iMac Hard Drive to SSD Replacement

If you have an old iMac with a spinning disk, it likely performing very poorly. We explain and demonstrate how to disassemble your iMac, replace the 3.5" Spinning Disk with an Solid State Disk (SSD) and then install a fresh MacOS on it. How to replace your iMac disk with an SSD to increase performance and salvage an otherwise junk computer is good.
In our case we are working on an Apple Mid-2010 iMac 21" but it is the same procedure for the Mid-2010 iMac 24" or the mid 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013 and 2014 iMac
Disassemble iMac and replace mid-2010 iMac hard drive with SSD
Intro 0:00
What is a Solid State Drive SSD 0:45
What tools do you need to disassemble an iMac 1:39
Disassemble a Mid-2010 iMac 2:22
How to remove an iMac screen 2:35
Remove LCD Screen from iMac 3:43
Remove Hard Drive from iMac 6:10
Clean an iMac 7:30
How To Install an SSD in mid-2010 iMac 7:50
Reassemble iMac 9:27
How To Partition & Format a New Drive in an iMac 10:25
Finish iMac Reassembly 11:00
Outro 11:50

[@studiozanetti]

Thank you I am up and running, thanks for the great instructions :)

[@edvanwillegen3131]

You disconnected 3 cables from the hard drive. The temp sensor, the data cable and the power cable. What happens with the power cable?

[@mihailskijasko1876]

Hope nobody will blow directly to the CPU fan not holding it. The fan motor works as a generator and can damage MB by generated current. :)

[@URTechDotCa]

I don't think so. I have being doing this for more than 30 years and never damaged a fan. While I am sure you are correct that is is possble, I think it is highly unlikely.

[@mihailskijasko1876]

In my experience, it is luckily the same, but my colleague once damaged MB by blowing to fan, probably it depends on many other factors. But there a lot of debates exist about it.
Citation from Cisco "IT essentials" course: "CAUTION: When you clean a fan with compressed air, hold the fan blades in place. This prevents overspinning the rotor or moving the fan in the wrong direction."