I bought a refurb 27" i7 with just an SSD, now I want to put in a HDD too

[steve77uk]

Title says it all really.

I ordered this baby Sunday afternoon and it arrived this morning (Tuesday). As it was a refurb, I did not have much option with it, but it was what I wanted but minus a secondary HDD.

The first is the SSD supplied by Apple. Question is this - has anyone added a second disk to their iMac when they have a factory installed SSD? I should be capable of opening it up, but don't want to wreck my warranty on this baby.

Apple won't install a 2nd drive for me and want me to go to an Authorised Apple Service Centre. What extra bits do I need? Do you think I will need a SATA splitter or anything? Also concerned about this HDD sensor which is not supplied as HDD was not ordered at time...

Anyone in same boat?

Steve

 

[Stealthipad]

Title says it all really.

I ordered this baby Sunday afternoon and it arrived this morning (Tuesday). As it was a refurb, I did not have much option with it, but it was what I wanted but minus a secondary HDD.

The first is the SSD supplied by Apple. Question is this - has anyone added a second disk to their iMac when they have a factory installed SSD? I should be capable of opening it up, but don't want to wreck my warranty on this baby.

Apple won't install a 2nd drive for me and want me to go to an Authorised Apple Service Centre. What extra bits do I need? Do you think I will need a SATA splitter or anything? Also concerned about this HDD sensor which is not supplied as HDD was not ordered at time...

Anyone in same boat?

Steve

Have you thought about using an external hard drive!

 

[steve77uk]

Have you thought about using an external hard drive!

Hi,

Yes I have and indeed, I am using a WD My Book with FW800 on it, seems to be OK, but just naturally presumed that an internally connected SATA one would be a lot faster...

I have done a bit of searching on the subject and just don't know...

I guess it would also leave things nice and tidy, tucked away inside the machine.

Happy to hear people's thoughts! - I do a lot of photography editing, and movie making and use Parallels quite a bit too (no gaming)

Steve

 

[pr33tz]

I bought an i7 iMac with a 256GB SSD on Sunday too! It arrived today as no one was home yesterday. I've opened it up and can confirm the cables are there BUT there are no hard drive brackets to fit the disk into. I've been looking but can't find anyone who stocks it. Let me know if you find anything.

 

[steve77uk]

I bought an i7 iMac with a 256GB SSD on Sunday too! It arrived today as no one was home yesterday. I've opened it up and can confirm the cables are there BUT there are no hard drive brackets to fit the disk into. I've been looking but can't find anyone who stocks it. Let me know if you find anything.

So there is a spare power connector and that HDD temperature sensor? Interesting. Where is the SSD drive located? In the main drive bay or to the side with the normal drive bay waiting to be filled?

If that is the case, I might do this myself!

 

[pr33tz]

So there is a spare power connector and that HDD temperature sensor? Interesting. Where is the SSD drive located? In the main drive bay or to the side with the normal drive bay waiting to be filled?

If that is the case, I might do this myself!

There isn't a HD temp sensor so you would need this too. The SSD is in it's normal place to the side. There is a big empty space waiting to be filled with a HD in the middle with a spare SATA and power connector.

 

[steve77uk]

This is what is inside my iMac...

Like you say, just need the hard drive top bracket. Don't know where this hard drive sensor will plug into though...

 

[krizko]

Has anyone ever successfully completed this upgrade? If so, what parts are necessary?

2010 SSD-Only iMac. What parts are required to add a 1TB HDD to this machine?

 

[philipma1957]

just add this


http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MEQMHS5S20TB/


hang it in the back. gives you a fast 2tb raid0 that is out of site. note i do not have the unit yet I have two coming this week. I will do some tests with it. the unit in the photo is a one drive lacie fw800

 

[kasey01]

This is what is inside my iMac...

Like you say, just need the hard drive top bracket. Don't know where this hard drive sensor will plug into though...

One end plugs in where that jumper is on the logic board. It is not a normal looking jumper. It has wires coming out of it with a sticker on in. The wires stick out about an inch or so. The other end plugs into the hard drive a certain way depending on which drive Apple installed. I don't think you are going to be able to make this work with the fans unless you buy an Apple branded hard drive with the specific hard drive sensor cable that goes with that particular drive. If you don't have the right sensor cable, then the fans will run constantly. I recommend just using a FW800 drive or letting an Apple authorized tech do it for you.

By the way, what SSD came in your iMacs: TS256C or TS256B? Look under system profiler under SATA and click on the SSD.

 

[kasey01]

This is what is inside my iMac...

Like you say, just need the hard drive top bracket. Don't know where this hard drive sensor will plug into though...

I circled the jumper in your photo.

 

[krizko]

By the way, what SSD came in your iMacs: TS256C or TS256B? Look under system profiler under SATA and click on the SSD.

In my 2010 i7 iMac (refurb) it is a TS256B SSD drive.

Also, my current setup is with a 2TB FW800 drive, however I was wondering what the options would be of adding something internally. Thanks for the suggestions.