Post vacation dead hard drive

Mijn probleem

After a very media free vacation in the Yucatan, my boys (10 and 12) were eager to get back to Minecraft. Sadly the iMac did not wake up from its vacation nap--just hung on the gray startup screen. After several attempts to restore and re-install Mavericks, we diagnosed the hard drive as dead or very nearly there. After finding iFixit, I made a deal: you boys help me fix the old iMac (circa 2008) it will be yours when I get my new one.

Mijn oplossing

We reviewed all the printed instructions and followed along with the video. Both guys had their designated tasks--one kept track of all the screws (labeling them by step number and putting each in their own bowl), they other guided me through the directions and the video. Though it was tense at times--the LCD cable was really hard to pull out and very hard to put back in--we replaced the hard drive and put it all back together in about 1 hour.

Mijn advies

OK, the absolute hardest thing that we encountered was putting the LCD cable back in. Trying to hold up the LCD, line up the cable right, snap it in--and not inadvertently teach my boys a couple of choice swear words was very tough. In the end, we took the 4 torx screws the held down the board the LCD cable attaches to, snapped in the cable from a more reasonable angle, and reattached the board--much easier.