Apple Imac hard drive upgrade

Upgrading the internal hard drive in an aluminum Apple iMac computer.

The replacement hard drive is a Segate 1.5TB model.

Fitting the hard drive took around 30 minutes.

A full step by step description of the upgrade is on my blog at http://www.briandorey.com/post/Apple-iMac-hard-drive-upgrade.aspx

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• imac
• apple
• hard drive
• hd
• segate
• hd upgrade

[Kidsonss]

Is that being done one at a time: e.g. 10.6.2 then again to 10.6. 3 and then again to 10.6.3 or do I just go and click on 10.6.8?

[briandorey]

@Kidsonss There should be a 10.6.8 update but you may have to do some of the earlier ones first. Apple dosnt seem to like giving out the major updates in one go!

[briandorey]

@Kidsonss I think the normal software update should download all the patches to bring it to 10.6.8

[Kidsonss]

I have ordered my new 2TB Hard Drive - waiting arrival.

If I did a clean install of OSX from the initial install disks that woulg give me OSX 10.6.1 - how do I then go about updating to 10.6.8?

[briandorey]

@Kidsonss Sorry, i dont know the size limits, I know of people who have fitted 2tb drives into 2009 and 2010 models and they worked ok.

[Kidsonss]

Thanks for the prompt reply.

Do you happen to know of any capacity size hard drive restrictions on these aluminium Mac computers - e.g. will it accept a 3TB?

[briandorey]

@Kidsonss I didnt clone the hard drive, i did a clean install of OSX from the install disks which also formats the drive. If you have a timemachine backup you should be able to restore this after the new OS has been installed.

[Kidsonss]

Excellent step by step presentation - some queries

1.Before installing the new 1.5TB - did you clone data from original HD and if yes how did you do it?

2. Did you need to format the new 1.5 TB HD?

[briandorey]

@tkto13 The macs ive worked on always use the same drives as PC's but they use rubber mountings so they dont transmit any vibration to the case as they sometimes do in budget PC cases.

[tkto13]

Fabulous video ... top notch!

Question about the quality of HDs going into Macs vs. what you can buy in the aftermarket. Does anyone know if Apple gets higher-end or better quality drives?

The HDs in my Macs always seemed to generate no noise and vibration relative to PCs.