Time To Upgrade My HDD?

[1parkpointer]

I looked around the archives a bit, but didn't see anything like my quandary. I have a late 2006 24-inch iMac/2.16GHz with a nearly full 500GB (at roughly 466GB full) hard drive. I managed to get a WD 2TB backup drive installed a few months ago, an upgrade from a Iomega 750GB unit.
Having never opened up the iMac, but looking at the hardware under the Apple logo in the upper LT corner, info says the HDD vendor is
Intel ICH7-M SHCI model ST3500641AS Q. I would like to upgrade the computer's hard drive to a 1.5 or 2TB, if it is possible.
Can anyone help and possibly steer me towards a 'How To'?

 

[DanielCoffey]

iFixit do good guides. They generally do the guides for the smaller screen sized of that year's iMacs rather than the larger, but the innards are pretty much the same. Here is the link to their guides page... http://www.ifixit.com/Browse/iMac_Intel

You might consider just getting an external drive enclosure with a large drive in it connected via Firewire and moving some of your less frequently used files over to it and leaving your current internal drive untouched.

 

[DanielCoffey]

I have just read the list of upgrades for your exact iMac and yes, you can fit a 2TB drive inside. It would be a good idea to make sure it matched the spin speed of your current drive (5400, 7200, 10k etc) to make sure the heat level is comparable.

You can cost-effectively upgrade a number of components in the iMac Intel 24" EMC 2118.

Memory: The iMac Intel 24” EMC 2111 shipped with 1 GB (2x512 MB) of RAM. If your iMac is still running with only the stock RAM, upgrading will provide a dramatic performance boost at minimal cost. Upgrading to the maximum of 3 GB (1x1 GB, 1x2 GB) for EMC 2210) can be done very easily.
Hard Drive: 250 GB hard drives came standard with the iMac Intel 24” EMC 2111. You can upgrade the drive up to 2 TB.

 

[1parkpointer]

This is exactly what I was thinking could happen. I don't work with things as intricate as this computer, mostly sheetmetal and frames (auto body repair by trade). I souped up an old Dell before turning back to Apple back in the early 90's.
Thank you for everything!