Awesome guide, wasn't anywhere near as daunting as I thought when I first started looking into swapping out the HDD. I got the exact same Mac cheap. You must've given yours a good cleaning before shooting because mine was layered in dust when I cracked it open lol to be expected after 8 years. It was so easy I even got a bit adventurous and pulled out the card where the difficult monitor plug goes into to give it a dusting. One tip to replugging into that difficult cable (if you do take it out), get down low and have the imac on the edge of the bench, got it in within 20 seconds with my fat fingers even.
Great video - must be deja vu or something since I am watching it on an old HP G60-535DX laptop that I just did a similar job to - doubled the hard drive to a 1/2 TB with Windows 7 Pro which is 64-bit so that it would recognize all of the doubled "new" RAM - 4GB now - oooh. Actually canibalized an identical machine since both had 3GB of memory (a one and a 2 GB stick each), so I put the two 2GB sticks together. Thanks again, HNY, and looking forward to the continuation of the cycle videos.
best upgrade you can do to an older mac is an SSD for OS & apps. you can get rid of the optical drive and install the regular spinning drive as home folder for storage.
Good work! But why not install a SSD instead of an "old" HDD device? I did it in my iMac (earl 2008) and now it runs fast as I never seen before. Regards!
Something I've noticed, when working with Mac, and cloning drives; if you clone the drive, there will be about 20 seconds of nothing but white screen, no apple, no spinning gear, nothing for 20 seconds. This is due to boot sector handling. I think we missed this, because of the video transition. I know cloning is a great way to save data, but I would suggest (if it's a generally clean/new OS) doing a clean install of the operating system. It will boot much faster than your cloned drive. If I'm wrong, and you are not experiencing the 20 second white screen, kindly ignore this pedantic message.
Very cool video😎I’m getting my first IMac 2007 2.4ghz 250hdd 4gb ram next week,very excited and I heard that that year there was a heating problem? Have you heard about that?And is there a fix for it?Thanks,and you have a new subscriber here🙂Nice to meet you,I’m Gio😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
I saw your vid after acquiring an iMac 24. Question.... the dime sized, 3volt battery, CR2032, do you recommend replacing that while the iMac is opened up? The iMac I have is a 2008 model, battery is now 10 years old. I have a new Energizer 3v CR2032. Should I replace it, or not push my luck? I know in window's pc's the only purpose is keeping the date and some bio's information. I'm just debating whether I should or should not mess with it? I'm installing a 'newer' (but used, 2011) 2 TB HDD and fresh OS install of OS X 10.9.5, Mavericks. Thanks
Dylan Palme I used to use Mac's in the 80's when I was in the graphics industry. I started out on a 512, then went to an SE30 which ran at a blistering 30 Mhz! lol. Later I owned a Mac Classic and finally in 2004 I had my last Mac, a laptop, the Icebook. It's good to back!
hello My Mac "Core 2 Duo" 3.06 24-Inch (Early 2009) (MB420LL/A), i want install Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD, what you think about? this mac support sata III ?
+bobbyz lee no. they both work. if I use one of the new stick and an original the computer boots up as per normal. I also checked the ram I ordered in a laptop of mine.
Mine did the same thing put one of the new sticks in with one of my original iMac worked.Every time i put both new sticks in didnt work, one of your sicks is bad,you just got figure which one it is by putting just one of the sticks in by itself,if you havent already did so.It might work in a laptop but not in the iMac.Is it name brand ram? If not thats probably why its acting funny.I return the bad ram stick for a replacement, started right up.
Well this post was along time ago. But here is the answer for other viewers. Do a SMC Reset by unplugging the power cord for 15 seconds, plug back in and you are now working. Also in this video, the hard drive issue could had been resolved by booting into recovery mode, and selecting the start drive from disk utility. So yeah there's no need for using the old hard drive to boot.
When you cloned the drive to the 3tb, did you change the partition map scheme to GUID, I think by default the hdd would have an NTFS system on it with a windows based mbr. Doesn't make sense that it would boot from the usb and not internally.
***** Now that I think about it, you might actually be better off with the 2 in there anyways. The hard drives that are currently over 2tb have a shorter mtbf than the 2tb and below drives. Plus, that toshiba drive has Hitachi innards. Hitachi drives are notorious for early failure. In the failure for the 3tb to recognize, you might have dodged a bullet.
deathventure I installed a WD 7200 RPM "Blue" drive. One issue with the 2TB drive was the extra heat produced which does weird things to these iMacs LCD display. Ghosting from previous screens shows up. The cure is an app called SMC Fan Control. It allows you to bump up the fan speeds for better cooling. Problem solved!
***** Excellent. I don't use Mac, I'm a Windowz user primarily. It's a shame that they still make the systems in a way where you can't change the drives easily considering they are a wear and tear item. At least it works for you. Happy belated New Year.
deathventure If you think Apple is the only culprit, take a look at the 4th RAM slot on an ASUS g73jh, or try cleaning out the heatsinks on an Acer V5... had to pull the whole motherboard out for that one. A couple of Dell's tablets use an SSD that's directly soldered onto the mainboard. Ugh, we're supposed to be progressing here people! Then again, these days the amount of money you pay for your car is now inversely proportional to the percentage chance that it has an oil-dipstick...
Vispār jau trešais, bet tas nu tā. :) Sorry Dino for spamming your comments with useless stuff in foreign language (for translation please visit #tymkrs IRC). Happy and project rich this year!
Putting a 3tb harddisk as disk for the os in is a bad idea.... Its slow and when it fails because of constant use you lose everything... Get a 500gb ssd... Its enough space and use the 3tb drive as a backup drive for timemachine and other stuff... You could connect the 3tb drive over network... Should be faster than usb2.0... Never store your os and your important data on the same drive... Keep them seperate
You also could have used the oppoturnity to clean the heatsink and replace the thermalpaste (stock paste gets crusty after some years)... An imac is built like a laptop... Means it need maintance like a laptop... Every 2 years (1 if you are a smoker) disassembly and clean the heatsinks
Awesome guide, wasn't anywhere near as daunting as I thought when I first started looking into swapping out the HDD. I got the exact same Mac cheap. You must've given yours a good cleaning before shooting because mine was layered in dust when I cracked it open lol to be expected after 8 years. It was so easy I even got a bit adventurous and pulled out the card where the difficult monitor plug goes into to give it a dusting.
One tip to replugging into that difficult cable (if you do take it out), get down low and have the imac on the edge of the bench, got it in within 20 seconds with my fat fingers even.
Great video - must be deja vu or something since I am watching it on an old HP G60-535DX laptop that I just did a similar job to - doubled the hard drive to a 1/2 TB with Windows 7 Pro which is 64-bit so that it would recognize all of the doubled "new" RAM - 4GB now - oooh. Actually canibalized an identical machine since both had 3GB of memory (a one and a 2 GB stick each), so I put the two 2GB sticks together. Thanks again, HNY, and looking forward to the continuation of the cycle videos.
best upgrade you can do to an older mac is an SSD for OS & apps. you can get rid of the optical drive and install the regular spinning drive as home folder for storage.
Good work! But why not install a SSD instead of an "old" HDD device? I did it in my iMac (earl 2008) and now it runs fast as I never seen before. Regards!
Love your videos...the last 15-20 seconds are all ways my favorite part.
Something I've noticed, when working with Mac, and cloning drives; if you clone the drive, there will be about 20 seconds of nothing but white screen, no apple, no spinning gear, nothing for 20 seconds. This is due to boot sector handling. I think we missed this, because of the video transition. I know cloning is a great way to save data, but I would suggest (if it's a generally clean/new OS) doing a clean install of the operating system. It will boot much faster than your cloned drive.
If I'm wrong, and you are not experiencing the 20 second white screen, kindly ignore this pedantic message.
Excellent, thanks for the tutorial, very instructive.
Thanks. Saw Upgrade Vid on OWC that was too intimidating. You helped demystify. Good show!
Very Good Very Profi !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Entertaining and useful as usual.
I remember when Macs were easy to work on. The boards used to just slide right out the back. Now they're designed to be trashed.
is it me, or is there should be no reason why you cant partition a 3TB drive ?? am i wrong?
I cant take out the hard drive. There are screws on the sides, and not enough space for the screw driver
just wondered if you could have maybe split the 3tb drive into 2 partitions and then used it.luv the vids by the way
ADRIAN NOBLE Tried that, left it out of the video. Didn't work. :)
Very cool video😎I’m getting my first IMac 2007 2.4ghz 250hdd 4gb ram next week,very excited and I heard that that year there was a heating problem? Have you heard about that?And is there a fix for it?Thanks,and you have a new subscriber here🙂Nice to meet you,I’m Gio😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎
Ugh! Two 4 gigs of ram won’t work. Weird things happen. Was happy with 2 and 4
Awesome Job!
I saw your vid after acquiring an iMac 24. Question.... the dime sized, 3volt battery, CR2032, do you recommend replacing that while the iMac is opened up? The iMac I have is a 2008 model, battery is now 10 years old. I have a new Energizer 3v CR2032. Should I replace it, or not push my luck? I know in window's pc's the only purpose is keeping the date and some bio's information. I'm just debating whether I should or should not mess with it? I'm installing a 'newer' (but used, 2011) 2 TB HDD and fresh OS install of OS X 10.9.5, Mavericks. Thanks
I just got an IMac and it has the folder when booting up. Heard I might have to swap the hard drive. Any other way to test it?
Must be a 32bit computer. Good video. Thanks
These macs are all core2duo, so they are 64bit. The chipset simply could not handle more than 6 gigs.
its not its a chipset limitation
would moving to an ssd speed up the machine much?
Dino's working with a mac now?! Has hell frozen over???
Dylan Palme I used to use Mac's in the 80's when I was in the graphics industry. I started out on a 512, then went to an SE30 which ran at a blistering 30 Mhz! lol. Later I owned a Mac Classic and finally in 2004 I had my last Mac, a laptop, the Icebook. It's good to back!
hello My Mac "Core 2 Duo" 3.06 24-Inch (Early 2009) (MB420LL/A), i want install Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD, what you think about? this mac support sata III ?
It is possible to put 8 GB of RAM imac early 2008
I'm sure the boot noise on that Mac is the same as WALL-E's solar panel noise.
that´s fine!, would it be possible put in two modules? one 4 gigabytes and another of 2 gygabytes, in RAM memory socket. Thanks.
I saw someone do it in another video.
Hi can i put graphic card of apple imac 20 inch to imac 24 inch?
I just upgraded from 2gb to 4gb crucial ddr2. the Mac won't turn on. what do I do?
video says 2GB is max 2008 can use.
Could be bad ram thats what happend to me 2 weeks ago one bad 2gb stick.Also make sure its the correct ram 667 or 800 MHz ddr2
+bobbyz lee no. they both work. if I use one of the new stick and an original the computer boots up as per normal. I also checked the ram I ordered in a laptop of mine.
Mine did the same thing put one of the new sticks in with one of my original iMac worked.Every time i put both new sticks in didnt work, one of your sicks is bad,you just got figure which one it is by putting just one of the sticks in by itself,if you havent already did so.It might work in a laptop but not in the iMac.Is it name brand ram? If not thats probably why its acting funny.I return the bad ram stick for a replacement, started right up.
Well this post was along time ago. But here is the answer for other viewers. Do a SMC Reset by unplugging the power cord for 15 seconds, plug back in and you are now working. Also in this video, the hard drive issue could had been resolved by booting into recovery mode, and selecting the start drive from disk utility. So yeah there's no need for using the old hard drive to boot.
When you cloned the drive to the 3tb, did you change the partition map scheme to GUID, I think by default the hdd would have an NTFS system on it with a windows based mbr. Doesn't make sense that it would boot from the usb and not internally.
deathventure Yes...
***** Now that I think about it, you might actually be better off with the 2 in there anyways. The hard drives that are currently over 2tb have a shorter mtbf than the 2tb and below drives. Plus, that toshiba drive has Hitachi innards. Hitachi drives are notorious for early failure. In the failure for the 3tb to recognize, you might have dodged a bullet.
deathventure I installed a WD 7200 RPM "Blue" drive. One issue with the 2TB drive was the extra heat produced which does weird things to these iMacs LCD display. Ghosting from previous screens shows up. The cure is an app called SMC Fan Control. It allows you to bump up the fan speeds for better cooling. Problem solved!
***** Excellent. I don't use Mac, I'm a Windowz user primarily. It's a shame that they still make the systems in a way where you can't change the drives easily considering they are a wear and tear item. At least it works for you. Happy belated New Year.
deathventure If you think Apple is the only culprit, take a look at the 4th RAM slot on an ASUS g73jh, or try cleaning out the heatsinks on an Acer V5... had to pull the whole motherboard out for that one. A couple of Dell's tablets use an SSD that's directly soldered onto the mainboard. Ugh, we're supposed to be progressing here people!
Then again, these days the amount of money you pay for your car is now inversely proportional to the percentage chance that it has an oil-dipstick...
Hi Dino, Presently i have Imac early 2008, 2.66 Ghz intel Duo core 4GB memory but Id like to increase the memory to 6GB. how possible is that.
+Iyewunmi Sarah Adungba
I got 6gb in my mac, 4gb and 2gb dimm's works great and highly advised if running El Capitan..4gb is not enough.
HNY Dino! (Happy New Year) Love your videos,
Happy new year!!
cooling system could use some cleaning. no ssd? why?
I blasted it with some compressed air before reassembly. I'll probably drop in a SSD at a later date.
Does it also clone the partitions on my old drive?
No.
If you got a 3 tb drive at Best Buy for 70 bucks I’ll eat my iMac... 😂
happy new year
That's not a 'pretty good price' for a 3TB drive, that's a holy guacamole give me 17 of them price... :D
I just watched this to see how hardware upgrade is done with Mac.
And now I am glad that I don't use a Mac.
Okay someone tell me he doesn't look like Sting!!
no way, are you blind???
monke harrison ford
You dont believe it, I got dat PC for 15 Euros in Germany :0
alter :o von wo?
+Kerem Music Von nem Freund Der ihn nicht mehr wollte :D
+Simon Fattahy digger fresh :D ich wünschte es wäre so einfach für mich. wie viel ram?
+Kerem Music Spielst du CS:GO? :D
+Simon Fattahy nicht mehr....... zu viele russen
I got zapped by a capacitor
First
Vispār jau trešais, bet tas nu tā. :)
Sorry Dino for spamming your comments with useless stuff in foreign language (for translation please visit #tymkrs IRC). Happy and project rich this year!
Hi man ,you are professional mechanic.....have a Email? or Facebook?
Putting a 3tb harddisk as disk for the os in is a bad idea.... Its slow and when it fails because of constant use you lose everything... Get a 500gb ssd... Its enough space and use the 3tb drive as a backup drive for timemachine and other stuff... You could connect the 3tb drive over network... Should be faster than usb2.0... Never store your os and your important data on the same drive... Keep them seperate
You also could have used the oppoturnity to clean the heatsink and replace the thermalpaste (stock paste gets crusty after some years)...
An imac is built like a laptop... Means it need maintance like a laptop... Every 2 years (1 if you are a smoker) disassembly and clean the heatsinks
Micky S. Thanks. Probably go with internal SSD and external storage for data in the near future.
***** Also Macs are something designed for thermal throttling if needed
,jky