iMac Hard drive failure

Recently my imac had a hard drive failure, RIP... anyway, I am replacing the failed hard drive and also removing my super drive in favor of an ssd.

My concern is how do i boot up this computer once all the new hardware is installed?

Do I create a bootable disc image on my external drive like this some articles suggest?

I am confused about formatting the new disks before installing them? or do I install them and go from there?

Thanks in advance.

Korey

What version of OSX was on the machine? Also what are the specs and approx date of the iMac? I have reasons for asking.

dtravis7 said:

What version of OSX was on the machine? Also what are the specs and approx date of the iMac? I have reasons for asking.

Click to expand...

Ah, did I post in the wrong area?

Late 09 iMac, running whatever was latest version of lion before mountain lion came out.

Thanks

Well in a way but your question IS about an OS.

Was asking about age of iMac as newer ones have issues installing any hard drive except one that comes from Apple. Fans running full blast and such. Check OWC on your model and see if there is any warnings.

That said, did you ever make a Flash Drive installer of Lion? If so that is how you would install. Since your old drive is toast and if you did not make a Flash Drive, it's going to be a pain. Did the 09 iMac come with Snow Leopard? If so I would install that and update it to 10.6.8 and then go to the App Store and re-download Lion. You could install Snow Leopard to your External and do the Lion USB stick there and then install to the new SSD drive.

Thanks for the reply, I have read about the fan issues, I think I am in the clear.

So basically what I want to do is a fresh install of mountain lion, I re-downloaded the mountain lion install file from app store and I am going to create a boot image on my external drive and hopefully boot from there.

What happens if I just install the new stuff and try to boot up the iMac?

I am installing the following...

Amazon.com: Western Digital Caviar Black 2 TB SATA III 7200 RPM 64 MB Cache Bulk/OEM Internal Desktop Hard Drive - WD2002FAEX: Electronics

Amazon.com: SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5-Inch 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7PC256B/WW: Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: Hard Drive Caddy Tray for Apple Unibody MacBook / MacBook Pro 13 15 17 SuperDrive (Replacement Only): Computers & Accessories

using the ifixit.com guide for pulling the optical drive in favor of an ssd.

Thanks again for taking a look at this.

Korey

Make the Mountain Lion external first before you install your new stuff. Hold down Option and select that external. Be sure ML setup boots before you rip it all apart.

awesome, thanks for the tips.

Best,

Korey

How do you create a flash drive of the OS? I'm wondering if I should do that for my MBP. I do regular Time Machine backups but I don't know if they'd install onto a new HD.

peterbj7 said:

How do you create a flash drive of the OS? I'm wondering if I should do that for my MBP. I do regular Time Machine backups but I don't know if they'd install onto a new HD.

Click to expand...

Building an OS X Mountain Lion installer thumb drive | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

That should do it for you.

This worked for me.

How to make a bootable Mountain Lion install drive | Macworld

koreycon said:

I am installing the following...

Amazon.com: SAMSUNG 830 Series 2.5-Inch 256GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD) MZ-7PC256B/WW: Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: Hard Drive Caddy Tray for Apple Unibody MacBook / MacBook Pro 13 15 17 SuperDrive (Replacement Only): Computers & Accessories

Click to expand...

According to the product description, that caddy is not compatible with an iMac. Additionally, are you aware that you'll need an adapter to connect the SSD to the SATA cable for the SuperDrive? I don't know if that caddy comes with one, but if it's not supposed to be compatible with the iMac anyway then it may not.

I replaced the SuperDrive in my mid-2010 iMac with an SSD kit from OWC. It comes with everything you need. I'm not acquainted with Samsung's SSDs, but OWC sells their own branded SSDs that don't need any hackery done to enable TRIM in OS X. They use a controller (Sandforce) that has its own built-in wear leveling features.

dtravis7 said:

Building an OS X Mountain Lion installer thumb drive | TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

That should do it for you.

Click to expand...

Will that work on 10.6.8?

lifeisabeach said:

According to the product description, that caddy is not compatible with an iMac. Additionally, are you aware that you'll need an adapter to connect the SSD to the SATA cable for the SuperDrive? I don't know if that caddy comes with one, but if it's not supposed to be compatible with the iMac anyway then it may not.

I replaced the SuperDrive in my mid-2010 iMac with an SSD kit from OWC. It comes with everything you need. I'm not acquainted with Samsung's SSDs, but OWC sells their own branded SSDs that don't need any hackery done to enable TRIM in OS X. They use a controller (Sandforce) that has its own built-in wear leveling features.

Click to expand...

Thanks!

I just got the kit needed to do this after reading your post and also finding this video of the installations.

Install SSD inplace of DVD player 2009 iMac - YouTube

I would rather buy the total kit ready to go rather than chancing some hacked together kit (which would probably work).

Thanks a bunch.