Peel back the aluminum EMI tape from the two vertical edges of the display.
During reassembly, it is helpful to use several small strips of tape to hold the EMI shielding along the left and right edges of the display footprint out of the way before lowering the display into the rear case of your iMac.
Pressing the top of the hard drive bracket down to release it from the rear case requires a substantial amount of force, so we recommend laying your iMac stand-side down on a table to avoid knocking it over.
Press the hard drive bracket down toward the bottom edge of your iMac to free it from the rear case, then rotate the top of the drive toward yourself.
Lift the hard drive off its lower pins and pull it out of the rear case, minding the cables that are still attached.
When reinstalling the hard drive, be careful not to push the rubber grommets through the chassis with the hard drive pins as retrieving them may require logic board removal.
I disconnected the hard drive bracket and slid it to one side and removed it, then removed the hard drive (squeezing it out just wasn't working for me).
Before I discovered IFIXIT I had purchased a hard drive from Western Digital and am hoping it is the correct one for my 17" iMac G5, 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. The WD drive's description is TRESXLB2 7200 64M SATA3 6GB/S 1.0 TB 2HD STD . Can anyone tell me if I will have problems with this drive? Western Digital's recommendations fit this description for my iMac. Thank you. Ron
Excellent presentation. My iMac G5 came apart easily just as described. The unit still worked perfectly but had been on the shelf for years as the screen was almost blacked out with lines. The G5 was replaced with an Intel model but I miss certain aspects of the old system. I'm hoping the HDD will boot up a G5 Power Mac so I can reminisce!
Excellent guideline. I took apart my old iMac to use the hard drive with the docking. Spend only few minutes with my daughter read the instructions, its quite fun. Thank you Walter. Keep safe and healthy