imac late2009 disk upgrade

[tempomac]

hi,

i have imac 21.5" (late 2009) 8GB RAM and 500GB hard disk.

I want to upgrade/replace the hard disk with a new one SSD (Solid State Drive) 240GB.

i bought Kingston HyperX Savage 240GB but there are problems.... i can't install macOS and imac cannot boot. I search and i found that there are combatibility problem between this SSD model and imac's hardware.

I want to ask: do you have a 240GB SSD model to suggest me? I want to replace the hard disk and working without problems. The SSD must me the disk with the Operating System.

info: the macOS that i use is El Capitan.

thanks for the support

 

[MadDane]

A Samsung EVO 850 should work. You can get the 250GB version right here: http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-2-5-I...id=1449381078&sr=1-1&keywords=Samsung+Evo+850

I have installed the 1TB version of this drive in another iMac as the boot drive. Both Yosemite and El Capitan works flawless.

 

[tempomac]

thanks for the reply.....

do you have problem with the cooler fan after the disk replacement?

 

[MadDane]

I have no problems. Everything works flawlessly. The temperature sensor is attached to the outside of the HDD in the late 2009 model. So all you do is that you just take off the temperature sensor from the old HDD and stick it on the new SSD.

 

[tempomac]

in my HDD there is no external temperature sensor. I think that there is internal into a HDD. There are 3 2 cables from the mainboard to HDD. One for the power, one for the data and i think that the other one is for the temperature control.

by the way, do you know other SSD to work without problem with my mac? Samsung EVO850 is great disk but i want to know if there are any other options...

and another question: do you know if it's possible to replace the CD/DVD drive with the new one SSD drive?
If the answer is yes, is it possible to set the SSD as the bootable and write the OS into this disk?

 

[MadDane]

Honestly I have never tried replacing the HDD in a 21.5" iMac. Only 27". But I just found this regarding the late 2009 21.5" iMac on iFixit:

# There's no connector for the apple temperature sensor on the SSD. You must either disable the apple fan control or buy an external sensor.

Link: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2308+Hard+Drive+Replacement/1766

and another question: do you know if it's possible to replace the CD/DVD drive with the new one SSD drive?
If the answer is yes, is it possible to set the SSD as the bootable and write the OS into this disk?

I have tried replacing the SuperDrive with an SSD in a 21.5" 2011 iMac. I have even done that on my own 27" late 2009 iMac. And yes, it is possible. And yes, you can use it as the bootable drive. That is how the before mentioned 21.5" iMac is set up. The SuperDrive has been replaced and the HDD has been kept in place in order to have both the speed from the SSD and the storage capacity of the HDD.

by the way, do you know other SSD to work without problem with my mac? Samsung EVO850 is great disk but i want to know if there are any other options...

Any SSD with a SATA connector should work. Just keep in mind that it is advantageous if the SSD supports TRIM, which I know the Samsung does. I am pretty sure OWC, Kingston, Intel and others have SSD's that support this as well, but I have not looked into those.

 

[tempomac]

if i replace CD/DVD drive with the new one SSD do you have orders about the temperature sensor?

I saw that there is a sticky sensor on a top of the CD/DVD. When i place the new one SSD can i put this sensor back into a new one?

 

[MadDane]

Yes, you can peel the sensor off the SuperDrive and just place it on the SSD. That works flawless on both iMac's I have done it on.

Here is a how-to:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2308+Optical+Drive+Replacement/1775

 

[tempomac]

do you know if i need to use a extra case or not? (if i want to replace cd/dvd with ssd)

 

[MadDane]

I guess strictly speaking you don't need an extra case (they are called a caddy). However, if you want to make sure all cables and everything will fit it is a good idea to get one. Otherwise it might not work. They are pretty inexpensive, so I would (and have chosen to) get one.

Here is an example of one that should work. $4.01 and free shipping.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/9-5mm-Unive...178582?hash=item3ab0322196:g:UkQAAOSw3ydV1pHT

 

[tempomac]

thanks for the replies.....
do you know about the problem between the NVidia MCP79 AHCI and SSD drives?

You suggest to me the Samsung EVO 850. Are you sure that there is no problems between the Nvidia MCP79 and Samsung EVO 850?

Is there any list about the compatible (with NVidia MCP79 AHCI) SSD drives? Or the incompatible...?

 

[MadDane]

No, I had not seen anything about the problems with NVidia MCP79 AHCI and SSD drives. But I just Googled it and I can see there are some issues with the SATA speed.

I haven't looked into whether Samsung EVO 850 works with full speed with this controller. But I can see that Crucial BX100 seems to work for people with that controller (http://blogs.helsinki.fi/tuylaant/2014/01/upgrading-old-macs-to-ssds/)

 

[tempomac]

I guess strictly speaking you don't need an extra case (they are called a caddy). However, if you want to make sure all cables and everything will fit it is a good idea to get one. Otherwise it might not work. They are pretty inexpensive, so I would (and have chosen to) get one.

Here is an example of one that should work. $4.01 and free shipping.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/9-5mm-Unive...178582?hash=item3ab0322196:g:UkQAAOSw3ydV1pHT

sorry but i'm confused.....i'm looking about cd/dvd to ssd caddy for my imac 21.5" late 2009 and i want to know what type of caddy must buy.....9.5mm or 12.7mm (you said 9.5mm but this link https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+iMac+Intel+21.5-Inch+EMC+2308+Dual+Hard+Drive/8641 say 12.7mm)

 

[MadDane]

I think they both should work. But I would just follow iFixit's recommendations and find a 12.7mm caddy. I usually just follow their recommendations and then things tend to work.