Hi I am trying to upgrade my internal hard drive on my Imac 2.33ghz core duo computer. I bought a 1tb seagate drive and installed it, which was actually very easy much to my surprise, but after putting everything back together I put the installation disk in and when I got to the choose drive screen there was nothing there to choose. I talked with seagate and they said to check and see if the computer could handle a 1tb hd so I tried doing research and really could not find an exact answer so I bought another seagate 750 gb this time and the same thing happened. My questions are 1) does anyone know how large a drive I can use with the computer I have 2) can anyone give me help as to what I might be doing wrong if my computer should handle the 750gb seagate barracuda 7200.11 st3750330as 750gb 7200 rpm sata 3.0gb hard drive. Thanks and please I know all about everyone saying do not open your computer because of the warranty issues so please no replies about that. Thanks again
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Imac hard drive options
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If it is SATA, then the limit is in the multiple TBs. However, I don't believe the iMac Core Duo can support SATA 3.0, so unless the SATA drive is backward compatible, then you will need to find an older SATA model. I would suggest visiting http://xlr8yourmac.com/ as they have much more experience and a database of upgrades.
TEG
TEG
Did you partition the drive in Disk Utility first? It is in the tools menu I believe right after you choose a language. Go to the partion tab and choose the number of partitions (1 probably) and file system (Mac OS Extended Journaled). Then hit the erase button (perhaps it says partition or apply or some other such indicator).
SATA 3.0 is backwards compatible with 1.5. Though some performance features may not work, like Native Command Queing I think. As far as access goes there is no barrier. I have installed many 3.0 hard drives on 1.5 PC's and Macs including the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo iMac. The features missed out on can add some small performance boost on 3.0 systems but the lack there of does not make the hard drive faulty or perform slowly. Especially when compared to the 1.5 hard drives the computers would have shipped with.
SATA 3.0 is backwards compatible with 1.5. Though some performance features may not work, like Native Command Queing I think. As far as access goes there is no barrier. I have installed many 3.0 hard drives on 1.5 PC's and Macs including the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo iMac. The features missed out on can add some small performance boost on 3.0 systems but the lack there of does not make the hard drive faulty or perform slowly. Especially when compared to the 1.5 hard drives the computers would have shipped with.
ok I found the partition screen and partitioned as you mentioned could you please tell me where to go from there. thanks
Thanks velocity it worked great. I did as you said then I started the disks and everything is working great. It sure is nice to have 750gb instead of that old 250gb drive. Much appreciated 