Upgrading the iMac

It is now two weeks since the iMac upgrade was completed - and I'm just now able to relive it. I just wanted to swap out the iMac hard drive for a mighty 1.5 TB replacement drive. These iMacs are amazing - So thin! So sleek! - how do they get all that stuff in there? As I found out, you can't fit all that stuff in there - or at least not BACK in there. It was very nearly a total disaster. How hard can it be to get a size 8 Torx long-neck screwdriver in Hawaii? Let's just say the workaround was extremely sub-optimal. I had a great set of youtube directions to follow - and everything was going like rusty clockwork until I moved past the point of no return - cracked open the case and tried to remove the flat panel monitor - when I realized the innards of my computer looked absolutely NOTHING like the well-organized model iMac on the step-by-step. But what the hell - how hard can it be? I started unplugging things and removing brackets when a wave of hopelessness came over me when I realized the drive was welded in. It was, in fact, just very cleverly attached - and I proceeded to very uncleverly strip every torx screw I could find until the drive plopped off it's mount and deposited a big dent on partially unhinged heat shield. Hmmm. And these confounded things have heat sensors on the drives now - and you are supposed to use contact cement to attach them. Really? The drive fits in a very snug little nook and the heat sensor kept getting rubbed off. Ahhhh. Superglue is a good thing (just hope I never have to upgrade this drive again). With the drive installed and the case back together (and only a few dozen screws laying on the table) we were good to go ... and then it wouldn't boot. Hmmm. Lots of cursing and a little RAM tweaking later it managed to blurt out the boot chime and we were back in business. Total time on the youtube guide: 14 min, total time for my efforts: 3 hours. But hey - 1.5 TB - totally worth it.