Upgrading iMac to SSD (at last), but...

Carlo

Carlo

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Carl
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I've now bought everything to upgrade my iMac's hard drive from the original HDD to a SSD.
Just been preparing the computer now by deleting all junk before upgrading the OS, but have just found out I can't upgrade to Mojave as my iMac is a 2011 model, and Mojave is only supported on 2012 models and newer!
So...do i keep El Capitan, or go for Sierra/high sierra????
Didn't expect problems before I even started!!
 
Generally it's better to go for the most recent version possible UNLESS there are known problems with it.
 
you can run an OS from an external drive, so, if I was you i'd put high sierra on your ssd, run it externally for a bit, if you're happy with how it works, stick it inside the imac- or just keep running it externally and use the internal drive as more storage- the process of removing the screen from an imac is quite hard

edit: scratch that, since you dont have usb 3 ports, that's not an option, so, you'll either have to do the upgrade internally, or you could always use thunderbolt, but that's getting $$$, may as well trade up for a newer model at that point

for the record i'm on high sierra and dont really see the need to upgrade any time soon
 
Apple generally provide regular security updates for 3 years for an OS - their last security update back in December was for macOS Sierra 10.12.6, macOS High Sierra 10.13.6, and macOS Mojave 10.14.1.

So personally I'd upgrade to macOS 10.13 High Sierra to retain security updates as long as possible - unless any of your vital apps don't support it.
 
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Before you updates to HS check that all you equipment is supported. A work colleague update to Mojave and now his printer is no longer working with the OS.
 
sep9001 said:
Before you updates to HS check that all you equipment is supported. A work colleague update to Mojave and now his printer is no longer working with the OS.
Click to expand...

Hence my comment. A while back, I upgraded to Snow Leopard 10.6.3 from 10.5 and found printing was no longer possible, despite the wait for Apple to complete bug fixes on the beta first version they released.
 
I have Mojave on my 2012 iMac and found it to be klunky to say the best high Sierra is what I want to install when I find out how lol
 
I'm typing this on my new(er) super fast iMac!!
I updated to HS before I started then cloned to the SSD, then did the swap out.
Was quite easy actually! only took me about 45 minutes and that was with me being extremely careful!
What i found strange was the HDD that was in the mac was a seagate barracuda! maybe the previous owner had a HD failure and replaced the drive (but the seagate drive appeared to have a temp sensor inbuilt which I thought 3rd party drives didn't have?)
Quite happy with myself
 
It's hard to know what will get used - my old macbook came with a budget Tosh drive, and I owned that from new.
 
Carlo said:
I'm typing this on my new(er) super fast iMac!!
I updated to HS before I started then cloned to the SSD, then did the swap out.
Was quite easy actually! only took me about 45 minutes and that was with me being extremely careful!
What i found strange was the HDD that was in the mac was a seagate barracuda! maybe the previous owner had a HD failure and replaced the drive (but the seagate drive appeared to have a temp sensor inbuilt which I thought 3rd party drives didn't have?)
Quite happy with myself
Click to expand...
Has it made a lot of difference? I have a late 2012 21.5 inch iMac which has the glued screen. I thought about upgrading the RAM and internal SSD but don’t want to open the iMac up. I’m thinking I could potentially run the iMac off an external SSD. Lightroom is getting a little slow now, if it makes a lot of difference to speed and start up I would do it.
 
Rob
there will be a world of difference if you upgrade. SSD's are way way faster than the old disk spinners, you should average around 500 Mb/s with a SSD where-as you will probably be getting around 100-120 Mb/s with your current hard drive. And one can never have too much ram, especially for editing photo's.

Attached images the fastest is just a basic crucial SSD, M.2 SSD's are about 4 times faster still.

Screen Shot 2019-01-20 at 10.33.13.png

Screen Shot 2019-01-20 at 10.29.33.png
 
Canon f1.8 said:
Rob
there will be a world of difference if you upgrade. SSD's are way way faster than the old disk spinners, you should average around 500 Mb/s with a SSD where-as you will probably be getting around 100-120 Mb/s with your current hard drive. And one can never have too much ram, especially for editing photo's.

Attached images the fastest is just a basic crucial SSD, M.2 SSD's are about 4 times faster still.

View attachment 235570

View attachment 235571
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I’m trying to workout if it will be worth running off an external SSD. Due to the glued screen I can’t change the internal hard drive or upgrade the ram.
 
that means running an SSD via USB 3 so you will have to get an external enclosure which are pretty cheap nowadays. Total cost for a SSD (500gb) and a case would be around £65, so is it worth it ???? only you can decide. I have never tried booting from an external drive so I can help with speed tests for that scenario.

On another note, I see that your RAM is only accessed if you remove the screen so you will be stuck with what you have (8 gig I presume)

Might be better to get a newer iMac from around 2015-2017 and sell on your current machine.
 
Canon f1.8 said:
that means running an SSD via USB 3 so you will have to get an external enclosure which are pretty cheap nowadays. Total cost for a SSD (500gb) and a case would be around £65, so is it worth it ???? only you can decide. I have never tried booting from an external drive so I can help with speed tests for that scenario.

On another note, I see that your RAM is only accessed if you remove the screen so you will be stuck with what you have (8 gig I presume)

Might be better to get a newer iMac from around 2015-2017 and sell on your current machine.
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I’ve been thinking that would be the best option (the same conclusion I came to when I was looking at it a months ago) but just need to work out funds and what cost I’m talking about. It would also give me a chance to upgrade to a 27 inch screen too.

The external SSD idea would be more of a stop gap to get another year or so out of it in the meantime. At the time I thought my iMac was usb2 but it looks like it’s usb3.

To be fair to it I’ve had it for about 5-6 years and it’s done me well. Never had a computer for as long as this without needing to replace it.
 
rob-nikon said:
Due to the glued screen I can’t change the internal hard drive or upgrade the ram.
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correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't they all glued? like, you have to pry the glass off the front, it's not screwed on or anything, you have to use suction cups and a razor blade
 
domart said:
correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't they all glued? like, you have to pry the glass off the front, it's not screwed on or anything, you have to use suction cups and a razor blade
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The 2012 onwards have an adhesive tape holding the screen in place. Before 2012 I gather they used magnets to hold it in place. Personally I don’t feel that confident to prise the screen away without damaging it. There is also the cost of the adhesive kit, RAM and SSD that will probably make quite an expensive job.
 
rob-nikon said:
The 2012 onwards have an adhesive tape holding the screen in place. Before 2012 I gather they used magnets to hold it in place. Personally I don’t feel that confident to prise the screen away without damaging it. There is also the cost of the adhesive kit, RAM and SSD that will probably make quite an expensive job.
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yeah it is definitely not for the faint of heart- I took the glass off my cinema display when it had a crack in it, so if I damaged it further it was no big deal
 
domart said:
yeah it is definitely not for the faint of heart- I took the glass off my cinema display when it had a crack in it, so if I damaged it further it was no big deal
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That’s my worry if I damage the screen. Its also going to cost around £250 for all the bits (2x 8GB RAM plus 500GB SSD and adhesive strip kit etc). Seems to be quite a lot considering how much the iMac is currently worth.
 
rob-nikon said:
That’s my worry if I damage the screen. Its also going to cost around £250 for all the bits (2x 8GB RAM plus 500GB SSD and adhesive strip kit etc). Seems to be quite a lot considering how much the iMac is currently worth.
Click to expand...

selling and upgrading is never a bad idea, especially not having usb 3 on a device where you cant really add functionalty with add in cards
 
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