So my brother came over the other day and said that his iMac (late 2006 core2duo) was not working. I asked him what was wrong with it when he says that a few weeks earlier it had started making some “clicky” sounds and being all “slow and weird”. Now when he turns it on, it just shows a picture of a folder with a question mark on it. I fairly quickly diagnosed it as a hard drive failure, at which time I asked him if he had a backup, which of course he did not. I guess I shouldn’t complain, if the hard drive dies in my personal machine, I probably wouldn’t have a current backup either. There is a suitable expression here somewhere, oh yes, “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”.
Initially I think my brother was a bit worried about letting me open up his iMac, but after the local Apple store on St. Catherines street told him it would be $400 for the replacement hard drive and another $170 for installation he seemed more willing to let me do it. And what’s with that Apple store anyway, they wanted me to make an appointment to give me a quote for a hard drive, which I could only get after talking to a blue shirt person, who makes you put your name on a list with an orange shirt person first. Sure the stores are shiny, but what a horrible retail experience.
Anyway, I went to a local Microbytes store and picked up a 640GB Apple branded Western Digital hard drive for $79 and proceeded with the installation. They sure don’t make them easy to take apart. There are a few torx screws on the bottom which allows the top to come off, from the bottom pulling it off on a slight angle, being very careful of the connections to the built-in iSight camera at the top.
The next part was the most difficult which was getting the screen taken out. The screen is taped all around with a metallic tape that you need to slowly peel the lip back and pull off the sides of the screen to get it out. I unhooked 4 connectors from behind the screen on the left side and rested it against the foot. Now I was able to access the hard drive, which was relatively easy to change.
It took me over an hour to get the whole thing apart, change the drive and put it back together. It was definitely a better deal for my little brother than the Apple store. I didn’t charge him our (quite reasonable) hourly rate, and I even paid for the replacement hard drive.
If you happen to be in the same situation with hard drive issues, take a look around the net, you’ll find a few sites, and at least one youtube video showing you how.
