Serendipity Software

The hard drive on our iMac (Intel Core Duo, Jan 2006) finally kicked the bucket. It was showing the infamous flashing question mark folder on boot. So in order for us to replace it we needed to open it up. Now, Apple didn’t allow the iMac hard drive to be easily replaced by the everyday user, but a quick search yielded this pictorial step by step guide on how to do just that.

The instructions are very good overall, but there are a couple of small tips which I’d like to include here for completeness.

Tip #1
In the step where the front plate is lifted off the iMac (”Remove the plate by lifting it away from you”), it should be noted that there are couple of metallic latches/hook inside the top corners of the iMac which are there to hold on to the rest of the machine.

If you lift the front plate up by force you will mangle these little parts. To release these, slide a stiff card of some sort under metal part and push up. Do this on both sides and the front plate will come off without a struggle.
- According to the iMac Service Manual you need an “Access card tool 922-7172″ which retails for $19USD, but a credit card or the common office magnetic access card will do just fine.

Tip #2
Once the four screws for the LCD are removed, you need to detach the LCD from the metallic shielding that is stuck onto the top of it before it can lifted and rested to the side.

To do this we find the Serendipity Software business card works wonders as it is thin and plastic, but I’m sure you can find another card in your wallet that will do the job just as well.

Apart from that the operation went very smoothly. The iMac now has no internal hard drive. It runs off an external firewire hard drive, which is kind of like a computer’s version of a colostomy bag.

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