iMac Intel 27" Retina 5K Display Hard Drive Replacement

[Moltuae]

1. Boot the current macOS install
2. Use the built-in DIsk Utility to format the USB-connected drive to APFS (give the drive a different name from the current boot drive just to keep it clear which is which)
3. Reboot in Recovery Mode https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT204904
4. Install macOS from Recovery Mode - it will allow you to choose which drive is the target for the new install
5. Once macOS is installed on the SSD, you can boot the machine with the Option key held down and be offered a choice of which drive to boot from - choose the SSD to check that it boots properly


OR, you could create a macOS installer on a flash drive https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201372 but it would amount to the same thing.

Perfect. Thanks

My advice would be, make your friend open the screen himself with you explaining how to do it. That way, when the glass shatters (and I'd give it a good chance it will) or the ribbon cable gets damaged, he'll see just how little force it took and can only blame himself for it.

After spending $700 of my own money to replace one I did as a favor (which I accidentally damaged the razor-thin ribbon cable at the top just below the glue) I swore to never touch one of those screens again.

I keep winding him up when he asks how it's going, telling him that I'm busy sweeping the glass up, or that it's back together with "only a few small cracks", so in a way I've prepared him for the worst

The reality is that I've barely had time to start on it yet. I have loosened the screen (top and sides) and managed to prise it forward a little, so I'm fairly optimistic at this point. He's fully aware of the risks though and has said he'll take the blame if it breaks. One thing's for sure, I wouldn't work on one of these for a customer. I'm only doing this one because I know him well and he knows that if it breaks it won't be through lack of care.

 

[Moltuae]

Job done and no breakages. Thanks for the advice guys.




It was actually a LOT easier than I expected. Some of the iFixit comments made it appear that removing and refitting the screen (without breaking it) was much more difficult than it was. I suspect a lot of the comments were made by inexperienced end users.

I still think it's faff, just to change a drive, but it's not as bad as I thought. Still wouldn't want to do another one though.


For the record, I fitted the SSD straight out of the box (without initialising, formatting, etc). I then re-attached the screen (without the new adhesive strips, in case I needed to take the SSD out again) and secured it with some gaffer tape on each corner (which is just about visible in the last photo). I booted into recovery mode (Windows Key + R, because I didn't have one of those weird Apple keyboards) and opted to re-instal the OS, at which point it indicated that there were no drives present to install to. So I went back and selected the disk utility, selected the drive, gave it a name and erased it (which seems to be some non-intuitive way of creating a partition). Then I went back to the OS installation option and this time the drive (or rather the named partition) was listed.

 

[pcpete]

I don't plan on touching another Apple product any time soon

Why not? Great money, the os install and data is easy to deal with. Apple still sells imacs with 5400 rpm drives, you put an ssd in and transfer all of the clients data and make an easy $400 and they are floored with the performance gain

 

[Moltuae]

Why not? Great money, the os install and data is easy to deal with. Apple still sells imacs with 5400 rpm drives, you put an ssd in and transfer all of the clients data and make an easy $400 and they are floored with the performance gain

I just don't need the hassle or the risk to be honest; I only did the job as a favour. I don't work with Apple products normally because 99% of my work is maintaining and configuring business servers, networks, domains, etc. I can make at least twice as much money doing that, and mostly from the comfort of my office, without the faff of prizing expensive delicate screens off of devices that might just not work again afterwards

 

[Markverhyden]

I just don't need the hassle or the risk to be honest; I only did the job as a favour. I don't work with Apple products normally because 99% of my work is maintaining and configuring business servers, networks, domains, etc. I can make at least twice as much money doing that, and mostly from the comfort of my office, without the faff of prizing expensive delicate screens off of devices that might just not work again afterwards

Over here we have a couple of sayings. Meat and potatoes. Bread and butter. One lives on meat and potatoes, well maybe including a few veggies. Bread and butter, in your case, is this iMac. Nothing wrong with that if you have the time. The whole screen cracking thing is over blown. Glass technology is very advanced.

 

[GreyWolf]

And gravy is all those extra add-on sales you can push... which makes the meal so much tastier

 

[Moltuae]

Over here we have a couple of sayings. Meat and potatoes. Bread and butter. One lives on meat and potatoes, well maybe including a few veggies. Bread and butter, in your case, is this iMac. Nothing wrong with that if you have the time. The whole screen cracking thing is over blown. Glass technology is very advanced.

I completely agree with the principle but, in my case at least, my bread and butter is maintaining business servers and keeping them, and the networks, secure. I have more of that kind of work than I need, so any time spent working on personal computers, such as this iMac, is time I could spend working on my customer's servers, earning at least twice as much. Plus, I turn down work all the time that I'd much sooner do before I'd work on an iMac again, such as repairing any PC that uses screws!

It was for political/social reasons that I agreed to work on this particular iMac. The owner of the iMac is a neighbour and a friend that I have known for many years. He is also one of the sons of a local family-owned business who are one of my biggest and most loyal customers. As such, the work will be invoiced to the business at my usual rate, which is more that than the average iMac user would be prepared to pay for such an upgrade.

 

[labtech]

Or ISOs for an iODD. There's a thread about converting Mac installers in this section.

Also, one thing I've run into once or twice is that the Mac can't see the drive and format it once it's all buttoned up. To fix I had to take the drive out and connect it to another Mac and format it. Then put it back in and the installer could see it.

This is true. Sometimes it does not see the SSD until it is formatted, then installed in the machine.

 

[HCHTech]

The whole screen cracking thing is over blown. Glass technology is very advanced.

We had an SSD swap last year that went south. The screen removal went without incident, we cleaned up the surfaces really well and used new adhesive strips on the reassembly, and found out there was a cable that wasn't seated properly (if I remember correctly). Taking it apart the second time with that fresh adhesive is when the glass cracked. Of course it was time-sensitive, so overnight new adhesive ($), overnight new glass ($$$), do the job over again - it was a little tense - haha. We soon ordered a few extra adhesive kits to keep in stock.

 

[Markverhyden]

We had an SSD swap last year that went south. The screen removal went without incident, we cleaned up the surfaces really well and used new adhesive strips on the reassembly, and found out there was a cable that wasn't seated properly (if I remember correctly). Taking it apart the second time with that fresh adhesive is when the glass cracked. Of course it was time-sensitive, so overnight new adhesive ($), overnight new glass ($$$), do the job over again - it was a little tense - haha. We soon ordered a few extra adhesive kits to keep in stock.

I learned a very long time ago, as in 25-30 years, to never remove outward facing release paper until all the parts are absolutely ready for assembly. On these iMacs I'll just use some painters tape to hold things until I'm ready.

 

[HCHTech]

I learned a very long time ago, as in 25-30 years, to never remove outward facing release paper until all the parts are absolutely ready for assembly. On these iMacs I'll just use some painters tape to hold things until I'm ready.

Indeed - it seems like such an obvious thing, but we didn't think of it, of course. It was an expensive lesson, that's for sure.