Thank you for this! It really helped me replace my drive and my iMac now boots up stupidly fast! It's a whole new lease of life for what is really an ageing machine. However, I found I didn't need to remove the speaker completely to do so. I simply unscrewed it, then leaned it out of the way of the screws. This significantly reduced the time and complexity of the fix. Other than that your instructions were clear and useful, and I was able to do this repair with confidence. Thanks again!
Not neccessary to remove the speaker or cable. Remove the speaker screws and shift the speaker aside to give clearance. Also make sure to have mac adhesive strips to restore the LCD in place. Double sided tape will not suffice.
@@Sergei__v Way too much work, and changes from model to model so they haven't got it right yet? Make a BAK PANEL for gods sake! Hard drives & memory are replaceable-upgradable and should be easier.
Great video! I replaced my iMac HD with the I fix it kit, worked perfectly. Only took my about 40 mins all up. I liked that the adhesive strips had multiple tear off covers. Awesome work team!
Thank a lot for this guide!! I made it. I'm in the process of changing my HD. So far I take out the old one and now I'm looking for a new one. Thak again!!
they could but that wasn't Steve's Jobs vision, He wanted total lack of customization, He wanted a sleek looking PC, You know in the newer Imacs minis maybe the apple mac-books aswell, The ram is soldered to the motherboard..
Meanwhile I would have changed my hard-drive in my PC case within 5 mins, side panel taken out with two screws, slide out the hard drive caddy, replace the new one, cables reconnected, Side panel back on, job done..
N. I. But I wouldn't have paid silly money for a apple branded donkey! You do know that apple are now soldering ram into their motherboard!costly if the ram goes faulty, so I may still have a PC but at least I can fix it a lot easier and faster and cheaper!
Lol I'm good. I mean this pisses me off as well, but I'm very picky about aesthetic and design and user experience that reflects a very specific ease of use. Everything has to be a very specific style (stylish looking) and VERY minimal for me (I can't stand wires lol). To each his own. Just go with whatever makes you feel comfortable while using it. I use PCs in research labs when they can't afford iMacs because they're relying on small grant money and would rather spend the money on new research supplies, but at home I use my Macs and still prefer Macs.
I dont understand why they dont. just have a metal cover held by screws to access the drive. mabye so you take your imac to apple to replace the drive?
Way too much work, and changes from model to model so they haven't got it right yet? Make a BACK PANEL for god's sake! Hard drives & memory are replaceable-upgradable and should be easier to install and replace. Right?
Mikeh Miiikeh I know it’s extremely late but if you’re somehow still wondering, it’s a metal trey that you put the ssd in to make it fit the 3.5inch mount
I wonder if you can help me, I did exactly what you said, with crucial SSD & owc parts but my late 2012 2017 I mac is not working now, its giving an error with circle & a cross through it when rebooted
Vishal Hansraj Apple has found out about an unauthorised repair. Your computer is disabled and you are permanently banned from purchasing Apple hardware.
This may work. www.amazon.com/NewerTech-AdaptaDrive-Drive-Converter-Bracket/dp/B005PZDVF6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=electronics&keywords=newer%2Btechnology%2Badaptadrive&tag=trust925-20&qid=1506624149
What's cool about having to do 900+ steps to swap a drive? She surely didn't do that in 7 minutes. This is why larger businesses do not use macs, I swap drives a lot and it takes less than 5 minutes.
I would like to replace my HDD for an SSD on my late 2012 iMac but I keep reading all these horror stories about screens falling off after a few days after the repair.
Is anyone can repair hard drive heads?? Not entirely hard process if you got zooming lenses,modified soldiering iron with small sized copper wire attachment as fine tip,screwdrivers and needle nose pliers... I had fixed a small head that had cutted ribbon wire,use zooming glass to see where damage is and carefuly use hot needle to remove insulation or melt it,place carefuly paste where small tiny soldiering would be placed and soldier small area.. majority hard drive heads got 2 tiny ribbon wires attached to it... Sometimes heads manage separate on some boint from holders which will result of burning them off,if anyone experienced with hard drive meintanance must know particular clicking or buzzing during hard drive power up.. Simply use small fine object like tooth pick and place super glue on back of heads but carefuly by not ripping head off and this will resolve many troubles ahead.... Some problems with hard drive parts replacemants recquires advanced systems like PC3000 or MRT pro or plus.. PC hardware/software solution for hard drive advanced data recovery,this is what all data labs use it and charge everyone fortune for recovery of data... It also allows you to reprogram NV ram chips by having special chip adapter that plugs in MRT or PC3000 expansion card,this particular hardware allows power plugging of hard drives with IDE or Sata port.... This allow to default power run for heads under factory levels,heads could be reprogrammed from reading to writing mode.. Anyone can check specifications of MRT plus or PC3000,those are PCI express port cards or host controllers.... Hardware could be order from Russia,Japan,Canada and some parts of USA but under 10 grands and software cost as good as 3 grands alone.. There is another option order from China or Taiwan where it cost way cheaper such as I did and device work like a charm and help resolve various hard drive problems.... Recently prices on particular diagnostic tools get raised from 365-538 bucks.. Software is 2 versions one is monthly updatable with every new model of hard drive or buying standalone version which not need any updates.. Every expansion card got registration key,in order to run recovery and diagnostic program special registration code recquires... In order to run program correct card must be plugged in particular pc and not moved to another computer othervise re registration of code recquires over again.. Most troubled hard drives is Samsung,Toshiba and Seagate ever science they got various problems over time... the heads have issue to separate from holding arms because of inferior build,if problem verified in time it is possible to disassemble hard drive (must be dust free area) it possible to remove headstock assembly and carefuly glue head back to holding arm... Hard drives recquires lot of paciance and no rush when work with them,very tiny components is easy to break off or get damaged... The anchor magnet must be removed by proper needle nose pliers,it should separate from one single secured pull off.... Platters must be dust free and unscratched,this could cost loss of some data.. Sometimes preamplifier chips get shorted if over voltage get in,so heads looks fine but they not work,it is small control chip that logicly correspond with PCB NV ram chip.. If NV Ram chip is burned off on PCB board than another PCB boards wont work or even turn spindle motor on.... Reprograming NV ram chips must be done by heater gun under medium temperature othervise PCB board can deformed and than everything wont work... After chip removal PCB board recquires cool off by fan or air conditioner,donor NV ram chip placed in special socket or adapter that's connect to MRT expansion card and in suite there planty of hard drive codes that could be looked by model and manufacturer than code get programmed by first erasing old one and writing new one just like Bios mode does and than new chip get carefuly soldiered to PCB board... Ones again all those procedures must be done by highly trained individual who specify on hard drive meintanances.... I been doing it like 3 years already,had succesfuly fixed 5 drives,if hard drives make buzzing sound it cannot be repaired most likely platters undergone and scratched,replacing heads wont make any differences and they would be damaged as well.. It only could be programmed in MRT suite by disabling writing mode to a reading mode allowing data mirroring and restructuring if it possible for recovery.... All cheap programs that on internet wont allow you fast recovery as they promise after you register or purchase full version,it all lies.... MRT or PC3000 allow recovering data from 250MB-1.5GB per minute and that's the main recovery trick of all data labs.... If somebody know about hard drives functionality and operation than MRT or PC3000 is necessary diagnostic and troubleshooting tools... The only trusted hard drives is made by Western Digital,never had problems with them,new generation got fail safe device if over volted,if over volted somehow preamplifier chip get blocked by PCB features and voltage not reach preamplifier chip sort of circuit breaker... New generations would be lies on NV Ram chips couse they stores data more officient,no heavy weight unlike hard drives and they easier to cool by fan..... So far 1 and 2GB NV ram data cards had been made...... Also I7 is not very best system or platform to play PC games,it CPU got less memory cache which decrease some performances and many users complained games get freezing point... The regular socket 775 works better,combination of Asus motherboard turbo and Xeon 3370 works better,Xeon chips not get hot fast like ordinary quad cores does plus it overclock higher up to 5GHZ but with intense cooling... The safe overcloacking is 4.72GHZ everything else recquires licquid water based cooling... Mac is not best system from my point of view,it got less features and less virtualization technology like Intel offers..
What a pain in the ass!! I Really want an SSD, but I am not doing this. Too much of a chance to really fuck something up. PC, much much easier and faster.
Thank you for this! It really helped me replace my drive and my iMac now boots up stupidly fast! It's a whole new lease of life for what is really an ageing machine.
However, I found I didn't need to remove the speaker completely to do so. I simply unscrewed it, then leaned it out of the way of the screws. This significantly reduced the time and complexity of the fix.
Other than that your instructions were clear and useful, and I was able to do this repair with confidence.
Thanks again!
Not neccessary to remove the speaker or cable. Remove the speaker screws and shift the speaker aside to give clearance.
Also make sure to have mac adhesive strips to restore the LCD in place. Double sided tape will not suffice.
Why am I watching this ? I don't even own an iMac lmao
At the end of the day, these iMacs are a nice piece of engineering to fit everything so neat. Too bad about all the adhesive to seal it all
it's not so bad. I had no trouble performing a HDD swap making it a 5TB Fusion Drive
@@Sergei__v Way too much work, and changes from model to model so they haven't got it right yet? Make a BAK PANEL for gods sake! Hard drives & memory are replaceable-upgradable and should be easier.
Yeah how hard would it have been for Apple to build a service door behind the HDD for a much easier upgrade, like the RAM on the 27"?
Great video! I replaced my iMac HD with the I fix it kit, worked perfectly. Only took my about 40 mins all up. I liked that the adhesive strips had multiple tear off covers. Awesome work team!
how are the adhesive strips holding up?
What a total pain just to replace a hard drive!
It's apple.. would you expect anything less?
Thank a lot for this guide!! I made it. I'm in the process of changing my HD. So far I take out the old one and now I'm looking for a new one. Thak again!!
Just be careful, I hit the lcd and lost alot of my screen. Other than that it wasn't as bad as I thought it would have been. I might order a new lcd.
A “How to” should cover the entire process, NOT, just the first half of the replacement job.
If you can't follow those same steps in reverse, then you shouldn't be working on your own iMac in the first place
@@redbulletlive I think when doing something like this it is best to have an idiots guide showing the reverse.
My HDD crashed. Worked out for me. Thank you!
Just get an external HD. I like my Mac but this why I also love my PC, way easier to replace HD and everything else on a PC.
Much easier than expected! Thanks for the video
Thank you! Your tutorial was very helpful!
if I break a pin on the heat sensor, do I need a new logic board?
Great walkthrough. Helped me update to an SSD. Thanks!
hi,
I want to replace Hard Drive to 1TB SSD . Does 27'' iMac (Late 2012) EMC NO. 2546. support the 1TB Hard Drive.
Very clear presentation!
Fantastic video. Very well done with great close-ups Thank you very much.
Don't tell me Apple couldn't have incorporated a simple screwed down access panel at the rear to enable easier entry to the hard drive.
they could but that wasn't Steve's Jobs vision, He wanted total lack of customization, He wanted a sleek looking PC, You know in the newer Imacs minis maybe the apple mac-books aswell, The ram is soldered to the motherboard..
Hdd really makes the whole imac hot.
When will the iMac Intel 27" (Late 2012-2019) SSD Upgrade Bundle be back in stock in the europe store?
Great. This could come in handy some day. I guess it's almost the same for a Fusion Drive model.
Worked well, thanks! But for sure, I would not recommend this procedure to people that never worked on HW.
Apple sure went cheap Adhesive instead of magnets?
Meanwhile I would have changed my hard-drive in my PC case within 5 mins, side panel taken out with two screws, slide out the hard drive caddy, replace the new one, cables reconnected, Side panel back on, job done..
and you'd still be left with a PC
N. I. But I wouldn't have paid silly money for a apple branded donkey! You do know that apple are now soldering ram into their motherboard!costly if the ram goes faulty, so I may still have a PC but at least I can fix it a lot easier and faster and cheaper!
Writing my reply on a late 2012 iMac 27". Sorry to burst your bubble, but approaching 6 years and still going strong!
And then spend the rest of the time you saved getting rid of viruses and downloading drivers
Lol I'm good. I mean this pisses me off as well, but I'm very picky about aesthetic and design and user experience that reflects a very specific ease of use. Everything has to be a very specific style (stylish looking) and VERY minimal for me (I can't stand wires lol). To each his own. Just go with whatever makes you feel comfortable while using it. I use PCs in research labs when they can't afford iMacs because they're relying on small grant money and would rather spend the money on new research supplies, but at home I use my Macs and still prefer Macs.
Thank you! Very clear and simple. :)
Can you use SSD drives?
My screen is flickering after replace the hard disk , what can I do ? I have checked the 2 screen connecting cable, they connected properly
I dont understand why they dont. just have a metal cover held by screws to access the drive. mabye so you take your imac to apple to replace the drive?
business part....
Way too much work, and changes from model to model so they haven't got it right yet? Make a BACK PANEL for god's sake! Hard drives & memory are replaceable-upgradable and should be easier to install and replace. Right?
I do upgrade the hhd for an SSD but the fan is too noisy help please
how can i put a SSD 2.5" drive in replacement of 1TB WD 3.5" ?
Mikeh Miiikeh I know it’s extremely late but if you’re somehow still wondering, it’s a metal trey that you put the ssd in to make it fit the 3.5inch mount
Thank you for this
I wonder if you can help me, I did exactly what you said, with crucial SSD & owc parts but my late 2012 2017 I mac is not working now, its giving an error with circle & a cross through it when rebooted
Vishal Hansraj Apple has found out about an unauthorised repair. Your computer is disabled and you are permanently banned from purchasing Apple hardware.
All you need to do is press command + R when booting and then the computer should allow you to install the operating system.
please give me the link to replace 1TB ssd and what tools and bracket I need .
This may work.
www.amazon.com/NewerTech-AdaptaDrive-Drive-Converter-Bracket/dp/B005PZDVF6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&sr=1-1&s=electronics&keywords=newer%2Btechnology%2Badaptadrive&tag=trust925-20&qid=1506624149
nice tutorial :)
Is this the Fusion drive?
I’m telling my fiancée if she wants a hard drive upgrade she can get a solid state thunderbolt external drive
Should you use a heat gun to melt the adhesive?
It is not recommended
Very cool actually.
What's cool about having to do 900+ steps to swap a drive? She surely didn't do that in 7 minutes. This is why larger businesses do not use macs, I swap drives a lot and it takes less than 5 minutes.
iMac is a crazy model to open. Fun to see it done but I would never do it.
Does iFixit have a desktop PC building guide?
it's called iFixit...not iBuildit.
Got to be careful it cracks easily. Doesn’t take much pressure to crack. 😑
iBrokeit
I would like to replace my HDD for an SSD on my late 2012 iMac but I keep reading all these horror stories about screens falling off after a few days after the repair.
Yes, I am reading the same. I have been wanting to do this for a while now but desperately looking for reliable adhesive strips.
How do I remove the old adhesive stripes properly?
That adhesive thing is bollocks when you think it is on an expensive computer.
very painful:(
You can actually do all this without fully removing the speaker!
you made that way harder than it actually is.
why ?
Do you have an easier way?
HANNAH BAKER??????
Is anyone can repair hard drive heads??
Not entirely hard process if you got zooming lenses,modified soldiering iron with small sized copper wire attachment as fine tip,screwdrivers and needle nose pliers...
I had fixed a small head that had cutted ribbon wire,use zooming glass to see where damage is and carefuly use hot needle to remove insulation or melt it,place carefuly paste where small tiny soldiering would be placed and soldier small area..
majority hard drive heads got 2 tiny ribbon wires attached to it...
Sometimes heads manage separate on some boint from holders which will result of burning them off,if anyone experienced with hard drive meintanance must know particular clicking or buzzing during hard drive power up..
Simply use small fine object like tooth pick and place super glue on back of heads but carefuly by not ripping head off and this will resolve many troubles ahead....
Some problems with hard drive parts replacemants recquires advanced systems like PC3000 or MRT pro or plus..
PC hardware/software solution for hard drive advanced data recovery,this is what all data labs use it and charge everyone fortune for recovery of data...
It also allows you to reprogram NV ram chips by having special chip adapter that plugs in MRT or PC3000 expansion card,this particular hardware allows power plugging of hard drives with IDE or Sata port....
This allow to default power run for heads under factory levels,heads could be reprogrammed from reading to writing mode..
Anyone can check specifications of MRT plus or PC3000,those are PCI express port cards or host controllers....
Hardware could be order from Russia,Japan,Canada and some parts of USA but under 10 grands and software cost as good as 3 grands alone..
There is another option order from China or Taiwan where it cost way cheaper such as I did and device work like a charm and help resolve various hard drive problems....
Recently prices on particular diagnostic tools get raised from 365-538 bucks..
Software is 2 versions one is monthly updatable with every new model of hard drive or buying standalone version which not need any updates..
Every expansion card got registration key,in order to run recovery and diagnostic program special registration code recquires...
In order to run program correct card must be plugged in particular pc and not moved to another computer othervise re registration of code recquires over again..
Most troubled hard drives is Samsung,Toshiba and Seagate ever science they got various problems over time...
the heads have issue to separate from holding arms because of inferior build,if problem verified in time it is possible to disassemble hard drive (must be dust free area) it possible to remove headstock assembly and carefuly glue head back to holding arm...
Hard drives recquires lot of paciance and no rush when work with them,very tiny components is easy to break off or get damaged...
The anchor magnet must be removed by proper needle nose pliers,it should separate from one single secured pull off....
Platters must be dust free and unscratched,this could cost loss of some data..
Sometimes preamplifier chips get shorted if over voltage get in,so heads looks fine but they not work,it is small control chip that logicly correspond with PCB NV ram chip..
If NV Ram chip is burned off on PCB board than another PCB boards wont work or even turn spindle motor on....
Reprograming NV ram chips must be done by heater gun under medium temperature othervise PCB board can deformed and than everything wont work...
After chip removal PCB board recquires cool off by fan or air conditioner,donor NV ram chip placed in special socket or adapter that's connect to MRT expansion card and in suite there planty of hard drive codes that could be looked by model and manufacturer than code get programmed by first erasing old one and writing new one just like Bios mode does and than new chip get carefuly soldiered to PCB board...
Ones again all those procedures must be done by highly trained individual who specify on hard drive meintanances....
I been doing it like 3 years already,had succesfuly fixed 5 drives,if hard drives make buzzing sound it cannot be repaired most likely platters undergone and scratched,replacing heads wont make any differences and they would be damaged as well..
It only could be programmed in MRT suite by disabling writing mode to a reading mode allowing data mirroring and restructuring if it possible for recovery....
All cheap programs that on internet wont allow you fast recovery as they promise after you register or purchase full version,it all lies....
MRT or PC3000 allow recovering data from 250MB-1.5GB per minute and that's the main recovery trick of all data labs....
If somebody know about hard drives functionality and operation than MRT or PC3000 is necessary diagnostic and troubleshooting tools...
The only trusted hard drives is made by Western Digital,never had problems with them,new generation got fail safe device if over volted,if over volted somehow preamplifier chip get blocked by PCB features and voltage not reach preamplifier chip sort of circuit breaker...
New generations would be lies on NV Ram chips couse they stores data more officient,no heavy weight unlike hard drives and they easier to cool by fan.....
So far 1 and 2GB NV ram data cards had been made......
Also I7 is not very best system or platform to play PC games,it CPU got less memory cache which decrease some performances and many users complained games get freezing point...
The regular socket 775 works better,combination of Asus motherboard turbo and Xeon 3370 works better,Xeon chips not get hot fast like ordinary quad cores does plus it overclock higher up to 5GHZ but with intense cooling...
The safe overcloacking is 4.72GHZ everything else recquires licquid water based cooling...
Mac is not best system from my point of view,it got less features and less virtualization technology like Intel offers..
A long passage ._.
4 min and 15 sec ... no no no... :(
Why do you think you need that irritating music?
This construction is nonsense.
All this to replace a fucking hard drive. Apple is a joke.
What a pain in the ass!! I Really want an SSD, but I am not doing this. Too much of a chance to really fuck something up. PC, much much easier and faster.
I fucking hate apple. Never again. 3000 dollars for this piece of junk