iMac Intel 21.5" EMC 2889 Hard Drive Replacement

The wedge is an extremely tight fit for this model. I was worried that the amount of force needed to use it as shown might damage the stand, so I used it with the long side down instead. It worked fine that way and didn’t need anywhere near as much force to insert.

Here’s a good YouTube vid on upgrading the RAM: Can a Normal Person Upgrade the RAM in the 2017 21.5" iMac?

Here are a couple tips from me:

1) Expose the adhesive to extreme temperatures. I did this by transporting my iMac in my car, screen-down on a piece of cardboard on a cold February morning (in Chicago). When I went to pick up the iMac, the screen practically fell off the chassis. I would have been distraught by this if I hadn’t already planned this replacement. So it was a happy accident.

2) Remember to expell the residual power from the power supply by pushing the power button while the iMac is unplugged. This does NOT guarantee it’s safe to touch, but when I accidentally brushed the solder and exposed capacitors, I didn’t get shocked.

Instead of using the wedge, I placed the iMac faced up with the top side (web cam) facing me while I ran the pizza roller around. It worked out great!

“All iMacs also come with a traditional hard drive” mine doesn’t!! it’s HDD bay is completely empty, no SATA cable or anything. I guess I’ll have to upgrade the PCIe SSD instead.

There is no replacement glass for this model, it is part of the LCD and impossible to remove or replace- the entire LCD has to be replaced unfortunately if the glass is cracked or damaged. You will have to Google search for a replacement. Also be careful with some of the lock tight tork screws as I broke one of my screw mounts taking one out.

I used this service wedge but also found it a very tight fit. The same stabilization can be achieved by using a big rolled up towel.

While this is a good instruction guide, I recommend to also look at OWC’s instruction video about drive installation, before starting the exercise. Those install videos are very detailed and useful.

Don’t get too worried about starting exactly where the picture says. The glue is stronger in some parts so just start wherever is easier and then work slowly and patiently around in the direction shown.

As this guide doesn’t cover replacing the adhesive strips, I found referring to the following was useful (noting that it’s not for the same model of iMac, so the modification they mention wasn’t necessary): iMac Intel 21.5" EMC 2544 Adhesive Strips Replacement

It is very easy to crack the glass in front of the LCD during this step. I used the guitar pick, maybe it was too thick… crack is just on the frame but anyway it is disappointing :(

This part of the exercise should be done with extreme patience. I took my sweet time with the opening tool, rolling it through the entire panel and enclosure gap over and over again, until I was very sure no parts were sticking together anymore. And when I thought I was I done, I decided to do it over again.

You can "warm up" the adhesive before try to cut it with the tool using a hair dryer. Heat the edges for about a minute, keep moving it so you don't cause stress in the glass. Also the above note.. use the tool and then the cards. Do not use a guitar pick or other objects as the thickness will cause you to break the front glass, which is a bonded part of the display (expensive).

In korean, 아이맥 오프닝툴을 이용하여 화면과 뒷본체부 사이에 틈사이, 전원버튼이 있는 디스플레이 왼쪽부터 분리를 시작한다

Erreur de traduction: "de bas en haut" et non de" haut en bas" sur le côté gauche de l'écran

If re-opening a screen that was opened and re-attached using iFixit’s adhesive strips, I would strongly recommend heating it first with an iOpener, heat gun or hair dryer. 20 minutes after attaching with the iFixit adhesive I tried to open it again with the pizza slicer to fix something and cracked the screen on the left-hand side.

Ne pincez pas l’écran avec l’autre main. Vous exercez une pression inutile sur le verre et empêchez la roulette de couper le joint.

In this step can I cut along the display without make any damage to the front camera?

Hi! Actually - there is no need to cut the tape around the camera area - there is no tape to cut at all! And so, the way go is easy - just pass 10 mm to the left and to the right from camera and start cutting!

P.S. Just did the whole procedure to replace a RAM and to add SSD on PSIe an hour ago! Seems to be different reading the instructions... you know - 2/10 and so on. But it's really not that hard, trust me. I'll give it 5/10.

P.P.S. By the way there is one trick to pass the difficult steps. Any action which requires pulling smth (motherboard, speaker, power supply unit) from the narrow crack (or should i say - slit?) at the bottom of your Imac is really not so easy.

And the trick is to first remove a thin metal stripe with some kind of insulation on it which held by 5 small (very small!!) screws at the bottom of your Imac. After you done it - it's easy to pull everything! Pay attention to the fact that one of this 5 screws at the center are more shortly than others.

After doing the replacement the adhesive still sticks quite good enough to hold the screen in place. Maybe this isn't rock-solid, but enough for me.

You can add a SATA SSD if you already have a PCIe SSD Factory?

The key thing is to never put any force on the opening tool when working through the tape. Just roll it back and forth with ease.

Yes, do it many times to loosen the adhesive.

Would be good data to show the 3 areas (wifi antennas where the "tape" is larger and covers them. The rest of the "tape" is 1.4" and easy. Also after removing the display, be sure to remove the old "tape" from both the display and the rubber parts of the case. Use the spudger to start an end and it should pull off easily. Careful on the baackside of the display as you can scratch off the black paint/covering.

this step is extremely important NOT to stick in the cards too far….. doing so, you risk a 600 euro replacement as I experienced………

I drew a 3/8” line on my cards with a marker first.

I’m reading this on the EU store, please change all measurements to cm/mm.

@ifixit The next batch of cards you create should have a line printed on the card 3/8” in from the edges. Would make a nice reference.

Here’s where OWC provides glass removal suction cups, which is a better solution than plastic cards.

The suction cups help to easily lift the glass panel, without risking the damaging of any internal wiring that the plastic cards could cause.

Better to remove stand wedge at this point? Can’t see from pics

This part must be done very carefully or you can damage the flat cable from display, despite it was under a iron cover.

Using glass removal suction cups will avoid running this risk of damaging the camera (or any wiring).

It was difficult to remove this connection. I ended up having to gently pull-up vertically a little on the wire side to unsnap it about 1mm and then horizontally wiggle it out.

I had a difficult time removing this connection. I had to lift the wire-side about 1mm before it unsnapped and then carefully wiggle it out horizontally.

Can this cable be replaced? I am worried mine is damaged. I have no display after the screen fell and stressed the display flex cables following an SSD upgrade.

This step should be done with extreme caution and care, as this step 19 is not described in great detail (sorry, author).

The first (most outward) cable will slide out by gently pulling it by its tabs. The second (inner) cable is more tricky, as the locking lever must be moved backward first, before gently pulling backward on the cable connector. The angled tweezers are useful here, to help lift that locking lever, because fingers are too big for this.

I also need that cable.

It's a little difficult to tell... but looking at the connection to the logic board on the video data cable, are the pins faced up or down?

On the display, same question since it appears you have to "twist" the cable during the reconnection step.

The adhesive strip along the bottom is designed with a pull tab on each outer end. Rather than lever and pull the screen simply carefully pull the tab which removes that half of the lower adhesive strip and frees up the screen.

Yes, use the tabs as Andrew indicates. Super easy.

The adhesive strip along the bottom is designed with a pull tab on each outer end. Rather than lever and pull the screen simply carefully pull the tab which removes that half of the lower adhesive strip and frees up the screen.

Andrew, FTW! This worked perfectly

At step 26, when reassembling, it's super easy to over-tighten the 9mm screw and strip the brass ferrule out of its hole in the plastic bracket (%#*@).

Mine has 4 different length screws, the two red colored 21mm screws in this guide are actually two differ lengths

Mi imac does not have a HDrive whats the steps to follow?

I’ve found that loosening the T10 screws on the enclosure to the left helps give some room to remove and reinstall the drive. Otherwise reattaching the SATA cable can be a hassle.

reconnecting the new drive can be a little tricky as the sata connector in the Mac is hard to align. I found that it helps to move the end of the bumpers out of the way, then push them back into position once the drive is connected.

thats what it did as well, thx for the hint. also i used a plastic spudger to reconnect the plug unto the new drive and leveled it against the speaker casing thats so close to the drive bay

where is the guide for the follow up ?

installing a new hard disk and closing the screen back up.

The SSD was a HUGE performance boost over the 5400rpm drive my iMac came with. If you’re pulling your hair out because Lightroom has become excruciatingly slow, upgrade your hard drive to SSD. You will not be disappointed.

The kit has everything you need. Follow these instructions carefully and you’ll be fine.

Huge improvement! It’s like a new machine. Highly recommended upgrade.

Take care with the adhesive strips, and don’t forget to set new SSD as the boot disk (System Preferences, Startup Disk) after you’ve tested its bootable.

It is also possible install the bumpers after getting the drive cable attached. This gives you more room to work with the cable and drive.

The hardest part was to plug the connector into the new SSD. I loose the two screws of the adjacent (left) speaker and move it just enough to have sufficient space to introduce my fingers to push the conector into the SSD. Left the replace of the rubber bumpers after reconnect the SSD, is easy to handle without it.

I bought Samsung QVO 1TB SSD and now the fan is blasting fast and loud. So if these don’t use the thermal cables then what seems to be triggering the high temp? Obviously it’s the hard drive but could it be that the drive was cloned? I’m kinda stumped, I know I can control with software but some of you are saying it should run normal after install. Thanks for the info.

Is there a PCIe slot for an SSD instead of the SATA 3.0 2.5”?

thank you,

The step-by-step guide was awesome and easy to follow. As others have commented, getting the SATA connector onto the SSD is tricky but not impossible. Just pull back the rubber bumpers long enough to reach the connector, then flip them back into place before seating the drive. One comment for my machine (late 2015 21.5”): There is no mic hole for my model, so while I was a little confused at the instructions on reinstalling the adhesive, the drive replacement went like a dream. And I saved myself the $120 labor the local Mac shop wanted to charge me.

This is the least accurately described step (sorry, author). While removal is easy, inserting the new drive in its place is a bit tricky. The key here, is to insert the new drive with its rubber bumpers back in its space, so that it is fully seated down in its place *before* the connector can be re-attached. Once it is seated in place, use the flat end of the spudger to gently manoeuver the connector back into place until it is firmly connected to the drive.

Reassembling the iMac is not simply following these instructions in reverse order (sorry, author).

Before embarking on the home stretch, it is very important to carefully study the guide about the Adhesive Strips Replacement (iMac Intel 21.5" Retina 4K Display (2017) Adhesive Strips Replacement - iFixit Repair Guide), as this a tedious and time consuming process. Perfect alignment of those adhesive strips takes some concentration, because you will want to have your display panel back nice and tight and fully aligned with the case. Once all strips are in place, the 2 display connectors need to be gently reattached to the motherboard, before closing up the panel. I took my sweet time for that step, and thankfully have a perfectly aligned display panel back in place looking no different from the factory fit.

Here’s the rest of the information you need.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xDJ28Oe...

I got a 4 TB Seagate Barracuda HDD as a replacement for a client. (Going for capacity over speed.) Does anyone know if it will fit? It’s definitely fatter than the other HDD/SSDs I’ve installed before.

This iFixit tool (iFixit Opening Tool) will be your best friend when it's time to install your new 2.5" hard drive. Simply hook the tool to the back top corner of the iMac SATA adapter, connect your hard drive loosely to the SATA ports and use the tool to pull the SATA adapter forward into the hard drive.

After replacing the hard drive. All went well BUT -now my mic does not work. It's the single hole on the bottom. Any ideas anybody?