Difficulty
Difficult
Steps
49
Time Required
- Access Door 1 step
- RAM 4 steps
- Glass Panel 2 steps
- Display 7 steps
- Optical Drive 4 steps
- Optical Drive Fan 3 steps
- Logic Board 17 steps
- Dual Hard Drive Kit 11 steps
Featured Guide
This guide has been found to be exceptionally cool by the iFixit staff.
Tools
No tools required.
Parts
Introduction
Use this guide to install a second 2.5" SATA hard drive in your 21.5" iMac. The kit will only work for Mid 2011 EMC 2428 models.
Video Overview
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Lay your iMac face-down on a soft, clean surface as shown.
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Loosen the three Phillips screws securing the access door to the bottom edge of your iMac.
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Remove the access door.
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Gently slide the black plastic RAM pull tab out from the RAM slot.
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Pull the black plastic tab away from the bottom edge of the iMac to eject the module(s) on that side of the RAM bay.
i pulled very hard on this tab, could not get it to release?
is this common?
It is far harder than I thought you have to pull REALLY hard and then there will be a little click and than you can gently pull out the RAM.
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Slide the old RAM module(s) out of their slots in the RAM bay and set them aside.
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Repeat the process in the previous steps to remove the RAM module(s) from the other side of the RAM bay.
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Be sure the small notch cut into each RAM module (shown in the first picture) mates with the protrusion in each RAM slot (shown in the second picture).
When reinstalling RAM in this machine or any iMac with upgradable RAM slots push hard to get them to go in (Apple really did make this one harder than it needed to be). If you don't push hard it won't go in and your computer won't work. (trust me on this learned the hard way)
![Image 2/2: To attach the [product|IF145-023|suction cups] we sell, first position the suction cup with the movable handle parallel to the face of the glass panel. While lightly holding the suction cup against the glass, raise the movable handle until it is parallel with the other handle.](https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/EucNhvfCJRsBRgOY.medium)
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Stick a suction cup near each of the two top corners of the glass panel.
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If your suction cups refuse to stick, try cleaning both the glass panel and the suction cup with a mild solvent.
Change "Before beginning, unplug your iMac and lay it on a soft surface as shown." to "Lay your iMac on a soft surface as shown"
imac 2544 2.5 core i5 i touched the motherboard to supply and it spark now it is not powering
please tell me the directions
thanks witting for answering .
Im sorry to say, If it sparked when you touched it your motherboard s now fried. You need a new one.
Success replacing the stock ST31000528AS with a STBD3000100 (Dead 1TB to new 3TB, both Seagate). First try. Using another Mac and a quality Firewire 800 cable, I formatted it using Target Disk mode, 2 partitions (defaults, except I made the first one bigger than the second). To the second, smaller one, I copied a bootable Install OS X Mavericks partition. Tried to boot. It booted, and I installed; nary a glitch. (Running the Installer over Firewire would have been faster, but I didn't want to reboot this machine.)
See part 2 below...
(Part 2:)
I SKIPPED steps 6, 7 AND 8! Instead, after doing Step 5, I noticed I then had enough room and cable length to access the screws in Step 11 if I lifted the LCD up an inch or so, rotated it about 20-30 degrees clockwise and moved it a couple inches toward the base, and put it down. After removing them (Step 11), I propped up the LCD (with a spare spudger) and had enough room to do Steps 12, 13, and 14 without much difficulty. Felt safer/less work and risk than not skipping steps 6-8. No risk of the damage Ersan and Michael caused performing Step 7!
I just edited that step to add a note about the shortcut.
What the ???
Geoff Wacker has REJECTED my edit: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/history/ste...
I wonder why. What's the deal, Geoff? I mean I'd understand if I suggested folks didn't need the suction cups, as that could cut into iFixit's income stream, but what's wrong with suggesting that a few steps aren't needed? It worked for me; the EMC 2389 I fixed is humming along with a new 3TB HD I installed while skipping those steps.
I did not have to remove a single cable! After undoing the torx screws from the sides, I was able to rotate the LCD out of the way enough to reach all the screws holding in the ODD bracket. One of them was a bit challenging to get to, but I never felt that I was risking the cables by leaving them connected. Also, it wasn't totally clear, but you have to actually remove the ODD itself from the ODD bracket - 4 torx screws. The SDD mounts into the hard drive enclosure, then the enclosure is screwed into the bracket. Those holes (enclosure <-> Bracket) did not line up correctly for me, and I had to go with only three of them connected in the end. Seems to work fine.
Another comment on DATA & LCD Temp. Sensor cables: I had to remove the vertical sync, and the backlight cable, however, if you have an assistant or/can carefully rotate the screen clockwise/and then have it held up about 5" to 6" at a slight angle, you do not need to remove LCD data cable or LCD thermal cable, however - IMPORTANT: you must have a second pair of hands/or way to securely prop up the LCD. Also, don't rotate too much, since then you will pull out LCD data cable, and it renders the whole exercise moot, or can damage the cable or connector.
You don't need suction cups. The screen, held by magnets, can simply be pried off using a very thin blade such as a screw driver and fingers.
That's a bad idea. using a metal tool to pry off glass is likely to end with an expensive broken front glass.
Suction cups are common. Find a couple and do it the safe way. I use some cheap ones that came with iPhone repair kit.
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Gently lift the glass panel perpendicular to the face of the LCD enough to clear the steel mounting pins attached along the underside of the top edge of the glass panel.
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Pull the glass panel away from the lower edge of the iMac and carefully set it aside.
What's the best product to clean the face of the LCD?
Microfiber Cloth
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Remove the eight 8 mm T10 Torx screws securing the display to the outer case.
The metal near the screws is VERY magnetic. Honestly, the hardest and by far most frustrating step was trying to put these screws back in.
I ran into the same problem - easily the most frustrating part of this process. To help deal with it, I took a drinking straw, cut it to be about 2 inches long, and used it as a chute to guide the screw to the hole. Dropping the screw down the straw, it'd still stick to the side due to the magnets, but using my screwdriver, it was easy to push the screw down to where it needed to go, and the straw kept the screw from being pulled out of place by the magnets.
josh -
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Slightly lift the top edge of the display out of the outer case.
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Pull the vertical sync cable connector out of its socket on the LED driver board near the top left corner of your iMac.
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Rotate the display out of the outer case enough to disconnect the LED backlight power cable from the LED driver board.
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Grab the plastic pull tab secured to the display data cable lock and rotate it towards upwards.
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Pull the display data cable straight out of its socket on the logic board.
I am having a difficult time reattaching the LCD cable. A better description or any tips would be useful here.
Me too — ditto that.
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIDI... —> abt. 5:30 into the vid. Handle up to slide in, then flip it down to lock the connector in place.
The connector needs to be carefully pushed in parallel to the board with a surprising amount of pressure and the pull tab must be folded back. Not super fragile, but not strong either.
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Disconnect the LCD thermal sensor cable connector from its socket on the logic board.
The replacement hard drive I used doesn't even appear to spin up and the Time Capsule restore process doesn't show it as available. It just stays at Searching for disks and never finds it.
I had to use Disk Utility to partition the drive and then it showed fine. Rookie mistake.
JRBv3 -
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Carefully pull the display toward the top edge of your iMac and lift it out of the outer case, minding any cables that may get caught.
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Remove the following four screws:
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One 9.3 mm T10 Torx screw with a large head
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Three 9.3 mm T10 Torx screws with a normal sized head
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Pull the optical drive thermal sensor connector straight up from its socket on the logic board. Pull parallel to the board.
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Lift the inner edge of the optical drive and maneuver its connector past the GPU frame attached to the logic board.
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Carefully pull the optical drive off its mounting pins on the right side of the outer case to gain clearance for disconnecting the optical drive cable.
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Allow the optical drive to hang down as you de-route the optical drive thermal sensor connector from behind the GPU heat sink.
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Disconnect the optical drive cable by pulling its connector away from the optical drive.
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Remove the optical drive from the iMac.
I have already installed the second SSD drive, but due to the size of the drive I need to change it with another SSHD 1 TB drive. Am I right that I have to follow the instructions up to Step 18? Because The SSD is already behind the optical drive, so what I need to do is remove it and install the new SSHD drive and put everything back again. Please confirm.
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Remove the single 13 mm T10 Torx screw securing the optical drive fan to the outer case.
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Pull the optical drive fan off the pins attached to the outer case.
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Pull the optical drive fan connector away from its socket on the logic board.
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Remove the optical drive fan from the iMac.
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In the proceeding steps, you will disconnect the following cables:
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SD Board
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Left/Right Speaker and Microphone
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Audio Port
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Wi-Fi Antenna
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Right Temperature Sensor, Bluetooth/Ambient Light Sensor/Camera/Left Temperature, and Hard Drive Fan
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CPU Fan/Ambient Temperature and Power Button
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IR Sensor
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Pull the SD board cable out of its socket on the logic board.
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Disconnect the microphone, left speaker, and right speaker cables by pulling their connectors toward the right side of the iMac.
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Use the flat end of a spudger to pry all three AirPort antenna connectors up from their sockets on the AirPort board.
For me it was originally the reverse order. No stripes for ch2, one for ch1 and two for ch0
As another user already posted, cables can be in the reverse order as depicted on the guide. Pay attention before disconnecting them.
E.g.:
To simplify this and since there seems to be some variable set ups, take a digital picture of the way it is before following this step so that you can put it back the way it was. (If no digicam then draw yourself a note with paper and pen).
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Pull the hard drive fan connector toward the top edge of the iMac to disconnect it from its socket on the logic board.
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Use your thumbnails on both sides of the Bluetooth/ambient light sensor/camera/left temperature connector to push it toward the top edge of the iMac and out of its socket on the logic board.
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Use your thumbnails to push the right temperature sensor connector toward the top edge of the iMac and out of its socket.
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Pull the CPU fan/ambient temperature sensor connector toward the bottom left edge of the iMac and out of its socket on the logic board.
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Pull the power button connector toward the bottom left corner of the iMac to disconnect it from its socket on the logic board.
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Use your thumbs to push the IR sensor connector toward the top edge of the iMac and out of its socket on the logic board.
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Pull the IR sensor board up from behind the front face of the outer case.
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Remove the IR sensor and set it aside.
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Pull the audio port cable connector toward the left side of the iMac to disconnect it from the logic board.
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Peel the audio port cable off the front face of the logic board and let it hang down as shown in the second picture.
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Remove the following seven screws:
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Two 7 mm T10 torx screws
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One 30 mm T10 Torx screw
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Two 25 mm T10 Torx screws
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Two 21 mm T10 Torx screws
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Remove the following four screws from the power supply:
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One 9.3 mm T10 coarse-threaded screw
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One 25 mm T10 coarse-threaded screw
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Two 22 mm fine-threaded screws
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Pull the upper right and lower left corners of the power supply away from the rear case to dislodge the mounting posts attached to the power supply's corners.
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Carefully lift the power supply out of the outer case and rotate it to expose the cable lock as shown, minding the DC-out and AC-in cables still attaching it to the iMac.
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Disconnect the DC-out cable by depressing the locking mechanism on the connector while you pull the connector away from its socket on the power supply.
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Once the locking mechanism has cleared the socket, pull the DC-in connector away from the power supply.
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Disconnect the AC-In cable by depressing the locking mechanism while pulling the connector away from its socket.
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Remove the power supply from the outer case.
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Remove the plastic wall that is installed directly to the right of the LED driver board.
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Slightly pull the logic board away from the back of the outer case, then lift it upward to clear the lower front face of the outer case.
Be careful when balancing the mother board here, you can damage the RAM bays if not careful. (Had a friend do this, good by motherboard and iMac.) Just be careful and aware of how you have it sitting.
Before you lift the logic board, remove the infra-red receiver ( have a look at the logic board replacement guide )! It will make your life a lot easier.
Like stated also in the video, it's easier if you put the iMac on its foot again.
This was a great tip. Removing the IR made my life easier when putting the board back in place.
fansntt -
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In the following steps, you will hold the logic board slightly away from the outer case as you connect the new hard drive cables included with the dual hard drive kit.
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First, locate the small connector on the SSD power cable.
hello,
it's possible to use a generic power cable like this???
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41...
I thing is more simply.
it's possible???
than you
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Connect the small plug on the SATA power cable to the socket labeled SSD Power on the logic board.
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Next, locate the 90º connector on one end of the SATA data cable.
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Connect the 90º end of the SATA data cable to its socket on the logic board next to the SATA power connector.
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With both SATA cables connected, they should look like the logic board shown in the photo.
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Next, while holding the new hard drive cables against the GPU heat sink, lower the bottom edge of the logic board back down into the outer case.
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Before pushing the logic board against the back of the outer case, first route the hard drive cables in the channel near the bundle of power cables.
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As you place the logic board into its recess, route the hard drive cables through the small channel cut into the plastic pressure wall near the fins of the GPU heat sink.
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In the next few steps, you'll install your new drive into the case of your EMC 2428 iMac.
Isn't there a way to fix the SSD by screws?
No. Its just flat aluminum. The adhesive pads will work well. You may even be able to use the picture hanging velcro strips by 3M that you can find any where (they now have ones with stronger adhesive). If using the velcro ones it would make it easier for removal later. I personally have not done it this way, but I think it would work. I just used the red ones they gave (i could find my box of the velcro ones).
Wonderful info and explanations, as usual.
Hope the answer to my question is not very obvious, but can a normal SATA 500GB be installed instead of a SSD drive. The reason being, appart from the cost difference, is that I currently have a PC Laptop that I'd like to "Recycle" into my iMac, meaning memory and HD. Potentially also my Windows 7 with Parallels. Currently have XP, it would be upgrade every way you see it.
Many thanks
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Peel the backing off one side of the double-sided tape and place the pieces at the four corners of the hard drive.
They have crucial here pictured (we used crucial and it works phenomenal). Also Samsung has a great line of SSDs called EVO (we used it in our Macbook Pro and it works just as good if not better than crucial). {here is their website, http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/solid...) Its a second option for ssd hard drives.
Also when installing SSDs make sure to enable TRIM support (crashes can and probably will occur if you don't) TRIM enabler is available free and the pro version is $10 http://www.cindori.org/software/trimenab... It is the easiest solution for this issue.
Hello Robert I have a question, I have an Imac 21.5 mid 2011 and I want to add a second ssd drive (Crucial or Samsung Evo) ....I want to know if the second port is Sata 2 (3Gb/s) or Sata 3 (6Gb/s)
??? Could you check the¨link velocity¨? Thank you Robert !!!
Leonardo -
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Connect both the SATA data and SATA power connectors to your new hard drive.
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Remove the backing from the double-sided tape and place the hard drive inside the iMac.
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Carefully set the drive into the iMac optical bay as close to the lower left corner as possible.
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Once you are happy with the hard drive's placement, firmly press down along its edges to ensure full adhesion.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order from Step 33.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order from Step 33.
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31 Comments
It should be noted to anyone doing this that RAM should be removed first. When you get towards the end things go bad if your RAM is still in there and you start moving the mainboard around.
You are correct. I followed the ifixit guide on youtube and it was not mentioned to remove the RAMs. But in fact the RAMs should be removed in order to pull the logic board.
showmak -
Seconded ... remove ram first! Spent more time reinstalling main board than anything else.
Added bigger HDD as well as SSD. Buy HDD Fan Control to fix fan speed.
A curse on Jobs & Apple for making it this tedious to add SSD & HDD.
Cudos to ifixit!
Did it, my imac is extreamly speedy now with the ssd compared with the origional hdd.
Tool me about two hours to do, had to have my brother help me when i was removing the logic board and screen.
Found that the logic board was extreamly hard to remove.
Good tip is to selotape the cables before removing / inserting the logic board as i traped my microphone connector underneath. Luckely i could reach it with a pair of tweesers.
Over all glad i did it.
Can anybody explain why the PSU module needs to be removed (steps 34-37)? I saw a similar guide elsewhere and it skipped this completely. Is this not required? If so, that might explain why this guide says that to re-assemble do the reverse from step 33 and not 38 as expected!
I can confirm that you do not need to remove the power supply to do this - you can safely skip these steps! Anyway, this install went well for me, not as scary as I thought it would be. You just need to be prepared, remain calm and keep track of all the screws!
markbart -
Having read this comment, I initially skipped the PSU removal steps. While removing the logic board was a bit difficult, putting it back in place seemed impossible until I figured one of the plastic walls (step 37, although it was the one on the other side) was getting in the way: some pieces have a diagonal cut from top to bottom and they have to fit together, and the diagonal shape forces one to be placed before the other (one on bottom, then the other on top, so to speak). I had to remove the PSU to be able to remove the plastic walls, get the logic board in place properly, and then put the plastic walls back "on top" of a piece attached to the PCB.
So while I guess it could be possible to skip the PSU removal steps, I found it easier to put everything back into place by removing it. YMMV, just keep it in mind, and you can always do as I did, skip the steps and do them afterwards if needed.
How long is the Sata data cable?
Is a 10" too short for the job??
Help asap would be awesome!
Thanks
The cable is a standard length, but I feel it was too long as it needed to be folded to fit. A 10 inch cable will be fine.
markbart -
Very helpful guide, easy to follow. Took me around an hour and a half to install an SSD.
For the record, instead of using them independently I configured them as a Fusion Drive. Works like a charm, more info here:
The article you link to isn't describing a fusion drive. The whole areticle is a mistake. Read the comments over there...
Very helpful guide. I did it in 1 houre without removing the PSU.
Thank´s for the help!!!
Be advice, I buy the kit and try. It cost me 800$ to repair it after. Yes, I broke the logic board!!!!
Also, after you get your drive installed and try to create your own Fusion Drive volume, you'll need to make a bootable USB drive and boot from that by holding down Option on a boot. If you try to boot from the internal drive and then create the Fusion drive you'll get a "Error: -69879: Couldn't open disk" error which basically means the disk is in use. Of course, when you do this, all your data will be wiped so be sure to backup via Time Machine before you create the Fusion Drive!
Installation d'un SSD samsung 500go avec le kit d'installation Fixit sur iMac 21 mi-2011
L'installation s'est très bien passé. Ce n'est pas si difficile que cela même si c'est assez impressionnant au début.
L'accès au cablage du SATA (coté opposé de la carte mère) est délicate (avoir des petites mains c'est mieux).
La différence une fois l'OS installé sur le SSD est impressionnante... ce n'est plus la même machine!
Couple more comments:
1. This is a really long, laborious process. To keep track of screws, I drew a little chart and taped them to a piece of paper.
2. Make sure when reinstalling the logic board that the RAM slots line up correctly. They didn't for me, so had to undo the whole thing.
3. When my Mac restarted, the fans ran at full speed. Thought I'd broken something. Turns out, just needed to do SCM reset (see Apple docs)
4. If I was going to do this again, I wouldn't. It's a huge pain -- very annoying project.
I gave my iMac to a local Apple store. They offered to place the SSD for about 200 € … a lot of money but I thought it would be better, because they have done it not only once.
Unfortunately they called me and told me that the second SATA port must be broken because they couldn't get the SSD at work. Have you ever heard of such problems?
What do you think? Do I have to switch to a new logic board??
Thanks.. OWC has a much much better step-by-step video. Successfully added a 240G Crucial M500 disk.. created a fusion drive and it's beautiful!
Tips:
- Plan well, clean surface, use anti-static band, be very very very careful and gentle
- Can use almost any “cheap” suction cups (like ones in car window shades) http://bit.ly/1oGzHIe
- Ensure 6G SATA cable
- Power cable is unique (SD Power Cable 593-1296 922-9862) and can be bought from AliExpress: http://bit.ly/1oGAjOd
- You’ll need Torx T10, T6 screw-driver bits
- Use tape to put cables in place when putting the logic board back
- Having someone to hold the logic board while putting in SSD cables can be useful
Thanks man for the powercable Part number
peter94 -
Excellent guide! Easy to follow, step by step with great pictures that you can zoom in and go at your own pace - THANK-YOU, you've just added a few more years to my iMac!
Note: It was a bit of a pain undoing all those connections, and even more putting them all back, and kind of stressful having it all apart on my coffee table, but I did it! I put my new 240 PNY SSD drive from Best Buy (on sale for $109) in and also upgraded my old main HD to a 2TB SATA, not including the 16GB of RAM upgrade to perk things up, I used Disk Utility to shrink down my old 500GB to 240GB and did a restore on my new drive and boom, it boots up so dang fast I don't know what the heck just happened.
again, many thanks!!!
Oh yea, I also installed a free fan program called Macs Fan Control from crystalidea to help with some of the weird fan issues I was getting in Windows- plus they make it for both platforms.
Completed this install today. I was kind of nervous, because I didn't want to screw up my Mac. Being really careful and meticulously keeping track of every single screw, I installed a 256GB Samsung 850 Pro and it works like a charm. I think I've messed up the ODD though. That one doesn't seem to be available anymore. The other thing is that my speakers didn't work anymore. While I had just arrived at the point where I was going to take the Mac apart again, I decided to check my settings. My iMac was sending sound to my external display, which doesn't have speakers. I'm not sure if I'm going to open it up again to try to fix the ODD. I never use it, but if I'm ever selling it, it should definitely work...
I did that upgrade last weekend, with help of my son in law. All ran right, no problem, and now my iMac is working very fast!! I put a SSD OCZ Vertex 460A 480GB under the optical drive. We take three hours to do it.
The most difficult step was step 10, just the first cable to disconnect. This cable have a very small conector and was a little hard to remove, but at the end all was fine.
This guide was extremely important to me, so I translated it to study carefully before start the upgrade. At the same way, the video was very important to show the correct way to do each step.
So, thank you very much for IFIXT team and the author, Andrew Bookholt.
Carlos Sgrillo, June 01, 2015 - from Porto Alegre, Brazil.
Hi Guys,
I have 2 original hdd cable (data and power) from a damaged imac. These two cable are long enough to add an ssd? maybe using a different path for the cables?
I have successfully installed a Samsung 840 Pro Series SSD 256 GB inside my Mid 2011 iMac following this great guideline. However, I am thinking of replacing the SSD with Seagate 1TB SSHD because of the capacity. I am not sure whether I need to put it in an enclosure or I can attach it as a bare drive? Please advise.
After ADDING an aditional SSD (samsung evo 850 1TB) to my 21.5inch imac mid 2011, I was having a problem with the speed of my cpu fan.
After adding this SSD I upgraded to El Capitan. I also added a OWC thermal cable on the SSD to solve the problem but my fan continued to turn very fast (4000RPM)
Nothing worked, so I installed Mac Fan control based on temperature of other sensors. This worked for one month untill last week my fan started turning fast again.
This time I checked my activity monitor. I noticed that my cpu was running at 700% because of my HP printer driver.
After deleting the driver I put all the fans on "auto" and my mac is now behaving like before the ssd upgrade.
I hope this will help someone who is having the same problem.
Daniel
That was far and away the hardest computer upgrade I've ever done. So many little cables that I didn't notice were trapped until I had the motherboard back in, had to redo it so many times. And a couple of times I couldn't get the mobo lined up right and had to redo some more. I'm a little shocked the computer still works. 2 hours!
best guide for repairing and upgrading your iMac with an SSD.
Before beginning unplug your iMac.
Henry Barnett - Reply