Make an iMac super fast with an SSD - LFC

[@BGL19283]

I'm like 3 minutes or so in and I honestly just love your professionalism and attention to detail, the care you're putting into this.

[@guardian1243]

I'm just watching this video over and over again. That's how good it is. 👍

[@Adamant_IT]

So I entirely forgot that the Fusion Drive exists while recording this, here's a quick Q&A: 1. What is the Fusion Drive? Apple's Fusion drive iMacs still have a regular HDD in them, but it's cached by a very small NVMe SSD mounted on the logic board. 2. Do I need an SSD if I have a Fusion Drive? Yes. The fusion drive is better than HDD only, but it's still pretty bad. Hybrid drive setups like this are a stop-gap, and still nowhere near as fast as pure SSD. Also the HDD can still be failing, bringing down the entire system. 3. How do I deal with a Fusion Drive? Can I still use it afterwards? My recommendation is to change the HDD to an SSD as per the video, and just erase the Fusion SSD in Disk Utility, leaving it unformatted and unused. It's too small to be useful. Technically, there are commands to rebuild a fusion drive to work with the SATA SSD, but this is generally a terrible idea that will just overcomplicate things for no benefit. 4. Can I fit a big NVME SSD instead of a SATA one? Yes, but this requires removing the logic board. IMHO it's not worth it unless you're working on a top-spec iMac that really really needs the disk performance for video editing or VMs or something like that. Most iMacs in the wild are low/mid spec office machines, and won't benefit from anything faster than SATA.

[@Adamant_IT]

AND ANOTHER THING... I also forgot that the 27" exists and has a 3.5" desktop drive in it. It will require a 2.5 to 3.5" adaptor for the SSD. But the assembly, SSD used, and transfer process is all the same.

[@QuentinStephens]

@@Adamant_IT Nimbus do 3.5" SSDs. They're high capacity and very expensive.

[@BeefyMon]

My late 2013 27” iMac has a fusion drive, one of the earlier 256 GB incarnations, not the tiny ones Apple used as standard fare in later iMacs. I’d like to continue using that drive as extra storage if possible… as a second drive allocated to temporary downloads or whatever. Is this possible? Also, are there any caveats for removal of the larger 27”? Lastly, at some point Mac OS became prematurely unavailable for this generation iMac simply due to the fusion drives (something about implementing APFS). If I’m no longer using the “Fusion” feature (i.e. the fusion SSD is set to act merely as another drive or-if I must-disabled entirely), can I tell the Mac OS installer to chill TF out and give me the most recent version my iMac is capable of?

[@j_shelby_damnwird]

I have a 2020 5k iMac that's being used for Premiere Pro editing. I'm interested on the NVME upgrade. Do you have a specific tutorial about this?

[@jenniferbrown2799]

Do you have reconditioned iMacs for sale please ?

[@mdouglaswray]

I have an older, thickbody imac and adding SSDs to it made a TON of performance improvement. Worth every moment.

[@christopherjackson8457]

I had thought to update my MAC for sometime but I initially was not encouraged. However watching your instructions, I took the plunge. The MX500 was on offer and it and the stickies were £80 on Amazon. The installation of the new drive took less than 10 minutes, with just the removal of the old glue taking a bit of time. The installation of the new software took around an hour with a further 90 minutes for the migration from the old drive. Very happy!

[@sneakerjunky9762]

Since I found your channel I’ve fixed 2 computers, a iPhone 8 , and looking to upgrade old builds! Great Content and explanations!

[@emeraldtechrepair]

Man thank you for everything you do. I own and operate a pretty successful hardware repair business. We've mostly been focused on phones and the occasional laptop here and there. Lately we've been taking in a lot more laptops and I do know how to do a large amount of repairs (including micro soldering at a pretty competent level.) But I have learned a lot from watching your videos at a much more advanced level. I particularly love the way you treat your viewers as though they are professionals, but aren't demeaning towards them like you have all of the answers. I have issues with most KZbin videos in this genre as most do one or the other. But you just nail it. You're so warm and welcoming, but get straight to the point. Thank you for providing such valuable content for free and overall just seeming like a cool guy to grab a beer with. Truly hope your business and KZbin career continue to flourish. It's much appreciated by us shop owners in particular.

[@ranaraychoudhury8809]

Regarding Internet Recovery and macOS versions, if you start it up with Opt-Cmd-R rather than just Cmd-R, it will install the newest version of macOS compatible with your computer.

[@big_t_dynasty]

I can't get it to install.

[@MatthewLaRiviere]

Useful tip. My 2015 junker booted El Cap and I made a usb of Monterey. Would have saved a night of tinkering!

[@sal8349]

I like Your channel and tutorials. I appreciate the effort you put into details and explanation and keeping things simple . Keep up the good work. I have learned so much from your channel

[@reacey]

Hello there , I just came here to say thankyou , I repaired a dead gaming laptop tonight (shorted cap on main power rail) , I watched some of your videos a while back and used what I learned in those vids to do this repair. Top bloke . Thanks again .

[@charlesclifton1006]

Nice job on both the I-Mac and the tutorial. I've done this for both MacBooks and Minis but have stayed away from I-Macs because of the whole screen (removal) issue. I may have access to an I-Mac that I can purchase (cheap) and I now feel confident enough to install an SSD just for the sake of hands on learning. I had no such interest or confidence in doing so until I saw this excellent tutorial. Much gratitude to you !!!!!!!!!!!🇨🇦

[@frankromani8149]

I have been watching your videos and especially like your honesty and no-nonsense approach to your tasks. You have a way of explaining things that is very interesting and informative. Keep up the good work, I prefer your approach to computer repairs and upgrades to all other youtubers!

[@mwolfer1]

Nice work! I have done mainly mac mini upgrades and found that clearing the NVRAM (CMD+OPTION+P+R) before the first boot with the new SSD will not only speed up the initial boot, but avoid as well all kinds of Apple shenanigans once you are setting up the new disk.

[@Adamant_IT]

I had also heard this, I did another one of these on the podcast last saturday and it took forever to boot from the macOS USB, and the NVRAM reset would've sorted this. It's not mission critical, but yas, good tip!

[@yotoprules9361]

what would you press on a Windows keyboard?

[@mwolfer1]

@@yotoprules9361 You don't unfortunately. I have yet to find a Windoze keyboard that the Apple bootloader would accept. You just have to have an old, wired original Mac keyboard to evoke the 'option' selection menu. 😞

[@yotoprules9361]

@@mwolfer1 the customer gave me the original keyboard so all was good.

[@PurpleSwan]

Very nice video with specific instructions and detailed essential information. I really, really appreciate that. I particularly appreciate being able to actually see specific video shots of each step so that I am not left guessing about something that is assumed by someone who knows what they are talking about while I do not. Thanks for making it look like it is easy enough for me to tackle because I cannot afford a new iMac.

[@IDontKnow733]

Thank you so much Adam for this video tutorial. I followed each step and now my iMac run better than when it was brand new! I'm so happy, thanks mate!

[@LUCAS1459]

Nice work. I use to replace a lot of imac HDD with SSD at work. I like the computer being horizontal when I take the screen out and when I put it back on. MX500 are great SSDs, for those who would like to do the same, I don’t recommend using a cheap SSD because if it fails, you will have to start again the process and the new adhesive strips are much harder to cut than the original ones.

[@Bartetmedia]

That's why you test the new SSD before sealing the screen. Even brand name SSD fail.

[@LUCAS1459]

@@Bartetmedia I was referring to the fact that cheap SSDs are prone to fail much faster. Of course you can test the drive before sealing. Long story short: use high quality drive because slim iMac are a pain in the a*s to open

[@CheeseNacho_]

this video was amazing, as someone who is used to do this type of jobs on Windows, Mac OS have always scared me a little, this video gave the confidence to start working on them, thank you so much!

[@geetee27]

I must say that your video was faultless. Concise and to the point. Many Thanks Regards from a Brit living in Germany. I shall order the tape today and give it a go next week.

[@animalyze7120]

I have discovered USB NVME enclosures and boy what an easy job of migrating they make it. You can set the NVME to clone off the old HDD while you are doing all of the technical work then just plug into the NVME slot or use it as a USB flash drive to copy onto the new drive. Great video!

[@KellySimonsson]

Hiya thankies for this helpful video. In the shop where I work we tend to always recommend our customers that we really clean out the mac since it is one of the only moments you can really blow out all that dust that accumulate inside and creates this insulating fuzz inside of the machines. It will make the system even more quiet and slightly less warm. They tend to become hot as furnaces if you keep them all dusted in. ^^

[@pbarnfield]

Hey Graham. Couple of tips if I may. Invest in a service wedge, it will solve the issue with the iMac screen wobbling about. Definitely get yourself a pizza wheel designed for the job as not only is it way quicker but it also sets the depth of cut. Couple of passes and voila. I'd refrain from the metal shim tool as it could scratch the back of the glass and that would show. Surprising how many repair shops hate doing these, I prefer them to the older chunkier units. Also slacken the hdd plastic tray screw and this allows more give on the cables for insertion. Only learnt this one the other week after countless swear words!! Great video as always!

[@SomeGuyFromFlorida]

Excellent video! So much good information here. I would humbly add 2 things: First, a 16GB RAM upgrade is absolutely doable without removing the boards. Unscrew the T10 torx from the top of the board, right next to where the modules are (it twill give you just that little extra room to gently bend out the board a tad, don't go crazy though...) and with some delicate work you can pop the modules out and jimmy the new ones in there. I turned the imac 90 degrees, long edge up so it was right in my face, so to speak, and I got it done. Second: at 19:10 as you are pulling on the left speaker it is worth mentioning BE CAREFUL of the power button wire, which is routed right there along the right edge of the speaker (visible also at 19:38). I made the mistake of removing the speaker completely, which wouldn't have been so bad but I didn't realize I tugged on the power wire lead and it broke off of the power button, argghhhh! I had to remove the power button and do a solder job to fix that.

[@quintonshuman3144]

Love the videos. Thought I’d mention when doing internet recovery, depending on the key combination, option+command+R or option+shift+command+R you can get either latest macOS version compatible or macOS version that came on mac from manufacture or closest available. Not a criticism just thought maybe this would help someone in the future so I thought I’d plop it in the comments.

[@mrdarlok]

Quality content my friend, i appreciate your professionalism and not giving into mediocrity, respect.

[@niaceri1]

This was a great help. I have just successfully installed an SSD in my wife's 2017 21.5" iMac. THANK YOU!!

[@albertbrooklyn]

Appreciate both the clarity of your instructions and your attention to detail. 👍

[@lenkiewitcz]

This really couldn't have appeared at a better time...thank you very much.

[@VLC8792]

The only thing I would say is be careful when cutting the adhesive strips and removing the LCD panel. I do it with iMac on it’s back supported by a cushion, this way gravity is on my side. If you do it with the iMac vertical & it slips out of your hand gravity takes over & you could do some serious damage to the LCD panel and/or connectors.

[@PhilMenasce]

I just upgrade my 21.5" IMac. I could not have done it without your video/guidance. Thank you!

[@jonathane9403]

Nice work as usual! No substitute for experience and skill. I tried to install a 1 TB ssd in place of the fusion drive on my old 2012 imac. I made two major mistakes: I cut too deep at the top of the screen and severed some wires that lead to a distorted screen and mistake number two: when I took the screen off again to investigate I ruined the very delicate and way too short ribbon cable. I took it to a repair shop and they put in a 'seconds' screen and a new ribbon cable. It's not my main computer but it still works after 10 years.

[@virginiacox4470]

After following your video I found it wasn't so frightening to remove the screen and replace it. I had already done a SSD install in my old iMac 2011 which made it super fast. On the old Mac I had done an external boot with a fresh install of High Sierra which was fantastic. I just took the SSD out of the box and put it into a new sata bracket and then booted- boot time was 24 seconds! There was no need for a new install of the mac os it was up and running. So after this experience I did the same on the 2019 iMac , preparing an external usb-c box with a fresh Ventura os to get rid of old files etc. Not as fast as I had hoped ( 59 sec) but at least faster than the internal fusion drive. Screen off and the SSD installed - and woww boot time is now 32 seconds and straight into the desktop. With the external drive boot done first there was no lagging to find the HD as it was already used to startup from the SSD. Sticking the strips of adhesive and screen replacement was really easy . Thank you for such a detailed video and giving me the courage to finally do this thing!

[@WarhavenSC]

17:10 -- It was cooler when Apple just used some magnets to secure the display. Made the older iMacs super easy to work on. You also used to have access to the RAM slots on the bottom of the iMac, so you didn't have to dismantle the whole thing. How times have changed.

[@hornplayer1228]

The RAM slots are still easily accessible through a small hatch in the back panel.

[@DavidLFC21]

@@hornplayer1228 Not on all models sadly, the retina models don't have any access

[@davidaris-sutton5573]

@@devinmillermedia iMac? I know they're accessible on the laptops but was sure they're not on the iMac

[@999000l]

Worked perfectly! Thank you so much for making this video. With a new SSD drive my iMac has a second life

[@cyborgdokey2650]

Perfect timing! I’m scheduled next week to do an ssd upgrade on a iMac 2016. Boy am I nervous but you made it seem so calm and simple lol thank you for the video sir!

[@FissionChips]

Well, how did it go?

[@nticompass]

I've done an HDD -> SSD upgrade on an iMac before, but it was before the screens were glued on! I had to use the suction cups to pull the screen off (it was held in with magnets, I think) and it wasn't that hard to then get to the drive 🙂 I had just used Carbon Copy Cloner to image the drive over, so the machine just booted up after I was done.

[@johndonabie5150]

I just wish you lived in Canada. It's hard to get people to do what you do. They would rather I buy a used iMac that already has an SSD. You make it look so easy. I have a 2013 iMac and an SSD would make it just perfect. Thank you for making such a great video.

[@rangersmith4652]

I converted the DVD drive drive on my 2009 iMac to an SSD boot drive a few years ago. Makes a big difference even with an ancient CPU. Mine has a Core i7 860; slow, but still works. That version was a thick boy with the magnet mount glass.

[@trainmaster0217]

I'm not Mac guy nor do I own one but your video sure was an interesting one. I was riveted to the show the whole time. Thank you !

[@TonyVeart]

Thanks for posting the video it has given me confidence to have a go myself at this one. I have used other videos of yours to help repair a couple of macs as well. Keep up the good work mate!

[@michaelthompson9798]

Awesome video tutorial once again 🥰😇👍 Despite everyone moving to M.2 NVME drives ……. Upgrading from a HDD to a SATA SSD for the vast majority of users out there, will yield impressive boot / load times for everything from emails, office work, web browsing, gaming etc and the end user will be ecstatic over the speed improvement. This can feel like buying a new high end laptop or desktop device.

[@mrjamesmay3548]

Our old 2010 iMac has failed and been replaced with a SSD and it’s like lighting.

[@jascam1]

Excellent presentation, I just revamped my Mid 2011 iMAC with the Crucial SSD and 16 Gig of RAM. Tku Sir. P.S , I cloned my HD to the new SSD before the install.

[@synthoelectro]

learning a serious amount how to work on these now that I'm moving to Mac, thank you.

[@TerkelNL]

29:10 if you hold CMD + ALT + R you go to the internet recovery this way you dont need to make an USB boot stick

[@sirbuvasile242]

You forgot to show the most important thing. How it was running and opening apps and windows, before, with the HDD and at the end the same thing with the SSD.

[@mattreedah]

I just got a 27" iMac late 2015 from a second hand store and I'm excited to try this out.

[@kiwimedivian1876]

Good solid video but some advice for anyone new who is following this; When removing the display - put the machine on its back, sometimes the screen/display can fall off once the adhesive is cut (faulty adhesive) and they're very expensive to replace, especially the 5k retina displays. also makes unplugging the cables easier. A note, given the machine in this status was booting why not just image the drive from the HDD to an SSD? If using SATA to SATA should be relatively simple of course matching the capacity of the drive with a comparable SSD.

[@bobo-wf1jv]

This is the best tutorial for this that I've seen .. you are a perfectionist .. superb!

[@HomeGuitarMods]

Thank you for this! Only thing I did different was Pre loaded my SSD by holding command r at at startup, disk utility, formatted my SSD, and restored from Macintosh HD (not Macintosh HD data, ignore that one it'll all load in under Macintosh HD when you restore). Then I selected my SSD in the external hard drive case I had as my startup disk and test drove it for a day. My fusion drive had lost over 100gb of data and was running really slow (it was clearly bad). After swapping for a SSD and ugrading from the 8gb of ram it had to 32gb its a new machine. Thanks for the walk through!

[@cerberus_uwu]

Great video! - I did a similar swap with my late 2015 27" iMac Retina - I installed a 1TB blade drive on the reverse of the logic board as it had the header for it (originally came with a fusion drive) and swapped out the HDD for a 1TB SDD.. I actually dual boot my iMac now as well - I run Fedora on the SSD and MacOS Monteray on the blade drive! - works great! :)

[@zeetrain9625]

I have the same model, do you have video on how to do what you did?

[@lakeit]

I did something similar last year. 2015 27" 5k iMac.. had a fusion drive.. replaced that with an SSD from OWC, but realized there was a NVMe SSD.. so, bonus.. played with booting from both.. the new SSD was ultimately quicker, and better overall since most apps don't have the option to choose where to install.. but overall an easy process.

[@andrewp393]

awesome video! this gives me more confidence in attempting this much needed upgrade

[@fragalot]

33:30 Doing a clean install of the OS will make the PC run faster, as it is with any computer, Mac, Windows, or Linux. I thought you were going to image the MacOS drive and move it to the SSD, but apparently not.

[@Nebbia_affaraccimiei]

watch out for the big capacitors in the power supply area, they can store high voltage for a pretty long time!

[@XGempler]

Inserting a wedge (foam?) between the leg and the back of the monitor would keep the monitor from tilting down and make it much easier to disassemble/reasembly.

[@Roqueeee]

I would probably enable trim with "sudo trimforce enable" after fitting the new ssd. My MX500 has been running great with it enabled.

[@TerkelNL]

if you have an OWC SSD it had built in trim

[@cerberus_uwu]

pretty sure this is enabled on the newer versions of macos by default if it detects a SSD..

[@TerkelNL]

@@cerberus_uwu only if that Mac had orginal an ssd

[@cerberus_uwu]

@@TerkelNL yep sorry - should have been clearer.. if they had a 'fusion' drive then this would be enabled by default

[@Guitar6ty]

Excellent presentation and demonstration. You could probably use feeler gauges to part the adhesive tape just select the right size.

[@libertarian1637]

I’ve done a lot of hard drive upgrades but don’t do software upgrades as part of a hard drive upgrade; I simply use a drive cloner as it doesn’t involve me needing login credentials to copy data and I prefer to keep customers data private, especially being bonded as data security and integrity is a big thing. A hard drive upgrade is quite quick with a cloner and quite hands off, then I simply bag and return the old drive with the upgraded computer. I like older Macs as there quite professional and upgradable whereas new Macs are made to be near impossible for an owner to fix let alone upgrade. Apple even had to make their NVMe drives proprietary though thankfully adapters are made; those last models were the last Macs I’d personally use, though with upgrades it’s quite easy for most users to get away with Macs that are quite old. I run 3 MacBook Pros due to IT needs and their ability to work across platforms, like no Windows computer can do as well and this includes a legacy MacBook Pro from 2005 as in the commercial space systems can be quite old; I still fix a surprising number of machines that run XP which is OLD.

[@DarkGT]

If you don't have one of the metal shims, maybe you can use hard plastic bottle. Just cut it with a point and you will have sharp material to cut with and it won't scratch the paint that much.

[@chaswarrior7507]

Great video, nice to watch how you do repairs. I think the only thing different I do is not to peel the strips and fix screen until I have installed a new OS, I just tilt it back until i'm sure its 100%.

[@MTS_IT]

Just one suggestion: after installing SSD on a mac you must enable trim (because it's disabled by default on 3rd party ssds). To do that open terminal and type the following: sudo trimforce enable

[@S550GT]

is it ok if I enabled that days after installing the ssd? didn't know if it had to be enabled right away or not.

[@MTS_IT]

@@S550GT yeah. It’s automatic process.

[@Monty_BeGoodToEachOther]

If you iMac shipped with a Fusion Drive, you might consider replacing the tiny PCIe SSD drive (NVMe plus an Apple adapter) instead of the 2.5" SATA drive. This requires a lot more work (removing the speakers, main logic board, etc), but gets you a storage device running 4+ times faster than the SATA SSD. Certainly consider upgrading your memory (RAM) while you have the logic board out. What I did with my 2017 iMac, is put in 2TB PCIe SSD and a 2TB SATA SSD. I even added a small $6.00 USD heat sync to my PCIe SSD, though that probably didn't ad much cooling capability. MacOS on the PCIe and Windows on the SATA., been installed for two years now, problem free. I would also like to point out, when you go to blow out the dirt of any computer... do that outside, not inside the house... an iMac, or any computer, can dump a lot of dust you don't want inside..

[@thenewmanfiles3269]

nice video, thank you. any reason why I couldn't just boot off an external SSD vs replacing the 2017 27" IMAC HDD/Fusion with an internal SSD (with one in your video)? Would the performance be equivalent? Is the juice worth the squeeze?

[@mrtomhallett]

This is a really great video, my only issue would be that it would be nice to see a clearer view of attaching and detached the monitor but apart from that this is well put

[@AndreaUK1973]

Thank you!! I’ll give it a go tomorrow when my ssd arrives! My hardrive’s failed in February and I took it to Apple Store and they kindly run a diagnostic program to check it for me! They didn’t have to! Such an Old machine in the middle of their beautiful shop!! 😂 but what can one do? it’s my baby! So I’ve decided to do it myself, only because I can’t afford paying for someone to do it. Otherwise, I would! I can’t wait! I’ve already removed the screen! And you were right, It had a lot of dust in there! Pretty dense! 10 years old iMac! By the way, It was scary to disconnect the ribbon connections from the screen, I didn’t want to damage it! but I got there!

[@alankingvideo]

I have done a few of these and don't recommend the method used here. Firstly Get the pizza cutter tool, it's so much easier. Secondly don't have the machine upright lay it on the desk on its back. You don't want gravity helping the screen to fall out and rip the connectors off. Once the adhesive is removed you can prop the screen up by putting a rolled up soft cloth between the screen and the case while you take your time to remove the connectors. This is a much safer method. I understand that it's easier to film if the machine is upright.

[@pmconaway2861]

I agree. Had it done myself and my 2012 iMac was useable again.

[@johntaylor8072]

There is a good drive monitoring app that I use for os x called( DriveDx ) "Regular diagnostic tools simply check the built-in S.M.A.R.T. status of the drive, which provides the user with little information about the actual state of the physical drive. As opposed to such tools, DriveDx analyzes the current state of the drive using all the drive health indicators that are most likely to point to a potential drive issue (for instance, SSD wear out / write endurance, I/O errors, pending sectors, reallocated bad sectors, etc)."

[@_Nobody_Special]

You'd think in this day and age these supposedly premium products would ship with an SSD by default. OFC the reason they don't is so Apple can make it an optional extra at some extortionate price.

[@MO_OKAYU_GU]

This is the cheapest iMac Apple sold back in 2016

[@CaptainGimp]

I've done multiple SSD upgrades of these machines - this tutorial is spot on, the only small criticism is using the metal shim as in some cases the metal can scratch behind the glass - it would be better to use a plastic one if possible.

[@user-gp1bt4vm3r]

Is the 'thermal sensor' from OWC needed in these SSD upgrades? I have the 2017 5K retina iMac. I read one comment that said it's not needed, if it's later than 2012. And another comment that said it's absolutely needed.

[@CaptainGimp]

@user-gp1bt4vm3r no it isn't needed for these models. They are really only needed for the 2009 models. On the other ones, the fan speeds can be controlled with the Mac Fan app.

[@user-gp1bt4vm3r]

@@CaptainGimp is that app already in the Mac and automatic or do I have to manually adjust the fan speed every time? Sorry, I’m not so tech savvy in these types of upgrades.

[@CaptainGimp]

@user-gp1bt4vm3r no you will need to download the app and then set the fan speeds. Allow the app to open on startup so that the ramped up fans can then settle down. I've a mid 2010 iMac with Ventura running on it with no issues with fan speed.

[@linnsoltwedel]

I remember putting 120 GB SSD in all my friends and families computers "back in the day". Like at least then years ago, and they where over 100 pounds!

[@mattridgley9095]

I had this done to my imac. £50 for the SSD and £200 to get it fitted. Well worth doing IMO.

[@paulpeters_PBP]

Thanks for posting such an informative video -- it will really help me with my process. Like many others, I too am getting parts together to upgrade the HDD in my 27" late 2012 iMac to a 2TB SSD. While I didn't hear you make specific reference to a thermal sensor -- for the SSD or HDD in your video, do you know if they are necessary when upgrading from the original (Apple) HDD? There is reference to a thermal sensor as part of a kit on both the OWC and iFixIt pages. It's a SATA interface cable with the sensor attached.

[@Joey29455]

You can also buy opening kits for iMacs comes with the adhesive strips and a thin opening 'wheel'

[@markharrisllb]

I have a 2015 27” iMac and it’s still a good computer with 24gb RAM and a 3.00GHz quad core processor. It does what I need and is still quite fast. I can no longer update it from Big Sur without a workaround. Part of me it tempted to upgrade it and part of me says that even though the computer isn’t worth that much these days replacing it if it goes wrong would cost me at least a week on the sofa…hmm could be worth it after all.

[@shanenorman7262]

Nice job Graham greetings from Australia..

[@ianoliver3879]

Hmmm. You make it look so easy. I changed drives on my old Mac Pro (no problem at all, of course) and on my Macbook Pro, but I'm a bit reluctant to slice through things with delicate ribbon cables hanging about. Thank you.

[@zarcha]

iFixIts tool for cutting the tape on the screen is easy and prevents you from easily cutting anything wrong. made the job extremely easy when i did it recently.

[@justinspiredfallout]

Great video and I definitely recommend swapping to SSD to give it a new lease of life. However, I do NOT recommend buying cheap adhesive kits for iMacs. I always quote my clients for a genuine/decent kit that you can be sure won't fail on you. There are horror stories around the internet on these strips failing, especially on the big 27" ones. Even if the screen survives falling on the desk or whatever, chances are you're going to get a ripped screen connector. I buy mine from the Bookyard (not endorsing or affiliated; I just trust the genuine adhesive kits and know they supply decent ones). Also double check you don't accidentally cover the microphone with the adhesive kit. There are some differences in models and you can end up with a kit that can cover the mic hole. You can simply snip a tiny bit away to allow for the mic.

[@Adamant_IT]

Noted! I've not had any issues with cheap ones myself, and I've had one or two come back in for additional work at a later date (failed PSU, or RAM upgrade, etc...) and I've found the screen even harder to remove than the original adhesive was. Sample size of just me though, I don't doubt that there's been some failures out there, there always is.

[@daveg3766]

@@Adamant_IT JustInspired Fallout is correct about the microphone. I noticed in the video you taped right over the mic hole. I have done the same myself only for the client to return their imav saying the mic did not work well at all. Why on earth Apple moved the mic to the bottom I will never know but you need to fix that before you let your customer have it back. I think it changed in the 2014 models. Apart from that nice vid

[@linksrepair8078]

@@Adamant_IT hi can you please give me the link to buy the adhesive you use thanks

[@bigal1863]

I have two of these old imacs and was considering a RAM upgrade to boost performance but your video I think just saved me a huge amount of misery. I'll go SSD instead.

[@HuntersMoon78]

I use an electric air mattress inflator as a PC duster, works great and never had any issues with static.

[@not30]

The OWC install kits (contains everything) and video's are excellent

[@jessicakirsh]

Super helpful video walkthrough. Thanks so much for these instructions! Subscribed and hit the bell :)

[@petermarsh4993]

Dear Adam, the tool with curved edges is called a “scraper” and is primarily used in woodwork to remove small amounts of wood to reveal a smooth texture on curved surfaces. While you have the hood up, could you show me how you would go about upgrading the Processor please!

[@ms2668]

I did this to my mid-2010 iMac 27 after the HDD died. Hardest part was removing the screen and disconnecting the associated ribbon cables. Temp sensor for the HDD didn't work afterward, but I installed Macs Fan Control software and set the fans manually so no impact/issues. System is considerably faster with the SSD.

[@JARVIS1187]

It still strikes me odd there you were able to access the data on the old HDD. This is only possible if the drive was not part of a fusion drive. But I did not see an internal NVMe SSD in disk utility either. Otherwise, people who do a swap themselves should check if there is a protective strip of another double sided tape on the back of the display. The installed strips do not hold well on that. I had that on my 2019 iMac display and it drived me nuts because it was so hard to see and the display has always been loosening itself! It was horrible!

[@CoMmAnDrX]

I did an external 500GB SSD via Thunderbolt 2 and kept the 2TB HDD internal. So there is that option for those not wanting to take apart an iMac

[@Richardcaro401]

Where is the video ?

[@charlescalve9067]

I did the same, use an external ssd it works great…..

[@tractorman7733]

1:39- I feel like that is the way to go as it A. can be encouraging to beginners, and B. it can possibly help some one figure out why they are having issues.. having something work perfectly is not indicative of real world scenarios.

[@JK-nq6ju]

You do not need to take the components out to replace the ram. There is an access panel on the back by the power cable input with a button that opens the compartment for the ram.

[@Adamant_IT]

Only on the 27". The small ones don't have that access panel :(

[@andrewgjkgjk]

Note that it's cheaper and faster (in operation), but harder to do, to ditch the SATA HDD/SSD entirely and instead replace the SSD blade on the motherboard. You'll need an M.2 connector to "proprietary Apple 12+16 connector" adapter (the small one without the board, just google) + NVMe blade, or one of the blades from OWC that has the Apple connector. They're 2-3x faster than SATA SSDs too.

[@ScubaHockeyDoc]

Great video! Question further on Fusion drive. Does the Fusion drive need to be "split" before installing the SSD?

[@AlistairJC]

Same question from me. I’ve read different instructions for this, some saying to split it in Terminal and some not. Based on the fusion discussion in the video description I think yes to splitting the fusion up which reformats both drives I believe, then just crack on with the SSD upgrade

[@ScubaHockeyDoc]

@@AlistairJC I wasn’t able to clone the drive so I didn’t split it, to not format my hard drive. After installing the SSD I migrated the old HDD. I then formatted the blade SSD and left it blank. So far , no issues🤞🏻

[@AlistairJC]

@@ScubaHockeyDoc thanks Steven, sounds a sensible approach. Use a sata to USB like the vid to do that? I guess the blade just appears as part of the broken fusion when you start it up for the first time and you just formatted it like you say!

[@ScubaHockeyDoc]

@@AlistairJC yes sata to usb 3. The Blade SSD just shows as another drive on finder and disk utility

[@AlistairJC]

@@ScubaHockeyDoc Thanks again! That’s fine with me - I’ll look into doing it this way then. Having the blade just sat there is ok with me

[@richard_loosemore]

Oh YIKES! Everything about this video was great except for a lulu of a mistake at one point! The memory modules are replaced by taking off the door on the back and slipping them in. Don’t remove the logic board! 🤣 Cheers and keep up the good work.

[@ralphnoneofyourbusiness7258]

Only the 27" has the door on the back to change the ram.

[@Biggie_Monk]

Ugh I didn't realize how fragile these glued on iMac displays are, I bought an iMac 27" 2013 for cheap it was slow and had a broken tilt. Had someone at work make up a metal piece to replace the broken hinge thingy and I went to replace the HDD with a SSD, got everything back together booted it and had a huge gray line going down the screen... I wasn't rough with it took my time also I've done this before on a previous iMac 21.5 2012 they're not the much different besides the size and the arrangement of the insides. The plan was to keep it as general PC for the house but after that happened I ended up selling it for parts, at least I made my money back but would've preferred to of kept it.

[@k2wo1]

Outstanding video. Great job! Thanks.

[@anthonydenn4345]

Another very useful video. Might I just suggest testing the SSD before putting it into the sealed unit.

[@blue_jm]

He did say that on the video.

[@anthonydenn4345]

@@blue_jm Yes he did mention testing the SSD if you weren't feeling confident about just installing after only seeing if the drive is recognised by the OS. But he didn't test the SSD in the video. I would of at least run it through a crystal disk mark test first. But to be fair these drives are fairly reliable, so yea.

[@salvamipc]

Hi Adam, did you had any problem with the adhesive on any? What strips you buy? Looking around no matter, cheap or expensive there are always reviews that the screen has fallen after weeks. any tips to prevent this from happening? I seen a picture someone used a cable tie between the screen and the chasis, just in case.

[@Adamant_IT]

Never happened to me with any strips I've bought on amazon or ebay. I suspect that people who've had problems did not remove the old adhesive before putting on new stuff, and that would definitely cause problems.

[@aliensporebomb]

"Hard drives are awful!" -truer words were never spoken!

[@Jedum]

I love this man, such a great explanation! I just bought a used late 2013 imac and will follow your lead, do you think the fact that the OS is not upgradeable past Catalina is a problem?

[@Adamant_IT]

Well, I have a late 2012 iMac on the front desk running Catalina, and it's fine for general web browsing and stuff - but I can't install modern Microsoft Office on it, or any modern Apple apps... It works, but it's on borrowed time. It's probably possible to force-install a newer version of macOS onto it, but this can be a pain in the ass, and for me, I'd sooner spend that time and effort elsewhere. I'll keep my 2012 on the front counter until it can't run Google Docs anymore, and then it won't be useful to me anymore.

[@g.9357]

Another excellent video and explanation! Thank you. Can you pls do a similar video with Windows?

[@Adamant_IT]

I shall consider this... I'm kinda still keeping an eye out for The Perfect Drive Imagine Software that's nice to use, free, and reliable. I currently use Drive Snapshot because it's got a lot of party tricks that are relevant to me for various reasons, but it also has a lot of quirks that make it hard to demonstrate.

[@gardeniabee]

I would never open my iMac but it is interesring to see what’s inside, and a skilled technician at work. ☺️. ( I chose to add an external SSD. )

[@irepairitall]

Iv'e had two 27" iMac's 2015/2017 Models) where the display assembly is really, really heavy. I lay dem flat 48h for the adhesive to get it's full strengt.