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recently replaced bad 500gb WD hard drive on IMac 21.5 built Aug., 2010, with WD 1tb drive. Followed ifixit.com instructions and purchased replacement through them. After reformatting new drive and booting computer it boots up but is running slow as molasses. Any suggestions to speed up the system? Before hard drive went out it ran great. Help!
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mmm... Doesn't look good here ;-{
- Your systems HD SATA port is SATA II (3.0 Gb/s)
- Your Western Digital WD10EZEX HD is SATA III (6.0 Gb/s)
Your system can't handle the higher SATA speed HD. While some drives can be altered to the slower SATA I/O speed this one can't.
The older WD10EALS model could be: WD Caviar Blue. Here's the info for it in case you can find it: Specifications for the WD Caviar Blue SATA 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s and PATA 100 Mb/s internal hard drives.
OK, you'll need to return the HD and try getting the older WD drive or, you could look at getting a drive which has the ability to 'Auto magically' set it's self to the correct SATA I/O speed. As an example the Seagate 3.5 Desktop SSHD. Here you can see the drive is able to run at SATA I, II & III I/O speeds. The only rub here is the special thermal sensor cable which you'll need to swap out for the Seagate part (if you go with the Seagate HD). Here's the different thermal sensor cables:
Cable, Temp Sensor, Hard Drive:
Or, you can cheat and use the Optical Drive 922-9624 thermal sensor cable depending on the drive you get. And just sticking it on the HD like the older models did.
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Thanks Dan for the information provided. I am looking for a little more information if you can help again. Using the link above regarding the Seagate 3.5 Desktop SSHD, we searched the available hard drives and think the appropriate one to purchase is the ST1000DX001. Would you agree with this? Also, you reference a 922-9216 Seagate Cable, Temp Sensor, Hard Drive. Is this the number of the cable needed for the ST1000DX001 hard drive? I was unable to find that cable anywhere on a Google search. Any help is appreciated.
Thats the largest drive they offer, 4TB. Do you need that must storage ;-} It you do its fine. Here's one source for the cable: Intel iMac 21.5" Hard Drive Temp Sensor.
Thank you Dan. I looked at the Seagate chart to make sure I was looking at the correct hard drive before ordering. The SD1000DX001 is a 1tb
drive. The 4tb drive is SD4000dx01. But your comment did make me double check. I've ordered wrong items before because of looking at the wrong number.
Thanks again Dan. I think you've pointed us in the right direction. I'll be back if I have any more problems.
Terri, your problem and its solution will effect a lot of other users, please keep your results updated. Thanks ;-)
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Can you give us the exact model of the WD drive you have.
by Dan
The WDdrive we just installed is a WD5000AAKX (replacing a WD5000AAKS).
by terriupton1
Sorry. Wrong model number. Correct one installed is Model #: WD10EZEX, Cache: 64MB
by terriupton1