Anyone swapped Hard drives on a 24" Al iMac?

[Tom Sawyer]

Just got my machine... and absolutely loving it. I have a 500gb 7200.10 Seagate sitting on my desk (the machine came with a WD 320gb)... and want to install it. Has anyone swapped their stock drive for a bigger/faster unit? I've seen the take-apart pics and while I'm not afraid of electronics it looks like a task. I was really hoping and figuring that you could remove the REAR cover of the iMac and access/replace the drive that way..

Any ideas on this?

TIA...

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Well, from the silence it seems noone has so... guess I'll TOFTT. Will post full pics/how-to when it is done... or the woeful tale of a sad mac if things go south

 

[negatv1]

You know most on here aren't the kind that are into opening their Macs in fear that Steve Jobs himself will arrive at their door and personally void their warranty.

Personally I don't feel like a machine is truly mine until I have had its parts strewn about my desk, and can see the day of dropping in a cheap 750GB or 1TB in my new iMac (as compared to crazy Apple BTO prices), and would be very interested in seeing your 'howto' pics.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

You know most on here aren't the kind that are into opening their Macs in fear that Steve Jobs himself will arrive at their door and personally void their warranty.

Personally I don't feel like a machine is truly mine until I have had its parts strewn about my desk, and can see the day of dropping in a cheap 750GB or 1TB in my new iMac (as compared to crazy Apple BTO prices), and would be very interested in seeing your 'howto' pics.

Without a doubt! It's time to make it mine

 

[negatv1]

I'm guessing that there are screws behind the glass that hold the front panel on? The Kodawarisan guy doesn't show how the front panel is removed after getting the glass out.

Once the front aluminum bezel is off, swapping out the drive should be relatively easy.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I'm guessing that there are screws behind the glass that hold the front panel on? The Kodawarisan guy doesn't show how the front panel is removed after getting the glass out.

Once the front aluminum bezel is off, swapping out the drive should be relatively easy.

I think that is exactly right. The new AL iMacs seem to be made in reverse of the previous models... they had the components mounted "into" the front.. these seem to have everything mounted "into" the back. I'm planning on tackling this tonight.

These Seagate 7200.10's are so fast.. Should make an already fast machine that much better. The 320gb drive my iMac came with is a WD, 8mb cache.. The 7200.10 with perpendicular technology actually perform on par with the 10K raptors for transfer rate which is pretty impressive. Seek time is not quite to Raptor level of course but they are fast fast drives for the large amount of space they give.

Now if there were only a 16x DVD R/W slot loading drive i could swap out this Matsushita for...

 

[Nemesis90]

You might want to read this first

According to this article the screen is held in by magnets:
New iMac: a Dream for Users, a Nightmare for Repair Centers

 

[Tom Sawyer]

According to this article the screen is held in by magnets:
New iMac: a Dream for Users, a Nightmare for Repair Centers

Yeah...it's going to be interesting to say the least. The only thing I'm really worried about is putting it all back together and having dust on the inside of the glass.

 

[negatv1]

Magnets were a great choice I think. Especially if the alternative for achieving the clean and screw-less look meant that Apple had to use some sort of adhesive to secure the glass panel to the machine.

At least with the magnets the glass panel can be removed and replaced without major reconstructive surgery.

I'm thinking a couple of window mounted suction cups (think radar detectors, satellite radio,etc) and some latex gloves to keep the thing free of fingerprints and you're set.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

It's Done!

It's a done deal! Have posted a writeup with some pictures:

AL iMac 24" HD Replacement