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upgrading the internal Harddrive imac ( intel)

C

countermike

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 6, 2008
42
0
Hi .. I have an Intel based 24inch iMac, which has 500gb but now im running out of space ... i have external hard drives but would prefer is i can upgrade the internal to a 1tb , any one know how i do it ?

or does apple d it for us ? if so how do i go abt it .. please advice

Thank you
 
if i'm not mistaken, this is one of the only draw backs to iMac - their inability to upgrade.

I believe your stuck with your provided HardDrive you selected.

I could be wrong, but I know that the iMac is not very upgrade-friendly, thus I think my statement is true.


EDIT: Not to mention, you can get externals that hover around the $100+ price range these days - probably just as much if not the same as getting it upgraded internally.. get a Western Digital passport if space saving is a key.
 
I retract my previous statement.

EDIT: still, that is not a 'typical user procedure' and was probably not meant to be as easy as the marketed RAM upgrades are. I stand by my statement that i'm sure you agree with, imacs are not upgradeable past a certain point.
 
Jon.Stewart87 said:
I retract my previous statement.

EDIT: still, that is not a 'typical user procedure' and was probably not meant to be as easy as the marketed RAM upgrades are. I stand by my statement that i'm sure you agree with, imacs are not upgradeable past a certain point.
Click to expand...

I'm shocked by the stuff Dell and HP (among others) will have a typical user do to their computers in the interest of saving the money of a field warranty service call. I used to do warranty service for HP. Once I was sent to a customers home and found the motherboard, power supply and all the boards removed from the computer and sitting on the floor in a box. HP send them the parts and tried to talk a middle aged non-techie woman through a motherboard replacement.

Guess it's all about perception and breaking the task into smaller steps.
 
gehrbox said:
I'm shocked by the stuff Dell and HP (among others) will have a typical user do to their computers in the interest of saving the money of a field warranty service call. I used to do warranty service for HP. Once I was sent to a customers home and found the motherboard, power supply and all the boards removed from the computer and sitting on the floor in a box. HP send them the parts and tried to talk a middle aged non-techie woman through a motherboard replacement.

Guess it's all about perception and breaking the task into smaller steps.
Click to expand...


hahah i've almost forgotten those days.. you're absolutely right, PC companies are so ludicrous with their support - its just unacceptable.. PC manufactures just send out too many machines and dont have the ON SITE, or LOCAL support needed for all the bugs Windows and its OS' come with.
 
I did this upgrade last weekend and it was very straightforward to do, so don't be put off by doing it yourself.

I used the instructions in that thread but also this external site.
 
I second ascender's post - I used the same guide to open my iMac to replace the (dead) superdrive. It's an excellent guide.

I took it slow though - 1st go - took the screen off and opened the case, then put it back together. 2nd go - repeated 1 and also unscrewed the screen, then put it back together, finally at the 3rd attempt, I felt brave enough to do the whole job.

And everything still works!!:)
 
Hi .. Thank you all for all the comments and help , im hoping to do this next weekend :) ,

also I have few more questions please ..

1. Is there a specific hard drive for iMacs ? or can i install any 1TB hard drive ?

2. can i Clone the hard drives ? or I have to do a clean install of leopard ? and the copy back my stuff.... , if i can clone it .. can anyone recommend a software for it please.

Thank you so much !
 
countermike said:
Hi .. Thank you all for all the comments and help , im hoping to do this next weekend :) ,

also I have few more questions please ..

1. Is there a specific hard drive for iMacs ? or can i install any 1TB hard drive ?

2. can i Clone the hard drives ? or I have to do a clean install of leopard ? and the copy back my stuff.... , if i can clone it .. can anyone recommend a software for it please.
Click to expand...

Any 3.5" SATA drive will do the job. You will want to make sure its 7200rpm. You can get faster drives, but the capacity is lower and they generate more heat which you really don't need in the iMac. Speed and reliability varies between brands and models, do a little research before purchase. There is some good info here at MacRumors on the subject.

SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner will do the job of backup and cloning for you.
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
 
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