Photos: Inside the 24-inch aluminum iMac
If you were following me on Twitter last week, you probably know of the disaster that hit me hard Tuesday night: my 24-inch aluminum iMac, sporting a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 320GB hard drive, failed.
I quickly determined that it was a hard-drive failure. I tried running Disk Utility off my Leopard install disc to repair it. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I then tried repairing the invalid sibling link and invalid node structures. Once again, I failed.
Remembering that I also failed to pay for AppleCare, I decided that I needed to find a way to salvage my hard drive. So I tried connecting my iMac to my MacBook through a FireWire cable to get the contents off of it. That didn't work.
At this point, it seemed that I was out of options. I determined that it definitely was my hard drive that failed on me, so I could still use my iMac with a new hard drive, but there was one catch: removing the hard drive and replacing it would be extremely difficult, since unlike most other computers, opening the case with a few screws and popping out the hard drive was impossible with my iMac.
Believe it or not, that 24-inch aluminum iMac has only one screw on it, and it only gives you access to the RAM. To access the hard drive, I had no other option but to crack open my beautiful 24-inch iMac with the aid of suction cups. And I decided to share my experience with you.
Here's my step-by-step guide on how to crack open your iMac and replace your hard drive. (Disclaimer: Neither I, nor CNET, nor any of its affiliates is liable for any damage that might occur to your computer by following these steps. Follow them at your own risk.)
The tools you'll need
If you're ready to crack open your iMac, you'll need a Phillips head screwdriver, standard home suction cups, and a T8 Torx screwdriver.
Cracking open your iMac
Step 1: Remove the RAM from your iMac
I decided to remove the RAM from my iMac before I started opening it up to ensure its safekeeping. Simply place the iMac face-down on a soft cloth or surface. When you look underneath the screen, you'll see a small screw in the middle of a panel. Unscrew it with your Phillips head screwdriver and remove the panel.
At this point, you should see, depending on the amount of RAM you have installed, one or two sticks. You'll also see two black plastic tabs. Pull them out. Once you do, tug on the tabs that are hanging in front of the RAM sticks. The RAM should pop out just enough so you can remove it with your hands. Set both the RAM and the panel with the screw aside.
Step 2: Remove the protective plastic screen covering
Next, turn the iMac around so it's resting on its back. It won't move from this spot, so make sure it's secure. Attach four suction cups to the screen. I placed them toward the corners so I could have the most leverage. Make sure that the hooks attached to the suction cups are easy to grab.
Once the suction cups are attached, pull gently. You should feel the protective plastic covering on the screen come loose. If you need another set of hands, have a friend help you with this step. It does make it easier. Once the covering is removed, leave the suction cups on it and set it aside.
Step 3: Remove the aluminum casing
At this point, you should see Torx screws flanking the screen. Find your T8 Torx screwdriver and remove all the screws, noting that the two long screws are on either side of the Apple logo underneath the display.
Once you remove those screws, there shouldn't be anything holding the aluminum casing on. Start at the bottom and gently tug on the casing. You should feel it break free. Continue to gently pry the aluminum casing away from the back. Be sure to also detach the cable at the top of the screen connecting the iSight camera to the casing. Now get the casing safely away from the display. (You don't want to damage your screen, do you?)
Step 4: Detach the display
Find your T8 Torx screw again and start removing all the screws flanking the display. There should be four screws to the left and right of the screen, respectively, two screws at the top by the iSight camera, and one screw directly connecting the computer casing to the display on the top. Set them aside in a safe place.
Once removed, the display should be free from the casing. Don't pull too hard to lift it up; the display is still connected to the motherboard with three connectors.
Step 5: Disconnect the display from the motherboard
At this point, getting to the hard drive is only possible if you remove at least some of the display's connectors. I decided to remove two connectors from the motherboard and leave one connected to make it easier to manage the display. If you'd like, you can take off all three and totally remove the screen. I don't see any reason to do that, though.
Since the display is still connected to the motherboard, you're probably having a hard time seeing underneath it to find out what to disconnect. The first connector you should remove is at the bottom of the board, next to the fan, called LCD temp. Just pull up, and it should break free.
Next, remove the display connector from the card at the top of the computer. It's underneath the card, so you'll need to gently pull the connector down to remove it. It's not attached tightly, so it shouldn't take too much effort.
At this point, you can remove the third connector from the board and detach the screen completely. I opted against doing this, instead keeping one connection and placing the display on the inside of the stand. It rested against the iMac with the screen facing out toward the stand. This method made replacement simple.
Step 6: Remove the hard drive
At this point, you should see the hard drive sitting toward the top of the iMac. You'll notice two screws facing the top of the computer. Remove those with your T8 Torx screw and set them aside.
Next, peel back the tape connecting the wires to the hard drive, and move them to the side. At this point, the hard drive should be loose, but it won't come out.
To fully remove the hard drive, remove the black plastic bracket that the screws you just removed were holding in. Next, pull the hard drive toward you so the two Torx screws get pulled from the bracket on the other side. Pull upward, and the 3.5-inch SATA hard drive should come free.
Finally, remove the power connector and the SATA connector from the hard drive. Congratulations! You just removed the hard drive from your iMac.
Further steps and replacement
Now that you've removed the hard drive, you probably want to replace it. You'll need to use a T6 Torx screwdriver to remove the Torx screws that are connected to the hard drive. Don't throw those away, though--they need to be screwed into your replacement hard drive.
Once you do that, gently place the replacement hard drive into the iMac, screw it into place, and tape down the wires that were connected to your old drive.
From there, reconnect the connectors you removed from hard drive and the display, screw the display back into place with the screws you kept handy, attach the aluminum casing, put the protective display covering back over the LCD display, and put the RAM back in your iMac.
Place the cover over the RAM, and your iMac should be back to normal!
If you're wondering what happened post-dissection, stay tuned.
Check out Don's Digital Home podcast, Twitter stream, and FriendFeed.
Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
I've been servicing computers for a long time, and some of them were quirky (old-school Compaqs for example) but this amount of hassle is just ridiculous!
Let's compare it to a tower. You have to disconnect all the cables, then remove the case/cover, then remove screws to free the drive, then replace the drive.
On this all in one, you disconnect the cables, remove the case/cover, remove the screen, then remove the screws to free the drive, then replace the drive. It's one more step! And that's because it's an all in one.
Now, would it be nice if you could get to it from the back side? Yes, but ultimately, it's not very difficult to remove the screen.
You can't possibly be serious. You think unscrewing two bolts, removing the cover of the case, disconnecting the hard drive cables, and unscrewing the hard drive is just "one less step" than the scientific experiment that was listed above?
Wow. Some people are truly blind to reality when it comes to Apple.
are you serious!?!
Second, not all cases have 'two bolts' Some are more complicated, especially compact cases. I'm not sure that removing 6 or 8 screws is more difficult than removing 2-4. And in some cases, to properly get to the HD screws, you have to open BOTH sides of a tower.
now yes, removing the screen is not that simple, but this is an ALL IN ONE. it's the only step that is meaningfully different or difficult, and one would wager that any all-in-one machine has a procedure for either removing the screen or logic board to get to the HD.
Seriously, this is not a very difficult thing to do. Now, try to take apart a WHITE iMac Intel. That is ridiculous.
take apart a ATX mid tower
then take apart an iMac
see the difference
I WIN THIS ROUND!!!!
you lose, you spelled lose wrong
@terminalblue
some laptops are worse and some are better
In the older white plastic flat panel iMacs, it was really easy to replace the HD (I've done it a couple of times on one) since the entire back of the computer comes off when you unscrew three things, giving you easy access to all the components. In the mac pro workstations, it's trivially easy to replace a HD since they pop in and out, like any sensible tower.
This is just a design flaw with trying to make a desktop computer incredibly thin by building it out of laptop parts. Hopefully it gets corrected in a reboot one of these days. iMacs have gone from "virtually nothing is accessible" to "virtually everything is accessible" and back to "virtually nothing is accessible" so hopefully the pendulum will swing the other way.
This is why Apple sells the Time Capsule and offers Time Machine for those who'd prefer a simple external USB drive instead. Because while all computers fail, recovering from a Mac with Time Machine "just works."
Once the new drive is put back in, the recovery process is as simple as using the recovery DVD and then selecting the Time Machine drive as your restore point. Walk away, come back, the machine "just works" again.
It's much easier, cheapier, cleaner, simpler (and with better performance) to simply pop a second hard drive in any PC desktop than to screw around with an external hard drive. And that's an option you don't have with any Mac short of a Mac Pro, which is ridiculously expensive.
b_baggins
Again, who cares about a bootable external hard drive when you need to replace it anyway? Are you really going to run your imac indefinitely using an external hard drive? With a PC, you simply pop a new hard drive in (might take 5 minutes is you're slow) and boot using your recovery discs. Done. And again, that's an option with pretty much any PC, whether running XP, Vista, or Windows 7. And NOT an option with most of the Macs sold today.
The iMac concept is really stupid. It looks great unitl you realize all of the limitations. Want a second hard drive? Sorry. Want a matching second monitor to run a mulitple monitor setup? Sorry. Just want to upgrade the monitor? Well, yeah you can do that while still being stuck with the your old outdated one front and center. Stupid, stupid concept.
Why not run your iMac indefinitely using an external drive? Firewire 800 is fast, and it's a desktop machine. Just because you've been conditioned that it's a BAD THING by the fact that Windows can't do it, doesn't make it a poor solution at all.
As for your other points: Want a second hard drive? No problem. Plug one in. Want a third hard drive? Plug one in. A 4th? Plug one in. How about 128. Plug them in. Unlike USB firewire is peer to peer and not client server. Your computer CPU does not slow down when accessing the external drives.
Yeah, it stinks he lost his internal drive. No, it's not the end of the world. You crack the case on your PC because you HAVE to. Because Windows STILL doesn't support booting from a non eSATA external drive.
its complicated, yes, but you CAN boot windows of an external. it wouldnt be so complicated if there weren't so many different hard choices available for PC users
Have you ever replaced a drive in a Sony, HP or Dell in this form factor? Comparing a normal desktop to this for factor is well....stupid. That would be like comparing replacing a car engine in say a big 50's era RWD chevy to a 2009 model compact Civic with FWD. They are different.
Anyhow I have done many of these and it takes about 15min once you do one, maybe less. Replacing a mobo in a dead dell notebook takes 5x longer.
Also swaping a drive in a Mac is super simple. There are two free applications.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
and
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
Both make a bootable copy of your current drive onto an external drive. So you clone, install new drive, boot off clone, clone to new drive. Simple as hell. With a PC you would need to boot from a CD to read your Ghost or Acronis image on the way back.
If you have an external HD case that allows the easy remove of a drive, you can then just clone to the new drive in that case. Then remove old drive and install new drive with your clone on it already. You could do the same with a PC as well.
peep are taking this out of context. If u were to try to replace the hard drive on any of the other ALL IN ONES out there it would be more or less as complicated.
If you try to replace the hard drive on a mac pro (normal desktop factor) it would be a easy as removing the side panel and voila! I'm not trying to be a fan boy but yall are comparing apples with oranges (no pun intended)
For your information, the HP and Sony all in ones are the exact same in terms of internal build as that Mac, albeit some minor geographical differences in where the parts are inside the casing, but they are built the same way. Ram is at the top or bottom, accessible through the removal of a single screw, making it easy to replace. However the hard drives in these units are tucked away nice and neat, in most cases to ensure that a customer must take a computer back to a manufacturer for upgrades. In most cases PC companies dont want the average customer going inside and tinkering with things, many people dont know the proper way to take out or replace a hard drive, so they put things in the way to prevent them. Such as screws, tapes and all that other fun stuff. They are deterrents to ensure that they leave it alone. A professional can do even that complex of a task in a short period of time. What would take a tech 30 minutes could take the average customer hours and many broken connector ribbons, pins and cables.
On a side note, it is extremely easy to replace a HD in a Macbook, much easier then other Notebooks
On Windows, you would have to re-install Windows and then re-install all applications using their installers in addition to going through any product activations. This is because of the Windows Registry.
I WIN!
I hope you used Time Machine or some backup software so restoring was not a nightmare.
I can't really say I approve of the unibody construction. It may be stronger, but I don't see the need for it in an all-in-one. Almost 100% of the time, it's stationary on the desk... it doesn't move, not like a laptop does. To me, it's like putting heavy duty shocks on a stationary bicycle. For the laptop, I can see it as a competitor for toshiba's toughbooks. But even there, a standard body does well if you take care of your computer.
Seriously guy, go look at a new all in one computer from Sony or HP, they are built the same was as this mac. It is not easy to change a hard drive on one. Instead of referencing a product made years ago how about looking into more recent forms of evidence
Just because the procedure is different from changing out the HD in a PC, doesn't mean it's more difficult. I've cut my fingers many times on the insides of PCs. The hard part with a PC is reinstalling windows - especially when the windows users have lost their restore disk or refuse to use it to avoid all the trial ware it installs.
How much does that extended warranty cost?"
It costs $169 for the most expensive iMac and covers two additional years (for a total of 3 years).
The MBP costs twice as much for apple care because it is such a beast to repair and the parts are expensive, and because it has more chance of failure as a portable than an iMac sitting on a stationary desk.
Totally off topic but still.
good idea
Might get to work on that
seriously
I've had two drives fail in about twenty years from a total of about twenty drives. One drive that failed was a DataFrame 20 (my first hard drive for my Mac Plus). It took about nine years to fail and ran so hot it would boil water. Eventually the spindle seized. That was one hell of an SCSI drive. The other drive that "failed" (some Maxtor) was having read/write problems and I just replaced it before it died completely. I've always had few problems with my drives, so in my experience the odds of them failing are rather slim.
I have all the necessary tools except for those suction disks. I'd have to pick those up at WalMart or Staples. I've seen them attached to pot holders and bathroom washcloths, but never seen them sold separately.
Now, can you buy a FW800 drive and boot your average PC? No, I don't think you can...
PS - I've had a few notebook HDs fail, but they were due to an IBM manufacturing defect at the time.
as for suction cups being a lot of trouble, honestly, how hard is it to do this? And frankly, it is likely that two spudgers will work just as well, but the preferred method seems to be suction cups so as not to risk scratching the LCD below.
Beyond ridiculous, but Don R is SUCH an Apple core.
It's what? $50 to buy a new HD, and over $1000 to buy a new computer as good as the one Don was using? It's generally worth $50, some effort, and an hour or two of your time to save $1000.
Don, I am just curious, had you seen any signs that hard drive was about to fail?
The only thing I noticed prior the failure was a folder with question mark on it which appeared just for a fraction of a sec in the place where a grey apple appears when you start/restart your Mac. I restarted couple of times when updates were installed. Apparently, I have had a hint of failure (if it was a Mac created hint) for about 6 weeks before the actual failure.
What is your experience?
-Don
I?m guessing since the iMac is a computer designed to be incredibly thin and incredibly simple, they decided not to worry about the relatively few iMac customers that would ever want to undertake a feat such as this, y?know?
-Don
If all you needed to do was lift the glass out with four suction cups, what prevents it from just falling out if you tip the system forward or lay it on its face?
-Don
- by MrDogers2you April 6, 2009 11:06 AM PDT
- I did the same and it was EASY! I removed the POS Western Digital drive and replaced it with a 500 GB Seagate. Installed OS 10.5 from DVD and then I used a USB adaptor to allow the new drive to mount and using DiscWarrior to make repairs. I then used Migration Assistant in the Applications: Utilities Folder to move all the data to the new drive for me. It was actually rather painless and I had the iMac running again with not much effort and only a couple of hours of down time.
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- by ikramerica--2008 April 6, 2009 3:08 PM PDT
- The white intel iMac was not as easy as this. It required prying things apart that would never be sealed the same way again. I much prefer the removing the glass with suction cups method.
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