Does the iMac with Fusion drive use standard HDD?

[212rikanmofo]

I plan on replacing my failed HDD portion of my Fusion drive inside my iMac 27, its a late 2014 model I believe.

Is the HDD an Apple proprietary model or can I simply order any SATA 3.5" HDD from online and replace it with?

And is it possible to have 2 physical volumes instead of one (Fusion). I would like to install the main OS onto the 128GB Flash and then have the HD as a 2nd physical volume. It makes data recovery easier if things ever go wrong.

 

[mbosse]

I plan on replacing my failed HDD portion of my Fusion drive inside my iMac 27, its a late 2014 model I believe.

Is the HDD an Apple proprietary model or can I simply order any SATA 3.5" HDD from online and replace it with?

And is it possible to have 2 physical volumes instead of one (Fusion). I would like to install the main OS onto the 128GB Flash and then have the HD as a 2nd physical volume. It makes data recovery easier if things ever go wrong.

Technically, Apple uses a standard 3.5" drive, but with a proprietary firmware that allows the iMac to read the drive's temperature metering for fan speed control. Replacing it with an off-the-shelf drive yields a functional drive, but with the fans running at full speed.

So your options are to (i) search for an original Apple drive or to (ii) address the fan issue either with a software solution (e.g. MacFanControl) or with an adapter cable such as this (https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIDIMACHDD12/) from OWC.

Best,
Magnus

 

[Samuelsan2001]

I plan on replacing my failed HDD portion of my Fusion drive inside my iMac 27, its a late 2014 model I believe.

Is the HDD an Apple proprietary model or can I simply order any SATA 3.5" HDD from online and replace it with?

And is it possible to have 2 physical volumes instead of one (Fusion). I would like to install the main OS onto the 128GB Flash and then have the HD as a 2nd physical volume. It makes data recovery easier if things ever go wrong.

Yes to all of those questions its just a normal sata hard drive. Personally I would just replace it with a sata SSD and re-fuse them to have a super fast fusion but you can of course keep it separate and maintain your own files.

 

[212rikanmofo]

Okay, I’m confused here. I’m getting 2 different answers. One is saying yes its a standard SATA HD and the other is saying its a proprieratary HD with Apple firmware to monitor the fan. Which one is it? I want to make sure before I attemp to order a HDD myself, or just take my entire iMac to an Apple store for them to replace the HDD.

Which one would save me more money? If i buy and supply them with the HDD or if they do it all?