iMac Hard Drive Replacement

Diagnostic tools are suggesting my 27" iMac hard drive is about to fail. It occasionally has trouble booting so I'm inclined to believe the prognosis (Techtool Pro). It also seems to 'thrash' for no apparent reason.

Looking at various websites for replacement disks I see they say 'hard' for the task. Have any of you done done an HD change? I'm IT and technically competent (even built my own computers in the past).

Is this a DIY job or do I have to resort to an expensive Apple repair?

Sensible suggestions please.

This may be of help to you

Ash

WOW. Thank you for the link. I'm used to taking PCs apart from behind etc. but never by removing the screen. In retrospect it is possibly obvious as there are no visible torq screw heads any where else.

Mac lovers best quit here... I'm basically an engineer/improviser.

At the moment, thinking whether to go out and look for a 'proper' suction cup or improvise. Well, the engineer part took over and I used what was available. Worked fine (I did give it a good clean first) and voila the innards are exposed. Now it is simple.

Thanks Ash you have saved me an expensive visit to the Apple store.

BTW the iMac was under extended warranty, unfortunately expired. I had booked an appointment at the Genius bar but this has now saved me the expense.

I used to build my own *****ws PCs but converted to iMacs years ago. Until now much more reliable/stable. Now I'm even more confident having actually got inside one

No problems glad it helped you, Indeed apple dont like to make upgrades/repairs easy for anyone so people will just say sodd it ill just pay to have it done lol i also love the build/fit pcs (get all the family round all the time lol). The only mac ive ever had to fix was a mac mini that had the same problem you had basically the hard drive had packed but lucky for my it was simple as sticking something sharp in 2 points n the base and levering the case off.

Ash

Thanks for that... brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "Got the sucker!"

I found this link if anyone wants to have a go at replacing something on the previous version of iMac- it's for the video card but shows the important bit of how to get the damn thing open!

Im not going to lie and say im a mac fan because TBH i don't really like them lol, But i actually like the older imacs shown in the vid you posted more than the new ones lol

Ash

This site http://www.ifixit.com/Browse/Mac gives instructions on how to replace many parts on many models of Mac's.

I was thinking of an iMac for my next Mac as IMO they represent the best value but I was dismayed to read this article suggesting that replacing the hard drive with a non-Apple part is practically impossible now on the newer models. I've just swapped the hard drive in my 4 year old Macbook Pro though not because it has failed (the old hard drive is now in a hard drive caddy as an external storage device) but because I needed more storage internally.

All that just to change a hard disk! I just hate "integrated" computers.

its why i like to build my own and can choose a case to put each part exactly were i want lol like the one i just built i chose a case that allowed the psu at the bottom for various reasons lol