Late 2012 iMac 21.5 SSD upgrade options

[redfirebird08]

On the last two gigs now, says its copied 774gb but the destination says it still has 947gb free, ill let it finish and see what it does and what has actually been transferred to the SSD

Cool. Based on how long it took, it seems like that spinning drive was writing slower than some of the test data you posted. Maybe real world write speeds below 50 megabytes per second. Painful to copy that much data, but you are done with it hopefully forever. SSD all the way moving forward.

 

[Souponastick270]

Yep just finished - so my internal is listed as 776.76gb used and the SSD now has 780.71gb on it

I've checked photos and they all seem to be in the right place and all the files on the SSD match what I have on my internal.

Is it worth making a Recovery Partition ?

 

[redfirebird08]

Yep just finished - so my internal is listed as 776.76gb used and the SSD now has 780.71gb on it

I've checked photos and they all seem to be in the right place and all the files on the SSD match what I have on my internal.

Is it worth making a Recovery Partition ?

I haven't fooled around with Recovery Partition on either of my external boot drives. Based on your data looking good, it sounds like you are ready to change the boot drive and restart that bad boy.

 

[Souponastick270]

Sweet, As other have said, should something happen to the external I still have the internal to boot from.

Ill see you after a re-boot🤞

 

[Souponastick270]

Hello again from the SSD side of life haha, jeez that took an AGE! Has to be the most nerve racking thing I've done since I got this Mac in 2012 and made the jump from a crusty old Dell Dimension 8300 on XP on it 😂

 

[redfirebird08]

Hello again from the SSD side of life haha, jeez that took an AGE! Has to be the most nerve racking thing I've done since I got this Mac in 2012 and made the jump from a crusty old Dell Dimension 8300 on XP on it 😂

Great. Post your app loading times and such when you get a chance. I'm sure they are a hell of a lot better than the 20-60 second app loading times you previously posted for your spinning drive, haha.

 

[Souponastick270]

Great. Post your app loading times and such when you get a chance. I'm sure they are a hell of a lot better than the 20-60 second app loading times you previously posted for your spinning drive, haha.

Right just done a shut down and restart just to check that it'll boot up ok and I have results:

Boot time to log in screen:
HDD: 2m 46
SSD: 36.1 sec


Log in screen to loaded desktop:
HDD: 56 sec
SSD: 8 to 9 sec


Load Safari and all Top Site tiles:
HDD: 19.3 sec with 5 bounces
SSD: 2 sec with 1 bounce

iTunes:
HDD: 57.3 sec with 50 bounces (delay of 18 sec between clicking and first bounce)
SSD: 4 sec with 3 bounces

Black Magic Score after a fresh boot:

HDD:
First Write: 33.3
Second Write: 38.9

First Read: 36.8
Second Read: 31.5

SSD:
First Write: 419.4
Second Write: 417.7

First Read: 427.3
Second Read: 428.3


Blooming amazing results! Should have done this YEARS ago

 

[redfirebird08]

Right just done a shut down and restart just to check that it'll boot up ok and I have results:

Boot time to log in screen:
HDD: 2m 46
SSD: 36.1 sec


Log in screen to loaded desktop:
HDD: 56 sec
SSD: 8 to 9 sec


Load Safari and all Top Site tiles:
HDD: 19.3 sec with 5 bounces
SSD: 2 sec with 1 bounce

iTunes:
HDD: 57.3 sec with 50 bounces (delay of 18 sec between clicking and first bounce)
SSD: 4 sec with 3 bounces

Black Magic Score after a fresh boot:

HDD:
First Write: 33.3
Second Write: 38.9

First Read: 36.8
Second Read: 31.5

SSD:
First Write: 419.4
Second Write: 417.7

First Read: 427.3
Second Read: 428.3


Blooming amazing results! Should have done this YEARS ago

Awesome stuff man. That boot time is a heck of a lot better than I was expecting. Nice to see. You're really going to enjoy the silky smooth way that Mac OS runs with all the apps and such now that you don't have the spinning drive bottleneck. And that painful experience of copying 700+ gigs of data at like 40-50 megs per second? Never again. You can keep getting external SSD's if you need to, and eventually buy new computer with internal SSD as well. It's a great new day in your computing life!

 

[Souponastick270]

Awesome stuff man. That boot time is a heck of a lot better than I was expecting. Nice to see. You're really going to enjoy the silky smooth way that Mac OS runs with all the apps and such now that you don't have the spinning drive bottleneck. And that painful experience of copying 700+ gigs of data at like 40-50 megs per second? Never again. You can keep getting external SSD's if you need to, and eventually buy new computer with internal SSD as well. It's a great new day in your computing life!

Oh totally gonna get more SSDs, will probably make another boot drive just as a back up and then folder specific back ups.

At some point I may open this mac up and install the SSD into the machine but if this last another year or two as it is then I'll probably be looking at what Apple is doing with regards to ARM based iMacs with mini LED screens and who knows what else haha

 

[redfirebird08]

Oh totally gonna get more SSDs, will probably make another boot drive just as a back up and then folder specific back ups.

At some point I may open this mac up and install the SSD into the machine but if this last another year or two as it is then I'll probably be looking at what Apple is doing with regards to ARM based iMacs with mini LED screens and who knows what else haha

I would wait awhile before jumping into ARM Mac. Let Apple work out the early kinks first. Meanwhile, the SSD you just setup could last 100 years in theory. You could probably use it and have a great experience for the next 3-5 years pretty easily, and then do the upgrade to ARM machine.

 

[Souponastick270]

I would wait awhile before jumping into ARM Mac. Let Apple work out the early kinks first. Meanwhile, the SSD you just setup could last 100 years in theory. You could probably use it and have a great experience for the next 3-5 years pretty easily, and then do the upgrade to ARM machine.

Yeah, not sure I want to get in on the first gen ARM, will wait for 2nd or most likely 3rd gen maybe, see how Apple handles the switch and what their performances is like.

Now that I'm running on SSD is it better to shut down fully at night or just use sleep mode ?

I usually just used sleep mode on the HDD at night but will there be any negative effect to leaving the SSD constantly powered ?

 

[redfirebird08]

Yeah, not sure I want to get in on the first gen ARM, will wait for 2nd or most likely 3rd gen maybe, see how Apple handles the switch and what their performances is like.

Now that I'm running on SSD is it better to shut down fully at night or just use sleep mode ?

I usually just used sleep mode on the HDD at night but will there be any negative effect to leaving the SSD constantly powered ?

I use the Apple button at top left and force the machine into Sleep mode. Wakes up instantly the next day when I move the mouse or tap keyboard. Have not had any problems with this nightly Sleep approach on either of my external bootable SSD's so far.

If you are curious to keep an eye on the health of your drives (including the old hard drive), check into buying DriveDX for $20 USD. It's a pretty cool application. You can get it to load automatically when you first login, and it will keep track of what is happening to all drives connected to the machine. I'm guessing with your old hard drive, it would have some pretty interesting information about how worn down that thing is. Your new SSD should say 100% healthy with 100% life expectancy remaining.

DriveDx - the most advanced drive health diagnostics and monitoring utility

DriveDx - the most advanced drive health (S.M.A.R.T.) diagnostics and monitoring utility. Save yourself the data loss and downtime that is associated with unexpected SSD and HDD failures. Don't worry about losing your important data, music, and photographs.

binaryfruit.com

 

[Souponastick270]

I use the Apple button at top left and force the machine into Sleep mode. Wakes up instantly the next day when I move the mouse or tap keyboard. Have not had any problems with this nightly Sleep approach on either of my external bootable SSD's so far.

If you are curious to keep an eye on the health of your drives (including the old hard drive), check into buying DriveDX for $20 USD. It's a pretty cool application. You can get it to load automatically when you first login, and it will keep track of what is happening to all drives connected to the machine. I'm guessing with your old hard drive, it would have some pretty interesting information about how worn down that thing is. Your new SSD should say 100% healthy with 100% life expectancy remaining.

DriveDx - the most advanced drive health diagnostics and monitoring utility

DriveDx - the most advanced drive health (S.M.A.R.T.) diagnostics and monitoring utility. Save yourself the data loss and downtime that is associated with unexpected SSD and HDD failures. Don't worry about losing your important data, music, and photographs.

binaryfruit.com

Ah thanks i'll look into DriveDX then 👍

Yeah I use the sleep button within the Apple menu if I'm going to bed, otherwise my iMac is set to go to sleep after 3 minutes anyway

 

[redfirebird08]

Ah thanks i'll look into DriveDX then 👍

Yeah I use the sleep button within the Apple menu if I'm going to bed, otherwise my iMac is set to go to sleep after 3 minutes anyway

That’s a pretty short sleep timer, haha. If you install DriveDX, post a screenshot of the old spinning drive in particular. I am curious to see how close it was to dying when you made the big move to SSD.

 

[Souponastick270]

That’s a pretty short sleep timer, haha. If you install DriveDX, post a screenshot of the old spinning drive in particular. I am curious to see how close it was to dying when you made the big move to SSD.

Seems like I might have just made a very wise decision to get that SSD.....

 

[mbosse]

Not even the 27", at least with Samsung SSDs no temperature sensor needed. I will test with a Sandisk in a few days.

comfirmed: also with a SanDisk X600 no temperature sensor needed.

Magnus

 

[redfirebird08]

Seems like I might have just made a very wise decision to get that SSD..... View attachment 928006View attachment 928007View attachment 928008

Nice man, looks like you made a great decision to jump to SSD right now. Does DriveDX list the total data written on the spinning drive over time? I think it lists this data on both my internal SSD and external SSD, but I am not sure if they treat spinning drives in a different manner for this data reporting.

 

[Souponastick270]

Nice man, looks like you made a great decision to jump to SSD right now. Does DriveDX list the total data written on the spinning drive over time? I think it lists this data on both my internal SSD and external SSD, but I am not sure if they treat spinning drives in a different manner for this data reporting.

Had a look but couldn't see anything about total data written sadly, but no doubt it's probably fairly high.

Funnily enough, this whole SSD adventure started because last week I came to my mac, woke it up and was greeted by a grey screen with a loading bar, not the normal Apple style one but one with white vertical caplets. It sat at this screen for maybe a minute to two maybe, then went to a full white screen for another couple minutes before loading my user sign in screen. I logged in and noticed the mouse wasn't responding, changed the batteries and everything was normal, only happened the once and it was the first time this had ever happened but just freaked me about was it the HDD failing or having issues spinning up after it had gone into sleep mode.

The only reference I've found to that grey screen is to do with Hibernation mode on the MacBook side macOS. Below is someones image of the grey screen with the odd loading bar. Like I say, bit odd and freaked me out and forced my hand into getting an SSD but in some respects that's not a bad thing.

 

[redfirebird08]

Had a look but couldn't see anything about total data written sadly, but no doubt it's probably fairly high.

Funnily enough, this whole SSD adventure started because last week I came to my mac, woke it up and was greeted by a grey screen with a loading bar, not the normal Apple style one but one with white vertical caplets. It sat at this screen for maybe a minute to two maybe, then went to a full white screen for another couple minutes before loading my user sign in screen. I logged in and noticed the mouse wasn't responding, changed the batteries and everything was normal, only happened the once and it was the first time this had ever happened but just freaked me about was it the HDD failing or having issues spinning up after it had gone into sleep mode.

The only reference I've found to that grey screen is to do with Hibernation mode on the MacBook side macOS. Below is someones image of the grey screen with the odd loading bar. Like I say, bit odd and freaked me out and forced my hand into getting an SSD but in some respects that's not a bad thing.

View attachment 928203

Blessing in disguise for sure. You now have brand new, strong quality backup of all the data that was on the failing drive. And this new version is at least 5x faster! LOL

 

[Souponastick270]

Blessing in disguise for sure. You now have brand new, strong quality backup of all the data that was on the failing drive. And this new version is at least 5x faster! LOL

Indeed!

My sister has now given me her late 2009 iMac which no longer boots to see if I can get that running again. Joy.

It loads the Apple logo and the grey loading bar and then just hangs on that. I've connected a USB keyboard but I don't think it is recognising the input to boot into Disk Utility - if I can get it that far I might be able to make a recovery copy of her HDD onto an SSD then open her iMac up and install it into the machine, if that doesn't work I'll install the SSD and then just have to use her Time Machine back up and hope there wasn't anything massively important added to the machine between now and her last TM back up

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"My sister has now given me her late 2009 iMac which no longer boots to see if I can get that running again."

1. Shut down YOUR iMac for the moment
2. Disconnect the external SSD and connect it to HER iMac
3. Reboot with the "option key trick" to invoke the startup manager
4. Select YOUR SSD and hit return
5. Does HER iMac boot now?

The FIRST THING one always tries with a non-booting Mac:
Hook up an external boot drive and try it that way.

 

[Souponastick270]

OP wrote:
"My sister has now given me her late 2009 iMac which no longer boots to see if I can get that running again."

1. Shut down YOUR iMac for the moment
2. Disconnect the external SSD and connect it to HER iMac
3. Reboot with the "option key trick" to invoke the startup manager
4. Select YOUR SSD and hit return
5. Does HER iMac boot now?

The FIRST THING one always tries with a non-booting Mac:
Hook up an external boot drive and try it that way.

My SSD is loaded with Mojave, the late 2009 only got support up to High Sierra so would it even boot anyway ?

I'm also not sure her iMac is recognising the USB keyboard that's plugged in at the moment so is it possible to sync my bluetooth ones to her iMac while mine is off ?

 

[Fishrrman]

Ah, ok... that could be a problem!

But my first suspicion with "a non-booting Mac" is that there's likely some kind of problem with the internal drive.

This is easily determined by booting from another external drive (so long as the version of the OS on that drive can boot the Mac in question)...

 

[Souponastick270]

Ah, ok... that could be a problem!

But my first suspicion with "a non-booting Mac" is that there's likely some kind of problem with the internal drive.

This is easily determined by booting from another external drive (so long as the version of the OS on that drive can boot the Mac in question)...

Hmm, ok I might have a compact 'slim' HDD i can format and install High Sierra on thinking about it, I'll check it out and see if I can use that.

Am I right in thinking if I turn my iMac off and then set my keyboard and mouse in to pairing mode, my sisters iMac will connect to those when it starts up ?

Ok it now sees the keyboard so I can now select, Mac HD or Recovery 10.13.3, just loading Recovery now to see if it'll at least let me get to Disk Utility

 

[Souponastick270]

Update on the 2009:

Using an external drive with a fresh install of High Sierra 10.13.6 on the machine boots up and runs fine.

I can see her files and what not in Finder so they are still 'visible'

What I'm doing now is seeing if I can Recover her HD to the external and boot up from that, if that doesn't work then it suggest to me there is an issue in the system files somewhere.

If it does boot from the external, I'll make a fresh TM while I order an SSD, that way, I'll have a clone of her HDD and an up to date TM to load onto the SSD once that has been installed into the machine.