# HDD replacement on the late 2012 iMacs and up.



## jwhage (Jul 5, 2014)

iMac 21.5 inch, Late 2012 Model A1418
OSX 10.9.4.
Has anyone replaced a internal HDD or SSD on the new iMac intel's,2012 and up. I heard is was not possible because of firmware limitations. I have taken the screen off mine, time consuming but not that difficult, and i am staring at the 2.5 Apple HDD, very easy to replace . or should i? If the firmware does not recognize the new HDD, there is no way to format the drive. After two years, my drive was making the horrible platter noise, metal to metal. john hagenberger
retired electrician


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

I don't think the issue was ever the firmware. 

The issue was Apple stopped using a external temperature gauge on HDs on some models and instead used an unused pin on the drive connector itself to get faster/better temperature readings. 

Using a drive that didn't provide this or have the right connector caused the fans to run at full speed.

That was a loose summary of the issue, you'll have to google to see if your model is affected by that issue.


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## jwhage (Jul 5, 2014)

Thank you head rush. I just got off the line with OWC and they told me they are still working on the late iMacs, late,2012 through late 2014 about HDD replacement on the 21.5 inch, which has the 2.5 Apple HDD. The 27 inch can be replaced since they use the 3.5 HDD with OWC'S replacement kit which includes the temp ribbon cable and tool kit. I did see a you tube video that showed the 2.5 HDD being replace by a SSD but he never gave any details about formatting the drive, if he could.
 Thanks again 
jwhage


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

Another option is just unplugging the noisy internal drive and using a thunderbolt external as your main HD.

You might even be able to just blank the internal HD and leave it plugged in after getting an external working.
If you have the internal drive not auto mount, it might not spin up at all anyways. (have to turn auto mount off so when you open Finder it doesn't start up)


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## jwhage (Jul 5, 2014)

Okay Headrest. Sounds good to me . I'm not going to lose any sleep over a noisy HDD. I will go external and manually mount the OSX as a back up and use it when i go totally bananas with the noise. Apple could make this so simple, but they just don't want us taking apart there machines.
Thank you
jwhage


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