iMac Intel 21.5" EMC 2805 Hard Drive Assembly Replacement

Written By: Walter Galan

Comments: 3

iMac Intel 21.5" EMC 2805 Hard Drive Assembly Replacement

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

Time Required

No estimate

Introduction

Prereq only.

Tools

Spudger

Step 1

Lift the hard drive from the edge nearest the logic board and pull it slightly out of its recess.
The hard drive is attached by a single SATA power/data cable, do not attempt to fully remove it from the iMac.

During the reassembly process I found it very difficult to plug the power/data cable on to the new hard drive. On my machine it’s very short and the fact that the cable comes into the plug from below at 90 degrees means it’s hard to keep straight on to the drive. I found this process could be made much easier by undoing 2 x T10 screws and CAREFULLY (there are cables attached) moving the adjacent speaker assembly a little away from the drive, reattaching once done. Hope this helps

Jerry Frost - 07/02/18

Moving the speaker helped tremendously! Thanks

lucas -

Step 2

Use a spudger to disconnect the single SATA power and data combo cable.

Step 3

Remove the hard drive from the iMac.

I found that there is one more torx screw underneath the hdd when you take it out. If you remove this it seems to be easier to reattach the SATA cable to the new drive.

jeffjeffmurray - 08/03/17