Where to go from here for IMAC storage space.

ding76uk

ding76uk

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I currently have IMac with 250GB HDD
(this one http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Desktop-Display-MA876LL-SuperDrive/dp/B000R84LIW).

I currently back up to a 1gb ext drive via vaults export from Aperture and Time machine to the same drive. I will be getting another back up drive sooner rather than later as well, and will sync all info across to that too.

The problem as you pro guessed is the 250 HDD in the Mac itself. It is rapidly filling up, and I am planning a leap to the 5D2 next year which will increase my storage needs.

Where do I start in the upgrade process, would it be sensible to just replace the HDD in the Mac or could an external as a main drive be an option? Reason is, I am not confident in installing a new HDD in it myself, so the cost would be quite a bit.

Now here are the questions (sorry for a few folks)

1. Is it sensible to use an ext drive (firewire) as a main working drive for photos?

2. What size and spec (also make) of drive would you recommend to upgrade the internal too if that is the way to go?

3. If I do put in another drive how do I get it back to where it is? Do I just install OS and then use time machine? Or do I need to install all programmes again?

Cheers as always folks.
 
Did a quick google and found this. It looks a lot more complicated than i expected!

If you did want to upgrade you can get an external caddy and copy the drive fit it and power up.

Externals are fine you just end up with extra boxes around your mac.

Id PM cowasaki on here as he is the resident mac guru.
 
I have just added another external to my imac. Got a 1Tb drive, stuck it in a caddy and formatted it to FAT [so it can be plugged into pc too] though probably better to use macs default file system if no need to use on a pc too. I have a second smaller ext that runs only for using time machine. yes, its boxes round the machine, but they are nicely hidden out of the way under the desk in that space where a PC tower would normally sit ;)

I think its horses for courses, and cowasaki would definately be your best bet for advice.
 
The iMac internal HDD upgrade is not for the faint hearted...!

For a start you need to pull off the glass screen from the front by using a kitchen plunger or a satnav car mount.

Have a look for a local repair center, the one by me in Leeds charges £30 a hour labour i think, and would change the drive in 1 hour. (i think)

It is well worth doing it that way. Or contact Apple who will also be happy to do the same thing for about £200 plus the cost of the disk.

If you have an iMac with the firewire 800 port on i would recommend getting an external drive with these ports on as they are faster than usb on large file transfers.

Mac
 
Euan said:
Did a quick google and found this. It looks a lot more complicated than i expected!

If you did want to upgrade you can get an external caddy and copy the drive fit it and power up.

Externals are fine you just end up with extra boxes around your mac.

Id PM cowasaki on here as he is the resident mac guru.
Click to expand...

It not that difficult in my opinion ( as long as you have the right tools )

You can carry out the procedure in around 30 mins and then just re-install the Os from fresh.

I upgraded my 500gb to a 1.5tb in my 24" before i sold it. The faster drive along with the extra space really made a big difference to boot times and overall response, so it may be the way to go as long as you are OK with stripping it down.

If you were local to me i'd quite happily carry it out for you :)
 
Why is your 250 full? If you keep only the OS and programs on it then keep all other stuff on an external drive/s you should be fine for space. With 1TB drives now very well priced it seems more logical to go for that option. You might want to run some utilities over the drive to maintain it's integrity, a bit of good housekeeping will go a long way to prolonging the life of the hard drive and machine.
 
I have lots on my internal drive because if you use time machine to backup it will only do the internal drive..!
 
crashtestmac said:
The iMac internal HDD upgrade is not for the faint hearted...!

For a start you need to pull off the glass screen from the front by using a kitchen plunger or a satnav car mount.
Click to expand...


So THAT'S how it's done :cool: I've always wondered how to get inside my iMac :)

Must resist the urge to find my sink plunger this evening :nuts:
 
Well the offer is there if you fancy a drive to manchester - yours will make 7 that i've done so pretty much got it down to a fine art ;)
 
Yes the iMac HD swap is the hardest Apple HD swap other than the 1.33GHz iBook! But like has been said it is not THAT difficult. There are lots of photographic instructions on the net showing how to do it and the only step that is not absolutely straight forward is removing the screen but this is not difficult with a sucker (or sat nav holder as has been said). I would stick the largest drive in there to avoid being in this position again.

  • Buy an external FW case.
  • Buy a 2Gb drive
  • Fit the drive in the case.
  • Copy the internal drive to the external drive using a bit image application such as carbon copy cloner.
  • Boot to the EFI boot menu and select the external drive and you should be able to boot to MacOS running via FW on the new drive.
  • Shutdown
  • Remove the HD from the ext case and disassemble the iMac.
  • Swap drives and re-assemble
  • The iMac should now boot up just as it was before but with a lot of extra space.
  • You can then install the old HD in the ext case and use it as backup.
 
cowasaki said:
Yes the iMac HD swap is the hardest Apple HD swap other than the 1.33GHz iBook! But like has been said it is not THAT difficult. There are lots of photographic instructions on the net showing how to do it and the only step that is not absolutely straight forward is removing the screen but this is not difficult with a sucker (or sat nav holder as has been said). I would stick the largest drive in there to avoid being in this position again.

  • Buy an external FW case.
  • Buy a 2Gb drive
  • Fit the drive in the case.
  • Copy the internal drive to the external drive using a bit image application such as carbon copy cloner.
  • Boot to the EFI boot menu and select the external drive and you should be able to boot to MacOS running via FW on the new drive.
  • Shutdown
  • Remove the HD from the ext case and disassemble the iMac.
  • Swap drives and re-assemble
  • The iMac should now boot up just as it was before but with a lot of extra space.
  • You can then install the old HD in the ext case and use it as backup.
Click to expand...

[S1]What he just said :D[/S1]
 
I'm in a similar position with my 24-inch 2.4Ghz iMac - the internal 300GB drive is completely fried and I'm running my OS on an external 250Gb FW drive and backing it up on a daisy chained 320GB FW drive. It's not ideal and at some stage I'll have to take the plunge and disassemble the iMac to replace the internal drive.

I asked Apple what they could do and they informed me that they could only replace my internal drive with another drive of the same size (ie. they won't do an upgrade) - and this will cost around £150 plus the cost of a new 300GB drive!
 
ekimeno said:
I'm in a similar position with my 24-inch 2.4Ghz iMac - the internal 300GB drive is completely fried and I'm running my OS on an external 250Gb FW drive and backing it up on a daisy chained 320GB FW drive. It's not ideal and at some stage I'll have to take the plunge and disassemble the iMac to replace the internal drive.

I asked Apple what they could do and they informed me that they could only replace my internal drive with another drive of the same size (ie. they won't do an upgrade) - and this will cost around £150 plus the cost of a new 300GB drive!
Click to expand...

You need to take the plunge and stick your external drive inside your computer. It really isn't that difficult it you are careful.
 
cowasaki, I'm keen to have a go at doing this myself, but my external drives are 6 years and 4 years old... probably best if I buy a new 1TB internal drive, get rid of the external ones before they die on me and use a new 1-2TB FW drive for backup.
 
ekimeno said:
cowasaki, I'm keen to have a go at doing this myself, but my external drives are 6 years and 4 years old... probably best if I buy a new 1TB internal drive, get rid of the external ones before they die on me and use a new 1-2TB FW drive for backup.
Click to expand...

Absolutely a good idea. New large drives have a larger arial density which is one of the ways in which they are faster. Just changing your drive can increase the speed of your computer noticeably.
 
crashtestmac said:
I have lots on my internal drive because if you use time machine to backup it will only do the internal drive..!
Click to expand...

Not sure if I've read your post correct, but Time Machine will backup any Mac formatted drive attached to your iMac, so would backup internal and external drives.
 
Thanks for the advice so far. So if I go for the install inside the machine, what drive should I go for? What is max size for my Imac, and what would you recommend brand wise?

I am in Lincolnshire, but travel to Cambs often, so if anyone knows someone round there who could do this, I would be grateful, thanks for the offer Chillimonster, but Manc is a heck of a way for me to travel.
 
ding76uk said:
Thanks for the advice so far. So if I go for the install inside the machine, what drive should I go for? What is max size for my Imac, and what would you recommend brand wise?

I am in Lincolnshire, but travel to Cambs often, so if anyone knows someone round there who could do this, I would be grateful, thanks for the offer Chillimonster, but Manc is a heck of a way for me to travel.
Click to expand...

The iMac is based on laptop technology but it uses 3.5" drives so you can pretty much chose what is best for you. The brand of drive can cause as many arguements as nikon/canon or windows/macos but I have recently found Samsung drives to be very good value, quick and reliable. That is what I have installed in my Mac pro. I personally would get 1Tb up to a 2Tb or you might find yourself doing it again at some point. You can now get a Samsung 2Tb for just under a hundred. This is where I go www.scan.co.uk but they are local to me www.aria.co.uk are also very good.
 
Aria have the 1.5Tb Samsung for £67 on their super-special offer page at the moment which is not a bad deal at all.
 
Nice disk but it is only a 5600 spin and for some reason only have a 1 year warranty with it...
 
This is the non techie part of me asking no, so, use a 3.5 inch drive, use a known brand, what spindle speed can i use up to? does 7200 have an advantage on my system? and what connection must be be, SATA?

I think the 1.5 or 2TB might be the way to head as bit more space for future.

Lastly on the mac i have i have heard rumours i can add 6gb of ram although 4gb is stated as max, has anyone any experience of this at all?
 
Silly me, I thought the leopard doodah was a wee OS !
 
ding76uk said:
This is the non techie part of me asking no, so, use a 3.5 inch drive, use a known brand, what spindle speed can i use up to? does 7200 have an advantage on my system? and what connection must be be, SATA?

I think the 1.5 or 2TB might be the way to head as bit more space for future.

Lastly on the mac i have i have heard rumours i can add 6gb of ram although 4gb is stated as max, has anyone any experience of this at all?
Click to expand...

You can use 7200 drives. Apple will quote a maximum of 4gb but certain machines can take 6gb. On the side if your box you will see the apple park number. Check this on the memory suppliers site. The MacBook pro I have for example will take 6gb but apple only ever quoted 4gb. As for brands well like I said before this causes many arguements but my favourite are samsung and seagate. The samsung being better value!
 
ding76uk said:
Cheers cowasaki! I will probably go for crucial ram if it is possible. Will look into it when I get home.

I have been looking at this combo

IBM (Hitachi) Deskstar 7K1000.B SATAII 1TB

Would this make my system any faster?

Also if I add up to the 6 gig would I see a major improvement in sue of Aperture and PS?
Click to expand...

I would personally get a Samsung F1 1Tb HD rather than the deskstar but it is not a bad drive.

I would run Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor then click on "System Memory" and take a look what is happening on your computer before spending all the extra money upping it to 6Gb.
 
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