Old school mid 2007 iMac HD replacement help

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Level 3

538 points

Old school mid 2007 iMac HD replacement help

Hi there, I understand this computer is a dinosaur but it really does work fine haha. Unfortunately my HD died. This is not the first one. 3 yrs ago I upgraded it to a 2TB drive and its worked fine up until last week. Took it out, it spins, but will not read. A back up was done not long ago so no lost sleep. However, I decided to buy a new drive today. I purchased a BLACK western digital 2TB, upon opening it tho, I realized I;m in a pickle. I do not see where or how one can connect the thermal sensors. Is it possible this drive will now work and I need to find a similar old drive or am I missing some. Sure hope someone out there understands what Im saying. Im not having a lot of luck online looking right now so I figured I'd chime in here where the pros are. Thanks in advance for any help/.

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.1), iMac 2.4 intel, 4 gig RAM

Posted on Apr 18, 2016 7:06 PM

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Answer 1

Nathan Gogol Author

Level 3

538 points

Apr 18, 2016 7:12 PM in response to Nathan Gogol

I should have mentioned also that the drive i bought is WD2003FZEX. according to this site http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Western+Digital/WD2003FZEX/ it says it is compatible but I don't see how.

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Answer 2

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Apr 18, 2016 7:43 PM in response to Nathan Gogol

On mid 2007 iMac's all you need to do is physically remove the temp sensor from the outside of the old drive and transferring it to the new drive. You can see the teardown instructions at https://www.ifixit.com/Device/iMac_Intel

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Answer 3

Nathan Gogol Author

Level 3

538 points

Apr 18, 2016 8:59 PM in response to Duane

TThanks for the reply, I seen that on the web and know what your saying but this drive is flush from the circuit board. doesn't have those pockets in the plastic like that drive on the website or like my old on. Are you saying I can just stick that thermal holder from the old on anywhere on the this new drive? I am worried it will not work as it should and also space wise since the thermal holder bracket won't be in the pocket like the other drive. Hope that makes sense

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Answer 4

Leopardus

Level 4

1,303 points

Apr 19, 2016 12:43 AM in response to Nathan Gogol

Not sure exactly what you mean Gogol, but that thermal sensor can be bought from the iFixit Store and attached to the metal cover of the HDD, if that will help you. If you do some further reading on some of their other repair manuals you will also find how others dealt with similar problems.

Leo

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Answer 5

Duane

Level 10

124,293 points

Apr 19, 2016 6:41 AM in response to Leopardus

There is no need to buy the thermal sensor. The thermal sensor is attached to the outside of the original iMac hard drive. The iFixit instructions show how to remove it from the original hard drive and stick it on the new hard drive.

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