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Nearly ready to pimp my new iMac, a few questions?

SpitUK

SpitUK

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 5, 2010
905
855
East Yorkshire, UK
Hi Guys,

I have sold my 2009 iMac 27 i7 8gb. Tomorrow I pick up my 2010 2.93ghz 27" i7 iMac.

Also tomorrow I have arriving:

120gb patriot inferno ssd
Seagate 2Tb hdd

16gb is arriving later on in the week.

I have all the extra stuff needed for the upgrade such as suction cups, torx screw drivers, compressed air etc.

This is only my second Mac so I have never installed Mac osx before. So I need to install the new hard drives, how do I format them? Does osx let me do this? How do I select the ssd for the boot drive?

Once I have osx and ilife 11 installed on the ssd I then use the migration assistant to transfer my applications and settings to the ssd.

I was then planning to manually transfer all my media etc to the 2tb drive.

Does this sound right? Is migration assistant as good as it sounds, never used that before?

Thanks for any help :) should be a beast of a machine when it's finished.
 
You boot from the OS X disc and open Disk Utility and format them as Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Very simple. Then it asks where you want to install it. Select the SSD.

The rest sounds okay
 
Thank you. Can you be selective with migration assistant with the programs you want to keep? I have office 2011 and iWork 09 on my current Mac but only want to bring across office 2011.
 
SpitUK said:
Thank you. Can you be selective with migration assistant with the programs you want to keep? I have office 2011 and iWork 09 on my current Mac but only want to bring across office 2011.
Click to expand...

Nah, it's either all or nothing I think. If you don't have a lot apps, you could just reinstall them.
 
SpitUK said:
Ok, if I do all will it bring across parallels 6 with my windows 7 and office 2010 install intact?
Click to expand...

Yes it will bring across that as well, it's considered an app. As a previous posted said with MA, when you bring over apps it's an all or nothing proposition. Make sure you use a Firewire 800 connection they tend to be the quickest and most reliable. If you don't already have a cable here is an inexpensive one from Ebay, simply go to Ebay and search for 300475934286 that's the auction number.
 
SpitUK said:
Thank you. Can you be selective with migration assistant with the programs you want to keep? I have office 2011 and iWork 09 on my current Mac but only want to bring across office 2011.
Click to expand...


I just did something similar with my 09 Mac Pro. I ended cutting the apps back to the bare minimum for the reinstall.
One thing to keep in mind, the user directories typically are very large, because they contains such as your photo libraries and your Itunes libraries. It is best to move them to a different drive than your system drive before you take the system down and install OSX on your new SSD. This way you can use the migration tools to move the user settings, but it won't try to move your user folders. You can move your user folders from the 'advanced' setting in the user control panel. You have to unlock the control panel (clicking on the lock, and entering the admin password), and the right click over each users name. You should then see the advanced options menu.

Good luck! It sounds like a good project.
 
Well...

Got my imac, got my ssd, got my 2tb hdd, got my tools, got my sata cable but noooooooo power splitter!!

oh well. another days wait.
 
Pop in the disc and hold down C.

BTW, did you get the mounting cables needed for the internal SSD? I thought they didn't ship the bracket and such in models that didn't have it pre-installed.
 
Mainly because I wanted to be able to put an SSD and a HDD in the mac itself. Also I like gaming so the slight increase in graphics will come in handy. Your machine is still awesome though!!
 
I'm so tempted to throw a SSD into my 27" and load the boot system to it. I know that would speed things up so much... but where did you get the mounting bracket and cables from?
 
I havent got any, I will just secure it with velcro ;)

Is it easy to tell osx to have my pictures, movies and downloads on the 2tb drive and not the ssd?
 
SpitUK said:
I havent got any, I will just secure it with velcro ;)

Is it easy to tell osx to have my pictures, movies and downloads on the 2tb drive and not the ssd?
Click to expand...

Yes, you just set the location for your iTunes and iPhoto libraries to the 2tb.

I have a similar set up going with my external HD.
 
Installed the hard drives. Booted from snow leopard install DVD.

Says choose which drive to install too but nothing is listed. Is that because something has gone wrong or they need formatting? HELP!
 
Crisis averted. I hadn't formatted. This is my first Mac os install. Done hundreds of windows ones :)

Currently installing on the ssd, 30 mins to go.

What is on the applications disk that comes with osx? Is it just iLife 09 or is there something else?

I have iLife 11 to install what was given to me at the store.
 
Good job, man!

Any chance you could *please* link to the different components and cables you needed?

I take it you ADDED the SSD as opposed to swap out the old?

Also, I've read that you may need to be sure to get the right kind of harddrive because the temperature sensor cable may not fit. Is there a cable on the harddrive except for the power and the sata?
 
A quick question here. Can you install both the SSD HD and a normal HD into the new iMac? I know you can order them like that from Apple but I thought the SSD was hard soldered onto the logic board?
 
Completed. I now have a 120gb patriot inferno ssd and a seagate 2tb hdd for media all housed nicely in the iMac.

Osx is installed and running very fast.

My only problem is I seem to have the hdd temp fan problem. Fans are at full pelt. The sensor plugged into the 2tb drive ok but is not working.

Just opening the Imac up again.
 
that's is going to be a very very nice machine once it's completely up and running, jealous. Planning on selling mine then upgrading to the next model, skipped the 2010 refresh, bring it on 2011.
 
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