Cost to replace hard drive?

[Bonked]

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I have an iMac G4 and the hard drive has failed. When I put in the Tiger install disk, disk utility shows it in red and the SMART status is: Failing. I don't need any of the data off it (had a full backup on an external) but I am assuming I should believe Disk Utility and that I need to get it replaced.

Does anyone have an idea of what a ballpark figure would be to have this done? I'm not confident I could replace it myself. Also, if anyone has any suggestions of good places to take this (either via mail or a place close to the Washington DC area) that would be great too.

Thanks!

 

[wordmunger]

I can't imagine that will be cheap--it's a major hassle to take the iMac apart and replace the HD. I think you can make your external drive bootable by installing Tiger on it -- that might be your best bet. Then, of course, you'll need to get a second external drive for backups.

 

[iGary]

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I have an iMac G4 and the hard drive has failed. When I put in the Tiger install disk, disk utility shows it in red and the SMART status is: Failing. I don't need any of the data off it (had a full backup on an external) but I am assuming I should believe Disk Utility and that I need to get it replaced.

Does anyone have an idea of what a ballpark figure would be to have this done? I'm not confident I could replace it myself. Also, if anyone has any suggestions of good places to take this (either via mail or a place close to the Washington DC area) that would be great too.

Thanks!

http://www.macsales.com

 

[Bonked]

Install?

http://www.macsales.com

Thanks - I looked around the site but only saw HDs to buy, no info on whether they install them. Did I miss something?

 

[belvdr]

I had to replace my iMac G4's hard drive about 1-2 years ago. I replaced it myself, and the only additional item I needed to buy was thermal paste ($1.99 USD at RadioShack).

If you feel comfortable remember where cables get connected and such, it's not that big of a deal. Just use something like a credit card to remove the old thermal paste from all the connecting metal components and reapply sparingly.

xklr8yourmac has a disassembly guide for this.

 

[public enemy]

I checked out the site, and saw nothing that allowed you to send it in. But they did have install videos you could download. Those could help, and give you an idea of what your in for.

 

[madmax_2069]

man it's not hard to replace a hdd and they are only hooked by 2 connectors one is a power cable witch is the smaller one and the bigger cable is the ide cable all u have to do is look haw the other hdd is installed in the imac its simple the power cable ban only fit one way ant if it makes it mor easier mark the ide cable with a peice of tape and remember that the ide cable can only fit one way to.here is a link on where to buy a 80 gig hdd for an half way decient price
http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=7955&Item=APLST380020A

and another site that has repair guides for macintosh just scroll down a bit

http://www.whoopis.com/computer_repair/

do it your self and save your self some money

 

[Bonked]

Suggestions

man it's not hard to replace a hdd and they are only hooked by 2 connectors one is a power cable witch is the smaller one and the bigger cable is the ide cable all u have to do is look haw the other hdd is installed in the imac its simple the power cable ban only fit one way ant if it makes it mor easier mark the ide cable with a peice of tape and remember that the ide cable can only fit one way to.here is a link on where to buy a 80 gig hdd for an half way decient price
http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=7955&Item=APLST380020A

and another site that has repair guides for macintosh just scroll down a bit

http://www.whoopis.com/computer_repair/

do it your self and save your self some money

Thanks, perhaps I can do it myself. If I do - any advice for kinds of HD that fit in an iMac G4? I saw the link above was a 5400 RPM 80GB Seagate. Is Seagate a good brand? Should I be looking for anything else in terms of features? Would a 7200 RPM be worth the extra?

 

[madmax_2069]

yea a 7200 rpm hdd is worth it cause it is faster. i was just showing the base price of a nice size hdd for a good price. if u can find a 7200 rpm hdd that u want then go for it.but i would go for space rather than speed i think its a some what good trade off.but if you can afford it then i would opt for a 7200 rpm drive

 

[belvdr]

Thanks, perhaps I can do it myself. If I do - any advice for kinds of HD that fit in an iMac G4? I saw the link above was a 5400 RPM 80GB Seagate. Is Seagate a good brand? Should I be looking for anything else in terms of features? Would a 7200 RPM be worth the extra?

I gave some simple instructions above. I've heard some folks say they didn't need to remove the thermal paste and reapply it, but it wasn't worth the risk to me ($1.99 for thermal paste vs few hundred for the iMac). I think I'd buy the thermal paste.

Also, I put in a Maxtor 120GB 7200rpm 8MB cache drive in mine. No problems whatsoever. However, the performance increase was barely noticeable at all.