Repair Imac Disk with S.M.A.R.T errors.

jean at huens dot be 20170828

Problem detection

The Imac did work but mysterious errors did occur.
When trying a upgrade to Macos Sierra the install program reported to many SMART errors.
It wa decided to replace the 1 TB Sata disk with a 500 Gb SSD disk.
This will result in faster disk accesses.

The disk was ordered on Amazon.de

The friendly Bike Carrier Rita did transport the (oversized ?) package from Hevelee to Blanden

Repair

Opening the Imac is described on Ifixit
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2390+Hard+Drive+Replacement/8919

We did follow this guide, but did not completely remove the display (skipped steps 5, 6 and 7) since reconnecting is difficult and not needed in this case. But you need assistance.

Oversized package

Oversized package

Ecological filling

Expected content

Inside the Imac

The old faulty disk

The new EVO disk is smaller, 2.5 inch, and must be attached to the adapter to make it fit in the 3.5 inch housing.

The Imac without disk and dangling connectors of display unit...

The helping hands of the assistant are greatly appreciated

With new disk inserted

These connectors are the most difficult to reach and connec

Closing the Imac for first tests; it boots.....

Next steps are mainly software

We did not enable any networking on this Imac.

Erasing the new disk to create a partition, using the partition button directly does not work

Now Macos Sierra can be installed from USB installer created on another Imac running MacOS Sierra.

macos Sierra installation

Do not look at the meaningles indicator of time, just wait .... In my case it did take a lot more than seven minutes...

installation in action

At the end of the installtion it will reboot and ask questions to configure this Imac.
We did not enable enter a apple ID and did not connect to the network.
After booting in to a login screen we did connect th ethernet and stared a check for updates.

Finally we got