with the drive and most certainly not the iMac.
Western Digital has a 1TB drive that’s earned a great reputation. Check it out. (I’d rather give up the extra 500GB for 2x stability and peace of mind. But that’s just me.)
If you’re firm about the 1.5TB option, I would recommend using TimeMachine and/or Mozy (free or paid) for super-secure backups. I hope that helps. =)
Jason,
I am getting ready to do a drive swap on a 20″ 2.16 gHz imac.
The drive is dead and doesn’t show up using disk tools or disk warrior. Just a “?”.
I had used time machine a week ago and it has the whole drive on it. Can I use this to put it all back
together? ANy suggestions would be great.
Thanks
Will Brecht
Hi Will,
It’s a really good thing you’ve got a recent TimeMachine backup. Yes, you can use the TM backup drive to recover all your files, emails, etc.
Apple has a simple instruction set telling you how to recover your OS X installation, settings, etc. Check it out. So long as the TM backup was done properly and nothing failed mid-backup, you should be able to recover everything quickly and easily.
If there’s any problem with the backup, my suggestion would be to do the full clean installation of OS X, install your programs, etc. You may need to call companies like Adobe, FileMaker and the like if you were unable to deactivate software – they’ll usually give you a courtesy deactivation over the phone so you don’t go over your installation limits. Once that’s done, then you can connect the TM backup drive and simply drag&drop your documents, images, music, etc. from the TM backup folders to their respective homes on your newly installed OS X drive. The only trouble with this method is that you’ll have to reconfigure apps like Mail; but even that dark cloud has a silver lining. Most apps have preference files that can be copied over, saving you at least an hour or two of setup time.
Anyway, the likelihood is that your recovery from the TM disk will be an automated success. Good luck!
On another note – hook up with mozy.com (free service up to 2GB) for backups of Mail, AddressBook and any other critical file sets. Losing a week’s worth of data can be pretty harsh, which is why TimeMachine is only so good as your last backup. Mozy runs in the background and backs up your data at least once a day. On several of my servers and on my MacBook Pro, Mozy backs up all my critical data 3-4 times per day. I could lose a computer daily and even my most recent data would never be at risk. That’s my unabashed plug for Mozy.
I finally did the swap! I just formatted the new drive and am installing leopard. though i may clear that and just restore. i’m hoping it says “are there any files you’d like to transfer over” or some such business. if not i’ll clear it, restore, then upgrade, which i meant to do in the first place. i just got confused because i forgot i had to format the drive before i could do anything.
in any event i took it apart and put it back together and nothing caught fire!
though the insides of my duo core intel look considerably different from yours for some reason! i had to take out almost everything to get to the screws holding the drive in place! but i kept everything well organized and was able to get it all back where it needs to be. and it was able to boot from my bu drive and from the install cd so i’m taking those as good signs!
in any event thanks again!
just an update, i noticed that my monitor is a little dim toward the top and the fan doesn’t seem to be spinning down [could that be because of the electrical tape?] minor things though as long as they won’t cause any damage. i’m just glad to have a computer again instead of just a shell! i’ll see if i can link to a picture of how weird my computer looked inside too.
ohhh that little thing i unscrewed with the copper piping…*cough* the heat sink*cough*…i probably should have made sure it was screwed back in.
mine looks like this [it was in the way of the HD screws]:
http://cgi.ebay.com/APPLE-IMAC-INTEL-CORE-DUO-2-GHZ-LOGIC-BOARD-661-3380_W0QQitemZ120400472502QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090402?IMSfp=TL090402151004r32583#ebayphotohosting
like a moron i jumped in and unscrewed everything: http://twitpic.com/421md
looks like i’m headed back in!
sorry for all the posts, just readers be wary that there’s a few different models out there with stuff in different spots!
Did your webcam work after this? We’ve just upgraded with a 1TB hard drive which is great but now the iSight is broken.
Hi Maggie. I sounds as if the iSight connection to the logicboard was somehow disconnected while the case was open. If you have the time, I’d open the case back up and see if there’s not a loose wire. Check my photos above to see a few indirect shots of how the iSight camera is attached to the case and logicboard. Yours should be easy to fix so long as you can trace down whatever got wiggled loose. =)
Hi Jason,
This page is a life saver! Thank you for setting this pageup!
I am also planning to upgrade my intel iMac core2duo 2006 to a 1TB HDD. I have read all the above but only am not sure how the cloning of old HDD to the new HDD. I have an external HDD from LaCie 500GB with Firewire 400/800. Is there any backup software that i can backup the entire content of my old HDD to the LaCie then restore the content to my new HDD once I have finished the upgrade and reinstall the Mac OSX? Why I want to do this instead of your option above because my old HDD is failing. I don’t want to use it in the cloning process because I will be in trouble if my old HDD fails in the middle of the cloning. If, in your experience, my hardwares above will now cook my soup then can you please explain a bit more of your method of cloning in terms of hardware required (I see that you involved another laptop while cloning. I have another MacBook too) and the wire connection. I have not used any cloning software before. Trillion Thanks!!!
Hi Jason, this just serves as an update.
I read about the startup disk function and therefore set out to clone the old drive to my 500GB LaCie. The iMac (HD) failed to boot for a about 50 tries then suddenly it started to load the OS. So I was able to clone the old HD to the LaCie using firewire 400. When I started the surgery on replacing the old HD with the new 1TB Seagate 7200.12, I found that the removing of tin foil was apparently more cumbersome than I thought and the position of the hardwares inside my iMac was a bit different from your illustration but the logic is the same when removing the HD. Probably because my iMac is from Hong Kong. After the surgery, I have boot up the iMac using the LaCie and format the new HD and clone back everything from LaCie to the new HD. The transfer (1hour 20 mins) was instantly faster than the old HD which spent about 3 hours in the cloning process. The Carbon Copy Cloner works wonder! Performance, e.g. load time, increased when using Aperture in handling large size photos. Thanks again for your work on this page. The cost of the 1TB HD was just under $100 and the torx screw driver and types amounted to around $110 which is a lot cheaper than to throw it back in for the repair!!!
Hey William,
I’m glad you got the old drive cloned and replaced without any trouble or data loss. It’s not surprising to me that the internals of the iMac would be a little different for machines used in different countries. Luckily, things are similar enough to illustrate the most important steps of swapping the drive. Anyway, congratulations on the clean swap and rescuing all your data. =)
Check out Onyx for your iMac. It’ll help keep your OS X installation & system caches clean, and it has helpful disk-checking features. Onyx is free.
Hi Jason,
My wife’s IMAC G5 Isight 17″ (pre Intel Core) finally gave up the ghost on the hard drive. It had been acting up, hanging, etc. We use that mac to sync our itunes and photos. I have 5 networked computers at home – two of them are macs. I use Super Duper to back up all her files to two separate hard drives. Of course, I used the excuse to get her a new IMAC and simply restored her files from the backup. The new IMAC 20 inch was a breeze to install.
I figure I’ll use the 17 inch as another networked computer in the house, so I ordered a hard drive. I began to take the machine apart and realized that because mine is an “isight”, it’s a different animal from the standard G5. The do it yourself instructions from Apple for the G5 hard drive installation do not apply here! I saw the wires going to the isight camera and got scared. I quickly put the cover back on and sealed it back up. I was about to pay a local repair company 200 bucks flat rate to swap out the drive for me until I ran into your website. You have given me enough confidence to do this on my own (maybe). Besides, as several people have mentioned, by the time you add up the repair and the hard drive, i could probably buy the same model rebuilt on EBAY complete with OS and applications for less than the repair + hard drive. I’m still a little nervous about attempting it because mine is the pre intel core and might be slightly different from the one you have pictured here.
I am of the same mindset, why not fix it? Heck, I have a Windows 98 computer downstairs that my kids still use for papers, email, & a little bit of web stuff. It works great especially if you don’t do any windows updates!
After reading all these comments, I feel like a wimp for only going with 250 Gig, but of course I have multiple tarabytes networked all over the house.
Thanks for documenting this. You have done everyone a great service and saved people a lot of money.
Dirk
Hey Dirk, you shouldn’t feel nervous about opening up that 17″ iMac and swapping out the hard drive. $200 is a LOT to pay someone to do it for you, especially when it’s so easy to handle it yourself.
Even though the internals are arranged differently than the Intel iMac shown above, the basic theory is exactly the same. So long as you unplug it, operate slowly and methodically (don’t yank or rush) and you’re not prone to serious butter-fingers moments, everything should be fine. And you know, if you really get stuck, you can either undo the steps you took or give in to the $200 fee (even though it’s high and should be haggled down by at least 50%).
When you open the case and spot the iSight wires, see if you can either a) trace where the wires originate and temporarily detach the wires (only if they can be reseated easily, not if they’re soldered) and reseat them when you’re putting the case back together, or b) try to prop the front panel against something solid, thereby avoiding the need to detach the iSight wires. That’s what I did above – option b – and it worked just fine. Your G5 iMac should be somewhat similar to this.
As for the 250GB, it sounds fine for the setup you have, especially with all the other networked systems. Anyway, good luck with the drive swap!
Jason,
Thanks so much. I am waiting for my replacement drive to arrive and you have me convinced to give it a try. Besides, I’m always up for a challenge. I will report to you on how it went. I might take some pictures and send them to you and report what I find during the process. That might benefit anyone who is working with the pre-Intel based IMAC G5s. Literally, about a month after I bought the thing, they came out with the Intel based macs – DOH! I totally agree with you on the fact that 200 is too much, but I guess everyone needs to make a living. When I asked the tech about what material he would use to replace the silver tape and would it be like factory, I never got an answer. We both know they are no more qualified than we are to go inside of that thing. For 200 bucks, I’m expecting a factory like rebuild with a warranty on the work – that ain’t happening.
You’ve done such a good job with this website and I hope I can add some findings to it. Now I am more than curious about how the isight camera is seated.
By the way, I noticed we have the same taste in granite counter tops. Is it “Venetian Gold” by chance? I’m also a hobbyist wannabe chef on the weekends.
Thanks again,
Dirk
Hi Jason:
Over the weekend, I performed the surgery on the pre-intel IMAC 17 inch Isight. You were right. It was easier than expected. I used the exact same Torex Driver you used from Home Depot. (yellow one for 9.99). It’s the perfect size for this job. I did find that my camera was connected with two connectors with a piece of transparent yellow tape around the connections. I replaced that with a little electrical tape.
Everything went fine. Like some of the other contributors, I only had one problem. I lost one of the screws down inside – that was a real pain. It finally rolled out of there after holding the thing over my head 50 times. It’s amazing everything is working after that! I ended up buying one of those little magnetizer things from Home depot for 3 bucks. It’s a little red sqare piece of plastic for magnetizing and demagnetizing. You magnetize the end of the torx head before putting the screws back in. That alone would have saved me two hours. Everyone seems to be a little paranoid about magnetizing, but the remote itself is magnetized to the side of the IMAC and I had no problems.
While I was in there, I removed the fan and the two speakers and used a can of compressed air to clean the dust bunnies. Why not, right?
I would recommend a couple of things for anyone else doing this type of IMAC. Wrap the metal base with a cloth before resting the screen on there. I have a small scratch on the screen, but not sure if I did that or it was already there. Magnetize the torex head before removing and replacing the 4 screws that hold the screen in there. Take the opportunity to blow out the dust from the fan. And of course, as Jason says, take your time with it and be patient.
The MAC is working perfectly downstairs, camera works, ethernet , and wireless works perfectly. The Tiger OS and all upgrades are installed. The copy of MS Office is installed as well. Without your great work on this site, I would have never attempted it myself. THANK YOU!
My wife is really scratching her head now. She asks me why I needed to buy a new IMAC if you were able to fix my old one? Oh well, she’s catching on. (two imacs is better than one).
Thanks Jason.
Dirk
Hi Jason,
I was doing some research on replacing my isight camera on my IMAC. I just wanted to let you know I found your sight to be extremely informative, much more than the apple.support.forum. Although no one’s posted a similar
problem, I will know where to go if I ever need it.
Very impressed!
Cindy
Hey Cindy, thanks for your nice comments. I’m glad you found this site useful. =)
Hi Jason,
I wanted to leave you one more update. Your site has been extremely useful to me. It ended up that I still can’t see the new internal Sata Drive, but yet I am able to see it on a USB dock and format it using another computer (new leopard). In any case, I purchased a Firewire 400 / USB enclosure and am using that as the boot drive. I am actually surprised by how well the firewire seems to perform. It is possible to run an IMAC without an internal drive at all. I found this out on another thread. It’s also possible that the part on the mother board that controls the internal sata drive doesn’t function, but all other functions work. (USB, firewire, etc). My last attempt to make the internal Sata work is replacing the Sata ribbon cable from the mother board to the internal Sata. If that doesn’t work, my set up will be an external 250 Gig firewire 400 boot drive and the back up drive will be the same 250 Gig on USB. It seems to work perfectly. If I get lucky and it ends up being the cable, I will let you know. Thanks to you, I can disassemble and assemble an IMAC G5 Isight in my sleep! Thanks agan,
Dirk
Hi Dirk,
The internal SATA thing sounds odd. You may already know this, but in order to install Leopard, it’s necessary to change the default partition table to GUID and format. If you did that and the internal drive is still acting up, something must be disconnected or loose – the SATA cable or power cable to the hard drive.
Running OS X on an external drive is surprisingly easy. The OS runs quite well – much better than one would expect. Of course, FireWire is better for this task than USB 2.0.
=)
Hi Jason. Thanks, yes the Internal SATA thing is weird. I had no problem with the Leopard format GUID. The Tiger install sees it no problem (installing it in the firewire enclosure). I am waiting to receive the new Sata cable. I’m interested in your opinion on this. I see the internal SATA every time when I run Disk Utility, but when I run the installer it never sees the drive. I’m leaning towards an intermittant connection with the data cable vs. power cable. I guess I’m thinking if it were intermittant DC power, I would not see the drive consistently in the Disk Utility? In any case, I’m giving myself one more time to go in there. It’s certainly possible that I could have damaged the SATA Data cable – it looks pretty fragile. One more thing, it turns out that I never had an actual hard disk problem. I formatted my original drive in the BlackX USB device and wrote to it no problem. So, whatever is causing the drive to act up is either controller related (mother board) or cable related, or perhaps DC Power card related. I should just run the thing with the external firewire drives, but I’m stubborn and want to figure out the problem! Thanks again.
Dirk
Hi Jason,
I took my 2 year old 24″ iMac to Frys to have them replace the dead hard drive. They wouldn’t do it since it is no longer under warranty and they told me to take it to Apple. Apple wanted $250 and only guaranteed the drive for 90 days. I then ordered a Western Digital Black Caviar 500GB HD from Newegg. I called an Apple certified repair center and talked to a man who called me “computer illiterate” after I described some of the symptoms and actions I had taken to try to figure out why my mac was freezing up constantly and eventually did not reboot from the install disk. His insulting comments and your excellent step by step instructions gave me the confidence to tackle the replacement myself.
Thanks to your wonderful tutorial, pictures and hints from other posters the surgery was successful! My iMac is up and running perfectly!
I also was very happy to find that there was no “tin-foil like metal sheeting” to remove on my model.
I just want to say Thank You!
How ’bout moving the Boot Camp partition from the original drive?
Hey Cathy – congratulations!
I love hearing things like this – not the trouble or insults you experienced, of course, but how anyone with a little determination can accomplish what “tech authorities” say can’t or shouldn’t be done.
Whenever I hear someone giving defeatist hardware or software advice, I simply hear someone unwittingly explaining what they don’t understand. There’s almost always a solution – you just have to give a damn.
Anyway, congrats again on the successful hard drive transplant. =)
Jason,
Thanks for this post I have successfully replaced the hard drive in my daughter’s imac. The drive was physically damaged somehow (the one I replaced) I used a software program to recover the data from the damaged drive and have it on an external hard drive. I choose to install osx from scratch because of some of the errors that the software described in some of the folders. I am a windows guy and am not familiar with the standard apple directories. The USER directory on the replaced drive came through completely copied or at least the directory sizes that same. Could I copy the user directory from the external hard drive to the newly laid down OS and restore my daughters pics and flicks, without causing other problems?
I need to replace my hard drive, per the error report & the Genius Bar. I have an iMac iSight 17″ model num A1144.
I don’t have to do it myself, but would like to know what type of hard drive I need get to replace it. Apple said bring it to them and they’d charge $300. Surely, I can purchase one and have it installed by a Mac Approved computer place. I plan on selling it, but can’t (won’t) in good conscience do so with a bad HD. Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated!
Hi Leah,
Verify that your iMac has a SATA hard drive by clicking on the Apple at the top left corner of your scree, then click “About this Mac”, then “More Info”. On the left margin you’ll see a bunch of items listed. The second to the last item under “Hardware” should be “Serial-ATA”. If so, then you should be able to place any SATA hard drive into your 17″ iMac. Check newegg.com for SATA hard drives. You’ll find dozens of good options. Look for drives with the best customer ratings.
Jason
Thank you kind Sir!
I’ve just replaced my HD for 500GB hitachi deskstar as the originals write speed had slowed to a snails pace. Disassembled my 17″ intel imac without any problems but cannot locate the heat sensor in fact it looks like there has never been one! and I’m guessing this is why the original failed? Also if Apple have neglected to fit a heat sensor does anyone know whether apple are liable?
Jason,
Thanks for the great guide regarding replacing the harddrive in an iMac. I have the 2006 24″ 2.33GHz with 500GB and I will be needing a 1TB (or 2TB – whynot?) However, I have been fearing the process of opening/closing the iMac enclosure, and your posting encourage me
I have been replacing harddrives numerous times in several MACs, My 2006 MacBook Pro is now on it’s 3rd HD (started with 120GB, now it is a WD Scrorpio Blue 500GB).
Having read through this thread (with many pieces of great advice from many people) I would like to add my own experience regarding MAC harddrive maintenance, repairs to malfunctioning harddrive, rescuing of data from harddrive, and the cloning process.
One key piece of software that has been with me for the last 12 – 13 years is http://www.alsoft.com/DiskWarrior/ It is the best US$100 I have ever spent. Start your your MAC from the DiskWarrior disk (Ctrl+C) (will take a long time, so be patient) and run the main application (will take considerable time) which will end in an optimized directory of your harddisk, and it will perform necessary repairs if anything is wrong. If it finds serious problems, it will allow you to SCAVENGE the data on the harddisk over to another MAC. It might therefore be an idea to have another MAC, e,g. a MacBook available and ready to copy the data over to this machine. It may be necessary to use FireEire Target mode and hook the two machines together. (It is better to pair Power PC Macs only with Power PC Macs and Intel Macs only with Intel Macs since cross-pairing may cause various problems). I had one particular experience with a friend’s PowerBook harddrive crash and I hooked up to it via FireWire Target mode from my PowerBook TI running DiskWarrior and successfully scavenged the data over to the TI; then the PowerBook with the bad harddrive was sent to Apple and came back with a blank, new drive, and I hooked up to the TI via FireWire Target mode again and copied the data back to the new drive, VOILA!
One more thing I recommend all MAC users to practise continuously is to start up your Disk Utilities applications (supplied with your MAC) inside the Applications/Utilities folder and run Repair Permissions on your harddrive. This should probably be done quite frequently, and probably every time before you clone your harrdrive content over to another harddrive (for good measure, you should then probably also run DiskWarrior before the cloning takes place. Just make sure everything is as good as it can be.
Like Jason and many others in this thread has mentioned, the most recommended way to clone over the contents of your harddrive is to use the http://www.bombich.com Carbon Copy Cloner application, and be sure to donate some to Mike for his great work (I have made it a habit to donate some after every successful cloning process that I do).
After the harddrive is safely replaced inside your original MAC, you will have to reset the startup disk with the new disk, and you may also have to enter serial numbers of many softwares who sense that they have been copied.
Repair permissions again, and run DiskWarrior again.
REGARDING CHOICE OF HARDDRIVE: Over the years, I have tried many different brands of harddrives, and I have watched many of them fail. My personal conclusion is that the current generation Western Digital drives are dependable, quiet, and develop less heat (than many others). Regarding speed 4200/5400/7200/10000 my conclusion is that less speed generates less heat which again result in higher reliability. Therefore, unless you have a special need for the speed, I recommend that you choose one with moderate speed e.g. 5400 rpm which is commonly available.
Knock-on-wood; practising what I have described above (constantly repairing permissions, constantly running DiskWarrior, using FireWire Target Mode for cloning and remote repairing/scavenging with DiskWarrior when there is a problem) I have been able to live a stable MAC life, and I have also been able to replace and update my harddrives with few problems.
Again thanks to Jason for showing us how to open/close our iMacs (my next project) for replacements of harddrives.
Hi James,
It sounds pretty strange that your 17″ iMac wouldn’t have a heat sensor for the hard drive. It’s very unlikely that it was missed during manufacturing. One thing you can do is download iStat Pro from iSlayer.com (http://islayer.com/apps/istatpro/). Install the app and check the temperature readings – there should be a hard drive temp listed. If so, then you’ve got a sensor there.
As for liability, I doubt that Apple would do much beyond checking for a sensor. If one was indeed found missing, and if your iMac is under warranty, I’m sure Apple would correct the problem right away. Even if your iMac is out of warranty, they’d probably fix a missing sensor anyway.
Even if there’s no sensor, I’d doubt that the iMac would overheat to a point where your hard drive would fail. There are other fans that would continue to run and sufficiently cool off the interior of the iMac.
Hello Jason and thanks for the swift reply.I’ve installed iStat and it is indeed giving temperature and speed readings for both the HD and the fans. I dismantled my imac once more just to check whether the sensor was loose somewhere but found nothing. Does your sensor plug into the top of the circuit board or is it underneath?, the sensor on my optical drive plugs in the top. Thanks James.
Hello again just checked the specs on my new HD and the sensor is internal so I’m guessing it was on the other too! Thanks James.
Thank you for All of the responses. I am “new” to this unit and have the opportunity to buy one for $650 but want to upgrade the hard drive to 500 for “media production”. Where can I get one at best price and brand and what is the “media production software” for a reasonable price and from who?
Again, I thank you.
Richard
Is it possible to put OS X 4.11 on a usb thumb drive and boot from it after I replace the hdd in my early 06 intel imac? I purchased a usb iomega desktop drive and it is responding like tar in the winter. I don’t think that I’ll be able to use it to boot from after the swap out. Also my os is 10.4.11 and my startup disk is 10.4.4.. When I start up with the disk after the swap out will I be able to get back to my 10.4.11?
Hey Mark,
Yes, it’s possible to put OS X on a thumb drive and boot from it. It’s not very quick, but it certainly works. Check out this post I shared last year:
http://jasontomczak.com/2008/04/28/booting-os-x-on-a-32gb-usb-flash-drive/
Just so you know, (in my experiences) USB is pretty darned slow when it comes to running an OS. I always suggest using FireWire for booting an external OS, but it’s always a matter of personal preference and whatever drives you have laying around.
If you re-install OS X, you’ll need to run Software Update to get back from 10.4.4 to 10.4.11.
Good luck!
Nice job.. I probably wouldn’t have tried to tackle this without your step by step. How did you get the Torx screws back in.. they are deep with no way to start them. They drop in and are gone, rolling around underneath the monitor. I’ve left them off for now and have the case back on.. the hard drive I purchased on Ebay listed this model, but sent me a laptop HD.. so I get to take it apart again when I get the correct HD. Thanks, Jay
Hi Jason,
I have just had a fiddle with my wife’s iMac as it stopped responding, all I get on start up is (eventually) a grey screen & folder with question mark (can’t find the OS?). I started up with a system disk and ran disk utils, and indeed, it can’t see the installed hard drive. If I enter single user mode on a start from system disk, it acknowledges there is a spot for the hard drive, but says drive not ready. I understand it may be as a result of a number of things, loose cable, corrupt o.s or failed hard drive. I pulled everything apart, undid the drive and put it back in again, but no better (no loose cables I guess). I think I read it may even be a logic board problem? The machine is under a second-hand warranty (not a mac one) so I don’t think I’ve voided that yet, my problem is I need to ship it (at my expense) back to the other side of the country to make use of the warranty, which I think would only be of any use if it is the LoBo, if it is the drive, I’d rather put in a new 1TB drive myself than have them put in a 250GB warranty one. What do you (and anyone else) think? My wife also (of course) has some very important (sentimental) photos on the drive, it sounds to me when it starts up, the drive starts to spin up, but then clicks and stops, tries this 3 times, then stops for a few minutes before trying again, this sort of suggests to me the drive hasn’t physically fallen apart inside….or not totally anyway….? So my options are,
*do I just replace the drive myself and try to access the old one through an external enclosure (although when I tried to set it as a target disk with f/w connection in current imac, it couldn’t be seen)
*take it to the local mac shop and see if they can work out what’s wrong and have them fix it or swap the drives, and recover the photos…(unless it’s the motherboard….)
*spend $50 and ship it for a warranty check, hoping they honour the warranty and replace the offending part and request/beg/insist/(hope) that they return the old drive so I can get someone here to have a go at recovery….
Hi Andrew,
The very first thing I would suggest is to pull the hard drive from the iMac and place it in some sort of drive dock and connect it to another Mac. See if the drive spins up and can be read on another computer. If so, your data should be safe. If it won’t spin up, then the drive could be toast.
Doing the same thing in Target Mode is great if all the parts are known to be in good working condition. If any critical hardware is faulty, then Target Mode will not work.
Once you know what to expect from the existing hard drive, you can then make the right move – logic board repair/replacement, new hard drive, etc. Personally, I wouldn’t send the iMac off till you attempt recovering data from the pulled drive.
And now for a Public Service Announcement: this is another demonstration of the superior value of the Mozy online backup service. $45 per year (or less if you can find an online coupon) saves you from serious data recovery headaches.
Thanks Jason, yes, I know of mozy, and use their free service, but we get 20GB a day of photos to put through it, and it can’t keep up with the constant uploading, just found out tonight our next 1TB b/up is full too! So (clutching at straws here) it MAY be the logic board?
I have an eMac and a powerbook as well as the …resting.. iMac, could I stick the drive into the eMac and try that as a target? I don’t have any 3.5 inch housings.
Just found an old enclosure, but it’s usb,so won’t be able to use in target mode. But I’ll give it a go, and see at least what sort of sound it makes…
And thanks for your help, really nice to know there’s someone around to help! (And listen).
Ahhh, ok. So it was an OLD enclosure, it was never going to fit was it… Back to the eMac-as-an-enclosure idea? Is that feasible?
Hey Andrew – You don’t necessarily need to use Target Mode to see if the data can be retrieved from the iMac’s drive. The real question isn’t whether or not you can boot that drive on another computer. The question is whether or not data can be recovered viewed and recovered from that drive.
I have a lingering doubt that the eMac solution will work, but you could always give it a try. My doubt is this – that the eMac uses a PATA drive, whereas your iMac – if recent enough – is most likely using a SATA drive. Round peg in square hole.
If I were you, I’d quickly invest $40 in an external drive dock like the BlacX or even a quad-interface dock like the NewTech Voyager. Newegg has the BlacX and some retail computer stores are starting to carry them.
I have 20+ hard drives that I need to access every once in a while (photos, videos, client data, etc.) and to simplify things, I use nothing but “internal” drives (i.e. no enclosures) and one single drive dock on my desk.
As for the 20GB of photos per day… holy crap! The most I’ve ever done was about 12GB, and that was a crazy, crazy photo shootin’ day.
P.S. You could also take your iMac’s drive down to the local Mac shop and ask them to see if they can connect the drive to one of their computers just to see if the drive is working or dead. They’d probably do it for free as it’d take less than 5 minutes.
I did grab a dock, thanks, quite right, now that you have given me the courage to completely void the warranty I may as well go all out! Just need to find a quiet moment…I got a new dock for AU$40 and 2x 1TB drives for AU$110 ea, figured it may as well start its new life with a bigger drive, either way. My wife takes a lot of photos (semi pro) and easily does a few 8gb cards in a shoot. I might try to spin it up in the dock but will take it down the road for a second opinion. Hopefully then just clone it all over following your steps above. I know you can’t wait to find out what happens
so I’ll let you know when I get a chance.
Well, the new 1TB drive was the easy part, thanks to this page!!! Thanks very much Jason. Glad I didn’t send it back under warranty, however the old drive is making a very expensive sound, whrrrrrrrrr clunk, whrrrrrrrr clunk…… looks like I’m up for $1000 or so to get some pics back. Didn’t try the freezer trick, or whacking it, I think a rebuild in a clean room is the only way
. But, Thanks again for giving me a shiny new clean iMac with heaps of room (that will always be backed up). And for everything else, I’ll revisit mozy and see what’s new there…
Thank you so much very informative worked like a charm….Kinda sad that there is so little out there on how to replace hard drive for a Mac. Betcha I could find out where Hoffa is buried vs any help from the Mac website. Thanks again for posting this.
Recently, I purchased an (ab)used IMac A 1208 from a local person who shall remain nameless and when I tried to boot it up, it just sat there and glared at me. I called in a geek friend of mine who tried the same thing I had and when he took it apart, he told me the logic board was fried.
The person who sold it refuses to give my money back so it looks like I’m stuck with the damn thing.
Unless I can find a new or used or rebuilt logic board for a reasonable cost. The people at the local apple store want $1000.00 in advance to “fix” it with no guarantee because a “non-authorized” person took it apart first, to which I asked, “What difference does that make?” Their answer, “Because.”
I bought the damn thing because I want to combine some of my windows apps to mac and have them work the first time, which according to what I’ve been told, will happen.
Any thoughts, or do I just throw it out the back door and start over?
Ken
Hey Ken,
What a total bummer about the busted iMac. I sure hope you didn’t pay a lot for it. Hopefully your geek friend correctly pinpointed the problem to the logicboard. It would be a shame to replace it and find that something else was fried.
Anyway, $1000 to fix a logicboard in an older iMac is an unadulterated ripoff. You can pick up a perfect-condition 20″ iMac from the Apple refurb store for $999, and it comes with a full year of AppleCare. Don’t waste your $$ on a repair like that.
I’d check eBay and some other online sources for replacement logicboards. Typically, they’re pretty expensive – like $400 to $800. You should, however, be able to find something for less.
If you give up on the machine, don’t throw it away. There are plenty of ways to give it a second life – donate it to a charity, part it out, sell it to someone who’d make a project out of it, etc.
Good luck!
Sorry I read through all the questions but still wasn’t clear about one thing. After I install the new HarDrive do I need to clone an older drive or can i just put in the leopard and it’ll install on its own?
D. Rob – that’s completely up to you – just make sure all your data is backed up properly on an external drive.
If you want to start fresh with a new installation of Leopard, then there’s no need to re-clone the backup drive onto the new hard drive in your iMac. Just install Leopard on the new/blank drive and then either a) transfer your files over from the backup drive using the account transfer wizard, or b) manually copy files over from the backup drive once Leopard has finished installing.
The benefit to cloning the old/backup drive is that you don’t need to install stuff again. The risk is that you may clone in the wrong direction and wipe out your data accidentally. (It’s rare, but it has happened.)
The benefit to doing a fresh installation is that everything is installed in pristine condition – no potential for faulty preference files, etc. New installations of Leopard are typically lightning fast, clean and chock full of geeky goodness.
If you’re going to install Leopard from zero, why not spend $30 at your local computer store and get Snow Leopard? It’s worth it. =)
Good luck!
Hi Jason,
Thanks for the great site. I’ve had my iMac apart before and all I remember is how hard it was to get the metal clips at the top back in place. Any tips?
I’m going to replace the HD and also a faulty iSight board. For the HD my plan is to plug the new drive in externally (via USB because I have an adapter for that) and clone it, the do the swap. Any software recommendations?
Hi Mark,
Getting the iMac case back together requires some pretty exact “putting it back exactly the way it was” patience and precision. If the factory workers in China can do it, so can geeks like us. I remember my iMac case being a little snug in areas, but then I noticed that the metal foil was uneven, thicker in some spots where it had been thinner before. Unfolding the foil a little brought it back to it’s original state before I opened the case. That kind of thing should help, though your issue may be different.
As for backup/clone software, I really like using Carbon Copy Cloner. It’s free (donations suggested and very appreciated, i”m sure). You can find it at versiontracker.com.
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A question if you can answer? In replacing my early 2006 i mac hard drive, if I use a sata 2 will it run at 3.0 gb per sec or 1.5? Thanks for any assistance if you can
Hi Jenne,
Both the 17″ and 20″ iMacs from early 2006 run at 1.5Gbps SATA, so if you buy a 3Gbps SATA II drive, it’ll run smoothly at 1.5Gbps in your iMac. Personally, I’d buy SATA II because a) you can always use that drive in another iMac some day, b) faster is better, c) the newer drives typically have more cache, etc.
I hope that helps. =)
Hi Jason, what are minimum specs needed for a replacement iMac hardrive for this model?
Thanks,
Jay
Hi Jay,
Pretty much any 3.5″ SATA hard drive will do. You could go with an older SATA drive (why?), or go big with a more updated and higher capacity SATA II drive, like a 1TB drive. Budget is up to you. Check newegg.com for drives that get the highest customer ratings. There are lots of awesome drives are under the $99 mark.
Jason
Great! thanks for advice.. I wasn’t clear if it needed a special iMac drive or something.. good chance to upgrade..thanks alot. I’ll be back to this walkthrough when I need to figure out how to put this thing back together.
Thanks for the tips. Going to try installing OS now. Cheers! Ken
Thank your for the great guide. While I am upgrading my white Intel 2Ghz Core 2 Duo iMac to a 1TB SATA I was thinking about replacing the optical disc. It seems to have issues burning discs that have become worse recently.
It is a Pioneer DVR-K06 which seems to be hard to locate except for “refurbished” used drives. Would you know of any other potential replacements? The slot loading Pioneer DVR-K05 appears similar in photos.
Thanks again for all the great tips,
-Ed
Hi Jason,
Bought my daughter a macbook to take to school last month. She slipped last week and it fell into a puddle. She took it to the apple store in nashville and they said water damage and 1200 to fix.
is it pointless for me to try to take it apart and look for some obvious corrosion? whatcha think?
another jay
Hey Jay,
Wow – sorry to hear about the MacBook/puddle incident. Is it a white/black MacBook or one of the new aluminum ones? How wet did it get? Did you or your daughter try to turn it on while it was wet?
As for the $1200 to repair it, that’s insane. You can pick up a unibody MacBook for $900. Why pay more than the replacement value?
If it was my MacBook, I would definitely do everything possible to fix it myself. Your warranty is history now, so what’s the worst that could happen?
I’d be inclined to dry it out before attempting to turn it on, run any power to it, etc. If the laptop was soggy, I’d open the case and try to lift moisture with an absorbent cloth… something akin to a shamwow would b great. I’d also blast the heck out of it with a can of compressed air.
One cheap way of drying out electronics/gadgets is to get a 2-3lb bag of white rice – the cheap kind from a supermarket. Place your MacBook in a shallow cardboard box and bury it in the rice for a couple days. The rice acts as a natural desiccant and will pull a certain amount of moisture from inside the MacBook. If it’s really wet in there, the rice may not work, but if the moisture level is low, the rice could do the trick.
After that, I’d see if the laptop will boot. If not, I’d pull the hard drive and see if data can be recovered. If so, great. If not, ouch.
Two suggestions for the future – 1) mozy.com for data backups, and 2) most homeowners/renters insurance policies will allow for laptop coverage (a rider) for a very small additional fee (like $50/yr). I have all my hardware covered just in case. You should check it out for future peace of mind.
If the MacBook cannot be resurrected, then you may be able to recover some costs by parting it out. If it’s the white one, I may be able to help.
Good luck!!
thanks jason,
its the aluminum one. i think the people at the mac store tried to power it up when she took it in. i just got it in the mail today from her. guess i’ll see what i can do. really appreciate your answers and the time you took!
jay
hey jason,
i mentioned this incident to a friend and he said to check with my credit card company, some companies with give warranty protection for a period of time.
i checked and my company will cover up to $1000 if it is stolen or damaged within 90 days. woo hoo!!
so the pain is lessened….. thanks again for your help!!
Jay – that’s awesome news! I’m very impressed with your CC company. What awesome support!
Hi.
Thanks for the tutorial.
I’ve replaced the HDD in a 17″ Intel iMac and it’s working fine.
As another poster mentioned though, the iMac’s fan is now continuously running on high from ~2-3 seconds after the initial touch of the power button.
I’ve opened up the unit again and can’t find any loose wires/sensors.
It must either be something I’ve done or a hardware/software setting on the unit as the fan was quiet prior to the HDD replacement.
The HDD replacement was done due to physical failure.
FWIW, according to the iStat widget
Temps
HDD 31 C
CPU 37-40
Amb 23
GPU 38
Mem Controller 34
Optical drive 27
Fans
Optical 999rpm
hard drive 5597
CPU fan 1002
CPU usages is approx 1-2 percent (nothing intensive going on, not even Spotlight indexing.
The HDD is in two partitions – 250 GB for OSX (HFS+), 250GB for data (that side is currently formatted FAT).
I just checked with the computer running/case open (careful!) and the HDD fan is DEFINITELy the culprit.
Any idea on how to slow it back down to idle?
Thanks again!
Disregard!
The cable to the temp sensor LOOKED like it was all the way in, but it was a tiny bit loose.
Fixed.
Thanks.
Hey Jmac,
You took the words right out of my mouth! Those cables are so tiny and easy to leave loose. I’m glad you debugged it. =)
Jason
Jason,
The HD in my 24″ IMac was on the way out so I bought and installed a replacement 500GB Sata replacment. Open the machine and installed the drive without a problem, everything went as smooth as any HD replacement.
However, when restarting the machine after the install the only thing that happens is a blinking light at the lower right of the front panel. I can hear the DVD drive attempting to load the original system disc I inserted.. but nothing else happens.
I pulled the new drive out and re-installed the dying HD, and the drive spun up and attempted to load the OS, but I fear the drive is now kaput and I only get a flashing “question mark inside a folder” icon.
Any idea why the new drive isn’t recogninzed, or am I doing something wrong at the reboot?
Wow! those boys down at Apple really know how to keep life interesting…. Thank you SO MUCH For posting all this!!! The 20′ imac is a bit different inside, but your information got me started (when i realized i didn’t have the easy cheezy imac)
Drive is recognized, formatted, and Snow Leopard is Installing as I type…
Best of all, no screws left over!!!
I should get a damn honorary Apple service tech certification for this endeavor of silliness!
Jason . . . . I’ve just installed a 500HB Western Digital in my 17″ Duo-core Intel iMac. Ran the install DVD to the point where you need to choose were you want to install to . . . NO DRIVE LISTED. Everything grey’d out. Pulled the computer apart again, can’t find anything wrong. Turned on again and it stopped at the same point with no drive displayed. Put the old dying 160GB drive back in and it’s listed! Bummer, what am I going to do?
Put the new drive back in and started machine. Got to the point that it should display the drive and continue with the installation of Tiger. NUFFIN.
Sittng there thinking, well the mother board is OK. Must be a faulty HDD????
Cursing and swearing to myself, then looking at the screen at the top where there is only the blue apple symbol, utilities and a few other things on the bare top bar . . . clicked on Disk Utilites and then it came to me. The drive is not partitioned or formatted! I clicked on something like “Show drives” and it popped up. I partitioned the drive and re-booted. Hey presto . . it now shows when I do the Tiger instalation!
Lost one screw but new drive installed and just putting back my favorite apps.
Hope it works for you
Steve Carey
WITHAM, UK
After reading most of these posts, I felt I had found the problem with my 2006 24 inch imac. It will not boot up. If I let it try to boot into OSX, it will go thru the process and then the flowery timer thing will just freeze up after about 1 minute. When I try to boot from my Tiger install cd, after about 30 seconds, I get a message saying that I need to restart my computer by pressing and holding then power button. I don’t even get to the install options. I was convinced that it was a bad hard drive. Today, I installed a brand new Seagate 500GB hard drive and I am still having the exact same problems. Nothing has changed. Any ideas what could be causing this? I have ran the apple diagnostic utility by pressing the D key during power up and it always shows No Trouble Found. Could it be bad memory? A 3 year lifespan seems much too short for an imac. I am open to any suggestions. Thanks.
Thank you for being here….a friend asked if i could help figure out what might be wrong with his imac 7.1 and to recover data from it because yes those techs told him anywhere from $900.00 to $2700.00 to recover data and fix the white screen flashing ? Mark or apple logo with spinning. I was able to get to desk-top after rebooting several different times holding all different commands it suggested.also by keeping the power button held for a few moments..
(thing is don’t give up it took many times.)
It was also taking a long time if it did to recognize keyboard plugged mine in from my dell got it that way, then was able to put apples back in..got to disk utility by holding in power button and pressing the d key.. Verified and repaired some errors one coming up was “invalid header volume”… Made sure external was mounted. Then went to desk top. Thank goodness…wheww… Got data backed-up okay to external… Formatted and erased from internal and did fresh install.. It seemed to be okay shutdowned and restarted after let sit for awhile several times it started to act and mouse icon would spin due to freeze had to restart a few times to get it back to desktop… I am going to replace the hd. So thank you so much for your tutorial and pics i am a visual and kinestitic person plus very well self taught.. I am grateful for people like you jason and the others that found it within them to look and learn and acomplish themselves. So as i am self educating myself on this im
ac i have never owned or worked on the os is there a way to check if it is some other hardware or device failing? Wouldn’t want to do all this by opening this thing which freaked me out!!!!!! Not a screw anywhere on it but found how to take screen off to get them. Would only like to do this once to replace anything in there. How can i test for the logic board or cables and usb ports before closing very carefully. Any idea? Thank you hilairy
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Thanks for the great tutorial! My fiance’s hard drive died in her iMac. I actually did a tutorial as well with a link to your site – for those of you who like me wanted to see the disassembly part, I’ve put some pictures up in my article of how to do so for the uninitiated.
You can find the link here: http://www.futuretechsys.com/2009/10/17/how-to-replace-an-intel-imac-hard-drive-part-2/
Hi Jason, very useful instructions, thanks.
I did change the HDD on my Imac, just like you, but after I close it, when I did power on, the Imac ejected a CD which was inserted from BEFORE open it. OK, then I did try to insert the original OSX CD (for format and install) and surprise! I can’t insert any CD, I mean it’s fisically imposible, the CD just insert a half and it’s “blocked” or “braked” by some mechanism…. I don’t know… I can feel the opposite force against the CD…
I didn’t manipulate the CD unit when I change the HDD, I didn’t touch the logic board neither…
What can I do, please help me,
very thanks anticipate..
best regards
Javier
PD: excuses for my basic english.
Hey Jason,
Just wanted to say thanks for a great tutorial. Replaced my tiny little 160 GB HD with a brand new 1TB WD HD. Could not have done it without this tutorial! Thanks!!
Where can I find parts to fix a 17 in. iMac G5 (model just before the intel chip)? It is going to cost me several hundred to have the Mac store fix it. It’s several years old and out of warranty.
Hi Keri,
Not knowing which part(s) need to be replaced, I think your best resource would be ifixit.com. Check this link to 17″ iMac parts for various editions of the G5 17.
Good luck with your repairs! If the repairs look like they’ll cost more than $250 or $300, I would seriously consider getting a new Intel iMac from Apple’s refurb department. Excellent computers, same warranty, and typically very well discounted.
Jason
Hey Charles – thanks for the good news. I’m glad everything worked out well.
Jason
Hi Jason,
I have been recommended to follow your hard imac opening procedure on my girfriends computer as she keeps getting kernel panics at the white start up screen and we want to save the information on the hard drive. The computer is 3 years old and out of warranty, but this procedure still sounds pretty scary to me.
We have tried all the boot up options under the sun I think, except trying to boot from a carbon copy of my macbook pro to start disk utility. After that is getting drive out and getting the hardware repaired and the drive reinstalled the only way to go??
Thanks for any info
Sam
Hey Sam,
If you’re concerned about retaining the data on the existing drive, I would highly suggest removing the drive and putting in a new, larger SATA drive. You can get some awesome drives on Newegg.com for less than $90 including shipping. With a new, clean drive installed, see if you can install Leopard or Snow Leopard.
If the computer still won’t boot, then there may be some other faulty hardware. When you’ve got all the necessary parts replaced, boot up with a Leopard or Snow Leopard installation DVD and install a clean copy of OS X on the new drive.
Once the iMac is working properly, then you can easily connect the old hard drive externally and copy data over. I’ve done this more times than I can count. It’s the least stressful, especially if you’ve got important data to protect.
As I menitoned to Keri, be mindful of the repair costs. Anything over $250 to $300 and you’re potentially spending more than the computer is worth. Apple has some great deals on refurbished iMacs, and those iMacs will be way, way faster than your little G5.
Good luck. Feel free to ask more questions.
Jason
Hi Jason,
Thanks for your response!!
Yeah I can’t get the machine to stop panicking, it got 80% through a Carbon Copy but didn’t save all her documents, so I really want to complete that first then try and wipe it, but I can’t get the discs to read either, so reinstalling or even disc repairing/ hardware testing seems impossible.
I’ll exhaust these by patience with having it unplugged and flushing out the logic board first then see what it does before I break it open, I know how clumsy I am!!!
How else can I determine what is going wrong?? can you read the panic logs??
I have attached it below with the computer details just in case!!
One online guy said that it was the IO on the logic board (which are expensive I guess!)
Thank you so much for any help
Interval Since Last Panic Report: 696 sec
Panics Since Last Report: 2
Anonymous UUID: 61B12C68-9D1E-49D6-BA64-11E3E45810AD
Fri Oct 30 00:18:38 2009
panic(cpu 1 caller 0x00C6CD7C): “AppleAHCIPort::PopulatePRDTable [2715] status 0 segs 0 phys 0×0 : 0×0 \n”@/SourceCache/AppleAHCI/AppleAHCI-170.0.1/AppleAHCIPort.cpp:2715
Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x20d3bbc8 : 0x12b4c6 (0x45f91c 0x20d3bbfc 0x13355c 0×0)
0x20d3bc18 : 0xc6cd7c (0xc71f98 0xa9b 0×0 0×0)
0x20d3bc88 : 0xc705a3 (0x2b5b600 0x2b5da00 0x38ca700 0×1000)
0x20d3bcf8 : 0xc665ef (0x2b5b600 0x2b5da00 0x20d3bd28 0x42963b)
0x20d3bd38 : 0xc66fea (0x2b5b600 0x2b5da00 0×0 0xcea5b3)
0x20d3bd68 : 0xce4e50 (0x2a80f00 0x2b6c600 0×0 0x1a9ad9)
0x20d3bda8 : 0xce03cb (0x2b5ec00 0x2b15e38 0×0 0×0)
0x20d3bde8 : 0xce0f4e (0x2b66900 0x2b15e38 0×0 0x3f1571)
0x20d3be58 : 0xce67e1 (0x2b66900 0x2b15a28 0x2b5da00 0×0)
0x20d3be98 : 0xce58ba (0x2b5ec00 0x2b15a28 0x20d3beb8 0x2b5b61c)
0x20d3beb8 : 0xc6ec6a (0x2b6b500 0x2b5da00 0×0 0×0)
0x20d3bef8 : 0xc70332 (0x2b5b600 0×80 0×0 0x2a6f4f0)
0x20d3bf48 : 0xc6d4d2 (0x2b5b600 0x2bd9540 0x20d3bf78 0x136efd)
0x20d3bf68 : 0x425d58 (0x2b63fc0 0x522b60 0x20d3bfc8 0x13ec8f)
0x20d3bf98 : 0x425a3a (0x2b57180 0×511950 0x2b06000 0×429324)
0x20d3bfc8 : 0x1a14fc (0x2b57180 0×0 0x1a40b5 0x319e998)
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage(1.2.2)@0xcde000->0xceffff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily(1.5.0)@0xc64000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily(1.5.6)@0x6bd000
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort(1.7.0)@0xc6a000->0xc75fff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.6)@0x5ce000
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily(1.5.0)@0xc64000
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily(1.5.0)@0xc64000->0xc69fff
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Mac OS version:
9L30
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.8.0: Wed Jul 15 16:55:01 PDT 2009; root:xnu-1228.15.4~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: iMac4,1 (Mac-F42786C8)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 57046939554
unloaded kexts:
(none)
loaded kexts:
com.pctools.iantivirus.kfs 1.0.1
com.apple.driver.InternalModemSupport 2.4.0 – last loaded 26672976183
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager 2.1.8f2
com.apple.filesystems.autofs 2.0.2
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAPlatformDriver 1.7.1a2
com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9d0
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient 2.7.5
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAHardwareConfigDriver 1.7.1a2
com.apple.kext.ATY_Wormy 5.4.8
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 1.7.1a2
com.apple.driver.AppleACPILPC 1.0.6
com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X 6.0.3
com.apple.driver.AppleGraphicsControl 2.8.15
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC 1.3.1
com.apple.ATIRadeonX1000 5.4.8
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP 1.7.7
com.apple.driver.AudioIPCDriver 1.0.6
com.apple.driver.AppleIRController 113
com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin 3.4.0a17
com.apple.driver.AppleBacklight 1.6.0
com.apple.driver.AppleTyMCEDriver 1.0.0d28
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController 1.7.1a2
com.apple.driver.CSRUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.1.8f2
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDMouse 1.2.4b3
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard 1.0.9b4
com.apple.driver.CSRHIDTransitionDriver 2.1.8f2
com.apple.driver.USBCameraFirmwareLoader 1.0.9
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub 3.4.6
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice 2.1.1
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient 2.1.1
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter 2.7.91
com.apple.iokit.IOATAPIProtocolTransport 1.5.3
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIBlockStorage 1.2.2
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort 1.7.0
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPIIXATA 2.0.1
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI 3.9.7
com.apple.driver.AirPortBrcm43xx 365.91.19
com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver 1.1.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub 3.4.9
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient 3.4.9
com.apple.iokit.AppleYukon2 3.1.13b2
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI 3.4.6
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI 3.3.5
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM 1.2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPCI 1.2.5
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC 1.2.3
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET 1.4
com.apple.driver.ApplePCIConfigurator 1.0.4
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons 1.2.5
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS 1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC 1.2.5
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC 1.4
com.apple.security.seatbelt 107.12
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall 1.6.77
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet 3
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement 76.2.0
com.apple.driver.DiskImages 199
com.apple.BootCache 30.4
com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily 9.4
com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib 1.7.1a2
com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily 1.6.9fc5
com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib 1.1
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily 3.4.0a17
com.apple.driver.AppleSMC 2.3.1d1
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport 1.7.3
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily 1.7.3
com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily 1.7.1a2
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBBluetoothHCIController 2.1.8f2
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily 2.1.8f2
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse 1.2.4b3
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver 3.4.6
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite 3.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice 2.1.1
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily 1.5
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily 1.5
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily 1.5
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily 2.1.1
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily 1.5.0
com.apple.iokit.IOATAFamily 2.0.1
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily 3.4.9
com.apple.iokit.IO80211Family 216.1
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily 1.6.1
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily 3.4.9
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime 1.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily 1.1
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily 1.5.6
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily 1.5.5
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform 1.2.5
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily 1.2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily 2.6
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 1.83 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM41.0055.B08
SMC Version (system): 1.1f5
Serial Number (system): W86101TLU2N
Hardware UUID: 00000000-0000-1000-8000-0016CB88E1A5
Hey Sam,
It looks like you’ve got an Intel iMac, not a G5. Better scenario all around.
Before you get too deep into complex actions and repairs, you may want to either a) test if your RAM is faulty, or b) replace the RAM chip.
Here’s one memory test application (Rember.app) that could help determine if all your troubles stem from one simple problem – bad memory.
If you’re daring, you could skip the test and just replace the RAM. Go with 2GB instead of the 1GB you have now. But I’d test first.
Jason
Hi Jason,
I’ve taken the RAM cards out one at a time and tested the machine and its made no diffrence!
What I’ve managed to do now, by unplugging it overnight and starting it in the morning is get all the important info off it, before it has crashed again.
What I can’t seem to do now is to boot it from a disk or external to run disk repair or hardware test.
Don’t think I can run this memtest either!?! What do you think??
Would be good to just reinsatll it now I think, if we can!?!
Thanks for your info!!
Sam
Hi Jason, thank you for this blog, i had no trouble installing a 500gb into my 17inch Imac.
i had to do a fresh install as my mac had passed on to a better place, however ive now got a problem.. well two.
1. the Isight (not the microphone, thats fine) doesnt work, and has a constant green light, and
2. Airport isnt working properly.
im really not fussed about the isight, but airport is a bit important! it was working fine yesterday, then this morning it just wouldnt work, it said it was connected but wouldnt recieve data, then it wouldnt connect at all, then it couldnt even see networks, then it saw them again..at this point i deleted the keychain and managed to connect to the network, but again no internet… then it disconnected… and now its blind again, and sees nothing! (when theres about 8 networks in range of it…)
is there anything you can suggest? im a bit at a loss and am worried i may have damaged the airport when i had the mac open..
Jason,
I replaced my failing hard drive in a 17″ intel iMac. Now I have a black screen. I have checked all the connections several times, and even replaced the old hard drive but nothing works. It seems that the only thing that is not just like it was is the foil. Does all the foil need to be reattached? The new hard drive spins, the light is on in front, and the DVD player will spin… just no screen.
Thanks
Alec
Hi Alec,
It sounds like the video cable (super thin ribbon cable) was disconnected. 99.99% it has nothing to do with the tinfoil wrapping. My advice would be to open the case again and inspect the LCD panel and the ribbon cable that goes between the screen and the body of the iMac. I suspect you’ll find the cable loose or disco. Check back if not.
Jason
Jason,
The ribbon cable was still attached with tape covering the connection. I detached and reattached it without success. I also checked the other end which is clamped in with screws to the board. The inverter cable was also checked and reatached. No luck with the screen so far.
Alec
Jason,
I need to change the power supply on my iMac – any help on how to get it out ?
Which bits need removing and which bits dont…
Thanks
Rich
Hello, I just wanted to thankyou for this tutorial, my hard drive died yesterday, luckily i’d backed everything up a couple of days before. After I’d calmed down and did a bit of googling on the old faithful back up machine I found your site, you’ve saved me a load of cash I didn’t have to pay someone to do it for me.
Thanks again and have a great weekend
Hello. First of all thank you the very good explanations and pics.
I ‘ having the same problem as Alec Eror. No screen with the new or the old drive (with the old I would get the folder question mark gray screen).
Once again thanks for the fine descriptions of all the process.
So from what im see is that it is safe to go with a 1 tb drive from WD that everyone is raving about in my 20″ imac 2.16Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with the white enclosure…from my Hard disk: Serial ATA of 250 Gb, 7200 rpm
I not only have no screen, but there is no sound that would indicate that it is starting up.
Alec
Hi Alec,
Sorry to hear about your iMac not booting up. It sure sounds like you should re-open the case and check all the wires and cables to make sure everything was put back together properly, including the internal power supply, etc. Whatever may have been undone should be re-checked. If it was working before, it should continue to work even after the hard drive upgrade. Sometimes even the littlest thing can bugger up a system until it’s resolved.
Hi Damion – yes the 1TB drive should be just fine. Check newegg.com for a drive with the highest customer rating. =)
Thanks for the great tutorial. I couldn’t have done it without you. It took me a couple hours to get it done but now I’m up and running.
I won’t be buying an iMac again, the space savings is great but they are very hard to work on. That process would have taken 15 minutes on a tower.
thanks again…
Greetings Jason, and thanks for taking the time to answer so many questions.
Here’s mine…
Bought a brand new 24 inch Dual Core IMac ($2600CA) when they first came out in November 06 but didn’t purchase Apple Care.
Video card crashed within 12 months. Local Mac store replaced it without problems.
Hard drive then crashed within the next 12 months. Took it back to the shop and had to pay about $240 CA for them to replace it (cost of 500GB Seagate drive + labor).
That hard drive is now crashing (failing S.M.A.R.T.) 13 months later, and I am asked by this official Apple retailer to contact Seagate personally, have them ship the drive to me, then bring it all there where they’ll charge me $85 an hour labor.
Is it a common occurrence in your experience for a Mac to have three fatal failures within the first three years?
Do I have any recourse or am I stuck with what seems to be a lemon?
Ticked…
Thanks,
j.
Jason,
The tutorial and the blog were very helpful. I have one of the early iMac 20″ systems. I walked through the disassembly steps and after getting the monitor off, noticed the guts were arranged just a little different and there were three sets of cables going to the monitor verses 2 sets. You have to unplug 2 wires mid way up the left side of the monitor before you can flip it back onto the iMac’s stand. Biggest problem was the grounding foil, but the suggestion for electrical tape helped with that. After I got everything reassembled with a new WD 1.5TB drive, I turned it on and experienced the flashing light and no screen or typical bong signaling the BIOS activation, similar to what one of your other bloggers experienced. After a huge sigh of frustration, I read through the blogs again, disassembled everything (including those accursed monitor screws) and checked all the wire harnesses. It all looked OK. I put it all back and turned it on and this time it came up. I can only attribute it to fussy RAM, either not being seated or some other issue. Snow Leopard CD came right up and I was able to restore using my Time Machine Time Capsule. Thanks for all the time you took on this tutorial. You’ve saved many of us at least $1000.00.
Cliff
I just tried to upgrade my Imac Hard Drive and was very dissapointed. I first purchased a 2 TB HD and installed it. When i fired up
my Mac it went well until it got to the part where it asks you what drive you want to install the software on. There was no drive to
chosse from, i was very upset. I got on the horn and called Imac support and was informed that the highest any Imac can have at
this time 1/13/2009 is 1 TB. So i took my imac completely apart again and went and got a 1 TB drive and got the same results, it
can’t see my new drive. I surendered and put my 300 MB drive back in and it’s back in and working fine. Does anyone have any idea what’s going on????? Any help would be nice. Thanks, Greg!
Hi Jason,
Thank you for this step by step photo-tutorial on how to get this imac open. I can’t believe how invasive it is! Your tutorial focuses mainly upon installing a new hard drive. What steps do I need to take to replace the optical drive?
Thanks,
Katy
Thanks for the great tutorial. Just used it in conjuction with the iMac Early 2006 Service Manual to install a new WD Caviar Black 1TB hard drive. Took me about 2 hours due to interuptions from the kids, and overall it was pretty simple except for the damn sticky foil!! Thanks again.
Hi Jason,
I’m a PC professional with one of these iMacs on my table right now. I have not yet opened the case, but did run the hardware diagnostics from the OSx installation disk 1. It is as if there is no hard drive present. I am assuming the hard drive went bad, but was also wondering what the chances are of it being the SATA cable or the on-board hard drive controller? Any thoughts on this?
Thanks Jason, for this very helpful tutorial. I am looking to upgrade my 17″ HDD soon.
Francis
P.S. How long didi it take you to do this?
Francis – the drive replacement process took about 30-45 minutes, somewhat slowed by taking photos. The drive cloning took about 4 hours. That’s not a necessary step, unless you want to preserve everything that was on your older, smaller hard drive.
Thank you for the instructions. They refreshed my memory and was able to open the enclosure without any problems for the second time. (being the first one, a curiosity peek inside the iMac when it was still very new.
I installed a 1TB Hitachi drive in place of the original 250GB WD and used the installation disk for Snow Leopard to retrieve the previous night’s backup from my Time Machine external drive. It all took about 4 hours, including the restoration of the disk content, and the machine is working perfect.
The 20″ iMac is laid out a bit differently but the basics are all the same.
Hi, Jason, a quick question. I have just upgraded my imac 17″ intel to exactly the same Seagate 500GB 7200rpm drive you used. after installing, i started partitioning the disk and installing OsX. About 5 min into the process, the LCD just went dark and I cannot get it back. I waited another 10 min still nothing, then I shutdown the whole thing and re-started it again. This time, I see the power light went on and heard the chime. The LCD flashed some grey screen on the right part of the screen then goes black completely. I tried to reset the PRAM and still it did the same thing. any suggestion or idea? anything is appreciated.
Hi Jason! I just wanted to say thanks for sharing this. My ’06 iMac hard drive died last week and, with the help of your site, I was able to replace mine. No problem. Really appreciate it! Have a wonderful day!
Pingback: Kris Noorman | the journal » iMac surgery
hi i have a 20 inch imac witch got given to me and it has no hdd and no heat sensor if i putt a new hdd in without the sensor will i have any problems. thanks
thanks for this tutorial – it was very helpful in getting a new 1 TB drive in my iSight G5.
However, it didn’t solve my issue.
I’d been having the usual drive symptoms – freezing on waking, locking up, getting “IOATAController Device Blocking Bus” errors when trying fsck (applejack) – finally checking with the Apple Hardware Test disk and seeing the all-too-common “2STF/8/3: S-ATA Bus 0 – Master” error.
Took it to Apple just to confirm that it wasn’t the logic board. Their test said no, not the MB, but we bailed on testing the rest of the 2 GB of RAM – it was taking too long.
so after putting in the new 1 TB WD (newegg.com $85)per the instructions, *I’M GETTING THE SAME ERROR* in the Hardware Test
I swapped the SATA data cable, appreciating the irony of a $4 cable bringing down the system (the power cable is hard-wired to another board) and I’m *still* getting the “2STF/8/3: S-ATA Bus 0 – Master” error.
I’m trying to clone my old drive (in a SATA dock) onto the new one (in the machine) and I get a little bit of progress, but then it aborts with an I/O error.
Is there anyone who can *definitively* state that the “2STF” is the internal HD, *not* the DVD and *not* the MB? I don’t feel like spending any more time on this if something else is fried – I have work to do, and I need a working machine to do it on.
Thanks, everyone.
Great tutorial, I’ve updated my iMac 24″ (iMac6,1) to 2TB HDD and 3Gb RAM. The HDD is a 2TB Seagate Barracuda LP drive.
I did run into the “missing drive” problem mentioned by Greg H. It seems that Leopard DVD won’t see a drive if it isn’t formatted at all. So, the solution for me was to boot from my old drive (in a USB external enclosure) and run Disk Utility. My new internal HDD showed up and I could format it.
Then I rebooted again with the Leopard DVD and used Disk Utility from there to copy my old drive content across (“Restore” option in Disk Utility).
I can confirm that 4Gb of RAM is recognized on these Macs unfortunately I got a dud stick! The machine crashes often with the dodgy one. At the moment I’m running with only one of the new 2Gb sticks and my old 1Gb one… waiting for a replacement…
hey i have a 20″ imac from 06′ and all it does when i hit the power button is a high beep a low beep and another high beep. this repeats several times while it makes the start up noise then goes to the gray screen with the apple logo and the spinny thing. the ram is fine because the light does not flash when it is beeping. any help would be appreciated
Hi Jason
Strangely, external drives seem to be cheaper than internal on this side of the pond.
I have a WD 1TB External USB2 (WDBAAU0010HBK-U) which I’m thinking of swapping the drive with the 160GB in my Intel iMac. Running Leopard, I’m happy restoring my data from Time Machine (surely the most brilliant back up software ever!).
But, before I pull everything apart, I’m trying to find out if the two drives are compatible.
I can’t find the model number and type on the WD website, do you have any thoughts?
Hey Nick, I’m sure the hard drive you’re referring to (inside the enclosure) is compatible. So long as it’s a newer model external enclosure, the drive inside will be a SATA drive. That’s the most important thing. I’d be amazed if a newer external used anything other than a SATA drive. So in short, you should be fine.
Jason
Hey Blahman – you should try to boot the iMac from the diagnostics DVD that came with the computer. On that diagnostics DVD, you can run a hardware scan. There are two options – quick scan and full scan. Quick takes no more than 5-10 minutes and should detect any obvious hardware failure. I ran one recently for a friend (24″ iMac having all kinds of trouble) and the scan found a bad power supply and video card. Apple replaced both and the computer is running perfectly now. Hopefully you have luck finding a less expensive hardware issue so you don’t have to spend much hard-earned money getting things sorted out.
Jason
P.S. Check the RAM anyway.
Hi Jason
Thanks for getting back, but I’ve managed a bit more digging on the WD website, and they say they put in whatever they have in the parts bin at the time! A bit of a shocker, but I guess I’ll just have to open up the drive housing first and have a look.
cheers
nick
I recently replaced my iMac’s hard drive (same model iMac.
Note on above discussion: Do not conclude that your disk is bad if it won’t boot. They have longer warrnties than the computer does. There is is a bug in some versions of OS Xthat allows a corrupt hard drive to prevent booting from CD, which several people reported. Unplug the hard drive and try again. To fix a G4 tower with this problem, I put the offending disk in an enclosure and plugged it into my Intel iMac, repaired it with Disk Utility, and then it booted just fine. The hard drive simply had some damaged files. So, Apple techs who tell you your hard drive is bad need to run Disk Utility first.
You can make a bootable utility dvolume if it is writable, like an external hard drive or flash drive, not a CD.
Thanks for a very informative site! I’m in the process of trying to find the right hard drive for my imac.. the specs are just below.. Could you recommend a hard drive 1 TB in size.. I’m worried about heat generated/and processor speed (if these are indeed issues). I was told i would need a hard drive dock to format it before i get it into my computer. I have an external G-drive that i run a program called SuperDuper to backup my Imac on.. any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated… Thanks! Barry
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac5,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: IM51.0090.B09
SMC Version: 1.9f4
Serial Number: QP65021WVUW
Hi Barry,
Pretty much any 1TB hard drive will work, so long as it’s a 3.5″ SATA drive. Go to newegg.com and check out their hard drive section. SATA or SATA II are perfect. You really shouldn’t have any worry about heat from the drive inside your iMac.
As for a drive dock – yes, that would be very helpful, but not critical. Personally, I love my drive docks and would be at a major loss without them. It’s a great investment of $30 to $90, depending on the dock. USB are cheap, USB/FireWire/eSATA are 2-3x the price, but worth it in my opinion.
SuperDuper is really nice, but personally I prefer Carbon Copy Cloner. Po-tay-to po-tah-to.
Good luck!
Thank you very much for the informative web site. I replaced my dead 160GB drive with a $69 750GB drive with very little effort. Apple wanted $333 for a 320GB replacement … bah! The worst part for me was the removal of the 4 screws that hold the LCD in…. I lost 1 of em in there… whoops : ( To put them back in I used elmer’s glue to glue the screw to the driver ( I didn’t have a magnetic screwdriver) … worked like a charm. Computer powered up fine and had no problems installing Snow Leopard! Again… thank you very much for this informative site. Cheers!
Hey Jason, thanks again for your help and recommendations.. I purchased the Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA and the thermaltake blakx dock.. as per your recommendation. I noticed the HDD purchase was called a “bare drive”.. I was wondering if i’ll need any new cables to attach it to the computer.. Thanks Tremendously for your help.. Barry
Hi Barry,
If you purchased the BlacX drive dock and the WD hard drive (bare = no box, no cables, no baloney software CD, just the drive in an anti-static bag), you’ll have everything you need to connect the drive to your computer.
I’m glad you found the website helpful. I’ll post more stuff again soon.
Jason
Hi Jason, I haven’t read through all of your numerous comments, so forgive me if I ask something that has already been answered. I have an iMac 17in intel I got around 2006-2007, which no longer works. Took it to Apple and they said it was probably the logic board, yadda yadda yadda, $$$. I’m looking into getting a used/refurbished laptop to tide me over until I buy a new iMac. What I’m wondering is if I take the hard drive out of my desktop can I replace the hard drive in either a iBook G4 PowerPC or MacBook Core 2 Duo?
Thanks for the excellent tutorial
I had a HD go bad and replaced it doubling my storage capacity
My issue is that I can see the install CD and the new drive in Target Mode, but the screen is going Red>Green>Blue>White>black and cycling like that, I can’t get the OS installed
I am going to take it apart and double check the connections
Anybody have any idea what it could be?
Hi, I love your blog. This is a nice site and I wanted to post a comment to let you know, good job! Thanks Chris
Hi-
The apple store recently told me my 20 inch intel iMac hard drive failed. I purchased a new Western Digital hard drive from new egg.com. After reading your web page and having zero computer knowledge, I paid the local computer store to replace the hard drive. They asked me if I needed leopard installed and I said no thanks, I have the disk at home. Hmmm……got home, turned on computer to see a solid gray screen. So then I inserted the leopard disc turned the computer off and then on again with no success. I called the store back and heard crickets on the other end. They were not saying anything. The store told me they could not give me any technical support without paying an additional $150.00. They also said that I didn’t have the “equipment” I needed and would not elaborate! The guy did say one problem was my wireless keyboard/mouse. I am so frustrated I want to kick this iMac at them. Perhaps they could have told me that I wouldn’t be able to do this myself. In your other postings I didn’t see anyone complaining about this. Guess it is painfully obvious how non-techy I am. Can I do something myself or do I really need to drop another $150? Thanks for your help-
Jess
Jess – did you boot your iMac while holding down the option key? That will allow you to select the OS X installation DVD and then you can format the drive and install OS X. If you don’t specifically boot to the DVD, the iMac may not know what to do with no operating system installed. (P.S. Try hooking up a standard USB keyboard just for the installation process.)
As for the $150 extra cost to install the OS – total ripoff. It’s 5 minutes worth of work, then the OS does the balance of the job on its own. To pay $150 for someone to hold down the option key for a few moments seems downright awful.
Good luck getting everything sorted out!
Jason
Hey Jason. You’ve been going at this blog post for years now, which is amazing and a total relief to me. I’m looking to replace my hard drive, like most of the other folks here. I have the 24 inch Core 2 Duo iMac. I’m looking to buy this hard drive from Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136533
My only concern is its speed. Right now, my hard drive is running at 1.5 gigabits according to the system profiler (It’s an Intel ICH7-M AHCI hard drive, if that means anything to you). So what effect would installing a 6 gigabit drive have on the computer? Would it still run slower?
Thanks for taking the time to walk so many people through this process–I personally appreciate a lot of the knowledge you have imparted here.
Now, I’m also looking into finding a better video card to install… that’s a whole different pain in the butt. Do you perhaps have any suggestions for upgrades? I have the GeForce 7600, which isn’t bad by any means, but not sufficient for running programs with high graphic requirements. I realize it needs to be a card with an MXM socket… but I’m at a loss where to even start looking for one. Suggestions?
Jason,
Maybe you could offer some advice. I have a 20″ iMac (Fall 2006) that has been great. However, about 2 months ago I noticed 2 problems all about the same time. The 1 pixel long horizontal lines started to appear on the screen everyso often, and if they were on a picture, and I moved the window, the line would stay with the picture. Also, there were random red or blue pixels on the screen – never in the same area after reboots. 2nd… I noticed that the pinwheel would sometimes just spin and spin, and the system would hang … with only the mouse movement responding. Now it’s at a point where I get 5-10 minutes before the pinwheel spins, and I’m done.
What is funny is that if the computer booted to safe mode, everything would be fine – no pinwheel, and no pixels or lines. However, when I took it to the Genius bar, they couldn’t get it to boot to their utility cd or safe mode.
They chalked it up to a bad video card, which they said means that I need a new logic board.
What do you think?
Regards,
Van
My iMac HD failed (could boot form OS CD, but could not see the drive in Disk Utility), so decided to follow your tutorial and do an upgrade replacement. I installed the new drive and put everything back together, but unfortunately it doesn’t seem to be working. The power light and fans come on, but there’s no power-on chime and the screen stays dark. Initially the RAM was not properly seated (flashing power light), but fixed that and hoped… I’ve been back in the case making sure I didn’t miss a connector somewhere and can’t find any issue. I even tried to put the old HD back in and no difference.
Any idea where I went wrong?
…my bad – it appears that I didn’t really get the RAM reseated properly on the first go. All’s well now
On the bright side – I no longer have any fear of opening my iMac.
Thanks for the great info!