iMac Aluminum Hard Drive Upgrade Pt 1

Part 1 of 2. Upgrading the standard 320GB Western Digital hard drive in a 2008 2.4GHz iMac Aluminum to a 1TB Seagate hard drive.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• hard
• drive
• upgrade
• iMac
• intel
• core
• duo
• 20
• 2.4GHz
• take
• apart
• instructions
• 2008

[sdasilva09]

I used to brag all the time about how "user-friendly" Macs were especially when working on them...this is disappointing that you have to completely disassemble the Mac in order to upgrade the HD. Apple...come on! You're better than this!!

[ronholm1]

@sdasilva09 I couldn't agree more. With the newer iMacs, Apple has placed looks above function. You could loosen three screws on the older iMacs, and gain access to all critical parts on the inside.

[yoowicked]

I just installed a 2TB Western Digital HD and upgraded to 4 GB ram. Hope it won't overheat as you says........LOL. In fact, I was wondering if I extend the wire and place the HD outside the case. I know it looks stupid but it might be a good idea to solve it speacially in summer time. It really hot like frying pan!!!!

[ronholm1]

@yoowicked Instead of extending the drive wires outside the case, I would suggest getting a small fan to dissipate some of the heat. A small fan can reduce the heat by as much as 20 degrees F. I would also suggest downloading iStat Pro. It is a free widget from Apple's website. It monitors all of your heat sensors. If you can keep your HD heat sensor below 180 degrees F, you should be okay.

[Galaga4044]

Your frame came off without disconnecting the isight camera wire,,, in part two you mention hooking it up... I feel bad for the guy who just pulls his fame off as shown in this video. Otherwise this is the best video on the subject. Good job.

[ronholm1]

@Galaga4044 I mentioned this in a post about a year ago. I accidentally taped over that part of the procedure.

[drophouse]

Excellent video. Thank you. I'll be upgrading my 500gb on my 24" soon.

[MrKellso]

Ron:

I was nervous about replacing the HD after buying everything I needed, but then seeing your videos on how to do it gave me the nerve to try. Anyway, I'm now restoring to my new 1.5 TB internal HD and I watched your videos as I went along with the new installation. Everything went very smoothly, I saved myself some money, too, not using a repair shop and got some new spiffy tools to boot. Just so everyone knows, the tape referenced is spelled "Kapton" tape.

[meliomaster132]

Can you transfer data from your old hard drive to your new one some how?

[LLCOOLG650]

I've been running 2TB in my early 2009 machine for 100s of hours, no problems. I use Temp Monitor 493 to monitor temps. I bought a cheap Sabrent external USB2 drive case which handles IDE & SATA and installed my new 2TB/7200 drive. I used Carbon Copy Cloner 337 to create a bootable drive from my existing internal drive. Switched via System Prefs/Startup Disk and bingo, it works external, and internal once installed. I used 6 partitions, one labeled xxxGB OSX10.7 Lion which releases in June?

[yoowicked]

@ronholm1 thanks for ur tip! will try the iStat pro later.

I think adding a small fan would be a good idea, but I don't think there is enough space inside the case.