2007 MAC help?

[s.u.e]

Hi - I have an old 2007 MAC 2GB which sadly is very slow I think due to running OX X ES CAPITAN, so I hardly use it.

I’ve been given a slightly younger MAC 4GB running 10.5.8, which I’m hoping to use instead and transfer me info to, although I’m not finding it straightforward to do at all.

Has anybody done similar and can offer any advice? I think 10.6 Snow Leopard is the best OS download to use on the newer MAC based on internet searches but I‘m not really sure so any advice and knowledge out there would be greatly appreciate!

Thank you

 

[Juicy Box]

Unless you have already done it, I would highly suggest using a solid-state drive instead of the internal HDD.

Are replacing the HDD with a SDD will give you a completely different experience with those older Macs.

By the way, I have a 2007 iMac, with an a solid-state drive, and El Capitan runs great with it.

 

[s.u.e]

Unless you have already done it, I would highly suggest using a solid-state drive instead of the internal HDD.

Are replacing the HDD with a SDD will give you a completely different experience with those older Macs.

By the way, I have a 2007 iMac, with an a solid-state drive, and El Capitan runs great with it.

Thank you, that sounds good, I hadn’t heard of solid-state drives, are they easy to set up and work with?

 

[Juicy Box]

I hadn’t heard of solid-state drives, are they easy to set up and work with?

SSDs are a lot cheaper now, and they are (relatively) easy to set up.

Ideally, you would get the best experience replacing the internal HDD with an internal SSD. It isn't hard for the 2007 iMac (again, easy and hard are relative), but for people that don't feel comfortable opening their iMac, external SSDs are an option.

USB is the easiest, but the downside of external SSDs on the 2007 is that you will only get USB2 speeds.

FW800 would be ideal externally for your iMac, and will be about twice as fast for the max speeds as USB2, but it is complex, as there are probably not any FW SSDs that you can buy. You would have to get a FW800 SATA enclosure, and a SATA SSD to put in it. Very easy, imo.

Another thought about external SSDs on your old iMac, even with using a SSD over FW800, the sequential speeds will most likely be slower than what the internal HDD can do (assuming that it is not failing), but the random speeds (what makes your Mac feels "snappy") will be a lot better with a SSD over FW800 or even the slower USB2 than a HDD.

I actually tested the above on a Mid 2011 iMac, testing an internal HDD, internal SSD, 2 internal SSDs in RAID0, external SSD over USB2, external SSD over FW800, 2 external SSDs in FW800 and USB2. The FW800 had the best random speeds with the exception of the internal SSD tests.

are they easy to set up and work with?

There are plenty of guides to show you how to set it up, but an actual step by step guide depends on what SSD you get.

The basic steps are getting a SSD, plugging it into your Mac, format the drive with Disk Utility, download the El Capitan Installer, install a fresh OS onto the SSD, migrate your data after the install is done.

You can also clone your current boot drive onto the SSD as well using a cloning SW, such as CCC.

Once you have the external SSD set up and booting off of it, it is no different than using an internal drive. You can actually unplug it and plug it into a different Mac and boot from the external drive on multiple Macs. I do it all the time.