I recently visited my parents; a pair of complete technophobes. I noticed they had swapped locations of the two computers they've owned for the last four years. Previously, a 2006 iMac (bought as a three-year-old used computer off eBay) was upstairs and got most of the use because of its 17" screen. Downstairs was inhabited by a 2009 MacBook Pro. I had upgraded the HD in the MBP a year ago to an SSD. With the iMac showing its age (1.83 GHz, 1 GB ram, Snow Leopard, and 7200 RPM HD) they were getting frustrated. I have been getting more and more calls about the dreaded beachball.
So when I recently visited I found they had swapped the two machines. They couldn't bear to use the once-trusty 17" iMac. I came downstairs and saw it sleeping, blissfully, on the desk in the downstairs family room. I tapped the mouse and it sprung to life. After looking at Console, I realized they hadn't touched the iMac in over
sixty days. I felt bad for the machine. It had served them well only to be relegated to the basement, atop a desk that nobody uses. So I decided to breath some new life into it.
A few days before my current visit, I ordered a few parts to their house. A Samsung SSD, a 2.5" to 3.5" mounting bracket, and 4 GB of Crucial ram. I downloaded the ifixit guide to replacing the HD on the iMac and it seemed like a nightmare.
Last night, I gathered all the parts and tools, put on some Ratatat, and got to work. It was quite difficult. There was one part of the repair, when I had the white frame off the iMac, that I realized I could not reach the Torx screws (four of them) holding the screen in place. They were too deep. The tool I had was too thick, and it seemed I was out of luck since you need to remove the screen to get to the HD. I had the next size smaller Torx which was of appropriate dimensions so I tried it in a futile attempt before giving up. But, it worked! somehow the Torx screws were just the right size that it barely fit into the Torx I had. The only issue was that once it was loosened I had an absurdly difficult time getting the screw out because the magnet was just a tad too weak for the big Torx screw. if it hit anything on the way up it got dislodged and I had to fish around for it. That was the worst part, and took an hour to get all four out.
With the screen removed, I knew I was home free. I disconnected a few cables, pressed the strange clipping mechanism for the HD bay with a disturbing amount of pressure until it wiggled free. And that was it. I placed the SSD in the 3.5" converter frame, plugged in the SATA cable, re-sat the combination, put the screws back into the screen (much easier than removing them) and clipped the white frame back on and put the 4GB of ram inside.
I booted it to a previously made Snow Leopard Install USB drive. It booted without issue, installed Snow Leopard in about a half hour, and then restored from the Time Capsule backup. A few software updates and reboots later, it's like a brand new machine! It's so much nicer to use now. Snow Leopard is a great OS and my parents said that it felt like a completely different computer.
I'm hoping that it will make it to the 2016 mark so I can throw it a 10 year anniversary party.
