I thought that I had made all of the necessary preparations: I downloaded an instructional PDF from Apple and reviewed it...it even had a list of what tools I would need, now I had everything prepared.
I backup up my 160 gig drive to an external firewire drive with Carbon Copy Cloner and proceeded to open the computer (not the first time, I installed the RAM and Airport Extreme card too).
Following the instructions, I removed the back cover with the #2 phillips screwdriver, but it was too big to remove the 3 brass colored screws holding the drive to the Mac. Thankfully I had a #0 phillips on hand from when I installed RAM in my iBook. So, I removed the screws and disconnected the cables as directed and then was going to put in the new drive....until I noted the 4 oddly shaped screws on the mounting brackets attached to the sides of the drive. I had nothing that would fit and made a quick run down to my nearest Ace Hardware Store. I brought the old drive with me to ensure that I got the right tool or tools. I had to buy a #10 Torx screwdriver. Got back home and put the mounting brackets on the new drive. I then re-attached all of the cables and closed up the computer.
I then booted from the 10.3.5 CD and used the disk utility to partition the drive. I only made it 1 partition. Then went back to installing the OS. When I got to the point where you choose the disk to install on, it was red and said I couldn't install on it. Thinking of nothing better, I rebooted and started the procedure again. This time I was able to select the new hard drive and the installation went smoothly from there.
Now, I have a nice clean install without all of the little haxies and such that I'd put on over the years......I want it prepared for when 10.4 gets here on April 29. So all is working perfectly, the Maxtor drive actually seems a bit snappier and it's quieter. This one has a 16 mb cache and is the same speed as the old one 7200 rpm. Oh I forgot to mention you also need a #0 phillips screw driver to remove the screws holding the hard drive to the computer.
So, in summary, Apple left out the fact that you need not only a #2 phillips but also a #0 phillips and a #10 Torx screwdriver. They suggested a pair of needle nose pliers also but I never needed to use them ((I have small fingers). Also it would have been nice if they had mentioned that after partitioning the disk you should reboot and THEN start the install.
So now, my iMac G5 20 inch is working perfectly with its new 250 gig hard drive.....but I really have to fault Apple for leaving out a few important things.
Hope this helps anybody who is interested in doing the same thing.
Tim
Exterminate all rational though.
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