Mac Forum / General / General / April 2007

I don't think heat is an issue you have to worry about. You might want
to research sound info, though; the whine made by a lot of those old
iMac drives was really annoying. The quieter the drive you get, the
happier you'll be.

Just use a regular ATA hard drive.  (with the IDE ATA pins, not SATA)

Any up to 120 Gb will work just fine.

I like to stick with one of three brands:  Seagate, Western Digital and
Maxtor.  Those seem to have the best reputations.

I upgraded my slot-load iMac to a Western Digital 80Gb with no problem
at all.  I'm still using that drive as one of four in my souped-up old
digital audio G4.  (My appetite for computing capabilities has since
outgrown my iMac.)

The main thing to keep in mind is to use a ton  of patience and
delicacy and preferrably a pair of needle-nose pliars from the end of
the socket to unplug the ribbon cable from the hard drive.  It's easy
to damage that.

Also, be sure to set the jumpers on the new drive for "master," or in
some cases as a single, or the only drive on the cable.  Check the
paperwork enclosed with the drive for advice on that.

Good luck.