iMac performance upgrade

[Jurek]

Just need to download some cloning software.

Carbon Copy Cloner is incredibly easy to use - and available for a free trial.

That's exactly what I was considering.

[citoyen]

When I did my upgrade, I just restored the latest Time Machine backup when it asked when I booted it for the first time.

Interesting. I didn't try that because I'd read somewhere that Time Machine backups weren't bootable.

[Jurek]

When I did my upgrade, I just restored the latest Time Machine backup when it asked when I booted it for the first time.

Interesting. I didn't try that because I'd read somewhere that Time Machine backups weren't bootable.

I'd heard the same - hence the route of cloning of my HDD.
As isn't unusual - there's more than one way of skinning a cat - metaphorically speaking.

[grams]

You can't boot a Time Machine disk directly but once you've installed a fresh OS on a new drive it'll offer to restore all your data from a Time Machine backup on first boot.

[Jurek]

You can't boot a Time Machine disk directly but once you've installed a fresh OS on a new drive it'll offer to restore all your data from a Time Machine backup on first boot.

Yep. I was also offered that advice. I might consider actually doing that.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but if I did download the latest OS and install that on the SDD, and have that as my startup disc, any files stored on the old HDD, I'd be able to open and view at SSD speeds - is that right?

Errr... or have I just repeated what you've just said?   

[ian]

You can't boot a Time Machine disk directly but once you've installed a fresh OS on a new drive it'll offer to restore all your data from a Time Machine backup on first boot.

Hmm, I'm not sure how it worked, but I didn't purposefully reinstall MacOS (Apple might have as part of the process) – I think that if you hold down the option key when rebooting the machine with the virgin HDD it lets you simply select a TM backup, and then puts everything back while you make a cup of tea. I remember being impressed that within 30 minutes it was done and other than a massive speed increase, there was no trace I'd spent 30 minutes practising my unique brand of cack-handed surgery on its innards.

(Files left on a spinny disk will load as fast as that disk lets them, even if you've got a superfast solid-state drive for MacOS – in practice, this isn't really noticeable unless you're read/writing to that disk a lot, in general everything is loaded into memory and your files will be far smaller than the applications – so make sure the application and system folders are on the fast disk.)

[Kim]

Mostly though, I was just interested to see what the insides of an HD actually looked like.

If you're playing that game, do power it up with the lid off.  There's something pleasing about the head movement...

[Jaded]

It is Recovery Mode that you need, I think.

It will download a new OSX install suitable for your machine. Then you can choose a TM backup to copy from. TM Backups can be flaky though. I've got a USB - SATA cable, so personally I'd take the HD out, set up the SSD and then connect the HD to the machine via USB. Or, even better, set the SSD up outside the machine and check it works/boots before taking the machine apart.

[Jurek]

Mostly though, I was just interested to see what the insides of an HD actually looked like.

If you're playing that game, do power it up with the lid off.  There's something pleasing about the head movement...

I've had them in bits before. But:
*has a couple of HDDs in a dead G5 - Must remember to do this before I get rid*

[ian]

It is Recovery Mode that you need, I think.

It will download a new OSX install suitable for your machine. Then you can choose a TM backup to copy from. TM Backups can be flaky though. I've got a USB - SATA cable, so personally I'd take the HD out, set up the SSD and then connect the HD to the machine via USB. Or, even better, set the SSD up outside the machine and check it works/boots before taking the machine apart.

Worse case, you've still got the original hard drive. Well, unless curiosity has led to the hammer and an increase in local entropy. I got a little USB powered caddy for not very many pounds.

If you do power one up without the lid, it's very impressive how fast everything moves and a reminder of why one day soon we'll be subservient to our robot overlords. I mostly look forward to it.

I believe it's the start-up manager that does the honour, recovery is a partition that will be vamoosed if you replace the drive. Anyway, it worked, though I'm a sample size of one.

[citoyen]

Mostly though, I was just interested to see what the insides of an HD actually looked like.

If you're playing that game, do power it up with the lid off.  There's something pleasing about the head movement...

I so wish I’d thought of that before I destroyed it!

Although I don’t have a SATA cable so no means to power it up outside the box anyway.

[PaulF]

I’ve got a 2011 MacMini; a very cheap performance boost for me came by switching Safari for Chrome.

With my “usual” browser tabs open memory usage dropped from 85% to about 50%.

[Jurek]

Well, that was easy.
And the 2015 iMac  is now blisteringly fast.
All I need do now is to check that Time Machine is backing up from the new startup disc.
Thanks to all for your much valued contributions.

[Jaded]

 

[Jurek]

The size of the thing gets me.
It's about half the size of my ancient iPhone 5 / SE.
ETA - I'm seriously reluctant to move on to a newer phone as this is the last model which Apple released which was of a sensible, pocketable size.

[TimC]

The size of the thing gets me.
It's about half the size of my ancient iPhone 5 / SE.

The size of a 2.5" SSD (or spinny drive)? I have (among others) two 1Tb M2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs in my desktop. Each, without its heatsink, is the size of an SD card. I have a few 128Gb micro SD cards. It won't be long before 1Tb is available on micro SD. The miniaturisation of memory is, if anything, accelerating.

Edit: 1Tb micro SDs are already available. Amazon

[Greenbank]

The size of the thing gets me.
It's about half the size of my ancient iPhone 5 / SE.

The size of a 2.5" SSD (or spinny drive)? I have (among others) two 1Tb M2 PCIe 4.0 SSDs in my desktop. Each, without its heatsink, is the size of an SD card. I have a few 128Gb micro SD cards. It won't be long before 1Tb is available on micro SD. The miniaturisation of memory is, if anything, accelerating.

Edit: 1Tb micro SDs are already available. Amazon

And also on page 3 of this very thread: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=115770.msg2503603#msg2503603

[citoyen]

The miniaturisation of memory is, if anything, accelerating.

Looks like your memory is shrinking too!

[TimC]

The miniaturisation of memory is, if anything, accelerating.

Looks like your memory is shrinking too!

So true, sadly!

[TimC]

And also on page 3 of this very thread: https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=115770.msg2503603#msg2503603

Doh!!

[Jurek]

Well, that was easy.
And the 2015 iMac  is now blisteringly fast.
All I need do now is to check that Time Machine is backing up from the new startup disc.
Thanks to all for your much valued contributions.

It wasn't that Monterey wasn't happy with my 2015 iMac. (See my other post about reverting to an older OS)
The Samsung SSD has just died

[Jurek]

Well, that was easy.
And the 2015 iMac  is now blisteringly fast.
All I need do now is to check that Time Machine is backing up from the new startup disc.
Thanks to all for your much valued contributions.

It wasn't that Monterey wasn't happy with my 2015 iMac. (See my other post about reverting to an older OS)
The Samsung SSD has just died

New iMac arrived this morning.
2020 model-so that its the same size as the one which stands next to it.

[citoyen]

The Samsung SSD has just died

Yikes! That didn't last long.

Mine is still going fine, as far as I can tell.

[Jurek]

The Samsung SSD has just died

Yikes! That didn't last long.

Mine is still going fine, as far as I can tell.

Yeah. I'm a bit pissed off with that.
This is being sent to you from the new machine.

[Jurek]

The Samsung SSD has just died

Yikes! That didn't last long.

Mine is still going fine, as far as I can tell.

Yeah. I'm a bit pissed off with that.
This is being sent to you from the new machine.

ETA. I've just taken the original spinny drive out of the 2015 machine as it isn't going to re-cycling with that in it.
I thought I'd give the SSD a try in the new machine.
The new machine could see the SSD (the 2015 machine couldn't) and asked if I wanted to back up from the SSD.
I unplugged the SSD from the new machine.
I plugged the SSD back into the new machine.
It could still see the SSD, but there was no invitation to back up from it.
I looked inside the SSD.
It was empty.
Make of that what you will.