Suggestions: Replacement drive for 17" iMac G5

[hulugu]

Hello,

Does anybody have experience with replacing the HD on the original 17" iMac G5?
I'm looking at replacing the drive, which is jam on toast, with a new one. There's a Seagate Barracuda (ST3250410AS) 250GB, but I wonder if anyone has issues or a better suggestion.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Hello,

Does anybody have experience with replacing the HD on the original 17" iMac G5?
I'm looking at replacing the drive, which is jam on toast, with a new one. There's a Seagate Barracuda (ST3250410AS) 250GB, but I wonder if anyone has issues or a better suggestion.

Thanks in advance.

Hard drives in that model are pretty easy to replace, and can be replaced with any 3.5" hard drive with a SATA interface. The sweet spot pricewise for drives IMO is 500Gb- with the most space per $ spent as they are commonly available for roughly $55.

The original iMac G5 has a SATA I hard drive bus (150Mb/sec) while most currently available drives are SATA II which is capable of transferring data faster on a SATA II bus (300Mb/sec).

I bring this up as on occasion, a SATA II drive will not initially work correctly on a SATA I bus. If that should occur look at the instructions that come with the drive for directions to set a jumper on the back of the drive to force it to operate at SATA I speeds- problem done.

I personally prefer Samsung hard drives over the Seagates (I find them to run cooler), but ask any five people and you will get about 10 opinions as to which brands are best!

 

[vw1300]

Thanks for the reply, it looks like I may also be in this situation. My computer won't boot up, even from an external source. Apple store has my G5 - still under warranty for a replaced logic board (the fourth) but they tell me my particular symptoms - too long and boring to post here - are often caused by a bad hard drive.

 

[stubeeef]

I am 1 gb shy of filling my Imac 17" 2ghz intel core 2 duo's 160gb drive. Got a warning yesterday about it being full and have been trashing lots of stuff to make temporary room.
I saw a youtube vid on replacement for a G5 (pre iSight) anyone have good directions and info for my flavor iMac?
Thanks.

(I did a MR search, google search, and cruzed the first 5 pages of this forum with no luck)

 

[hulugu]

I am 1 gb shy of filling my Imac 17" 2ghz intel core 2 duo's 160gb drive. Got a warning yesterday about it being full and have been trashing lots of stuff to make temporary room.
I saw a youtube vid on replacement for a G5 (pre iSight) anyone have good directions and info for my flavor iMac?
Thanks.

(I did a MR search, google search, and cruzed the first 5 pages of this forum with no luck)

Replacing the HD on the G5 iMac is ridiculously easy. Use this set (PDF warning) of instructions from Apple.

To vw1300, mine will boot, but can't load OSX. I can't get it to respond to Target Disk mode either, and it crashes trying to load Darwin in Single User mode. The Disk Utility from the OSX Install disks also can't seem to repair the drive, I just get a load of errors.

Thanks Doc, I'll look at the Samsung drives, too.

 

[sickmacdoc]

Replacing the HD on the G5 iMac is ridiculously easy. Use this set (PDF warning) of instructions from Apple.

To vw1300, mine will boot, but can't load OSX. I can't get it to respond to Target Disk mode either, and it crashes trying to load Darwin in Single User mode. The Disk Utility from the OSX Install disks also can't seem to repair the drive, I just get a load of errors.

Thanks Doc, I'll look at the Samsung drives, too.

I think you thought the same thing I did when I read stubeeef's post, but upon rereading it I see that he mentions that he has seen a video on the G5 version, but is actually looking for instructions for his 17" 2Ghz Core2Duo.

So after using the process of elimination using size and processor speed (and the Mactracker info program) I am pretty certain that it is an all white Late 2006 revision of the iMac. A bunch more complex to replace a hard drive than in the G5. Haven't really found much on guides, but did find this one which is a good guide to what I think is the same model that is being asked about Replacing a Hard Drive in an Intel iMac

 

[hulugu]

I think you thought the same thing I did when I read stubeeef's post, but upon rereading it I see that he mentions that he has seen a video on the G5 version, but is actually looking for instructions for his 17" 2Ghz Core2Duo....

Whoops. Epic fail on the reading comprehension test.

 

[stubeeef]

after finding one youtube vid on doing the swap I am punting.

a local apple cert group wants $95 to do the swap if I bring the drive or $250 for a 500gb drive they supply!

I am going to reformat my backup drive, 320gb, and make a 220 and 100 divide. Put home movies on the 100gb and use the 220 as my superduper target.

Thanks for the positive waves!

 

[sickmacdoc]

after finding one youtube vid on doing the swap I am punting.

a local apple cert group wants $95 to do the swap if I bring the drive or $250 for a 500gb drive they supply!

I am going to reformat my backup drive, 320gb, and make a 220 and 100 divide. Put home movies on the 100gb and use the 220 as my superduper target.

Thanks for the positive waves!

Just a thought- considering that 500Gb drives only cost about $55 from major sources, even using them to do it for $150 is not terribly high. Now the $250 with their 500Gb is another matter altogether!

 

[stubeeef]

well it was $150+tax & $95 for labor = over $250. Sorry for the confusion.
I think I am going to move the movie folder to my 320 gb back up drive.

Basically take the seagate 320gb I have had for a BU HD and reformat and partition to a 220gb and 100gb sections. Use the 220 as backup and the 100 for movie storage.

Is there anyone that knows if/how to BU one side of a partition to the other with SuperDuper?

 

[renomom]

hard drive replacement...

I just replaced my HD in imac 17", warning.... all the posts say you need a T-6 star head to remove from carriage but that is WRONG!!! It is a T-9, glad I bought a set of various sizes or I would have been a bit upset. Other than that it was easy. Good luck... bought seagate 500 about same cost as 250.

 

[hulugu]

I just replaced my HD in imac 17", warning.... all the posts say you need a T-6 star head to remove from carriage but that is WRONG!!! It is a T-9, glad I bought a set of various sizes or I would have been a bit upset. Other than that it was easy. Good luck... bought seagate 500 about same cost as 250.

I'd suggest to anyone to buy the kits of 'T' drivers rather than individual bits, but then again I have a garage full of tools.