If you push both ends of the cable through it before reconnecting, fit the frontplate and then connect the two ends and push it back into place, it should be much easier. I then noticed, however, that there's a slot on the front casing which the cable can fit through. Firstly, the iSight camera lead is a bit fiddly to push back, and my first attempt had it blocking one of the Torx screwholes. There are a few things to note on the way back which might help you. Stick the heat sensor back where it was, cover it with the foam, and follow all the instructions above backwards to reassemble. Put these in the new hard drive, plug in the SATA and power cables, and snap it into place.

On the left hand side (looking from the top of the iMac down, there are four cables (it looks like two to begin with): Whichever, take that one out first (each of these cables bar one has little plastic plug connectors so is easy to do). I'd suggest you remove that before you take the screen out, but there are so many cables down there it might be difficult to identify without finding which one is preventing you from removing the screen. One is a tiny little black one which is curled round the edge of the fan you can see in the bottom left of the 'naked iMac' picture. The screen is attached to the motherboard etc. The screen is encased in an aluminium 'frame', which has four T8 screws on either side, outside the thin black rubberised strip which surrounds it. I'll just have to try to be as clear as possible, but be warned – here is where you may need your glamorous assistant again.

I've just realised that I didn't take a picture of the next bit, which is unfortunate because it was the one bit of the Googled instructions which I found a bit vague. It was at this point - though not the last - when Miss JD came in and said 'is it working yet?' and violence was only narrowly avoided.Ĭurses. I started with just the paintbrush, but fluff started getting all over the screen so I whipped out the Dyson and had that running a little way away from the delicate innards while I brushed all the grime away from the circuit boards visible under the screen.

Now I never thought I'd find myself writing this, but this is where the paintbrush and the hoover came in.

Imac change hard drive