iMac G5 open-heart surgery

So, after months of blogging about upgrading my G5 iMac, I finally got round to doing it at the weekend. Ably assisted by Olitee, I swapped out the existing hard drive for a much larger, faster model. I went for a 640GB Western Digital Blue in the end, mainly because it's a good combination of price, features and (hopefully) reliability. Having read through Apple's instructions for replacing the hard drive, it seemed a reasonably easy process. And, I'm pleased to report, it was.


Firstly, I made sure everything was backed up before we started. Then it was a matter of opening up the case on the iMac, which is a simple job of loosening three captive screws on the bottom and lifting the whole back plate off. Once inside, the hard drive was easy to find, being located at the top right corner. To get to the screws holding it in place, you have to remove the rubber fan cover. Then the hard drive is held in with three small screws. Loosen these, and the drive comes out attached to a metal chassis.


There are three cables attached - one for data, one for power and a small one on the rear of the chassis which we decided was a temperature sensor. Detach these, and the drive lifts out. Take the chassis off the existing drive and attach it to the new one, and then reverse the procedure to get the drive back in.


To get your OS back on to the drive - which in my case was an upgrade from Tiger to Leopard - you need to boot up the machine with the DVD in the drive whilst holding down the 'c' key. (Good job Olitee was present, because I didn't know about that bit). Once the machine boots, you use Disk Utility to partition the drive and then crack on with the install.


The whole thing was a very simple, painless process and I'm pleased to report that my faithful iMac is now running beautifully. Hurrah!