Change hdd to ssd

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I have an iMac 21,5" i7 late 2013 with fusiondrive.
System info says, that there is 128 GB ssd and 1TB hdd.
Can I change the hdd to a ssd and still have the 128 GB ssd?
/Per
 

Cory Cooper

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Hello and welcome.

That isn't something that I would recommend, as the iMac isn't a user-serviceable unit. You can easily damage the internal parts and cause issues that can prevent the iMac from functioning properly. Because of the design of the Fusion Drive, you have to break the link between the two drives, take the iMac apart, replace the drive, reassemble, and recreate the link between the drives. Since the majority of the files that are used reside on the SSD already, you would only get moderate speed gains.

It would probably be a better solution to add an external Thunderbolt drive enclosure with an SSD in it, as that would be pretty much as fast in real-world usage.

Is there a specific reason you want to perform the upgrade?

C
 
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Thanks for your reply.
I wiil go with Thunderbolt drive enclosure, which I find as a good solution.
I want the upgrade as Lightroom is running too slow.
/Per
 
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Thanks for your reply.
I wiil go with Thunderbolt drive enclosure, which I find as a good solution.
I want the upgrade as Lightroom is running too slow.
/Per

I would think, though, that to run any software on such an external drive, the Mac OS needs to be installed there. However, if the software you need to run faster is limited, ie, just Lightroom and one or two others, maybe you do not need such a large SSD drive. Maybe a 512 gig one would suffice.

What you can do is to use software like either SuperDuper! or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a copy/clone of your stuff that you have on the iMac. That will include the OS, and such a backup/clone will be bootable. You can then boot your iMac from that clone, and your iMac's drive would appear on the desktop of that "clone" environment. Given that you will have Thunderbolt connectivity, booting from such a clone, and running programs on it, should be fast. I have a Samsung 850 Pro 512 gig SSD enclosed in a nice, slim Orico enclosure, with USB 3.0 connectivity. I mainly use that drive for backing up each of my Macs with SuperDuper! each week, but even via USB 3.0, the performance is good.

Or, of course, you can just get that external SSD "ready", install the Mac OS onto it, and then install any software there. You can then boot your iMac to that device, and run Lightroom (and whatever else you want) from there.
 
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Here is what I have done:
I removed the HHD from the iMac and installed a Samsung 850 SSD instead.
I kept the 120 GB SSD and made it to System disk and configured the Samsung SSD as Data disk.
I moved the Homefolder from System disk to the Data disk.
After these operations Lightroom and Photoshop (both CC) are running better than ever.
Merry X-mas
Pere
 
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Cool! Now you iMac most likely screams! Just out of curiosity, was it a Samsung 850 Pro 1 TB SSD that you installed? Myself, I recently purchased 2 Samsung 850 Pro 512 gig SSDs, and I am using one of them in a nice, slim Orico external enclosure (via a USB 3.0 connection) for backups. It works great!

Also, what did you do with the 1 TB HDD that you removed? You could enclose it in an external case, and use it for backups. And, I suspect the Samsung 120 gig SSD is an EVO model.

IN any event, glad you got it all working. Merry Christmas to you!
 
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The size of the SSD is 512GB.
The 1GB HDD is now in an external case and I use as archive for old photos.
I take backup of everything to a DS416J Synology NAS using Timemachine.
The 120GB SSD is the one, that was build in by Apple in the iMac.
 
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From what I gather, you were able to install a "standard" 2.5" SSD in place of the 1 TB hard drive, correct? If so, is this the Samsung 850 model you installed?

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-...618&sr=8-1&keywords=samsung+850+pro+512gb+ssd

That is the exact one (actually 2 of them) I purchased about 2 months ago, with one of them being installed inside a nice, slim Orico external enclosure:

https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-Enclosure-Super-Speeed-External-SATA3-0/dp/B01LXY78V6

Talk about even satisfying "I have the need, the need for speed"! My SuperDuper! backups I make for each of my Macs to that external SSD go super fast, MUCH, MUCH faster than the External drive, with a 7200 rpm Seagate drive via a Firewire 800 connection, I was using previously.
 
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Sounds like you are already set up.

I agree that you don't want to do a Fusion drive with two SSD's. But, you could definitely setup a RAID 0 configuration...where both SSD's are combined into one logical drive (so you don't have to monkey around with separating applications from data).

(perhaps this will be helpful for others that happen upon this thread)
 
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Interesting.
1) can I run raid 0 with different size ssd? 120 and 512 GB.
2) can I change to raid 0 on the fly or do I have to start from scratch?
/Per
 
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Interesting.
1) can I run raid 0 with different size ssd? 120 and 512 GB.
2) can I change to raid 0 on the fly or do I have to start from scratch?
/Per
1. Yes, the SSDs can be different. You aren't mirroring them (RAID 1)...you would be striping then together, leverage the full, combined disk space as one logical volume (RAID 0).
2. You would have to start from scratch. But don't let that deter you...you'll be happier in the long run. :)
 
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I recently read that the size of the raid 0 drive will be twice the size of the smallest drive. Is that still valid? If so, what about the rest of the 512 GB drive?
 
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I recently read that the size of the raid 0 drive will be twice the size of the smallest drive. Is that still valid? If so, what about the rest of the 512 GB drive?
This is not true. The size of the RAID 0 array will be the total combined storage of all drives in the array (in this case, 120GB + 512GB)
 
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I have tried to follow the instructions to make raid 0 on Sierra with Disk Utility (and via terminal)

Disk Utility shows both sad's as greyed out when opening the raid assistant!!!!

Have tried to erase the ssd's - no luck.

Can you tell me how to proceed?

/Per
 

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Hi again,

I tried to reboot with cmd+R and now I can see the sad's to make a raid 0.

BUT the size will only be 242 GB - which is the smallest ssd x 2.

Hmmmmmmm?????

/Per
 
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If they are different sized disks, use the "Concatenated (JBOD)" option. (this is, essentially, still a stripped array of disks...but will allow you to get the maximum storage available.
 

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