Running an iMac off an external SSD

rob-nikon

rob-nikon

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Rob
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I have a late 2012 21.5 inch iMac that runs on the standard hard drive and 8GB RAM. I would like to try improving performance as best I can. The problem is both the hard drive and RAM are hidden behind the adhesive taped screen making the task most likely beyond my skills:

View: https://youtu.be/01cXD3TY3nc


I’ve kind of ruled out opening the iMac up as the cost to benefit is lowered than I would like. Potentially I could upgrade from 8GB to 16GB (max it could take). Long term I need to upgrade to a newer model but would like to get a little more life out of this one. That brings me to the idea of booting and running it off an external 500GB SSD. My iMac has USB3 ports I thought I would ask if anyone has done this and could provide some pointers. Any pointers on a 2.5 inch SSD and a USB case would be great too. These would seem to be more cost effective than a portable SSD (circa £70 compared to around £110). Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
I've used these ones which are very good but expensive compared to some others:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inateck-FE...+sata+external+hard+drive+disk+enclosure&th=1

I've also tried these and found them reasonable:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DX8G98L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

But I don't know whether you could actually boot to them - I know it doesn't work with Windows ut have no knowledge of Macs really.

As for the SSDs to put in them I always use Samsung and have never had trouble with them.
 
Rob
Yes you can boot from an external drive such as a USB SSD. Its simple, but you do need to have the OS installed on the SSD. You could do this by simply making a recovery disk , or copying the OS using Carbon Copy Cloner or similar
Here's an article from Apple support.
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT202796

I've done this myself when trying out Beta OSX a few years ago. I found though it was a slower than the internal drives.
 
Cloning your current hard drive is very simple using Disk Utility and you'll be able to boot from the external drive once it's done.
 
Agreed - I did this with my iMac that was getting a little slow. Installed the OS and key applications on an external SSD and used the internal HDD for file storage. As with any of this stuff, make a back up of the back up just in case!
 
As the others said it's trivial to do on a Mac.

I have the late 2014 5K iMac with the silly 'Fusion' drive (part SSD / part Mechanical). When I use a SanDisk 1TB SSD drive via USB3, it's quicker to write too, and about the same to read (slower in some instances when the data is served off the internal SSD part of the fusion drive, but quite a bit faster at other times - it's generally a lot more consistent).

I make a backup of my disk nightly with Carbon Copy Cloner, and it's bootable, so it's very easy to do.
 
I have tried it, albeit a little crude. I bought a £5 adapter off amazon, and a small SSD (256g) £40 amazon

method.

- download OS from app store
- install onto SSD
- go to iMac system preferences
- go to startup disk
- select which disk to boot from
- restart

when you boot, if it struggles (it shouldn't) then reboot and as soon as the apple chime comes on press and hold the option key and then you will get the option to choose which disk to boot from.

Im sure if you bought a posher version it would work equally as well (or quicker?), but this works well enough for me. It also means that my MBP can be slaved to this SSD too.

I have gone back to my fusion drive now however, but it has worked for me should i need to use it again. Good luck.

ssd.jpg
 
I converted my 2011 Imac 27 to SSD and maxed out the ram and it made it a new machine.
I too didn't fancy doing the job myself but a local company did it for me for approx. £100. Its much better than booting off external drives as an SSD will not run at the same speed via usb than it will via SATA.
 
Overexposed said:
I converted my 2011 Imac 27 to SSD and maxed out the ram and it made it a new machine.
I too didn't fancy doing the job myself but a local company did it for me for approx. £100. Its much better than booting off external drives as an SSD will not run at the same speed via usb than it will via SATA.
Click to expand...

This is what I did with our 2012 27" imac too. Although I actually put a large SSD in and a large HDD too. I didn't fancy booting from USB as I don't find USB ports particularly reliable on macs. Taking them apart is scary but actually very straight forward.
 
I was surprised at how cheap it is to get an iMac updated with SSD, I've had Bramley Computers recommended. I looked into it when I had what looked like a HDD crash, but as I haven't seen anything since, I'm putting the money towards a new Mac.
 
Craikeybaby said:
I was surprised at how cheap it is to get an iMac updated with SSD, I've had Bramley Computers recommended. I looked into it when I had what looked like a HDD crash, but as I haven't seen anything since, I'm putting the money towards a new Mac.
Click to expand...

.... I can recommend Jon, the owner, at Bramley too. Very knowledgeable and very caring and reasonably priced.
 
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