Upgrade iMac Hard drive

I am looking to swap out the Hard drive on my 2014 iMac. I hate the slow and sluggish Seagate they have in it right now.

I noticed Hitachi has some good models but didn't know if anyone has other recommendations before I buy.

Thank you!

MissLadyVenus said:

I am looking to swap out the Hard drive on my 2014 iMac.

Click to expand...

Just an FYI. What you actually have is a "Late 2013" 27" iMac…which may have been purchased in 2014.

Regarding the hard drive swap. Have you considered that replacing the hard drive in a Late 2013 27" iMac is not exactly easy:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2639+Hard+Drive+Replacement/19643

But it can be done. If you're going to replace the HD (and go thru the trouble of removing it)…you might as well do it right…and install an SSD instead!

- Nick

As Nick says invest in an SSD. Your local Apple Store or reseller may be able to do the job for you.

If I upgrade my Drive will my Applecare cover the labor costs on it?

I tried to find it in my Terms of Service but didn't see anything on it.

MissLadyVenus said:

If I upgrade my Drive will my Applecare cover the labor costs on it?

Click to expand...

Absolutely not. Applecare ONLY covers manufacturing defects. Which means something needs to go wrong that was Apple's fault.

Upgrading a computer definitely does not fall into this category.

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Just an FYI. What you actually have is a "Late 2013" 27" iMac…which may have been purchased in 2014.

Regarding the hard drive swap. Have you considered that replacing the hard drive in a Late 2013 27" iMac is not exactly easy:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2639+Hard+Drive+Replacement/19643

But it can be done. If you're going to replace the HD (and go thru the trouble of removing it)…you might as well do it right…and install an SSD instead!

- Nick

Click to expand...

Thank you for the advice Nick! I appreciate any other goodies you can recommend.

I'm trying to tweak it as much as possible so that it's a BEAST.

I am planning to do the Hard drive regardless because I hate the sluggishness of this Seagate I have now. My iMac at work is so much faster but I think it has a fusion drive in it.

pigoo3 said:

Absolutely not. Applecare ONLY covers manufacturing defects. Which means something needs to go wrong that was Apple's fault.

Upgrading a computer definitely does not fall into this category.

- Nick

Click to expand...

THANK YOU AGAIN!!!

I'll definitely take this into consideration but I'll still do the SSD because I hate this hard drive.

MissLadyVenus said:

I'll definitely take this into consideration but I'll still do the SSD because I hate this hard drive.

Click to expand...

From about 2012 onward…Apple made it a lot harder to get into iMac's. This is why with 21" and 27" iMac's it's best to get the best kind or most capacity internal storage you can afford at the time of purchase. Lucky (at least) the ram on the 27" iMac is still user upgradeable after purchase (not so with the 21").

If you're adventurous & confident…you could purchase an SSD…follow the ifixit procedure I linked earlier…and do the upgrade yourself. But…if you still have Applecare…then I would't do it…since it would probably void the Applecare.

Which then would probably leave you with either paying Apple or an authorized Apple reseller to do the upgrade.

Good luck,

- Nick

MissLadyVenus said:

I am planning to do the Hard drive regardless because I hate the sluggishness of this Seagate I have now. My iMac at work is so much faster but I think it has a fusion drive in it.

Click to expand...

I very much doubt the Hitachi drive will be any faster than the Seagate. If it is, I doubt you'd notice it. If your work iMac has a Fusion drive, then that would explain the difference... it has an SSD and HDD. I have a 2010 iMac and I replaced my DVD drive with an SSD a couple years ago, and still have an HDD in use also, although I boot off the SSD. The difference is absolutely incredible. If you are opening your iMac up, it would be crazy to not put an SSD in there for all the trouble and expense involved, not to mention the benefits it brings.

Have to agree here LB. zon my MacBook Pro I once went from a small 5400 rpm drive to a higher capacity drive. While I was at it I shifted to a 7200 rpm HDD. Worth it because I could do the swap myself otherwise the difference wasn't significant enough to warrant paying the install cost.

At the time SSDs weren't cost effective no matter how much I wanted one.

I agree regarding the 5400 RPM being replaced by a 7200 RPM drive. I have seen specs where some 5400 RPM drives had a faster access time than some 7200 RPM drives. The difference though between a SSD and spinning drive is significant though.

SSDs have gotten crazy cheap of late (though not as SUPER crazy cheap as traditional hard drives of course, particularly in cost per GB), so if you can afford it or live with the capacities available, and if you're going to go to the trouble of replacing the HD in a Mac model where it isn't easy, then the SSD or at least a hybrid SSDHD (or a Fusion Drive) would be the way to go if speed is your priority. Replacing one spinning HD with another is probably not going to have any noticeable difference.

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUGGESTIONS!!! I went to Apple on Friday and paid for the upgrade to an SSD Drive. It should be ready by today.

MissLadyVenus said:

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUGGESTIONS!!! I went to Apple on Friday and paid for the upgrade to an SSD Drive. It should be ready by today.

Click to expand...

Congrats on being so motivated to do the upgrade!

I hate to ask…would you mind sharing how much it cost? I'm actually mostly interested in how much Apple charged in labor to install it.

If you would rather not share…that's ok. But it would be cool if you could.

Thanks,

- Nick

pigoo3 said:

Congrats on being so motivated to do the upgrade!

I hate to ask…would you mind sharing how much it cost? I'm actually mostly interested in how much Apple charged in labor to install it.

If you would rather not share…that's ok. But it would be cool if you could.

Thanks,

- Nick

Click to expand...

On my receipt is says:

Hardware Repair Labor $ 39.00

My SSD was 299.00

This was done at the Century City Mall in Los Angeles, I'm thinking the drive and labor might be cheaper elsewhere?

Hard to say. The labour is real cheap, and the cost of the drive would depend on the capacity.

MissLadyVenus said:

This was done at the Century City Mall in Los Angeles, I'm thinking the drive and labor might be cheaper elsewhere?

Click to expand...

$39.00 labor is pretty excellent! A lot less than I was expecting!!!

As far as the overall cost…and could it have been less somewhere else. A few thoughts:

1. Considering the complexity involved…I'm not sure I would trust another place to do it (Apple Store). Especially if they weren't an authorized Apple place.
2. If your iMac still has Applecare remaining. Then I definitely would not want any place other than Apple or an Apple authorized place dot do the upgrade. Since the warranty could be voted otherwise.
3. You didn't mention what size SSD you got. So hard to say if the overall cost of the upgrade was fair or not.

- Nick

Hey Nick, so sorry for reply to this thread so late. I was so busy with so much stuff at work that it gave me so little time for online

It was a 512 GB. I couldn't afford the 1 Terabyte, they wanted $500 and I don't need that much memory because I have everything on my slaves.

Oh and yeah my Apple Care is extended to 2017 so I have a while before it goes out. Thank you for the tip on the warranty. I don't want anything that will void out my Applecare, it's such a valuable insurance!

Plus I just loaded my iMac with more ram I'm at 28GB of DDR3 RAM (Corsair). I heard it's not good to go to 32GB is' that true?

MissLadyVenus said:

Plus I just loaded my iMac with more ram I'm at 28GB of DDR3 RAM (Corsair). I heard it's not good to go to 32GB is' that true?

Click to expand...

Not for any reason I know of. You can get an iMac configured from Apple with 32GB of memory. I am not sure where you heard that but it is not true.

Lisa

You got a reasonable buy for the 512GB SSD and 28GB of memory is ample. Just use and enjoy.