Cannot see newly installed harddrive in iMac

Question

iMac Intel 24" EMC 2134 and 2211

Model A1225 / Mid 2007 and Early 2008 / 2.4, 2.8, or 3.06 GHz Core 2 Duo processor

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drgordon @drgordon44242

Rep: 11

Gepost: 9 dec. 2014

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Cannot see newly installed harddrive in iMac

Installed new harddrive per iFixit. iMac starts up with installer (file on USB thumb drive) but cannot see new disk. Disk repair does not see new disk to format it.

Suggested path to run down other than complete tear apart again?

Any software tricks to find harddrive or suggested places to start looking when tearing iMac back apart?

Normal startup chime and boots into installer when USB thumb drive used - just can't see new drive

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Ja Nee

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Can you give us the drives make and model you are trying to install that would be a great help in figuring out how to fix this.

9 dec. 2014 door Dan

WD2500AAJS; 250GB 7200RPM 3.5" SATA hdd

SN(s): WMAT12898752;

I suspect that the iMac may have come originally with a 500GB and won't cotton to a smaller drive? Is that a possibility?

10 dec. 2014 door drgordon

The only size requirement of a boot drive is that it be large enough to contain the OS and some extra free space for VMEM (swap) files. You can boot these from a DVD (4-8GB) as you know, even a USB drive. More than likely it is a connector/cable fault. Go over your reassembly once more paying close attention to your connectors (connections).

10 dec. 2014 door originalmachead

By the numbers this drive should work. Your systems SATA port is SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) and this drive is likewise SATA II. While I would have put in a larger drive this is still plenty large enough to install the OS on.

10 dec. 2014 door Dan

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Dan @danj

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Self employed contract worker

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Gepost: 10 dec. 2014

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Do you have access to another HD to put in? I would also look at trying to setup the drive externally first. You may want to get a FireWire external case to hold the HD to then prep it before installing it.

If you are planning on getting another drive checkout the Seagate 3.5" SSHD drives. The Seagate drive has auto SATA port sensing. Western Digital does not offer a 3.5 SSHD.

Here's the info page on the Seagate SSHD's: Seagate Desktop SSHD

Was dit antwoord nuttig?

Ja Nee

Score 2

2 opmerkingen:

I took the drive out and formatted it externally. Reinstalled it, and voila! - still is not seen. I suspect the harddrive controller on the logic board is what's bad. It would not surprise me (and I am going to test it) whether the original drive is actually still good and the problem was solely the controller. I will know that a little later today when the external case comes and I will circle back to close the thread.

On the upside, I am now fearless on cracking iMac cases and tearing them apart. :p

19 dec. 2014 door drgordon

Turned out to be both a bad harddrive and a bad controller on the MB. Moved the newly purchased drive to an external bay, formatted it with a MBAir, then hooked it back up to the iMac and loaded the OS onto new drive. Back in business.

Thx

22 dec. 2014 door drgordon

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Can you give us the drives make and model you are trying to install that would be a great help in figuring out how to fix this. — Dan
WD2500AAJS; 250GB 7200RPM 3.5" SATA hdd

SN(s): WMAT12898752;

I suspect that the iMac may have come originally with a 500GB and won't cotton to a smaller drive? Is that a possibility? — drgordon
The only size requirement of a boot drive is that it be large enough to contain the OS and some extra free space for VMEM (swap) files. You can boot these from a DVD (4-8GB) as you know, even a USB drive. More than likely it is a connector/cable fault. Go over your reassembly once more paying close attention to your connectors (connections). — originalmachead
By the numbers this drive should work. Your systems SATA port is SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) and this drive is likewise SATA II. While I would have put in a larger drive this is still plenty large enough to install the OS on. — Dan
I took the drive out and formatted it externally. Reinstalled it, and voila! - still is not seen. I suspect the harddrive controller on the logic board is what's bad. It would not surprise me (and I am going to test it) whether the original drive is actually still good and the problem was solely the controller. I will know that a little later today when the external case comes and I will circle back to close the thread.

On the upside, I am now fearless on cracking iMac cases and tearing them apart. :p — drgordon
Turned out to be both a bad harddrive and a bad controller on the MB. Moved the newly purchased drive to an external bay, formatted it with a MBAir, then hooked it back up to the iMac and loaded the OS onto new drive. Back in business.

Thx — drgordon