My iMac at work seems like the hard-disk is on it’s way out again.

It’s a late 2008 model and we had a new hard disk installed 10 months ago but were told iMac of this age also have a fan to cool the hard disk. The fan in ours had also failed at the time.

Apparently these fans are no longer available as spares, so any new hard disk installed can fail again – this could take a few months or a year or so.

So rather than use the internal HD can install a new OS on and external HD and just use that?

The reason I ask is we are getting a new iMac for work and I was thinking of offering them some cash for the current one if it could be run from an external HD.

Ta!

Yes – that will work

Rachel

Spare here no? (ebay link) http://tinyurl.com/kza4pn2

Can’t imagine the OS on an external drive will do performance any favours.

I recently fitted an SSD to that era iMac. Took 45 mins following the ifixit guide. Flies along now in near silence.

Spare here no? (ebay link) http://tinyurl.com/kza4pn2

Thanks for that.

Apparently there are no ‘official’ fans available to Apple resellers, they have been discontinued.

A back-street guy may be able to sort it, but work don’t use back street people. I would though!

Ssd doesn’t need fan either as it runs pretty cold

Cheers Jam bo – if I can agree a (very low!), price I’ll look out that guide.

Did you need any special tools?

Shove an SSD in it, it’ll be faster and less likely to melt.

Did you need any special tools?

Suction cups to lift the screen out. About £2.50 from Amazon. Torx bits.

Was pretty straightforward. This one I think

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+20-Inch+EMC+2133+and+2210+Hard+Drive+Replacement/1008

Wny not start with a hard drive in an external caddy, if you are on a budget then something like a Western Digital Black which runs at 7200rpm would be a good drive, I paid about £65 for a 750mb one 18 months ago for my 2009 Mini. If you go the SSD route it makes no sense to use it in a caddy externally as that machine is USB2 which is slow (I am not sure what other port options that iMac has). If you’ve gone to the trouble of paying someone to change the HDD before then similar with an SSD is worthwhile as install cost is less vs the hardware. You might want to look at total cost to fix vs buying a new iMac, your old one even with a bad drive will be worth something which further helps to pay for a new machine.

I paid about £65 for a 750mb one 18 months ago for my 2009 Mini

You was robbed.

You was robbed.

🙂 Western Digital Black running at 7200rpm, I did check a few places and the seller was well reputed company and the cheapest. From memory a 500gb SSD was £250 at the time