upgrading the hard drive in your iMac
may sound like a difficult task but it's
easier than you may think
lucky for you today I'm going to walk
you through replacing the hard drive in
your late 2012
I'm hi I'm Gwendolyn with iFixit and
today we're going to be working on a
27-inch late 2012 iMac the opening and
disassembly of this machine is almost
the same as a late 2013 and even the
most recent 5k Retina machines but when
you're working on your machine make sure
to follow the guide specific to your
iMac to find out which iMac you have
take a look under the foot of your iMac
to find the EMC number looking up that
number will tell you your IMAX exact
model for this repair you're going to
need an iMac opening tool a plastic card
a spudger a t10 Torx screwdriver a t9
screwdriver and a set of adhesive strips
I'm also going to be using this iMac
service wedge this foam block allows you
to have easy access to the internals of
your iMac without worrying about the
display moving around it's not
absolutely essential but it will make it
a bit easier to work on your iMac now to
get started we're going to use our iMac
opening tool the iMac opening tool will
keep you from pushing in too far but if
you're using anything else to do your
prime you need to be careful that you
don't insert your tool more than 3/8 of
an inch
there's several cables and connectors
you could damage by inserting your prime
tool too far into your iMac
starting on the bottom left side of the
display near the power button insert the
iMac opening tool into the gap between
the glass panel and the rear case with
your opening tool inserted just roll it
like a pizza cutter up the left side of
the display when you get to the top just
continue around the corner and continue
along the top of the iMac cutting the
foam adhesive as you go you may have to
make multiple passes to cut all the
adhesive and if you find a sticky spot
as you go simply roll the opening tool
back and forth over that spot finish
pushing the opening tool to the bottom
of the right side of the display at this
point you'll want to make another pass
around the display with your opening
tool just to ensure to cut as much
adhesive as possible once you're able to
move your tool freely along the edges
you can move on to the next step
the iMac opening tool should have done
most of the work on that adhesive but
just in case we're going to get our
plastic cards in there to unstick
everything for this part you're going to
want to lay your iMac on the table face
up and use your plastic cards to begin
separating the display from the rear
case it should only take some gentle
prying if you're encountering some
resistance try running your opening tool
back over the section you're working on
and then try the card again but remember
it's very important not to insert your
prying cards more than 3/8 of an inch
into your run as you're working across
the top make sure you stop before you
get to the iSight camera the prying can
damage it simply leave your card in
place to keep the glue from resetting
and move to the opposite corner working
your way back towards the iSight camera
with both cards in place in the adhesive
cut along the top we're going to try to
lift the glass from the back panel we're
only going to lift the display a few
inches because it's still attached to
the logic board by cables to disconnect
the cables you're going to hold the
display up with one hand and disconnect
the cables with the other
with the cables disconnected you can
lift the front glass up to an almost
vertical position there's still a strip
of adhesive at the bottom if it feels
stuck you can use your card to cut away
the adhesive from the inside be very
careful not to touch any of the solder
joints on the back of the power supply
capacitors may be charged enough to give
you a dangerous shock and now you can
take the display off just be extremely
careful as it's deceptively heavy all
right the hard part's over now onto the
hard drive I have good news and bad news
the bad news is we have to remove the
left speaker to get to the hard drive
the good news is it's super simple
starting with these two t10 screws I'm
going to remove those and then get to
work on disconnecting the speaker cables
from the logic board to disconnect the
speaker cable from the logic board pull
straight out and de route the cable from
the gap between the hard drive and the
logic board
use a spudger to disconnect the power
button connector from the socket on the
logic board be very careful not to touch
any of the solder joints on the back of
the power supply capacitors may be
charged enough to give you a dangerous
shock now you can lift the speaker out
of the iMac until the power button cable
is exposed and gently tear out the cable
from the groove in the left speaker with
a cable out of the way the speaker
should lift right out finally it's time
for the hard drive you can start by
pulling straight up on the SATA cable to
disconnect it from the hard drive with
it disconnected you can remove the two
t10 screws securing the left hard drive
bracket to the rear case the hard drive
and bracket can now be lifted out of the
rear case
the last thing you need to do is remove
the four t9 screw posts from the hard
drive and transfer them to your new
replacement drive for reassembly we
recommend you follow the step by step
guide on ifixit.com in Reverse if you
need a little help reapplying your
display make sure you check out our imac
adhesive strips repair guide as it'll
walk you through getting your display
back on you can find all the parts and
tools you need for this and many other
repairs at ifixit.com and let us know
how it goes
you can find me on twitter at Gwendolyn
gay and follow I fix it at iFixit don't
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