This of course has made me improve my backup game… Everything important is on other drives included a RAIDed setup for my images. Here’s another great tutorial but with pictures -vs- the video above: įollow it to step 16 but once that DVD drive is out just pull the old SSD out from behind it. Once you’ve got in installed go ahead and turn it back on and install your OS on it. But you can also see the files in folders as well so at least you’ll know what you’re missing… You DO NOT NEED any additional cables, the SSD I linked above uses the cables the iMac had from the factory. Also, if your drive dies on you so you can’t boot the OS, I installed the OS on the TB HD just so I could get at the data in the SSD. You’re going to do what they do through the 4:50 mark but then you’re done.

I highly recommend having another computer available with this video playing: Plug in the new drive and reverse the order… Remove it from the case and remove it’s wires. Once that’s out the old SSD is right behind it with 3 screws holding it in. Once that’s done the DVD is obvious (there’s once sensor wire to remove then it’s data and power). I would follow the advice of OWC in the video below and use your box to hold the glass and screen once it’s out, it’s AMAZINGLY HELPFUL!!! Once the 8 screws are our of the screen itself leans forward and then you have to remove 4 wires/cables. It’s held on by magnets so it comes off w/o much drama. I just got my fingernails under there and carefully pulled it forward. I did not use the suction cups everyone mentions using to get the glass/plexi off the front of the computer. I used the closest direct replacement by going with a sandisk 240gb pro SSD. You’ll need an T8.5 to swap the rails from the old drive onto the new drive. Once you get the DVD out the old SSD is actually sitting right behind it. There are 8 T10 screws holding the screen in and 4 holding in the DVD drive. So, first off, let’s cover what you’ll need. This post IS about replacing your SSD if it goes bad… There are ton’s of tutorials out there about adding one but I couldn’t find a single one about replacing a bad one. This post is NOT about “adding” an SSD to a machine without one.

The iMac originally came with a 256gb SSD and a 1TB internal HD for storage as well. The SSD on my iMac crashed a few weeks ago now.

Mid 2011 imac hard drive replacement