My iMac is dead.

So a couple of months ago my iMac's G5 logic board fried. I had brought it the computer to Apple store to find out that my applecare plan had expired two months prior and it would cost $1000 to fix it. Pointless. The Genius had told me that they could back the hard-drive up to a DVD for $150 or I could do it myself with a "sled". Does anyone have any experience using a sled? Is it easy? Is the sled expensive? I want to make sure I can transfer all the contents from my iMac HD to my MacBook HD.

any info are input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
john

I'm not familiar with the term "sled", however I would assume they're talking about an external hard drive enclosure. A simple USB 2.0 one would cost around 30-40 USD. If it was me I definitley wouldnt pay the $150 to do it. It really depends on how much you value the parts of the old iMac, if you have no further use for it, and you dont mind ruining the computer - getting to the hard drive is pretty easy. But if you want to do it carefully and keep everything in tact then it could take an hour or two of work.

I'm pretty sure there are some guides online on how to get to the hard drive.

If it was me, and there was really no further use for the computer I'd probably just go pretty fast to the Hard Drive without worrying about the other computer components.

Hard Drive enclosures are pretty easy to use, you just slide the hard drive in make sure its all connected and then connect the USB cable to another computer.

Thank you for the reply Zeia. Is there any particular type of external hard drive enclosure that one should look for? I am seeing some on newegg.com that range from $7-$39.99 and 2.5" to 3.5".


Here are a couple of examples

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817816001

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145752

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817146604

Its only a few screws to get the hard drive out. 3.5!



Enclosure's

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/hard-drives/External-Enclosures/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010090092+1053807123&name=3.5"

I highly recommend one of these. It will allow you to connect virtually any hard drive externally, with minimal fuss and expense. It's one of the most invaluable tools in my arsenal.

You can very easily remove the drive and place it in an enclosure and save your data. Its very easy. The sled and enclosure are not that expensive. Thank you for posting your story!

This is more then just a coincidence. How many people need to complain about this happening before anyone can even start to acknowledge the fact that this happens all the time?
Im sure someone will post a reply about how long their mac has lasted and how you just have bad karma, bad luck, or both.
Gee, could it be that Apple is building these machines dirt cheap and could care less if your machine dies RIGHT after warranty. If everyone who had this issue actually wrote to a forum or Apple about it, the entire forum(s) would be flamed out with angry people. Seriously Apple users, why should we stand for this? It must stop. I have given Apple so much frekin money and I see no end to it in site. How much do you want to bet this guy just buys a new machine asap? If he uses his machine to work, he has too

digital john said:

Thank you for the reply Zeia. Is there any particular type of external hard drive enclosure that one should look for? I am seeing some on newegg.com that range from $7-$39.99 and 2.5" to 3.5".


Here are a couple of examples

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817816001

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817145752

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817146604

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, forgot to mention the size. I'm pretty sure they use 3.5 inch hard drives in the imacs (Other people posted that size so I assume its right). I've never owned an iMac so really I was just thinking about how hard it was to replace my iBook's hard drive, but based on everyone's replies its probably much easier than my laptop's was ;D . Really any 3.5 inch hard drive enclosure would do, I assume its an IDE connection on the hard drive in which case you'll want to make sure the enclosure supports the IDE connection (This tends to be the older standard). However if its a SATA drive (The newer standard) then make sure that's supported by the enclosure.

SATA - It's a type of connector where the actual end is pretty small, less than 1 inch size on the connector

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SATA2_und_eSATA-Stecker.jpg

IDE - Connector is about pinky finger length

http://common.packardbell.com/itemnr/instr_ezhomedrives/hddconn.jpg
(The Left Connector)

It looks like CWA's post handles both the SATA connections and the IDE connections, so it would probably be the best. Other than that its just disconnecting the hard drive's connector and sliding it into the enclosure or whatever device you've picked out.


***I should note that since the hard drive is formatted for an Apple computer, it wont show up on windows at all. You'll have to plug it into another mac to get your files.