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Advice on replacing a 2007 iMac Aluminum Hard Drive

iMac Intel 2007 model

Hi Folks

Im thinking about replacing the hard disk drive in my 20 inch 2007 aluminum Intel iMac

Over the last three years it has gotten heavy use from audio recording and audio processing and as a result has slowed down some. I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on what a good model hard disk would be to get for the job. I'll most likely go for 1TB to 2TB.

Iv done some research and have seen guides on how to do this and have been told that i need a 3.5 inch drive to fit properly, if any one could confirm this i would be thankful.

Also could anyone suggest other components that may need maintenance or replacing (based on possible reputations for failing) as id be happy to do this all at once to prolong the life of my Imac

Thanks in advance for any help (also im not hugely familiar with this site so if this is the wrong place to ask this question or is bad user etiquette I apologize in advance as well)

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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I've changed your machine selection to the most likely machine. Check on the bottom of your stand to insure it's correct. Here's how to do it: iMac Intel 20" EMC 2133 and 2210 Hard Drive Replacement

As for the drive, with heavy recording use I would go with a high end drive meant for heavy usage such as this 600 GB Raptor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...

Of course you can use any standard 3.5" SATA hard drive but will have greatly reduced performance. You can also go with one of the SSD drives: http://eshop.macsales.com/search/ssd

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Thanks for your help Mayer, Western Digital came up a few times when i was researching drives but I dont have a great knowledge of hard disks and wasn sure what a good model would be for my needs. I appreciate the help.

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I like the Western Digital Scorpio Black drives (7200 rpm). I keep them in stock as my standard selection for replacement drives. You get what you pay for with hard drives. The general run of the mill hard drive is made as cheaply as possible to compete in the market. Sure, your race car will get around the track with a four cylinder engine, but to adequately do the job, you need a formula one racing engine built for high speed and endurance. Really look at the Raptor drives before making a decision, please.

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Here's a 300GB VelociRaptor for $170: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...

The 600 GB is $275: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...

I've never seen one of these fail.

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I have used an external hard drive as the boot drive to gain capacity and speed. This was done using "Carbon Copy" cloning software. I needed more "room" to use my growing music and video database. If you want speed, use a SSD. Adding an external drive is much easier than ripping out the factory hard drive.

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Depending on your system you may want to think about is replacing your optical drive and instead put in a SSD in its' place. Then put your OS & Apps on this SSD drive (SATA optical drive, not a good solution if you have a PATA drive - 133 MBps).

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James - You may want to rethink this. I assume your using the FireWire 800Mbps (~100 MB/sec) connection for this external drive. In truth you should leave the OS on the internal drive as the SATA I/O is much faster - SATA II (3Gb/s) or SATA III (3Gb/s). OS's in general require the must speed possible (HD I/O) to run. While your Music & Video collection doesn't. What confuses people here is the App they are using to play there media files needs speed as well (most Apps in general) You should be running them on the same HD as the OS for the best performance. Why you ask - Both the OS & Apps load modules as you need them that offer a set of functions & create temporary files during their use to hold key information as well. Some apps have databases (i.e. iTunes). These also need to be accessed frequently hence they need fast I/O. Splitting your iTunes across two drives is quite easy using the preferences setting so the App, it's temp & db files are on your internal drive and the music & video is on the external.

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What do I need to do to a WD blue Sata drive 10ezex to get it to work? I am new , have time capsule or machine and back up further to another external drive. What are the steps to ensure my data is safe and to get the new hard drive working, I installed only to have folder with question mark flash. I put my old drive back and got it going and am managing though struggling. Also there are 4 clips that have to be detached yet all the same color without any markings coming from the Mac. The screen however has one set on eachwith one blue cord attached to the screen, my question is does it matter how the connected? I read it does not since they are primarily power but videos I see have some macs with red wires as well. Help ! Thanks.

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Tom will be eternally grateful.
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