imac hard drive replacement

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imac hard drive replacement

My intel imac 7,1 refused to boot up following an unexpected power outage and after trying to repair it using the disk utility and running the hardware check I have come to the conclusion that I must replace the hard drive. Always looking to turn lemons into lemonade, I will use this opportunity to increase the disk size to 1T, max out my RAM and replace the long dead superdrive that eats, but doesn't spit out my disks. My main concern and question is how to restore the new hard drive once it's installed. The old one had a windows xp partition but I think time machine was only backing up the mac side. There was nothing of importance on the windows side so I don't have a problem starting from scratch. Can anyone direct me to a step by step procedure for formatting and partioning the new drive? Also, is it possible to install windows 7 on the windows side instead of xp? Will it run on this machine? I am forced to use windows at work so keeping a windows partition is a must. Thanks in advance.

imac 7,1 (late 2007), xp windows partition

Posted on Jul 17, 2010 1:55 AM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,624 points

Jul 17, 2010 6:53 AM in response to rocket319

Welcome to Apple Discussions.

After the new HD is installed insert the Install Disc that came with the computer, let it begin to install, when it gets to the point where it asks which language stop and choose the Utilities menu and run Disk Utility. Click the Erase tab and choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and let it format. _DO NOT_ partition at this point! After it is finished formatting exit Disk Utilities and continue your OS X installation.

You don't say how you installed MS Windows (Bootcamp, Parallels or Fusion) so I can't advise you too much further other than to say use those tools to partition the HD for your Windows partition. When you run them initially they will ask how much space to allocate for the Windows partition.

Regards,

Roger

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Answer 2

rocket319 Author

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Jul 17, 2010 1:01 PM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks Roger. The machine had both boot camp and fusion on it but windows didn't really behave when using fusion so we exclusively used bootcamp. This was my late husband's computer and it came all set up. Should I be looking for a bootcamp disk somewhere or is it part of the OSx install disk? If it is a separate disk at what point in the process do I use it? Also, I have a recent time machine backup of at least the mac side. Could I set the new drive up using that and wouldn't Bootcamp be on it somewhere?

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Answer 3

macbig

Level 4

1,680 points

Jul 17, 2010 3:47 PM in response to rocket319

Boot Camp is included in OS X. You will find it in your Utilities folder (Applications>Utilities>Boot Camp Assistant). Here is the Apple Manual that will provide you with all the info you will need:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/bootcampinstall-setup.pdf

Good luck.

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Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,624 points

Jul 17, 2010 5:39 PM in response to rocket319

Macbig hit the nail on the head. Install OS X first and make sure it's up and running how you want then simply start Boot Camp Assistant (Command Spacebar then type Boot Camp Assistant) and follow the directions. Here is a brief overview on Bootcamp, follow the Windows on a Mac link and you will see a little movie about it.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/compatibility/

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Answer 5

rocket319 Author

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Jul 23, 2010 1:35 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Update Thanks guys! Replaced both the hard drive and memory and restored using time machine. Works great. MUCH faster. Tried to install the "compatible" fastmac superdrive (a matshita?) but it apparently doesn't work with my machine. Now the next problem, Bootcamp and/or WindowsXP will not let me install from the Lacie external cd/dvd USB2-Firewire drive. Any ideas on a work around for that? The Lacie drive is annoying because it can't be plugged in when my windows machines start up or it hangs the computer. I did take the Sony superdrive's cover off after I removed it from the computer (can't help taking things apart:) ) and found a small piece of white doublesided tape laying on top of the laser eye. Could be why it stopped reading disks after an ugly stuck disk episode. Might try to reinstall it and see if it will work long enough to install xp.

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Answer 6

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,624 points

Jul 23, 2010 5:42 AM in response to rocket319

Your welcome!

Regarding your Windows/Bootcamp question, I'd recommend posting to the Boot Camp forum, because I don't use Boot Camp or XP so I don't know how to address that issue. That Boot Camps forums are listed at:

Boot Camp

Also if you are satisfied this thread is answered we'd all appreciate it if you would mark it as such.

Regards,

Roger

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Answer 7

rocket319 Author

Level 1

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Jul 23, 2010 1:55 PM in response to rocket319

Woohoo. Thanks Everyone for the responses. I was able to reinstall the old sony superdrive sans the wayward tape and install XP via the internal drive. I will continue to use the external Lacie drive for day to day use as I don't have a warm and fuzzy feeling about the sony. At least it is there and functioning for future emergencies. I have gotten the computer back to where it was and then some with the upgrades I've made
and the machine is running remarkably fast on both the Mac and Windows side. Thanks again. This was a rather fun project and I look forward to upgrading my daughter's Macbook next.

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