How To Install A New Hard Drive In A 24” Aluminium iMac

Written By: Frostedblue On: 04/04/2010Time(09:49:39)

This guide will take you through the (step by step) process of replacing your iMac 24” hard drive. This can be necessary when you frequently run out of space or have a hardware failure. Heres how...

What you will need:

PLEASE NOTE:
Doing this may invalidate any remaining warranty left on your iMac, if you have taken out AppleCare Extended Warranty then this option may not be right for you.

That said, there doesn’t appear to be any warranty stickers where we are going so the choice is yours :)


1, Remove The iMac Glass Screen Front

This may sound a little tricky but in fact its straight forward. Use your suction cup against the top right hand of the screen and secure without overlapping the edge. You could also moisten the cup to provide a better seal but cleaning will be required after!

Pull suction cup slowly out from one side. The glass should pop straight out. It is held in place by magnets and metal positioning spikes. continue to remove the glass at place in a safe compartment out of the way, you do not wish to break it.

2, Remove The Aluminium Surround

Behind where the glass sits, there are 12 Torx screws which need to be removed. Remove these screws and place on a mat, these screws are different lengths so try to remember where they came from.

This diagram shows the correct layout:

Next remove the bottom plate, where the RAM is situated (This is at the bottom of the iMac screen). Use a cross headed screw driver to do this by removing the one lone screw and pulling the Alu panel out.

Now its time to remove the Alu front facia. Make sure you have hold of it and that it doesn’t slip and damage anything. Pull out the top of the facia slowly about 1 inch, you should notice the iSight Camera is connected to this facia. Carefully disconnect and continue to remove the Alu facia. This should now detach easily.

Your iMac should now look like this:

3, Removing The LCD Screen

Start off by unplugging the cables connected to the screen. These can be identified using the images below:

Be sure to remove the 2 Torx screws securing one of the connectors, they are smaller than the other Torx screws. Which is why a set is very usefull!

Now remove the 4 Torx screws on each side of the LCD screen, luckily they are all the same size, unlike the Alu facia.

Lift up the left hand side of the screen, carefully, and observer the cable connected to the underside of the LCD panel.

The last cable is covered over by a sticky black piece of plastic, peel this back and remove the cable.

Lift off the screen away from the rest of the iMac. Store in in a safe place as your wouldn’t want to break it. Your iMac will now look this:

4, Removing The Hard Drive

You should notice the hard disk near the top of the iMac, this is what you are going to replace. Looking closely and you will notice some sticky foam on it. This is the hard drive heat sensor. Remove this foam and prize off the plastic heat sensor casing.

PLEASE NOTE:
The heat sensor has a flat side, make sure when refitting to place the flat side against the new disk. The last thing you want to do is to refit everything to find the heat sensor is incorrectly fitted.

Now remove the 2 Torx screws, on the HD located top side. If you run into trouble with the left screw, remove the iSight camera as it may obstruct access.

Pull out the HD top first and place on the desktop. We will need the metal grommet screws.

Fit the grommet screws onto the new HD and refit into the housing. Screw back in and, if you had to remove the iSight camera, refit.


5, Refitting Your iMac

Be sure to look for a flat area on your new HD and reattach the heat sensor. Fit it correctly, its important.

Refit your screen and ensure that all cables have been reconnected. The LCD screen cable underneath the LCD panel has sticky plastic that must be restuck.

Now refit the Alu Facia by fitting and holding the bottom first then slowly push the top almost into place.

Whilst holding, you don’t want it to slip, try to attach the iSight connector to the facia connector. Then push back to until seated correctly in place. Be careful of the iSight cable, don’t get it caught against the metal casing.

Finally place the glass carefully and there you have it!!!

PLEASE NOTE:
When booting for the first time, hold down “D” on the keyboard. This should force your iMac to boot from the internal HD.

Once booted, check your startup disk under “System Preferences”.

If you are interested in doing this, checkout out HD cloning guide.