iMac dead HD... need advice...

[PaulMoore]

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I have a 2007 aluminum iMac and-two months after the AppleCare expired the hard drive seems to be dead (flashing folder/? icon instead of starting up).

As a novice should I risk replacing it myself? Or would it be worth paying the Apple Store to do it? Also- in either case- what would be the best make of drive?

Thanks in advance for any advice...

 

[spinnerlys]

See for yourself, if you are up to replacing it yourself:

Guide on how to replace the HDD in an Aluminium iMac.
​

For the replacement HDD either use Seagate or Western Digital, what exact model depends on what capacity you want.

 

[rkaufmann87]

See for yourself, if you are up to replacing it yourself:

Guide on how to replace the HDD in an Aluminium iMac.
​

For the replacement HDD either use Seagate or Western Digital, what exact model depends on what capacity you want.

If you aren't comfortable working inside a notebook computer (that is what an iMac is like internally) then having an AASP or Apple Store do it would be worth the peace of mind. I haven't done it myself but I think it would be worth an extra $100 - $175 to have someone else do it. My machine is the same vintage as yours, my concern would be the wires and connections that need to be undone could have gotten brittle over time and I wouldn't want to risk breaking a connection that could be extremely expensive to replace.

 

[Teqnilogik]

If you aren't familiar with working with the inside of PCs (let alone Macs) I would recommend having an Apple certified repair center do it. Taking iMacs apart is more involved than your typical PC.

 

[bmwman4life11]

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Hello! I just want to say that I thought my hard drive failed and I had the question mark icon. I brought it in and found out it was more than just my hard drive that failed. I had a faulty graphics card and a bad logic board. So even if you fix the hard drive you might have more problems. Hope I helped. Cheers!

 

[ethen]

Yeah, lifting the glass is tricky and although I had did several replacement, I really dislike how inaccessible hdd is on an imac

 

[DewGuy1999]

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I have a 2007 aluminum iMac and-two months after the AppleCare expired the hard drive seems to be dead (flashing folder/? icon instead of starting up).

As a novice should I risk replacing it myself? Or would it be worth paying the Apple Store to do it? Also- in either case- what would be the best make of drive?

Thanks in advance for any advice...

The hard drive could be dead, but a folder with a question mark doesn't necessarily mean a dead hard drive, it means that the Mac can't find a bootable system. Have you tried booting from the OS X restore disc and running Disk Utility on the internal hard drive?