Tools
Parts
No parts required.
Introduction
Replacing the hard drive requires separating the display and removing the left speaker.
Before beginning any work on your iMac: Unplug the computer and press and hold the power button for ten seconds to discharge the power supply's capacitors.
Be very careful not to touch the capacitor leads or any exposed solder joints on the back of the power supply.
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Starting on the left of the display, near the power button, insert the iMac Opening Tool into the gap between the glass panel and the rear case.
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Use the tool like a pizza cutter—roll it along through the gap, and it will cut the foam adhesive through the center.
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Run the tool up along the left side of the display.
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Continue wheeling the tool up around the top left corner.
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Cut the adhesive along the top left of the display.
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Continue along the top of the display.
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Push the tool around the top right corner of the display.
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Wheel the tool down along the right side of the display.
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Finish pushing the opening tool to the bottom of the right side of the display.
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Set the iMac face-up on a table.
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Starting from the top right corner of the iMac, insert a plastic card between the display and frame.
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Gently twist the plastic card to open the space between the display and frame.
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Move slowly and be careful not to stress the display glass too much—you only need to make a gap of about 1/4".
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Slide the card toward the center of the display, to cut any remaining adhesive.
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Put the card into the corner again and let it stay there to keep the adhesive from resettling.
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Insert a second card into the gap between the display and frame in the top left corner.
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Gently twist the card, slightly increasing the space between the display and frame.
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Slide the plastic card toward the center, again stopping just before the iSight camera.
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Insert the card back into the top left corner.
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With the cards inserted as shown near the corners, gently twist the cards to increase the gap between display and case.
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If there are any sections that seem to stick and won't separate, stop twisting and use one of the cards to cut the adhesive in the problem area.
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Begin to lift the top of the display up from the frame.
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While holding the display up with one hand, use the other to unplug the display power cable.
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Flip up the metal retaining bracket on the display data cable.
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Disconnect the display data cable.
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Lift the display up to a near-vertical position.
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If necessary, a plastic card can be used to cut any remaining sections of the bottom adhesive strip.
Would have been helpful to box the same red area when using the plastic card to separate the glue. Since the red blocked picture is inverted, if someone doesn't pay close attention it may not be obvious that the area of concern is at the right top of the graphic pictures in which the plastic card use is being demonstrated..
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Lift the display up from the frame and remove it from the iMac.
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It may be necessary to slowly lift from one side, to peel against the remaining adhesive.
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With the hinge free to move, the iMac will be unbalanced and hard to work on. Repairs can be completed with the iMac laying down, but are faster and easier with an iMac service wedge.
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Remove two 10.0 mm T10 screws.
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Unplug the left speaker cable from its socket on the logic board. Be sure to pull straight up out of the socket.
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De-route the cable from the gap between the hard drive and logic board.
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Use a spudger to disconnect the power button connector from its socket on the logic board.
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Lift the left speaker straight up, until the power button cable is exposed (about 0.5").
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Gently de-route the power button cable from its groove in the left speaker.
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Lift the left speaker straight up and remove it from the iMac.
I found it wasn't necessary to remove the speaker from the left side to remove the hard drive. You can remove the screws, and then slide it over to the left — giving more than enough room to access the hard drive.
me too. don't need to remove it if you only want to change the hd
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Pull straight up on the SATA data/power cable to disconnect it from the drive.
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Remove two 7.3 mm T10 screws securing the left hard drive bracket to the rear case.
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Grab the hard drive and left hard drive bracket together.
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Tilt the left side up away from the rear case, and slide the assembly to the left.
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Remove the hard drive and left hard drive bracket from the iMac.
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Remove the left hard drive bracket.
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Remove the four 8.1 mm T9 screw posts from the hard drive, and transfer them to the replacement drive.
Rather than replacing with another standard hard drive. Replace it with an SSD drive. Make sure it is compatible with Mac OS. To do so, you will need a 3.5-to-2.5 reduction bracket, the Thermal Sensor harness (sold at OWC macsales.com or Amazon get the right one on Amazon), and of course the SSD. Also, you will need a SATA duplicator cable. You want to duplicate your current hard or set it up first before switching out the current hard. The Mac Disk Drive Utility is all you really need.
Is it possible to simply install the new SSD (HD replacement) without formatting it, and format it and install OS X later via a bootable USB OS X install thumb/flash drive? I understand this would result in not having any of the data on the original drive, but if that was not a concern, is this installation option possible? I would rather go that route, and then use the original HD in an external USB enclosure and pull the files I needed, as I needed.
robk64 -
I was told today by a Certified Repair Center that you do not need the thermal sensor for 2012 iMac. I am hoping to place an SSD in my HDD location rather than attaching it to the logic board.
colby -
So when you say follow the steps backwards to rebuild how does the glue work? Is it still sticky enough at this point. Will the screen fall off when I put it back together and the glue is dry?
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.
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18 Comments
Hi,
I'd like to buy this imac with ssd-pci, it's possible to add a new hard disk 3.5???
Do I need some cables???
thank you
Dear Antonio have solved your question? I would put a 1TB SSD instead of HDD, but having bought the model with pre-installed SSD pci. Before opening the mac I wanted to know what was needed to do the upgrade ...
How are the temperature sensing and fan speeds affected by a swap? In the future if I install an SSD I wouldn't want the fans going full speed.
The fans will go a little crazy because of the swap. At my work they swapped the HDD with an SSD and installed software to maintain that. You can download either, which I believe work just fine:
Danny -
Bought the kit and this works perfect. Installed my ssd tonight, so so happy!
What type of SSD did you install and what about the fans, do the run like crazy?
Peter -
I purchased one of these Samsung 850 Evo SSDs and on my Late 2013 iMac had no issues with fans or thermal sensors. http://www.msy.com.au/hard-drive/14930-s...
steve -
Do I need any special cable or adapter for replacement?
No special cable or adapter required. However, you do still encounter the constant high speed fan issue after replacement. My understanding is that they built the fan sensor into the firmware of the Apple issued hard drives, so third party drives result in a null value being reported and thus the crazy fan noise. I'm curious how others are solving that problem.
Did some investigation into this. I found that OWC macsales.com has a complete wire harness kit that adds the plug-and-play cable with the In-line Digital Thermal Sensor to eliminate fan noise and maintains proper system fan control through the iMac's System Management Controller. No software hacks, or third party solutions needed.
Hi. I have a Imac 27 late 2013. Next week an apple certified service station will replace my old HDD with an Samsung 850 Pro. I asked them for the thermal sensor but they said it is not necessary for the iMacs beginning late 2013. Can anybody confirm this?
Ok for all with a late 2013 27". No thermal sensor is needed.
Thanks, can I also add an SSD to my HDD 1TB sata hard disk to make a fusion drive?
So without removing the HDD drive.
As Antonio already asked, is it possible to add an HDD to an iMac (EMC 2639) which originally only has an pci-e SSD?
Are the data ports available?
I didin't find a full kit, so I suppose, I need to buy in addition of the HDD the brackets and the Apple connectors to the motherboard?
Thanks in advance!
Hi
I would like to substitute my HDD (1tb) and install a 1tb SSD intead. What i have is a 27 inches late 2013 imac and i have some questiosn.
Do the SSD have to meet any special characteristics?
I´ve read something about the temperature control, is it applicable to the 2013 imac (I´ve read something about the 2009/2010 models but nothing about mine
Thanks!
I recently replaced my 1TB HDD with a 1TB SSD and had no problems with any of the sensors on my iMac Late 2013. I used this Samsung Evo SSD: http://www.msy.com.au/hard-drive/14930-s...
steve -
Hi guys !!!! Could you please help me? I bought this Imac 27 2013 EMC 2639 and i this there is a problem with the hdd inside the Fusion Drive. What kind of hdd should i take in order to replace Hdd? are there any specific requirementы to do that? Thanks in advance