Do I have a SSD?

[dmtworld]

My parents have a late 2013 27’ iMac that came with a traditional HD. After some years (beginning of 2016) the system was being a bit sluggish so I convinced them to upgrade the thing with a SSD to speed things up.

I ordered a 250GB Samsung EVO SSD. Gave it to my parents and they passed the SSD and iMac to a hardware repair/installation store so they could install it.

So this was some time ago. Today I was at their place and I thought this iMac is more slow than before so I checked thoroughly and I get conflicting information about the storage.

I expect the worst. They’ve hustled my parents for a SSD and in turn shoehorned a feeble Western Digital HD. (Yeah, Okay it’s a 1 TB instead of a 250GB, but that premium is in speed)

Perhaps I’m wrong? I’ve checked the entire lot, perhaps I’m seeing something else. I want you guys to convince me. To me it’s clear as day. We gave them a 250GB SSD, but it doesn’t say anything about it. Check the Macintosh HD Info at the bottom. Solid State: no.

Or am I wrong here?

Boy am I pissed. It's just my parents ain't really savvy in this and it's they thought they hustled some "old folks".

 

[Lunder89]

Sorry the carry the bad news. The harddrive inside the Mac is not an SSD drive.

The screenshot from System Profiler provides the conclusive evidence. I googled the model number of the drive, and found this.

After two years I don't really know what can be done about it, someone with a little more knowledge about this might pitch in?

 

[dmtworld]

Hey Lunder89, Yea I ended on the very same link when searching.

I'll contact them and see what they have to say.

Thanks for the fast response.

 

[chscag]

It appears that whoever installed the new hard drive for your parents used an Apple hard drive made by WD for Apple not an ordinary WD drive. The reason being so that the thermal sensors would work correctly and not send the fan into high speed. Very likely the Samsung SSD that you provided (was too small anyway) was not compatible. BTW, it looks like whoever did the work was an authorized Apple repair facility. Just my take on it.

 

[dmtworld]

T

It appears that whoever installed the new hard drive for your parents used an Apple hard drive made by WD for Apple not an ordinary WD drive. The reason being so that the thermal sensors would work correctly and not send the fan into high speed. Very likely the Samsung SSD that you provided (was too small anyway) was not compatible. BTW, it looks like whoever did the work was an authorized Apple repair facility. Just my take on it.

Thank you sir.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

You have a 2013 iMac that has USB3.
If you REALLY want a cheap, easy and foolproof way to make your parents' iMac faster, do this:

Buy an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD.
Plug it into one of the USB3 ports.
Initialize it to the Mac OS (Mac OS extended with journaling enabled).
Then, install a copy of the OS onto it.
(If you get a 512gb SSD and if your parents haven't "used too much space", you could use CarbonCopyCloner to clone the contents of the internal HDD to the SSD)

Set it up to become the EXTERNAL boot drive.
This is easy to do -- so easy that I'd call it "child's play".

You DO NOT need to take it to anyplace that might cheat you.
DO IT YOURSELF.

IF you do this, I assure you that both you and your parents will be overjoyed at the speed increase.
I'm that confident of my advice...

 

[dmtworld]

OP:

You have a 2013 iMac that has USB3.
If you REALLY want a cheap, easy and foolproof way to make your parents' iMac faster, do this:

Buy an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD.
Plug it into one of the USB3 ports.
Initialize it to the Mac OS (Mac OS extended with journaling enabled).
Then, install a copy of the OS onto it.
(If you get a 512gb SSD and if your parents haven't "used too much space", you could use CarbonCopyCloner to clone the contents of the internal HDD to the SSD)

Set it up to become the EXTERNAL boot drive.
This is easy to do -- so easy that I'd call it "child's play".

You DO NOT need to take it to anyplace that might cheat you.
DO IT YOURSELF.

IF you do this, I assure you that both you and your parents will be overjoyed at the speed increase.
I'm that confident of my advice...

Hey Fishrrman

It also has two thunderbolt ports. Wouldn't better? or did you recommend the USB 3 since those external SSD are cheaper?

Thank you. I will look into this.

 

[jeevanjee]

Its without a doubt a HD not a SSD. If the Samsung SSD was not compatible with the Mac, the people working in this "Apple authorized" shop had to inform you about that and not just moving on and installing an HD and keeping the 250 GB SSD....which is obviously more expensive than an 1TB HD (normally). Its a shame that this even happens...