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

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Upgrade hard drive and instal new OS on 2008 24" iMac

I would like to upgrade my 320GB hard drive with a new 3TB hard drive.

At the moment i have 4 gig of RAM.

from other answers here I think I need to use the same brand hard drive, mine is a WD.

I'am thinking of buying a WD black 3TB drive. Will this be ok or do i need to buy the blue or green ?? heating problems etc ??

I have watched the help video here on ifixit on how to physically change my hard drive and feel confident to do so.

My question for this issue is how to instal the operating system etc to be able to restart my computer with new hard drive. Can I change a blank drive into my computer then reinstall OS or do I a need boot drive etc or install something on the drive before installing? I have found some answers but all a bit unclear for my head.

Also on this older computer with a bigger hard drive what is the best OS to install? The original system was snow leapard. I have also found info that installing Yosemite will not be good for my older system but have been running much later software until I have had hard drive issues.

Any help with these questions will be greatly appreciated - Ben

Answer this question I have this problem too

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To start with your system is one of these: iMac7,1 or iMac8,1. Review the listing to locate yours (one of the 24" models).

As you can see the max memory these systems can support is 6GB (using one 2 GB and one 4 GB SO-DIMM module). I would recommend upgrading the memory if you haven't already.

As to the HD: Review this IFIXIT guide: iMac Intel 24" EMC 2134 and 2211 Hard Drive Replacement. If you slide down to Step 21 you can see the thermal sensor this series uses. Because it is external you can use any HD as long as it can run at SATA II (3.0 Gb/s). Many of the newer drives are fixed for SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) which won't work reliably in your system. But before you alter your system you should make sure your systems firmware is upto date. Follow this Apple T/N: EFI and SMC firmware updates for Intel-based Macs.

So now what would be the best drive for your system? I would recommend going with a SSHD hybrid drive vs your standard HD. Here is the Seagate desktop drive info: Desktop SSHD. If we review the Spec sheet: Desktop SSHD Spec Sheet. Note the line: SATA Transfer Rates Supported (Gb/s) and how all three SATA speeds are offered 6.0/3.0/1.5 This drive auto senses the systems SATA ports speed and matches it. Being a hybrid drive also give you a deeper SSD cache so the systems boot up and often used apps loading are sped up. For reference here is the Western Digital Black desktop drives spec sheet: WD Desktop Black. Note this series of drives Interface is only SATA 6 Gb/s so its too fast for your system.

So far we've talked about the hardware side of the issue. If your system is still running I would recommend you get a FireWire 3.5" hard drive case and cable to hold your new drive so you can prep it up before you remove your old drive and can migrate the user, apps & data over. But before you go there you'll need to run Disk Utility to format & create GUID partition map & a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) partition on your new drive. Then using your current recovery CD that came with your system install the OS. The last step is use the Migration Assistant for copy over the user, apps & your data over to the new drive.

As to what OS to run your system: You could stay at Mountain Lion or Mavericks or go upto Yosemite. Unless you are doing deep image or video editing or application development your system will be fine with 6GB of RAM. As for El Capitan its to early to tell.

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3 Comments:

I tried the El Capitan Beta, that drive is toast and unseeable now.

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Ouch! Apple pulled the open beta the other day. Is this why?

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Probably, they did not respond to me and I'm finished with betas for a while. I've done betas since 1993 when only professionals got it, now they just throw out totally untested versions and let the buyer beware.

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ben urvan will be eternally grateful.
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