Fitting SSD to an iMac ?

[andrewc]

In an effort to speed up my 2008 iMac I've bought an internal SSD & caddy to replace the HDD.


I've built up PC's from scratch before & have replaced the screen on a kindle, so taking the LCD out & physically replacing the drive doesn't look _too_ scary.


Only the OS & apps are on the internal HDD,  all my data is on an external drive with an additional drive for Time Machine backups.


What steps should I take before & after fitting the SSD to ensure my machine comes back the way it is ?

[ian]

I've always simply restored from the Time Machine backup and that's been pretty much the sum of it. Everything as it was.

[Jaded]

Clone the HD to the SSD before swapping them. You'd need to be able to connect both to the machine at the same time and you need Carbon Copy Clobber or SouperDuper or similar

[Dibdib]

Clone the HD to the SSD before swapping them. You'd need to be able to connect both to the machine at the same time and you need Carbon Copy Clobber or SouperDuper or similar

I've got one of these, which is a cheapish but really useful thing to have lying around - especially with hard-to-open machines like iMacs.

From when I was researching doing something similar to my late 2009 iMac, the biggest potential arse-ache is the temperature probe in the hard drive - as the SSD won't have one, you may need to replace it with an external sensor plugged into the motherboard so that the iMac doesn't spin its fans at full gas all the time. I don't know if the 2008 model has the same requirement.

Alternatively, what I did was to replace the (in my case, broken) optical drive with an SSD, which has the OS and software on and leaves the big 1tb HDD for user data. It's an equally easy swap. The superdrive-to-ssd caddy is pretty straightforward, and you can then get cheap external enclosures for the optical drive (mine has the blu-ray drive from a dead laptop in it).

[Kim]

From when I was researching doing something similar to my late 2009 iMac, the biggest potential arse-ache is the temperature probe in the hard drive - as the SSD won't have one

Straw poll of the three SSDs in currently booted-up machines I have to hand says they all report temperature, though the Transcend 64G one appears to be lying.

Presumably more a case of the Mac not seeing a temperature reported by the expected Apple-approved drive, and failing safe.

[Dibdib]

From when I was researching doing something similar to my late 2009 iMac, the biggest potential arse-ache is the temperature probe in the hard drive - as the SSD won't have one

Straw poll of the three SSDs in currently booted-up machines I have to hand says they all report temperature, though the Transcend 64G one appears to be lying.

Presumably more a case of the Mac not seeing a temperature reported by the expected Apple-approved drive, and failing safe.

Ah, interesting. I only read about the need for the cable on the HDD, as the optical drive I swapped out has one taped to the housing which I could re-use. I assumed that a temp reading wasn't needed for the SSD as it wouldn't get hot in the same way.

[Kim]

Sounds like Apple are doing something weirder than the usual SMART reporting, then.

SSDs don't generate much heat, but it's always useful to know how hot things are for fan control.

[Dibdib]

it's an (IIRC) 2-pin cable which plugs into the HDD next to the SATA connector. The iMac end is the same for all iMacs, apparently, but the HDD end depends on which brand of drives they were using in that batch.

[andrewc]

Cheers Chris , that little caddy looks a good idea, copy everything onto the drive first and then just do the physical swap. 


According to stuff I've read and an instructional video, my 2008 model has a wired temperature sensor taped to the side of the HDD, so I should just be able to fix that to the new one.

[DaveJ]

I did that and it didn't help.  From what I read, Apple gimmicked the firmware in the drives.

You can get software that alters the temperature that the OS sees and that fixes the noise (of the fan running flat out because it thinks its overheating).

 

[Mr Larrington]

Sounds like Apple are doing something weirder than the usual SMART reporting, then.

SSDs don't generate much heat, but it's always useful to know how hot things are for fan control.

A chap who makes boards to allow the spinning rust storage in an iPod Classic with small-footprint SSDs begs to differ, and recommends repopulating such a device in easy-to-manage chunks lest it goes into a temperature-related sulk.  And it definitely does get quite warm when being written at in a concentrated manner.

[ian]

On the two occasions I've done it (replacing a failed drive in a old c2007 Macbook and an upgrade to SSD on a Mac Mini early 2009), I've not bothered with temperature sensors (I may have bodged the wire to the side of the drive, whatever the instructions told me). No fan issues. These older machines were built before SSDs became consumer.

I've never bothered to clone, a reinstall from TM seems to have always put me back exactly as before. As ever though, backup because if it can go wrong and you've not, it will.

[andrewc]

I bought one of those useful boxes that Chris suggested & downloaded a 30 day trial of Carbon Copy Clone.    It took nearly 2 hours to clone my hard drive. 


A quick tweak in System Preferences and I'm now running off the SSD in the caddy.   The machine seems quite a bit faster, even though it's running over a USB2.0 connection.    I'll do the physical stuff tomorrow I think, when I've moved the crap & dust off the desk  [size=78%].  [/size]
[/size]

[andrewc]

https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/imac_24_0708e09_hd/


Now done & working with no fan noise.


Fiddly but not beyond the capability of a klutz like myself.   I couldn't detach the LCD inverter plug so just left it connected & propped the panel out of the way.   I also had to remove one of the plastic ventilation slats on the had drive adaptor to get the temperature sensor in.


It's dusty inside there!

[Jaded]

Should be noticeably snappier - the modern OSX is written for needs an SSD