replacing hard drive in 2011 imac

hey everyone,

I am considering buying a 2011 imac (21.5inch)...and I read that the imac uses temperature sensors for their hard drives so if we replace the hard drive..it must be same model...I just wanted to clarify if it was VERY specific to the exact type and model of the hard drive?? for example...if the imac originally came with a seagate hard drive...model "xyz"...do i have to replace it with another seagate "xyz" model?? or can i use ANY "seagate" hard drive...

I'm thinking of just getting the base model and later upgrading the hard drive...from a basic 500gb SATA hard drive to a 1tb hard drive...I just wanted to know if I can change hard drives and just have to keep the same brand name versus the exact model...

I hope this doesn't sound confusing...if anyone could give a definite answer to this question I would greatly appreciate it!

thanks in advance!

There's definitely a right way and a wrong way. If you head over to OWC's website - they did a pretty comprehensive write up on this a number of month's back. If I can locate the link I'll post back with it.

Apple Further Restricts Upgrade Options on New iMacs | Other World Computing Blog

Looks like OWC is offering an HDD upgrade service - which considering the number of iMac upgrade stories I've seen that end with - I have dust behind my screen that I can't get rid of - might not be a bad idea to consider.

OWC iMac Turnkey Program Extended to 2011 Models. | Other World Computing Blog

Brian:

That's a great find! I don't know how many times I've been to the OWC site and have not noticed that announcement. I'm almost tempted to do my 2011 iMac 21.5" machine. Unfortunately, at this time of year I'm pretty well spent out. No dinero.

Yes - I had sort of tracked that story earlier this year and OWC was keeping a running blog - but I haven't kept up lately. Just a quick skim looks like they have their own 'proprietary' way of dealing with it - but if you dig further (visit Hardmac.com) there are some other ways around it - you can tie short the sensor lines and use HDD Fan Control to keep the fans down. I also saw that someone has put together a simple module to handle getting the temp data to the processor. I wouldn't be surprised to find that there are other workarounds out there by now - I just lost motivation to open up my iMac - so I've not kept up.

Thanks for your feedback and link to the page...it was really helpful!!

thank u again!!

You're welcome. Post back and let us know what you end up doing and how it turns out.