My Mac has died (1 Viewer)

[Todd H]

Well, my 2006 first gen Intel iMac has died. It started with Finder locking up constantly the last few days and ended with my Mac unable to boot. I know it's probably the hard drive but the thought of opening it up and replacing it is a scary proposition. At least I have all my data backed up via Time Machine. So what to do next? Hard drives are cheap. I could probably just buy a FireWire external drive and boot from it. I could drive three hours to the nearest Apple Store and pay someone there to replace the drive. Decisions, decisions...

 

[RickER]

Id just buy a new one. Four years is like 400 in computer years. Still sucks.
We went through 2 or 3 computers (Dell's) in the last 5 or 6 years. Not cheap ones either. So, we went Mac this year. So far so good. Knock on wood.

 

[Todd H]

I'd love to buy a new Mac but right now I can't swing it. I'm thinking of opening it up and replacing the drive myself. I've got plenty of electronics repair experience so I think I could do it.

 

[Christian Behrens]

I have the first gen 24" iMac from late 2006, and replaced the drive in it not too long ago. If you can find the service manual online for your machine, you'll get a good idea whether it's something you want to try. I was a little hesitant at first, but ultimately it wasn't that hard at all, you just need to take your time.

And it's not ready to be replaced yet, this 2.33 GHz C2D machine still does everything I need it to.

-Christian

 

[Todd H]

Tried wiping the hard drive to no avail. I'm afraid she's gone.

I found the service manual and am going to try installing a new drive. Fingers crossed...

Edit: Just ordered a 1TB SATA drive for a good price from Newegg. Should be here in a couple of days. It's going to be a nice upgrade from my old 250GB drive.

 

[DaveF]

I don't know anything about swapping the drive in an iMac. If you're nervous about it, you could also ship it to Apple for repair -- rather than driving to a far away Apple Store. 800-APL-CARE? Or 800-APPL-CAR? I forget just what their tech support # is. There are also third-party repair shops you could look into.

Good luck. In the interim, booting from an external drive is a good idea. Just be sure to back that up, since you no longer have a backup, technically.

 

[Todd H]

The disassembly is done. It was easier than I thought and only took 15 minutes. Now I'm just waiting on UPS to deliver my new drive and I can close her up.

Edit: Drive is installed, Mac is back together, and Snow Leopard is installing. That was painless.

Edit 2: Hello from my iMac. With a fresh Snow Leopard install and a new 1TB drive, this thing is flying. And all my data is back thanks to Time Machine.