“Regardless of how the iMac was originally configured, both the iMac 21.5″ and iMac 27″ always had the 7+17 Pin connector present on the logic board, opening the door to later upgrade with a blade SSD.

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For anyone planning to upgrade their iMac that was not originally configured with a blade SSD, it should be noted that while the connector is present, the single screw that secures the SSD is missing.

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It’s a pretty uniquely shaped screw and you’re not likely to find it at your local hardware store, so make sure to purchase one before you go to the hassle opening up the iMac”.

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@azkap — All the data from your ︎Mac is stored on this tiny, little SSD chip. Everything is on there.

First, you need to use Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) or SuperDuper! programs to clone (backup) your current SSD to an external hard drive, ︎TimeCapsule, or somewhere else.

When you put the new blank (empty) SSD in, you can use the same programs to clone the contents (operating system and data), of your old SSD to your brand new SSD.

That’s the principle. Asking someone you know of (who’s a wizz with Apple Mac’s), to help, might be wise.

Use Arctic Silver 5 — avoid the cheap alternatives (they’re not worth it).

How did you get on? I’m guessing everything went fine and you have two (2) separate SSD’s working side-by-side (perhaps one 128GB for Mac OS X — one 1TB for Data)?

I ask because, like you, I intend removing the original HDD completely and replacing it with 2 x SSD’s (Samsung 870QVO — 1TB each), using the iFixit Mac Mini Dual Drive Kit (£18 + P&P) which I bought — to set up either RAID-0 (seen as 1 x 2TB drive) or RAID-1 (seen as 1TB — but faster + redundancy)(size versus speed) configuration.

Nobody has yet reported success with similar combinations (although I’m sure they have been successful).

Whilst I’m in there, I’m going to remove/replace the thermal paste on the CPU then swap out the old CMOS battery too.

With the Mac Mini (Late 2012) model it’s now possible (March 2023) to run MacOS Monterey 12.6.4 using OpenCore Legacy Patcher (same for the 2011 Mac Mini, I believe)(16GB RAM advisable obviously). Might try it.

Expecting to get many more years of daily use out of this beautiful little 2012 machine!

No, these screws won’t bite going back in — struggled for an hour. Lost hope of success.

Case screw holes perfectly lined-up, neatly closed body, screw threads/head are fine (Apple quality screws), perfect screwdriver.

The left one is in, other two simply will not bite whatsoever. Slightly irritating eventually turned to madly infuriating. I have a similar, earlier model and that was smooth to replace these exact, slightly angled screws (so I have experience).

Q: Are the centre and right-hand screws absolutely essential — or can I give up and leave them out?

(By the time you read this, that’s what I’ll have done)(out of sheer frustration)

Firenzeitalia: The tiny little black one is the scariest part of the whole job. You need to use a firm spudger to slide it out to the left. Possibly even use the pointy end, but it slides out quite easily.

The hard part is getting it to slide back in again later — especially if you have large fingers. Essentially, you’re going to have to do it blind — and by ‘feel’ — because you can’t see what you’re doing.

Fortunately, Apple made it so that the black housing lines-up to the sides and the four tiny receptor prongs: once you’ve slid it into place and it looks correctly in, you then push down on it — to snap it in properly.

This is the time to re-attach the keyboard (put a cloth over the screen), plug in power and turn the machine on to test you’ve done it right.

If you’ve attached the tiny Inverter housing correctly, the screen will light up and boot as expected. If the screen remains black, remove the keyboard and cable again — gently — and check the Inverter and Display Data Cable are correctly inserted.

The longer two (middle) screws are about 14mm and the rest (identical) are approximately 10mm.

Most of these comments DO NOT refer to the PRAM Battery Replacement — a process which does take two full hours and requires skill and patience to dismantle the MacBook to get to the point of flipping the logicboard to access (and swap out) the bizarre, old-fashioned battery.

The real question has to be: What is this battery? Specifically, does anyone have a part number/voltage specification for it?

If you know, please post the answer here.

Thank you so much!

I wondered the same thing — if you can simply buy the low capacity flash memory AppleTV model (with the 32GB Toshiba THGBX6G8D2LLDXG), then inexpensively replace the chip with a 256GB Toshiba THGAF8T1T83BAIR chip (or similar)?

I’m wondering if you can simply buy the low capacity flash memory AppleTV model (with the 32GB Toshiba THGBX6G8D2LLDXG), then inexpensively replace the chip with a 256GB Toshiba THGAF8T1T83BAIR chip (or similar)?