# iMac Intel internal Hard Drive changeable?



## emul8tor (Jan 31, 2006)

Thinking of replacing the 160G sata to a bigger one, say 750G Seagate, wiould it work? I don't like Apple's 500G, just not big enough.


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## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

It's not easy, and it's not exactly hard. Would take about 15-20 minutes to do. When removing the back, be careful of the tabs, as if they are broken then it won't sit properly. The new drive MUST be a 3.5" SATA drive.


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## emul8tor (Jan 31, 2006)

Would there be any issues on formatting the drives? and How would I transfer from the old drive to new installed bigger drive. Sata to USB2/Firewire?


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

JC - I think you are confusing the G5 iMacs ( pre iSight ) with the current models. The back is not removable on the current models - will void your warranty is not for the faint of heart - even the techs don't like them.
They access from the front.

http://www.kodawarisan.com/imac_intel/imac_intel01.html










Buy an external drive - be happy.

The pre iSight were very easy tho the drive mounting set up was annoying for the number of different screw types/hex etc involved.

This is entry from the back on the G5 pre iSight models and indeed the tabs needed to be settled properly


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## Digital_Gary (Sep 18, 2003)

Macdoc is right. These are no fun. We had someone crack their LCD when trying to open it on their own. 

You also have to remove the heat sensor from the old drive and attach it to the new one. Some stick right on, some don't.

For these systems, external is safest way to go


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## John Clay (Jun 25, 2006)

MacDoc said:


> JC - I think you are confusing the G5 iMacs ( pre iSight ) with the current models. The back is not removable on the current models - will void your warranty is not for the faint of heart - even the techs don't like them.
> They access from the front.


Whoops.... It was late when I posted that


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## moonsocket (Apr 1, 2002)

I would also say go external. Better to have that for back-up as well. 

You DO back-up, don't you?


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## emul8tor (Jan 31, 2006)

Yeah, I go agree that external is the only logical choice, but what if it happened.... would there be any heat issues, or would it mount properly? I have read elsewhere that OSX 10.4 needs some special boot sector/header/apple firmware to prevent non Apple authroized hardware to be used, anyone know about this?


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## mflynnster (May 22, 2006)

*iMac24 internals easy to access*

Well it looks like the 24" iMac internals may actually be accessible by mere mortals after all (see here for an inside peek of the iMac24), so perhaps an internal hard drive upgrade is possible. I wonder how this would affect one's warranty?


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## moonsocket (Apr 1, 2002)

Wow. As the posters on that forum have said, brave soul to do that!!!


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## Guest (Sep 28, 2006)

Hogwash 

You would have to partition and format the drive -- which will put whatever info is needed for the OS to access it. No hardware restrictions or the like aside from getting something that is within spec for your machine 



emul8tor said:


> Yeah, I go agree that external is the only logical choice, but what if it happened.... would there be any heat issues, or would it mount properly? I have read elsewhere that OSX 10.4 needs some special boot sector/header/apple firmware to prevent non Apple authroized hardware to be used, anyone know about this?


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## JPL (Jan 21, 2005)

LOL if you read forum postings you will hear virtually anything, most of which is not credible. If that were the case you couldn't clone a backup and startup from that backup drive, unless it were an Apple drive.


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## MacDoc (Nov 3, 2001)

JPL said:


> an Apple drive.


There is no such thing as an "Apple" drive.


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