Hi,
I recently got me one of these shiny new Intel iMacs (and damned nice it is too!). I just got the stock 17" and have since upgraded the RAM to 2Gb. However I'm finding the 160Gb Hard Disk rather limiting. Now, I know I can take out the hard disk and replace it with a new one, but I'm wondering whether this will work from a software point of view, since the EFI is stored on a small partition of the hard disk. Can I just put the install disk in the optical drive and it will boot from that so I can install the EFI and everything as part of a clean install? Or would I be making a paperweight?

Anyone tried this yet or know anything on the subject?

Cheers,
Ewan

Your best bet would be to use Carbon Copy Cloner and an external FireWire and/or USB 2.0 SATA enclosure (which you probably don't have) to extract the contents of your current disc and put them on the new one. Now, that may not work since the EFI is on a separate partition. Is that separate partition visible in any apps, like, say, Disk Utility?

I would imagine the Universal install disks would install EFI along with the OS. As long as you use the disks which came with it you should be fine.
In the event I am wrong, you would still be able to put the original drive back in without any issue.

It turns out that the Install Discs for the Intel macs (or at least the 15" MBP) will not install to an external (firewire) drive. At least not without some hacking. I intend to find out about generic drives in Intel Macs. Watch this space.....

Makes you wonder about the quick drive swap in the MacBook. Not so great if you have to buy an Apple drive.

I wouldn't really worry about buying original apple hardware, after all someons will find out that it has:
A) a lucent chipset (airport)
b)been made by pioneer (optical drives)
c)its a travelstarxxx hd from ibm (hardrives)
d)fill in the blank..

So yeah it will probably need somehacking but where would the fun go if no hacking was required? LOL

actually, you can install to external discs, you just need to make sure if you are using a intel mac that you artition the disk using the GUID partition table not the aplpe partitioning susytem

Can you do that from the Apple discs? How else?

Never mind, I see it.

And if it works on external generic drives, it will work on internal ones.