pre-owned iMac, hDD replacement - with issues (missing components?)

[NoviceTechie]

Hi,

I'm a total newbie with macs, but recently I was given a pre-owned iMac. It was free so I didn't argue q;

but the owner explicitly stated the HDD would be gone, so I figured that'd be fine. I opened the unit up and I noticed that black hdd enclosure (is that the drive bay?) is missing.

In any case I got a 500 gb seagate hdd to replace the missing one, but I was wondering - is it okay to install the 3.5" sata without a drive bay?

In addition, all the instructional vids I saw said there'd be a heat sensor, but this unit doesn't seem to have one.

I don't know what revision iMac this is, but is it true the later ones integrate the hDD heat sensor, or utilize the hDD's built in heat sensor?

Thank you in advance for any replies

 

[MacHamster68]

which iMac are you talking about , in order to answer the questions it would be useful to know the spec of the iMac you find them usually underneath the foot of the iMac

but you should install with a drive bay , ok velcro straps might do the trick , but velcro should always remain a temporary thing and not permanent , because a harddrive is quiet heavy and the velcro is just glued on to something inside , a harddrive gets quiet warm so eventually the glue fails to do its job and bang the hardrive drops on something iside which could get far more expensive then getting the drive bay of ebay

and to the heat sensor , on older iMac G5 the heat sensor is attached to the drive bay, on early intels the sensor is attached to the harddrive , assuming you got a white iMac that looks like my avatar on the left and not a new alluminium model or older G4 iMac