Replace the Hard Drive on a G3 iMac (iMac G3 DV)

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Shut down the iMac, unplug power cable as well as every other cable.
Put the iMac on a smooth and clean surface, and prepare a philips screwdriver and a flat-head one, both of them medium sized.

Access VGA bay

Put the iMac face down.
Acting carefully with the flat-headed screwdriver (see the picture) free the VGA bay door, and remove it.

Remove screws in VGA bay

First of all remove the screws on bay sides (in orange)

Remove screws in VGA bay

Then remove the other two screws (in orange)

Remove also the two screws close to the iMac foot (in orange)

Store screws and parts in a “safe” way

Store screws and parts on a table in a kind-of map of thei relative original position, this will make easier to close back the iMac.

iMac bottom is almost free, something is still locking it in the front side…

Free the 3 plastic hooks (in yellow) locking the bottom, then remove iMac bottom.

Remove the shield

We’ll start by removing the 2 screws on HD bay, in orange.

Remove the shield

Two more screws (in orange) are located on VGA port sides, remove them.

Remove the shield

The last two screws (in orange) locking the shield are in an uncomfortable position on iMac sides.

Remove the shield

Remove the screw on left side, don’t let it fall inside the Mac (it’s better to use a magnetic screwdriver).

Remove the shield

The screw on the right side, close to iMac connectors block.

Remove the shield

The shield is almost free, something still lock it on VGA port

Remove the shield

Free the shield on the VGA connector (in yellow)

Remove the shield

The shield has been freed, and we can remove it.

Remove Hard Drive connectors

Remove HD ATA connector (in yellow) without stretching wires

Remove Hard Drive connectors

Remove HD power connector (in yellow)

Remove Hard Drive screws

Remove the 4 screws holding the HD (in orange)

Extract and replace the HD

The Hard Disk, finally free, can be extracted and replaced.
Now we can close back the iMac.

All material used is orginal and specifically produced for faqintosh.com

⌘ Marco Balestra (operator, author)