After a trip to the Apple Store Genius Bar to confirm my fears, I spent about an hour replacing the hard drive in my mom’s old eMac (yes, eMac) only to have the computer not recognize it. Need to take it out back.
My mom’s 2005 eMac. Unopened.
First thing removed: bottom memory panel
Next, I removed the two small feet
With a hex wrench I had to remove 7 screws with giant flat heads
Three bottom screws removed
After carefully disconnecting the power button connector, the case was removed
Five+ years of gathered dust
Mostly cleaned with a view of the next step
Disconnected the fan
Removed the inner Farrady cage
The inner guts more or less exposed
A few more screws and moving the controller board, heat sink and hard drive away
Finally see access to the hard drive
View of the separated CRT portion and actual computer guts
The mother board and hard drive
Hard drive removed and ready to be swapped
