iMac HardDrive Replacement

[LiquidTrader]

My iMac harddrive crashed. I have to find a replacement. Is there a particular one that is necessary for iMac? Can anyone recommend one? Where to get it? I took to an Apple store and said they can only replace it with the same one. It was $225 or so. There has to be something less expensive.

Thoughts or suggestions?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Any 3.5" HDD S-ATA HDD will work, if you have a modern iMac. Replacing it yourself is doable too, thus you can save labor cost and the HDD, depending on size, should cost between 50 to 100 €.
I have replaced the 250 GB HDD in my 2007 Aluminium iMac with a 500 GB HDD some months ago, and some weeks ago, I replaced that 500 GB HDD with a 60 GB SSD. It took me an hour to do so.

 

[rkaufmann87]

My iMac harddrive crashed. I have to find a replacement. Is there a particular one that is necessary for iMac? Can anyone recommend one? Where to get it? I took to an Apple store and said they can only replace it with the same one. It was $225 or so. There has to be something less expensive.

Thoughts or suggestions?

As already mentioned any 3.5" SATA II drive will work, take a look at www.macsales.com where they have a pretty good selection. I mentioned them because OWC specializes in Macs so everything they sell is pretty well tested and they sell at a competitive price. HOWEVER and this is a big however if you have 2009-2011 iMac it's not as straight forward. Those machines used HD's that had thermal sensors integrated into the HD, most off the shelf 3.5" SATA II drives don't have that feature so it gets much more complicated. If you simply install one of those it will work but your fans will go pretty crazy. If you are super handy you can do it yourself (on any current iMac) but if the thought of taking apart a laptop and doing major surgery on it makes you nervous spend the extra few bucks and get an AASP to do the work for you.

 

[LiquidTrader]

Any 3.5" HDD S-ATA HDD will work, if you have a modern iMac. Replacing it yourself is doable too, thus you can save labor cost and the HDD, depending on size, should cost between 50 to 100 €.
I have replaced the 250 GB HDD in my 2007 Aluminium iMac with a 500 GB HDD some months ago, and some weeks ago, I replaced that 500 GB HDD with a 60 GB SSD. It took me an hour to do so.

Ok. Any one of that size will work. Nice. Any recommendations?

It's a 2007 iMac 24" with Leopard on it.

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As already mentioned any 3.5" SATA II drive will work, take a look at www.macsales.com where they have a pretty good selection. I mentioned them because OWC specializes in Macs so everything they sell is pretty well tested and they sell at a competitive price. HOWEVER and this is a big however if you have 2009-2011 iMac it's not as straight forward. Those machines used HD's that had thermal sensors integrated into the HD, most off the shelf 3.5" SATA II drives don't have that feature so it gets much more complicated. If you simply install one of those it will work but your fans will go pretty crazy. If you are super handy you can do it yourself (on any current iMac) but if the thought of taking apart a laptop and doing major surgery on it makes you nervous spend the extra few bucks and get an AASP to do the work for you.

I'll check them out. Thank you. It's a 2007 iMac 24"

 

[robgendreau]

I disagree; for future readers note that with 2011s it's much harder to replace drives, and in some cases not any old drive will do (it involves firmware specific to the drive that operates fans). You absolutely need to look at your specific model.

And check ifixit.com for instructions on the 2007; fortunately for you it's a relatively easy fix if you're handy with small components. Unfortunately, drive prices are still running high. But they've got a 2TB for $250 and can sell you some useful tools as well (sometimes Apple uses tamper-resistant screws so we can't fix our own stuff). I don't recall exactly, but I think with a 2007 you may be able to use a much wider range of drives, so you could maybe get down in the $150 range.

The relative ease of upgrading drives on the (slightly) older iMacs is a good reason to hold onto them, BTW.

Rob