Difficoltà
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15
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Guida In Evidenza
Questa guida è stata giudicata eccezionalmente ben fatta dallo staff iFixit.
Introduzione
Aggiornamento del disco rigido a un velocissimo SSD per un avvio più rapido e maggiori velocità di lettura e scrittura.
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Far aderire una ventosa accanto a ciascuno dei due angoli superiori del pannello di vetro.
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Tenendo delicatamente la ventosa contro il vetro, sollevare la maniglia semovente finché non è parallela all'altra maniglia (come evidenziato nella terza immagine).
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Sollevare il pannello di vetro in perpendicolare rispetto alla superficie dello schermo LCD, affinché sia possibile sgombrare i piedini di montaggio in acciaio inseriti lungo il lato sottostante al bordo superiore del pannello di vetro.
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Estrarre il panello di vetro dal bordo inferiore dell'iMac e riporlo da parte con attenzione.
you should do this mac up, because, for me, one of the suction cup failed, and the glass fall into the lcd screen. Now there is a big hole in it...
do you still have this panel?
Reassembly: After powering on and running for a few minutes, found a large whitish patch on the screen. Persists after powerdown.
Turned out to be condensation, though it didn't look like it - more like fine white powder rubbed in. Humidity is very high this time of the year. Fix: start airconditioner in a room, leave it running a while, take iMac in, prise open the glass again. Condensation vanishes instantly. Keep it out for a ~15 minutes running infinite loops to get iMac nicely heated up and fans running. Snap glass back.
I used a Swiffer dry cloth to get all the dust off the screen while just blowing with my mouth at a steep angle. I know I didn't get every speck, but the screen looks perfect once assembled and lit again. Removing the glass from the screen is pretty easy if you need to re-clean it.
I used a microfiber cloth instead, which worked well. The same type as yo use to clean eye glasses, but in a larger form factor.
Daniel -
The Swiffer idea worked great! I just brush it over the LCD and glass panel lightly, and all dust particles are gone quickly. The screen after boot up looked beautiful. Thanks!
dtsai2 -
I didn't crack the screen, but it popped out of the shims and then popped back in, as if the glass edge is magnetic or has steel in it to connect to magnets. Be careful with this step — it is pretty nerve-wracking, but doable!
You need a big clean surface free, or at least 2 or more free surfaces because the iMac, the glass and the LCD display are quite bulky. You'll also probably need space for a tablet or a laptop to read this guide while you are working. And don't forget room to work on the optical unit and for the tools you are going to use. I covered a large table with a double layer of bubble wrap. In my opinion it's better to put the glass face down to limit powder sticking on the internal surface.
Thanks good advice! I was wondering exactly about the working space issue!
I am doing this repair now. After successfully lifting off the glass panel (yay!), dust blew out of the lower open edge. So I sprayed a can of air around edges. But a poof of the “air” condensated on the LCD. Does anyone know if I can clean the LCD same as how the glass is cleaned (damp cloth with equal parts white distilled vinegar/distilled water) and if not then how?
Hi Amy,
To clean the LCD panel, I would suggest using a clean microfiber cloth and rubbing alcohol. Distilled water can be used, but avoid regular water, which contains minerals. Make sure the microfiber cloth is absolutely clean and has no hard particles sticking on the surface, which will scratch your LCD when you wipe it.
Wet the surface with some alcohol and gently wipe with the microfiber cloth. Wipe in one direction.
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Rimuovi le otto viti Torx T10 che fissano l'LCD al case esterno.
Be careful not to lose these screws when they are unthreaded. Use tweeters to grab them before removing the Torx driver.
To prevent screws close to the magnets to leave your screwdriver, use a straw to encapsulate your screws. This is especially useful when putting them back. See pictures for details: http://cjoint.com/?CLCpN1nmK4M and http://cjoint.com/?CLCpOy6aF9G
That was a brilliant idea. After trying for ten minutes without luck, the straw technique helped immensely.
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Posa con cura l'iMac su una superficie piana con il supporto in basso.
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Usa un piccolo attrezzo a uncino per sollevare un lato del bordo superiore del display agganciando la cornice esterna in acciaio del display stesso.
Be very careful not to hook the Bluetooth antenna cable while you're lifting the display out. It's hiding under the top left corner of the iMac. I managed to snag mine with the paperclip and ended up pulling the antenna cable clean out of the tiny gold connector. Some very precise reconstruction work was required to get the cable seated in the connector again and back up to full signal strength.
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Usa un paio di pinzette per tirare la piattina della sincronizzazione verticale fuori dalla sua sede sulla scheda di controllo del LED vicino all'angolo superiore sinistro del tuo iMac.
Can I purchase this cable separately?
After removing the display, I noticed a high pitched whine coming from the machine, different loudness for different levels of display brightness. Reading up on it, it seems that the problem is with the vertical sync cable (and this is a well-known issue with Apple with new machines, too). So be careful when reinserting this cable!
I noticed that the vertical sync cable seems to have been updated since the guide was produced. It now has a more normal plug and socket and 'regular' wires instead of the flat ribbon cable shown here. I used narrow nosed pliers instead of tweezers to unclip it as I was afraid that just pulling on the wires could have broken them.
WARNING: Take extreme care when removing these wires as mine were not a ribbon cable but individual tiny wires. I removed them cautiously with tweezers OK but when re-inserting, one of the wires came off. Obviously someone had been in here before.
Hi Peter, did you manage to get a replacement? Let me know please - Thanks Paul
I changed the HD yesterday and when I reinstalled the Display I had the same problem then Peter Sinclair. I started to panic first. But then I reinstalled the Pannel without re-insterting the cable at all and nevertheless my iMac works perfectly since 14 hours now. I'm really confused!
My vertical sync ribbon cable had two of the four contacts bent back, it may even have been like this originally. I straightened them out as best I could under a magnifying glass, and after reinserting, everything is working OK. Seems this cable is not particularly critical. Also, I used needle nose pliers for this and the other connectors, I can't get enough grip with tweezers.
Tweezers didn't work for me due to the angle and lack of grip (they kept slipping and I was concerned about squeezing any harder). I just used my fingers to grab the connector as close to the connection as possible for both removal and insertion and it worked just fine. I have big hands and meaty fingers, so this method should work fine for anyone.
I have a late 2009 27" Mac and did something similar to Gabe, but being alone, after unplugging the vertical sync cable, I used two wooden chopsticks to hold the screen at about 45° and without disconnecting any more cables I could quite easily access the Superdrive to remove and replace with a 240GB SSD with help from a caddy from TheNatural2020, which required a tiny modification.
All in all it took me about 45 minutes and was much easier than expected. It is working at a negotiated SATA speed of 3 Gbps Some report a speed of only 1.5 Gbps, but from what I had read before purchasing the Crucial M500, going for a 6 Gbps SSD is worse on a late 2009 Mac as it has to default to the basic SATA 1 speed of 1.5 Gbps, while the slower 3 Gbps SATA II drive works at 3 Gbps. The time from the Apple logo till the sign-in screen on startup has gone from 33.5 seconds to 8.5 secs, and my internal hard drive is a 7200rpm
I am VERY satisfied and it was much easier than expected.
Thanks for this suggestion! I didn't have chopsticks, but was able to use some pens instead. The pens are shorter, but still provided sufficient room for my tools to get to the screws holding the HD. I noticed there are two large, thumb size, indentations in the frame under the LCD that the pens fit into nicely. Since I did the repair by myself, this really sped up the process and I was able to complete the HD swap and memory addition in about 25 minutes. (I had planned 2 hours. Happy, happy, happy!)
barry -
I also did this step and then went straight to step 10. I installed a SSD so I didn't do step 15 either. You can use this to control the fans: http://exirion.net/ssdfanctrl/
Overall, great guide! Thank you.
This was for me the hardest step when reassembling the iMac.
I had to open and close the iMac several times as each time some of the cables was not properly connected: The vertical sync, the display data cable connector, even the Bluetooth antenna was off at some point and I had to re-open every time! Finally I left the vertical sync cable disconnected as with each operation it was in very bad condition and impossible to plug in. I'm amazed at how bad designed is this cable and how easy is to break it! It's nice to know that they improved it, poor technicians.
I'd like to replace it in the future but I really don't know how or if it is available in its more up-to-date version… I didn't feel like dissasembling everything again to see how is it connected.
The portion of this little cable that plugs into the receptor is stiffer than the rest of the cable, but it is very slippery. For me, it was also very tight. Tweezers and fingers just slipped right off of it. Fortunately, I didn't tear the cable. I ended up using needle-nose pliers wrapped with cellophane to get traction. It was also very difficult to reinsert. By raising the display to the maximum level with all the other cables connected, I was able to push it in with my fingers.
Also: if you get any smudges on the display, a lens pen works great to remove them. I used a swiffer to pick up dust.
I opened the case as far as I could without stretching this cable and used my fingers to get it. The end of the ribbon where it connects is stiff, so you can grab it there. There's not connector; the stiff part just slides in and out. Getting it back in is a pain, but if you get the perfect angle it slides back in without much force.
That's what I ran into with my friends iMac as well. it was just (very carefully slid into place. a piece of celotape held it in as we put the pieces together.
Pull the cable AWAY from the connector. Some cables have a plastic connector cap attached to the end. This one does not. The cable just slips out as if pulling a stick of gum out of a package. I used my index finger and thumb, no tweezers needed.
I also plugged it out with my fingers, got more feeling in them. Put it in the same way. There is no barb or something on the cable, so this should be quite safe when not using too much force. And I also used chopsticks to keep the display up, just like an engine hood.
This ribbon had me flumoxed for a while. I had expected to have to remove the terminal from the circuit board. All you need to do it gently pull on the ribbon directly and it will come out of the terminal.
I followed the above tips and used chop sticks as struts to support the internal screen at an angle, whilst I worked on the hard drive. Allowed me to skip the remaining cable removal steps and go straight to step 10. And I didn’t need an extra set of hands to hold the screen whilst I worked.
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Ruota il display sollevandolo dal case esterno quanto basta a disconnettere il cavo della retroilluminazione LED dalla scheda di controllo LED.
Step 7 MAY be better done prior to Step 6. 7's cord comes tight before there is enough lift room to get to Step 6's plug in my opinion.
The connector has a simple locking mechanism, essentially a ridge on the top where the thumb is placed in the picture. If you push down gently there the latch raises and you can pull the cable out.
I found step 6 the most difficult of the whole procedure. The way I unclipped the connector was from the front, with my thumbnail. There's a little ridge over which the cable clicks tight. If you use your thumbnail to lift the connector over that ridge, you can then easily remove the cable. (Maybe iFixit should that advise to the guide, since especially step 6 is a bit too concise imho.)
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Premi insieme i due braccetti laterali della spina del cavo di connessione dati per sbloccarla dalla sua sede sulla scheda logica.
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Sfila la spina del cavo di connessione dati dalla sua presa sulla scheda logica.
NOTE! The internal video connector on the logic board is quite fragile - proceed with extra care when disconnecting. There are many postings of Mac users who have broken the display connector and are then left with quite a challenging proposition to replace it. Here is the link to one such thread: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.p....
Ditto. It is very fragile. Mine pulled off the motherboard while doing the upgrade (all else went well). Problem occurred because I tried to do the drive swap without removing the display. I had someone hold it up for me. Display is heavy and you can't feel the tug of the cable. Disaster.
The repair is beyond most computer repair folks. Found these guys http://www.dttservice.com/ and they are great. For $195 they fixed it in 24hours.
I ran into a big problem with step 7: my display data cable did not have any sort of plug to connect to the logic board. Instead, the cable seemed to be soldered onto the board or simply run under this small copper-colored band. There was no plastic plug to detach/attach.
I was afraid to pull on the cable and break something, so I simply had a friend hold up the LCD and I replaced the logic board without removing the display. I'm not sure what I would have done if I needed to replace the drive.
Has anyone else run into this issue where the display data cable doesn't have a plug? And are there alternative ways to detach it safely?
@fronesis - on my iMac it wasn't possible to pull out the connector at first. There was a small rectangular metal clip which locked the connector in place - this had to be pulled up first, and then the connector came out extremely easily.
I'm having blackscreen issue and this cable is my main suspect. Here is my post regarding this issue.
you will break your computer if you follow this step during the reassemble!
it’s not possible to reconnect the display with the board because the cable is way to short to maneuver the connector in place and you have almost no sight - you’ll not see what you’re doing! the better approach is disconnect the cable on the display as well (since the connector here is more robust) and insert the connector on the board as a first step without having the display in front of your face..
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Solleva il display quanto basta per scollegare il cavo del sensore termico dell'LCD dalla sua presa sulla scheda logica.
Be very very careful when you pull out this plug as it is extremely fragile and also reattaching the LCD thermal sensor plug and very very gently ensure that the pins are actually going into the connector before you push the plug in. i damaged the top part of the plastic housing which then made it difficult to insert the plug into the connector. I can't believe how easy it was to damage this connector!! If you don't attach the LCD thermal sensor plug correctly the Mac fans will go crazy at full speed. It took a good 15 minutes to get the pins to finally go into the plug and they can bend easily.
This was too tight to get with my hands. I used needle nose pliers to grab the plastic connector and it popped right out. I need pliers to get it to snap back in too. The wire itself if very thin so be sure to only grab the connector.
The connection of this cable is moot (and to the main drive too) if you purchase HDD Fan Control Monitor software that uses the SMART tech inside the drives to set the fan speeds. It was rather expensive but worth the $35
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Scollegare il cavo del sensore termico e i cavi di alimentazione e dati SATA estraendone i connettori dai rispettivi connettori femmina sul disco rigido.
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Per riassemblare il dispositivo, seguire queste istruzioni in ordine inverso.
Per riassemblare il dispositivo, seguire queste istruzioni in ordine inverso.
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76 Commenti
While putting the system back together, I recommend untaping and removing the vertical sync cable from the back of the led screen. Plug it back into the LED Driver board and then into the back of the screen. Reapply the tape and continue reassembling as normal. It is far easier to plug it back into the screen than into the driver board through such a small gap.
Wow! That's a great tip... I looked at doing this and thought it would be a hassle but if you said it is easier than doing it taped than it must be easier. I'm going to do this time. Thaanx
My hd failed and i used this guide to replace it with the same model. The problem i'm stuck with now is installing os x again. The installation starts and goes on for a while, while the hard drive makes a weird clicking noise. Then randomly the installation fails and asks to try again. I've done this ten times now.
I'm not here to rant though, i've some useful tips as well.
Instead of buying suction cups, i used a vacuum cleaner inserted into the back of a plastic container to create more pressure per inch. Also used duct tape on edges of the container to create more friction and not damage the glass. Although later i noticed you could wedge the sharp edge of a knife between the glass and the case and widen the gap with a fingernail, then pull the glass out completely.
A note when you're buying screw drivers... The ones with the interchangeable bits won't reach the screws on the lcd, so be prepared to fiddle with strips of paper and screws falling into the sides!
Were you able to finally install the osx ?
Kul -
I'm supposing my SSD will go before my HDD, but either way this doesn't look like the inside of my 27" iMac. Help?
A partir de l'étape 5, mettre un baton qui sert de cale pour soutenir l'ecran, pas la peine d'enlever les autres connecteurs. Moins de 8 minutes pour le deuxieme Imac que j'ai fait. Apple compte 4 heures de main d'oeuvre...Je n'ai fait que le changement du Disque dur interne sur 2 imac 27 mid 2010. Vraiment à la porté de tous. Une ventouse en haut au centre de la vitre suffit. Rajouter un aimant sur le tournevis torx pour faciliter la remise en place des vis.
I wanted to add a quick note to this after completing my HDD replacement.
As I was going though my reinstall of the OS I got an hardware error because of the disconnected special cable that apparently is used for the fan controls as mentioned in other posts here. Everything works fine though because I took the advice upfront to install HDD Fan Control. Until I installed HDD Fan Control the fans did rev up faster than normal. But it wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting or had heard/read. Once installed it took over the fans perfectly. I tweaked the defaults speeds a bit and off I went to restore my data.
I can't thank you all enough for sharing your wealth of information. The breakdown of the iMac and replacement went perfectly due to all the information and additional notes of experience. Thanks. I look forward to doing more repairs now, instead of dreading them.
I MADE IT!!! thank you very much for this! You saved me a lot of money!! 400 euros actually for just replacing the hard drive. Thank you!!!
I had a spudger - which was of great help getting the display off, and also in guiding the scews in when reassembling - the magneic clips on the display were annoyingly grabbing the screws, and the spudger made all the difference in keeping them from adhering to the nearest magnet.
Also - when levering out the display, instead of the corners, I found one of the steel tabs holding the magnets at the top was easier to lever out a little and then get ahold of.
Another tip - if you can, when you lay this flat, do so such that the base of the mac is facing away from you, and get some good directional lighting - a desk lamp, right into where you will be disconnecting/reconnecting the fiddly display wires. The HDD is a doddle once the display is off.
See this explanation for thermal sensor issues: http://www.hddfancontrol.com/imac-hard-d...
Apple uses proprietary thermal sensing firmware included on drives they ship - if you install a stock drive you'll need to install this software - or something else - to use the standard heat sensing system on most drives.
I followed this guide with a 2011 iMac and ended up with my fan pegged at 4000rpm - I installed the HDD Fan Control software and it instantly went back to normal.
You can use a free alternative to the insanely expensive HDD Fan Control :
http://exirion.net/ssdfanctrl/
It works out of the box. No tweaks or strange things. And it costs nothing (it's donationware).
I downloaded Macs Fan from www.Cnet.com
So glad I didn't need to open that case again. Thanks for the exirion link!
Switching from 1TB HD to 500GB SSD like a charm - warning : SSD desktop kit required. I highly recommend using softwares as SSD Fan Control and TRIM Enabler in order to get your iMac SSD capable.
This guide was a perfect step-by-step and if you follow it you will have a successful repair. I replaced the internal hard drive and my mac is up and running again perfect! Thank you Ifixit!
After upgrading RAM, I recently added a new harddrive to replace the original rumbling 1Gb Seagate. I installed one of the new hybrid drives from Seagate (in this case 2TB) and it is not only very fast but almost silent. I can certainly recommend it. No Fan issues if you install the cables carefully.
I used this guide to the letter, and everything worked perfectly for me. I bought all my supplies from iFixit- the suction cups, the hard drive, even the 54 bit Driver kit. The long narrow screw driver in the kit made it easy to remove the screws. I guess the only thing I had to supply was the paper clip and the screen cleaner. I was really glad this guide was here to help me fix my $2000 anchor when my hard drive crashed.
This is a great guide; I have a comment for the lazy/fearful. What I did is installed Mac OS on an external drive (LaCie Firewire), plugged it in the back, and that has become my hard drive. I'm sure it's slower than it should be, but works just fine for my needs (telecommuting, streaming media, internet, etc.). The old, dead hard drive is still stuck inside the iMac, and there it will remain...
How did you get OS on your external drive? My iMac is the only Mac computer I have and it's completely dead. I don't have another computer to hook up to my LaCie to download the OS to....any suggestions?
suzann4 -
Does anyone have any techniques or recommendations for how to make sure you get ALL the dust off the screen before putting the glass back on?
The only aspect of this entire installation process that I'm worried about is that I'll somehow damage the bare panel while the glass is off, or I'll get contaminants in there.
Obviously canned air is at the ready.
Great guide!
I used a clean dry 3" wide watercolor wash brush, which I have utilized for other instances such as getting dust off color transparencies. You just need to go very lightly all the way across until you see no more dust, which can sometimes take a dozen or so swipes. I was thinking of using canned air but the brush works fine. They cost about 3 bucks at an art supply store.
Thank you, iFixit. Without the guide I wouldn't have a nice new SSD in my late 2009 iMac. One suggestion. It would help a LOT if each step in all the guides that involves a connector showed or described how the connector is to be disconnected. For those of us not familiar with all the different kinds, it's sometimes NOT obvious whether to pull UP or OUT, whether or not there is a lock release of some sort, etc. The LCD thermal sensor cable connector (Step 10) was particularly tough, because it is small and the wires are thin and it would be easy to break them (it pulls toward the end where the wires exit the connector, but use something to grab the connector, rather than pulling on the wires!)
Great guide. I followed it but found after removing the logic board there was no secondary sata port!!! Either way I hooked up the original hard drive to power and temp sensor to stop the fan spin up and used the sata for the SSD so works great. One problem! My sound is now greyed out? Any physical reason for this? When the imac powers on it makes a sound but no sounds in Mac OS. I feel it must be physical not software related.
the optical replacement caddy is required in order to fit an SSD as the SATA connector which plugs into the optical drive is smaller and will not naturally fit your SSD!! I couldn't see this mentioned in this guide.
Also to confirm I ended up replacing the main hard drive with a SanDisk 256GB Extreme II drive and to prevent the constant fan noise problem if you fit a spare 2pin thermal sensor by unplugging the original hard drive sensor it does actually work! I managed to salvage a spare thermal sensor from an old iMac from the optical drive and plugged it in and it works a treat!!
If you are looking to replace the existing factory fitted hard drive with an SSD and you have a 2 pin thermal sensor - like one out of an old iMac's optical drive unit (or a spare ordered online) you can easily use this and replace the factory fitted hard drive thermal sensor. Be very careful as this connector can be fragile but place the replacement thermal sensor on top of your SSD and secure down with sticky tape. Works a treat! The iMac's fan's do not spin at full speed and you don't need any software to control the fan speed. The iMac is truly fooled :-)
Many thanks for this service. I did not use any special tools, it was very easy to manage. Every step is explained perfectly.
Another awesome guide! Kudos to Andrew Bookholt! It was very well illustrated and the photos were very well taken. Rock-on iFixit!
I would like to mention that I was terrified of having to open my 27" iMac. I mean really, suction cups? Fragile tiny wires that you have to remove when the display is open about an inch? Yikes! As it turns out, if you ever had to work inside a Mac SE30 you can definitely do repairs on an iMac. Same cramped spaces but better design.
Thank YOU all so much for this guide and comments. Took me two weeks to get up the courage to open my iMac. Watched videos read and reread everything. My iMac now has a beautiful 2TB Seagate Barracuda Hybrid (ST2000DX001) drive in it. I replaced a Seagate 1TB that died. So when considering replacement drives this one seems to be working just fine. It's been on for 24 hours no fan problems. Woohoo!
Hi Cyndee, do you have an EMC 2309 or 2374 and did you needed some extra thermal sensor (like one from OWC)? I have an iMac Late 2009, i5 2.66 GHz and bought the same ST2000DX001 as you for this. I am worried about the fan.
Creg -
Hi Cyndee, Creg,
Get the OWC thermal sensor. I didn't initially, and all the fans were working overtime the whole time. I tried software fixes, but they didn't work well enough. I eventually (months later) bought the OWC thermal sensor, re-opened my mac and installed. it. I'm back to having a pleasant, quiet mac.
Do yourself a favour and get the thermal sensor upfront.
Mark.
mark -
Great guide, but I think I screwed it up - I installed a new hard drive, no problem there, and I gently pulled out The Vertical sync ribbon. When I tried to put it back in, the 4 small metal connector folded up like tape! I I very gently straightened them out and reattached it, (and I reattached everything else by the instructions) but when I tuned the power on, the Screen lit up for a brief moment then turned off. I could hear whirring inside, but cannot get it to boot up. I wondered if I need a boot disk or something but I am pretty sure I did something wrong reassembling... Can anyone help???
I completed all steps easily and with no hassles using these straight-forward instructions and succeeded in replacing my iMac's old HD for a new superfast 1Tb SSD. Can't thank you enough! I was pretty insecure but all went well.
Hi cantata, do you mind sharing some of the details? Which SSD did you choose, did it fit out of the box or did you need a kit, how did you tackle the thermal sensor issue or did you use fan control software? Thanks!
Casper -
Hi Casper,
I have the exact same questions you have... or I hope had? Do you happen to have some insight for me?
Awesome guide! Worked like a charm. Thanks so much!
Great guide, It worked perfect for me. Thanks a lot! I appreciated a second persons help to hold the lcd screen to a safe distance while I was unplugging the connectors so I could see what I was doing. A good but silly tip to control the magnetic force when screwing back the LCD is to reach the hole holding the torx screw with tweezers to place it in the correct position
Maybe I should have been reading the comments or edits before I started but I was unaware of the incompatibility of the thermal sensor with most new drives :-/. Fortunately, after little research, I found SSD Fan Control (exirion.net) ! There's a few hardware hacks or workarounds but I didn't really find if they would work w/ my particular model (2309). Anyway, the app works great, check it out if you need it! Hopefully it will continue to do so.
Otherwise, great guide, as usual!!! This site, has once again, saved my Mac and saved myself TONS of money! Spent $175 in 2 HDD's and tools as opposed to $1700+ on a new 27" iMac! Cannot even describe how good that feels.
Excellent guide. when I turned my mac back onto after installation it showed the folder with question mark symbol..The new HDD must be formatted for mac to recognise it (mac journalled GUID partition) I couldn't get disk utility off my original installation CD as my optical drive died years ago so turned a USB into a bootable drive, downloaded yosemite installed it as an installer, when I plugged it into my mac and held down C on startup I was overjoyed to see the apple. from here I erased the seagate HDD reformatted it to mac journalled and created a GUID partition, went back to installer followed the installation process and it was easy sailing form there!! Thank you!! and instead of using suction cups to take the screen off I used high tac duct tape.
I have a IMAC 27" 2.66 GHz (late 2010) with Seagate 1T harddisk. The harddisk stopped working end of August 2015. I replaced it with a new Toshiba 1T purchased from IFIXIT. I formatted the hard disk and installed the OS X 10.6.8 snow/Leopard without any problem and following the guide here.
Now every 5 seconds there is a very annoying sound like dripping water sounds like its coming from the new harddisk.
Can someone advise me what the problem is?
Thank you very much for this good guide. I did it. I have upgraded my iMac - late 2009 (i5, 2.66 GHz, 11.1, 27") - to a new SHDD Seagate ST2000DX001 with 2TB. It was necessary because my old HDD (Seagate ST31000528ASQ) has got a failure in SMART-System. That was a real problem, I wasn't able to upgrade to El Capitan. Although I worried about the fan problematic, I can't recognize any problems with it. The fan runs absolutely normal. I didn't bought/used any third party solution like one from OWC. Just switched the 3 cables in the same way as by the original HDD. Now the HDD performance is also much better (factor ~1x-1.5x).
Has anyone here had any luck switching the thermal sensor cables?
Excellent guide. I got it done in half an hour without any problem. The important thing is to read all the precautions and comments from others who are reading this. Most important, it would save you all the trouble by doing your homework: finding out which make of HD the original one is and use a matching one. Mine was a 1TB Seagate ST31000528ASQ of an 2009 iMac 11,1. The current Seagate replacement is ST1000DM003. I can confirm that it works and the thermal sensor fits without any problem. Another reader recommended a video guide which is also good but in there it is slightly confusing as they used a customised kit the company sold. But the overall opening and reassembly are very useful. I too did not open the whole thing, just disconnect the v-sync cable and used a pair of chopsticks. Works like a charm.
a comment to Step 10:
Everything was no problem at all, thanks for that.
Yet I have a problem / or question: I wanted to replace my original HDD (1 TB, 3.5" mechanic) with a 2.5" SSD which doesn't have any connector for the thermal sensor cable .... :( what can I do here? .... don't know if I need to connect it at all or is there another solution for this?
Thanks in advance :) Eik
Great Guide! Replaced Seagate 1T SATA2 for a Seagate 1T SATA3 .
it is an awesome guide
This Guide was so easy to follow and made it so seamless in taking out the Hard Drive of the Imac 2374 that i was working on. I will definately be using the Ifixit guides again especially if they have a guide for something that I am working on. So Thank you to who ever made this guide you made my life so much easier
Just did on a 2009 27" imac. Went great, except that the fan ran @ max speed -- even after buying the same model drive (in a bigger size) and replacing the temp cable according to a photo I took during disassembly. $35 for HD an control solved the problem in 10 secs, so well worth it. Thanks so much for this guide!
I'm going to replace the HD of a 27" iMac with a SSD that doesn't have the connector for the thermal sensor.
I wonder if its possible to use the surface mounted HDD sensor that older iMacs used. I have one of those from a 2007 20" aluminum iMac. The connector is the same, but is the sensor compatible?
Is it worth a try? Or should I just install the utility and be done with it?
I want to install an SSD too. Did the sensor trick work? And do I need any special mount or kit to install the SSD?
So I've installed a new hybrid HD, triumphed over the WD/Seagate sensor cable issue, and got the thing together and powered up. But I can't, you know, get the thing working. I have a Snow Leopard CD and thumb drive, and I can get to the gray screen with an apple on it using both, but after that, nothing: the thumb drive went to a blue screen and then a screen of digital garbage, while the CD is just sitting on the gray screen, 15 minutes and counting. Thoughts?
The old drive was pretty much trash, so cloning it was a non-option. But should I put it in an external USB enclosure and try a recovery boot from that?
OK, I'm not sure what was wrong with the Snow Leopard drive and disk, but making a bootable USB drive for El Capitan as explained in the link below appears to have worked beautifully. The drive is currently restoring from backup, so maybe I shouldn't count chickens, but it sure looks like everything is going well.
Oh, and: the guide was great, but Step 5 was difficult/scary, because I wasn't clear what was going to happen (unless I did it wrong, what happened was that the ribbon cable came out with no sort of plug at all; when I reinstalled, I just slid the ribbon back in and it seems to be working.
Very easy guide and excellent shipping/customer service. I held the top open with a tissue box to pull out the HDD cables and drive because I didn't need to remove the whole screen.
Definitely be careful as the quality of those cables seem very very weak. I'm a bit disappointing in Apple making such low quality cabling.
Thanks!
Excellent guide
Replaced faulty 1TB drive with a 500GB Samsung SSD
Make sure you have 3.5" to 2.5" adapter and even more importantly have a USB Bootable version of the OS.
DOH...!!
I had to reopen - put old hard drive in - create bootable version of OS - then reopen (Again!) and put in new SSD ...!!
As new SSD has no thermal sensor cable - I installed SSD fan control - dropped fan speed from over 5000RPM to around 1000RPM...
iMac now like a new machine...!
Amazing instructions. Changed out the HDD for a 500GB SSD and switched the optical drive for a 1TB HDD while it was open. It's so much quicker now I can finally use lightroom again.
It was also quite easy to do and I would have finished it all in under an hour had my cat not chewed off the screen heat sensor cable. Had to do some fiddly patching up.
Instructions were excellent, thanks. I wanted to add that I did just a simple HD swap from the factory installed Seagate 1TB drive to a new Seagate 2TB "Firecuda" hybrid solid-state/hard drive. What was interesting was that I had read horror stories that my fans would spin up unless I installed software to control them, installed a hardware adapter to control them, or put in an Apple ROM factory drive. I did not do any of these (figuring I could install software later) and the new FireCuda was plug-and-play. The little jumper-bus that the Apple thermal sensor wire plugs into on the old drive is on the new Firecuda, and it seems to work fine (no high speed fans) without any additional effort on my part. Excellent.
Hi I installed an ssd instead of the original hdd but there's no connection for the fan control on the ssd... I was wondering could I take the circuit board off the old hard drive I took out and tape it to the new ssd drive I installed an d hook up the fan control cable back up to to old board if that would work in getting my Fan to shut off as it just runs all the time without that connector being hooked up.
Great guide. Easy to follow.
I want to upgrade the HDD on my iMac from a 1TB to a 3TB.
The old drive is a WD Caviar Black 1TB and the new one is a WD Caviar Blue.
I figured out the temp sensor issue.
I installed the new drive but when I go to load Sierra back on I can't format the drive in disk utility.
It says, "The disk is too large to be supported by the given partition scheme.
Operation failed…"
Is there a way around this by a possible firmware upgrade or other method.
I was able to access the disc by plugging it into an external interface, but it won't work internally.
Any help please
I have a late 2009 iMac 27". The 1TB HD was replaced by Apple a few years ago as a part of the replacement program. Lucky me ... it failed again. I just have a tick, tick, tick. I have another iMac so I made a bootable SD card and the 27" iMac booted fine. I plan to replace the drive but I want to get the correct one. In reading a bit it seems that I need to know what's brand I currently have but I can't determine that becuase of the failure.
Can I order one of the seagate 2TB SSD 3.5" hybrid drives and will it work? Any help would be great ... (I'd prefer not to open the machine just to determine HD make before ordering)
Thanks!
Dan
I replaced mine with a ssd in place of the optical drive as the boot drive, and a 4TB spinning drive for a bit of storage space.
I also needed to buy a thermal sensor from OWC to cause the fans to run at normal speeds.
- I bought Samsung 850 EVO 1TB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E1T0B/AM) for the SSD.
- This is the spinning drive I bought: Western Digital WD4003FZEX WD 4TB Black SATAIII 64MB 7200RPM Desktop OEM-WD WD4003FZEX Black 4TB 7200RPM 64MB SATA 6Gbps Internal HDD OEM
- This is the thermal sensor I bought: OWC HD TCM Fan Control iMac 09-10
This combo worked for me. I suspect with the thermal sensor you can use whatever drive you want?
mark -
Hello! I successfully replaced the drive, thank you for that. But being that I can't see as well as I used to I kind of messed up the: "vertical sync ribbon cable out of its socket on the LED driver", I attempted to re-build it with scotch tape and all seemed to be fine... now it would seem that my graphics card is damaged... can I get that ribbon anywhere? there seems to be 5 sets of vertical lines when the machine first boots, and then some Digital boxes all over the screen.
I finished installing the new HD and now im not sure how to reinstall osx. when i start up it turns on normal until a folder with a question mark appears. already tried holding the command and r button during boot up but still get the folder with the question mark.
Hi Marcelo, I am assuming that you already solved this issue, right?
If you are alone this is very good. But get another person and a mini ratchet set that will hold the torque bits etc. you can have one person tilt the screen forward from the top, and not have to remove any cables etc., while the other uses the ratchet to undo the two screws that hold the HD in place and you can swap in the new one in 15 minutes.
I was able to relate the hard drive just doing steps 1-5, & 10-15 and propped the monitor up with two pieces of wood dowels about 8 inches long. The dowels fit into the two metal indents on the back side of the display and on the aluminum housing. I didn’t have to remove all the connectors and was able to remove and replace the hard drive quicker… This is the second time I replace a hard drive in this type of Mac. I was able to lose the screws to the hard drive and cables without affecting the other cables…
I fitted an SSD to replace the HDD. The HDD had a thermal sensor cable attached and there was no place to connect this to the SSD.
As a result, the fan ran fast. I downloaded some free software, ‘SSD Fan Control’, which did a great job in taming the fan speed. The surplus thermal sensor cable I just taped neatly to the SSD to stop it from moving around.
These are excellent instructions, as far as they go. Two points need to be addressed before you start. First, create a bootable thumbdrive for your operating system, so that you can crank your iMac up after installing the new drive. Second, either have a viable backup (i.e. Time Capsule) or a download of your data on an external drive; if you don't have a plan, the alternative you will face is determining how you are going to get the data off of the old drive (which will be unpowered and probably inaccessible once removed) and onto the new drive. The newer operating systems have a Data Migration function that can assist in this process, if you have a data source that is accessible after the old drive is out and the new drive is in. The instructions here from iFixit would be more complete if there were links to practical tips on creating a boot drive and developing a workable plan for data migration.
The plastic screen cover is held on by magnets, so I just used a spudger while the iMac was standing up and just pulled it straight off. Also I removed the screen while it was standing. I just held the screen in place while I removed the last screw and it just tipped forward a bit. I reached behind to disconnect the two cables and then just lifted the screen up and out.
You can easily lift the glass panel off the magnets with only your fingernails (or something thin like a credit card or a guitar pick). No need to buy suction cups you will only use once.
Nick Caron - Replica
Yes, you don't need the specific suction cups to remove the display cover - it's held on by magnets, and if you start at the center by the iSight you can work out to the edges and remove it. I had an iPhone screen suction cup around and it helped with balancing the screen when you pull it out fully, but by no ways is it required.
jtowner - Replica
Great guide and pretty straight forward the only thing that took me ages and I didn't manage to undo were the power btn cable (step 28) and the thermal sensor (step 25) Seemed like they were glued on! Very difficult to remove and obviously conscious so I didn't break anything!
Eddie - Replica
Thanks!!! Worked excellently.
I used a plunger (clean first ;-) to get the screen off, and http://exirion.net/ssdfanctrl/ for fan control.
Then, i did not take out the whole display and left it in the hinges on the bottom side and held it up with two small cardboard boxes. Easy enough to disconnect the hdd then.
I replaced with an ssd, put that into a ssd enclosure. Had to drill an extra hole in it to fasten the pins that hold it in place.
Used Carbon Copy Cloner to make an image from the old hdd, with the sad connected via usb. Checked it of it booted via System Preferences > Startup Disk. It worked so the took the imac apart and replaced the disk. Booted, everything was working as always, only faster!
Frank303 - Replica
I'm replacing my optical drive too. what exactly needs to be plugged into the SSD? I don't have the kit - as I am not sure one is required if I buy something like this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0056OB...
Can you please advise? Can I do it with this piece, or do I need to get the entire bracket kit?
Allen Borza -
My display data cable forks, with a smaller section going up near the camera board. Where it forks, it is attached to the aluminum plate that attaches around the cpu board. I haven't seen any images that look similar, and I'm stumped at how to remove this second section of the cable. 2010 i7 build to order
Awolf - Replica
Agree with the other comments here. Despite buying suction cups, not sure they were necessary as the screen removed very easily. A sat nav suction cup would do the job fine.
Stuart Bloomfield - Replica
I can confirm that it is possible to remove the front glass using fingernails rather than suction cups. It isn’t easy, but if you try you should be able to pry off the glass.
I did this twice: once at the beginning of the procedure and once again at the end, when I realized that a big pice of lint was trapped under the glass.
gordonhamachi - Replica