iMac mid 2011...few questions regarding:SSD upgrade

[waaseemch]

Hi guys
It's my first ever post in any Forum so please please be gentle....

I am new to forums...never used any forums before so please help if I am missing some rules or guide to right direction please....

I have iMac mid 2011 27"....with 1TB HDD...in it.... Given to me by a friend

I have purchased tow SSDs...1TB each...Samsung 850EVO and Crucial mx500 .....I am planning to install both in my iMac and keeping my internal HDD as well.....


my questions are....


1) Can I Keep internal HDD and install both SSDs in iMac if I remove super drive?

2) I want to install OSX on 1 SSD and windows on 2nd SSD...is it possible and is there any guide to get help and instruction for that please?

3) should I set up both SSDs as fusion Drive or RAID 0 (recommendation from a friend)...although I have not much of the idea and not familiar with these two set ups...is it worth it for performance of system....and installing OSX and windows on these SSDs....or use these drives separate...?

or use internal HDD and 1 SSD as RAID 0 and install OSX on it and windows on second individual SSD?

4) I need step by step instruction please to set up and install OSX and Windows on these HDD and make SSD with OSX as Boot Drive?


Thanks heaps in advance

 

[mj_]

What you're planning to do won't work on several levels.

First of all, and somebody correct me if I'm wrong, the iMac only supports a total of two internal SATA drives. One is installed in the super drive bay, which means you have to get rid of that for sure. There is to my knowledge no way of installing a total of three drives inside an iMac.

Second running your SSDs in RAID 0 is not advisable, especially if you intend to run Windows off those drives as well. Not only are the potential performance gains absolutely negligible but you are actually increasing your risk of complete data loss by a magnitude of N, where N depends on the combined reliability of both drives. If one drive fails you lose all your data, it's that simple. Plus there is no way to boot Windows off a software RAID 0 array on a Mac. It would thus be more advisable to run OS X off one SSD and Windows off the other.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

And also be aware the hard drive runsa at SATA III 6Gb/ps and the optical drive at STA IJI or 3Gb/ps so thewrew qwoulsd be quite a speed difference between them.,

 

[Krayzkat]

Hang about for a while and a geek will be with you in a bit....

1/ I have a 2010 iMac which is similar to yours and i have managed to fit an SSD inside without removing the existing HDD or Superdrive, so 'space-wise' if you removed your Superdrive there should be enough room for 2 SSD's. Although i am not sure if you could connect the 2 SSD's and existing HDD together and get it all talking to each other properly or not. I would suggest to remove the HDD and install both SSD's instead.

2/ I don't think you can run Windows off of a drive by itself. You can run Windows off of a program called Bootcamp which comes with OSX.

3/ I wouldn't bother making any fission drives, rather just keep them all separate, so that if something breaks it should have less effect on you.

4/ As with all my other answers, await incoming geek in a few minutes ( i think Big Bang Theory is on at the moment)

 

[Juicy Box]

First of all, and somebody correct me if I'm wrong, the iMac only supports a total of two internal SATA drives. One is installed in the super drive bay, which means you have to get rid of that for sure. There is to my knowledge no way of installing a total of three drives inside an iMac.

I think this is incorrect.

I think the 2011 actually has an unused SATA port, maybe Apple messing around with the potential of Fusion Drives prior to the Late 2012 iMac?

So, you can have three total drives by using the existing one from the HDD, the unused SATA port, and the Super Drive port.

But.... I remember another thread with someone attempting to do a 2 drive RAID0 with SSDs, which worked, and a HDD using the Super Drive port, but there was a problem with that. One being that it was the older SATA2, another being that it did not have the power to run the HDD.

I will try to find the thread.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Hang about for a while and a geek will be with you in a bit....

1/ I have a 2010 iMac which is similar to yours and i have managed to fit an SSD inside without removing the existing HDD or Superdrive, so 'space-wise' if you removed your Superdrive there should be enough room for 2 SSD's. Although i am not sure if you could connect the 2 SSD's and existing HDD together and get it all talking to each other properly or not. I would suggest to remove the HDD and install both SSD's instead.

2/ I don't think you can run Windows off of a drive by itself. You can run Windows off of a program called Bootcamp which comes with OSX.

3/ I wouldn't bother making any fission drives, rather just keep them all separate, so that if something breaks it should have less effect on you.

4/ As with all my other answers, await incoming geek in a few minutes ( i think Big Bang Theory is on at the moment)

You should be able to add both and keep your hdd:
https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing+iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2429+Dual+Drive+Kit+(HDD+or+SSD)/7575

 

[Juicy Box]

I will try to find the thread.

This isn't the thread I was referring to, but it looks like the 2 SSD in RAID0 plus a HDD worked for this guy

Over 900 MB per sec write speed!!! That will make an old 2011 iMac feel new again.
[doublepost=1533155632][/doublepost]

One being that it was the older SATA2, another being that it did not have the power to run the HDD.

It looks like from the thread I linked, this problem was fixed by keeping the same power port for the HDD, while swaping the data port to the slower SATA.

 

[waaseemch]

Thank you very much every one for the reply... I have done bit of search and what I think that

Having three drives is possible in my iMac but as nambuccaheadsau said ....data transfer of an ssd of superdrive sata port will be much slower.... But again thanks to Vertical smile.... The link sent to me does show that I can try to put data cable of existing HDD to superdrive SATA connection and one of the SSD data cable can go on to HDD data connection and secnd SSD can use unused SATA connection on logic board... Correct me please if I'm wrong

Although this might make HDD even more slower?? So what will be the use of it??

Second I think as well creating fusion drive is waste of time??

Third I think RAID 0 is possibility... Again as per link sent by Vertical smile.... So is it worth though?? Mary be not??

RAID 0 between HDD running off slower data port and and SSD....

Finally just some instructions required to install OSX windows and transferring all data from HDD except music and pictures

 

[Juicy Box]

Although this might make HDD even more slower?? So what will be the use of it??

it could make it slower, but I don't think it would be anything that dramatically slower. IIRC, the HDD would be using SATA2, which theoretically speeds up to 3Gbps, versus the SATA3 @ 6Gbps, but a HDD would never see anywhere close to those speeds anyways.

As for the use of a HDD on the SATA2 port, you could use that as a bootable back up for your SSDs in RAID0. You could still use it for storage, I don't think it would be dramatically slower.

I would put a large HDD on the SATA2 port and partition it, storage on one partition, and a bootable back up of the RAID0 on the other partition.

So is it worth though?? Mary be not??

I think it would be worth it. Actually, I think the RAID0 SSDs, and the internal HDD would be awesome! You can have crazy fast boot drive and still have decent internal storage.

Finally just some instructions required to install OSX windows and transferring all data from HDD except music and pictures

i think there was instructions on that link I posted. Or maybe another link that someone else posted.

Correct me please if I'm wrong

you are correct.