Aluminium iMac Hard Drive upgrade guide

Upgrading the internal hard drive in a 2007-2008 Apple iMac to 1.5TB

The following guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to disassemble and upgrade your Apple iMac 20" or 24" models.

Tools required:
T6 Torx Driver and T9 Torx Driver
Suction Cups for removing the glass front panel - These can be obtained from many DIY shops or online for less than £10
Philips Screwdriver for removing the memory cover.

New Hard Drive. I used a Seagate 1.5TB SATA 7200 rpm model which was £140

Please note this is not an official Apple guide so proceed at your own risk!

  1. Remove the memory slot cover from the base of the machine.
  2. Using the suction cups carefully place them on the glass screen cover and remove the glass panel. Place somewhere safe and clean.
  3. Remove the Torx screws from the front panel surround on the edge of the LCD screen (some of the screws are different sizes)
  4. Lift the screen away from the main chassis and life up and over above the computer
  5. Remove the screws holding the LCD panel to the chassis
  6. Remove 2 screws from the LCD connector and remove the connector from the graphics card
  7. Carefully lift the LCD panel from the bottom to expose the 4 small connectors for the backlight. Mark the connectors with a marker to aid in reassembly and disconnecting the connectors
  8. Lift the panel clear of the chassis
  9. Remove the hard drive temperate sensor and place on one side
  10. Unclip the hard drive from the chassis. This plastic bracket can be a tight fit so some force is required to remove it
  11. Remove the power and SATA connectors from the hard drive and remove them from the chassis
  12. Remove the screws holding the plastic clip from the hard drive and the 2 mounting pins from the other side of the hard drive
  13. Fit the clip and pins to the new hard drive
  14. Reconnect the power and SATA connectors and clip the new hard drive back into the computer chassis
  15. Refit the LCD screen and reconnect the 4 small backlight connectors
  16. Place the LCD panel flat on the chassis and reconnect the screen connector and refit the two small screws
  17. Refit all the screws from the edge of the LCD screen
  18. Refit the front panel and take care not to trap the small cable at the top of the screen
  19. Refit all the front panel screws in the same order as they were removed (some of the screws are different sizes)
  20. Clean any dust from the LCD panel and the front glass panel using a soft screen cleaning cloth (don't use compressed air as this often leaves propellant on the screen which is very hard to remove)
  21. Remove the suction cups from the screen and clean the glass.
  22. Refit the memory slot cover on the base of the machine.

Next, you need to reinstall OS X from your operating system disks and then your upgraded iMac is ready to use!