Compare hard drives on imac

shopping for imac 21.5 inch. need advice on serial HD vx the solid state. serial HD acceptible?

What are you going to do with the computer?
Spinning hard drive gets you much more space for the money. It will be fast enough for general computing.
SSD is much faster, but because the technology is still new, you pay much more money for the same amount of space as a spinning hard drive. It's only worth it if your work is extremely dependent on speed, like video/audio/photo editing all day long; and if speed is so important to you that you're willing to lose more money and disk space to get more speed.
The SSD should be less likely to fail, because it has no moving parts.

Similar Messages

How do I copy iTunes from external hard drive to iMac?

How do I copy iTunes from external
Hard drive to iMac?

if your main library is on your external, then when not connected, you wont have access to it.
so first decide, where do you want to keep the files.
E.g. In my case, I keep my files on "C:\iTunes Music".
I have a backup on external "Z:\iTunes Backup". If I format my laptop, this is how I restore everything.
Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced.
The iTunes music folder in selects as "C:\iTunes Music"
I have checked Keep iTunes Music Folder Organized, and also Copy Files to iTunes Music folder when adding to ibrary". Click OK to save and close preferences.
My iTunes list is now empty. I go to file, and select "Add Folder to Library". From that window, I select "Z:\iTunes Backup". iTunes then copies everything from the backup to "C:\iTunes Music". For me, backup is backup, I dont need it to play music.
Now decide this. If you do not want to keep music on C:, but want to only connect the external to update music on your ipod, do this:
In preferences, set iTunes Music folder as "Z:\iTunes Backup", and uncheck Copy files to iTunes Music folder, since they are already there. Then in files, select Add folder to library again to build and update the list.

Do you need a special external hard drive for iMac?

Do you need a special external hard drive for iMac?

Any external hard drive that will connect via Firewire 800, USB, or Thunderbolt will work.
I have a 750GB Western Digital Scorpio drive in an OWC case, sitting on a Backpack, which connects via Firewire. Western Digital Scorpio drives have 5 year warranties, the OWC (macsales.com) cases usually use the Oxford chipset which works well with macs, and the Backpack is a slick way to mount a backup drive without taking up desk space.
After you hook up whatever external drive you end up with, you'll partition and initialize it for OS X, then begin using it.
My opinion, I would not get a Western Digital pre-packaged external drive/case. While the hard drives are OK, there have been a number of people that have had issues with the electronics.

Installed new hard drive in imac and i get folder with question mark, put in OS install disk and it does nothing? All I have is wireless key board and mouse, is this a factor?

Installed new hard drive in imac and i get folder with question mark, put in OS install disk and it does nothing? All I have is wireless key board and mouse, is this an issue?

Other than put disc in you don't give much info about what you've done. With the install disc inserted restart your Mac while holding the C key, that should start it up from the install disc. Should also work fine with a wireless Apple keyboard.

Installing Internal Hard Drive in iMac possible or reliable?

Is it possible to install internal 2TB hard drive in iMac? I have my complete internal Hard Drive full in the iMac. And I work heavily on Final Cut Pro and always have heavy work data, so should I get external 2TB for editing and working in FCP or is Internal more reliable?
Thanks in Advance!

Apple doesn’t ship an iMac with anything larger than 1TB and opening up the current iMac voids your warranty and isn’t easy. I’ve cracked open every computer I’ve ever owned and have a large amount of experience with modding. This iMac will be the first computer I won’t be opening. So if you want a larger drive, external will be the way to go. Look at the LaCie Thunderbolt drives. I’ve not pulled the trigger yet but when I do get a TB drive, that’s probably where I’ll go.

Moving hard drive from iMac G5 to eMac 700Mhz

Hi,
Hard drive in my eMac failed recently and on the top of that iMac G5 logic board stopped working (known problem). Now I wonder if I could move over iMac's hard drive (and Airport card) with 10.4 on it to my eMac. Is that possible? Or do I have to format it or clone it before move etc? How that can be done and what are my options here?
Thanks in advance

Thanks for clarifying on hard drives. I know emac hard drive is failing so I will replace that regardless. I just wonder what will be the best method to do that (I don't want use external drive for it). Regarding iMac G5 logic board; I have never seen that guide of Jim Warholic and I am appreciated for it. I have checked logic board but I am not sure if there is a problem with any of capacitors. What I have found is one of them look a bit bulge in compare to others; see pics here:
http://img402.imageshack.us/i/iphotoscreensnapz001t.jpg/
and
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/2258/iphotoscreensnapz002.jpg
And thats the pictures of what is happening because of that:
http://img510.imageshack.us/i/mailscreensnapz001.jpg/
http://img694.imageshack.us/i/mailscreensnapz002.jpg/
http://img101.imageshack.us/i/mailscreensnapz003.jpg/
http://img682.imageshack.us/i/mailscreensnapz004.jpg/
My iMac 20" 1.8Mhz is first generation of this kind with model number M8851Z/A.
Thanks

How to stop my Time Machine external hard drive preventing iMac from sleeping?

I have a late 2012 iMac, and have discovered that sometimes (I haven't noticed a pattern of when it doesn/doesn't happen) the computer will immediately wake up after I set it to Sleep (Apple Menu>Sleep). Through elimination I have found that it is the the USB 3.0 external hard drive I use as a Time Machine back-up that is the culprit; unplugging it then allows the computer to sleep. If I unplug it, then plug it back in later on, this normally solves the problem for a while, but not forever. This same Hard Drive didn't cause the wake problem on my previous '08 iMac.
A big issue is that when the machine immediately wakes from sleep, the display stays off (until I move the mouse) - this is good from a power saving point of view, but means I don't know if/when the machine is immediately waking from sleep (I have to listen to the fan when setting it to Sleep mode to hear if it has actually woken back up).
I've searched the forums, but can't find another poster with the same problem as myself. Can anyone advise a course for me to pursue to prevent this from happening?
Thanks. Jamie

Hi Frank. Nope, I'm still having the same symptoms; the plugged in external drive (TIme Machine) will wake the machine up a couple of seconds after it winding down when put to into sleep mode. Ejecting the drive and then sleeping the machine works. After plugging it in again to do a Time machine backup, it will allow the computer to sleep soundly for the first few sessions (eg a few days of sleeping, waking, sleeping, waking, etc), but then it will then suddenly start preventing it from sleeping again after a while.
It seems I'm fortunate in my case that the display stays dark (or off?) when the machine has been woken from sleep, but this was actually preventing me from knowing the machine wasn't in fact asleep for quite some time; I only eventually cottoned on because there wasn't any delay when 'waking' my machine (which there normally is). I would then have to carefully listen to the spinning fans to know if in fact it had gone to sleep or not.
So, to summarise, unfortunately no, I haven't solved this yet. If anyone else has a solution, please let us know?
Also, I've noticed occasionally after waking that there is a relatively quiet 'crackle' sound (kind of electrical sounding) from the bottom-right area of the machine. This goes on every so often for about 30mins. I see this is also an issue with other people's late 2012 iMacs, but I've not seen if anyone has a solution to it?

How can I transfer part of iPhoto files from my hard drive of iMac to free up my hard drive which is 95% full

My IMAC 24" Early 2008, with Hard Drive of 500 is running out of Memory, down to 25 MGHz. Since I have large collection of photographs in my IPhoto, with fair numbers in raw forms, I presume most of the memory is taken by them. I am unable to find weather that is the cause of low memory, and if it is so, how can I transfer part of them into external hard drive to free up the space. Help into yhe matter will be appreciated. Thanks

Make sure the drive is formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
1. Quit iPhoto
2. Copy the iPhoto Library from your Pictures Folder to the External Disk.
Now you have two full versions of the Library.
3. On the Internal library, trash the Events you don't want there
Now you have a full copy of the Library on the External and a smaller subset on the Internal
Some Notes:
As a general rule: when deleting photos do them in batches of about 100 at a time. iPhoto can baulk at trashing large numbers at one go.
You can choose which Library to open: Hold down the option (or alt) key key and launch iPhoto. From the resulting menu select 'Choose Library'
You can keep the Library on the external updated with new imports using iPhoto Library Manager

I have installed new hard drive to iMac intel 2007 model and all I get on the screen is a grey question mark, tried system disk and now that's stuck in drive and just spinning around, any help please

Sorry put all question on subject line. As I said fitted new hard drive, but all I get is a folder with a flashing grey question mark. Tried system disk but that is now just spinning around in DVD drive and I can't get it out. Any help with these problems would help

Sounds like the new drive is not being recognized. Could be it's a SATA3 drive with a 6Gb/s transfer rate and needs to be jumpered down to 3. But if the 2007 is 1.5, it may not work at all, even if jumpered down. Other possibility is a not properly secured cable or a cable that's come loose from the logic board.
What is the model of the 2007 Mac? What's the new drive? Did you do the installation or was it done by a shop?
You can find your model here. Look next to Standard Hard Drive:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/index-imac.html
Message was edited by: WZZZ

Hard Drive Replacement iMac 27 i7 early 2011

Hello everyone, I just bought an iMac 27 early 2011 and would like to change the hard disk to a SSD but I read that you can not do!
Can you help me?

I agree with you, but I would still change the hard drive I with a non-Apple to spend less, you know you can?

Hard Drive on iMac suddenly full

I had Time Machine set up and working perfectly. Yesterday, I had 191 GB free on my iMac. Today after school, I turned on my iMac and I had 2MB free!! What happened to my hard drive? I called the Apple store and they knew nothing. They told me to call Apple Care and that it was 24 hour support. They stop answering calls at 6pm. Then they told me to bring my iMac into a store. I told him that I live over an hour away from the closest Apple store. I am also way too busy with school right noq to deal with this **** that shouldn't happen in the first place. So now I am completely screwed. I can see my Time Machine backup, but cant restore my hard drive to that point. Am I completely screwed? Someone help please.

Alrightythen, I found a solution in another thread. Apple says the answer is to durn off idisk syncing. Obviously, not a good answer since I PAY to sync idisk across several computers. See the solution...
+*Hi dandad ~*+
+*This was discussed in this thread:*+
+*http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1200355&tstart=15*+
+*And Apple has recently published this KB article about it:*+
+*http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306904*+
+*~ john*+
So how much money do I get back since I have to turn off a feature I paid for?

Compatible external hard drives for iMac running 10.2.8

Greetings. This is my first post. My iMac is 7 years old, has 256 MB of memory, and runs on 10.2.8. It has gotten very slow. Perhaps, if I transfer the music (iTunes) and picture (iPhoto) files to an external hard drive, the operating speed may improve. However, the hard drives at the Apple store are compatible with 10.4. The salesperson said it would work. However, I am skeptical. I do not want to spend $150 or more, find out it doesn't work and cannot locate the same sales rep to get my money back. Any suggestions on what to do?

redbar1, welcome to Apple Discussions.
Get one like this from a Mac supplier.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/usb/eliteclassic
Get the one for a firewire 400 & USB connection. The FW400 connection will be much faster than USB 1.1. Any size hard drive can be used. Suggest you get one larger than your current hard drive & then backup your entire internal hard drive.
For backup look at Mac Backup - Mac Backup Software, Hardware, and Guides for Your Mac
http://macs.about.com/od/usingyourmac/tp/backuphub.htm
Mac OS X data backup FAQ http://www.macmaps.com/backup.html
You can use CarbonCopy Cloner @ http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html , or SuperDuper @ http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html , or IBackup @ http://www.grapefruit.ch/iBackup/index.html , or Silverkeeper @ http://www.lacie.com/silverkeeper/ or the Restore function of Disk Utility included in OS X.
For speedup, look at these links
Mac Tune-up: 34 Software Speedups
http://www.macworld.com/article/49489/2006/02/softwarespeed.html
Optimize Your Mac OS X Experience[/b}
http://www.giantmike.com/speedX.html
52 Ways to Speed Up OS X
http://www.imafish.co.uk/articles/post/articles/130/52-ways-to-speed-up os-x/
Tuning Mac OS X Performance
http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/performance.html
11 Ways to Optimize Your Mac's Performance
http://lowendmac.com/eubanks/07/0312.html
The Top 7 Free Utilities To Maintain A Mac.
http://mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/thetop_7_free_utilities_to_maintain_amac/
Mac OS X: System maintenance
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=607640
Adding more RAM would also speed up your Mac.
 Cheers, Tom

Can't transfer iPhoto Library FROM external hard drive to iMac

I just bought a new iMac. Before I said goodbye to my old computer (a MacBook), I dutifully backed up my iPhoto library onto an external hard drive. Upon setting up my iMac, I easily accessed the iPhoto library on my HD, but I didn't import it. I was able to see all photos, albums, etc.
But when I went to import the entire iPhoto library into my iMac's hard drive (into the Pictures folder), it wouldn't import. A mesage comes up that says "Preparing to copy" and the blue-and-white bar just spins and spins, without actually copying anything. So, it's weird -- there's clearly communication between iMac and external HD, but I can't take the iPhoto library off the hard drive to make it my new computer's iPhoto library.
Any hints? Thanks.

Have you tried restarting your machine?

Time to reformat hard drive on iMac?

Hi,
I have the following iMac:
Model Name:          iMac
Model Identifier:          iMac7,1
Processor Name:          Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:          2.8 GHz
Number Of Processors:          1
Total Number Of Cores:          2
L2 Cache:          4 MB
Memory:          4 GB
Bus Speed:          800 MHz
Boot ROM Version:          IM71.007A.B03
SMC Version (system):          1.21f4
Am running Snow Leopard.
Have had a lot of issues with rotating beach ball, slow machine performance.
When I run Verify Disk, I get the following type of errors on more or less a weekly basis:
Checking volume information.
Invalid file count
(It should be X instead of Y)
Invalid volume directory count
(It should be A instead of B)
The volume Macintosh HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired
Error: This disk needs to be repaired...then use Disk Utility to repair this disk.
I am able to repair the disk and acheive no errors, but the cycle repeats itself in a few days.
Should I backup and reformat my hard drive?
If so, can you point me to the proper procedure please?
Thank you very much...

OK....very strange commentary. Not sure what set you off, but let me add in a few additional facts that may calm you down:
This is my first Mac...purchased in 2007. I have no Power PC programs to contend with.
I went in telling the genius guy that I probably needed a hardware fix like a new hard drive; of course I was well out of warranty.
The upgrade to OSX was NOT offered as a solution. The Apple guy looked at my error messages, and said that based on his experience (and this is all he does all day), the problem mentioned in my initial posting above would likely be solved with an application of Disk Warrior.
He said that it was possible that this would NOT solve the problem and it could be the sign of a disk that was starting to go bad, but he said that often Disk Warrior would give a message if this were the case.
He then implemented this step.
I thanked him and then pressed him if there was anything else I could do to enhance the performance of my computer. He then offered the prospect of upgrading to the latest operating system.
I told him that I had been reluctant to do this because I had read mixed reviews with computers my vintage.
He said that he had installed Mountain Lion on his Macbook Pro also built in 2007 but with a smaller processor thatn what I had and he liked the outcome. We determined that my machine was already at max memory.
He started to offer me advice on how I could do the upgrade at home, said a fresh install was best. As I started to ask him more questions, he offered to do the installation for me right then and there for FREE (no software or installation cost) but double checked that I had everything backed up properly on an external hard drive.
Yes, I did have everything backed up on Time Machine back home. He doubled checked that I wanted to proceed, so I said "Go".
He gave me instruction on how I could uninstall Mountain Lion and revert back to Snow Leopard, if I weren't happy with the results.
So far, I am DELIGHTED with the new operating system. I am not sure if it is the software or the fact that my disk problem appears corrected, but my machine is much, much faster. I had been hanging on by my fingertips awaiting a new iMac, but now I feel I can perhaps get another year's worth of service out of my machine (don't you dare mention this to my wife).
It is indeed possible that my problem is not corrected...he warned me that there was the possibility that my hard drive might be ready to give up the ghost, but almost a week later, and no futher problems.
You must have had a very bad experience sometime in your history, or perhaps I was not clear in describing what happened, but from my perspective, what's not to like? The guy was very helpful, did not charge me a cent and appears to have solved the problem.

Why can't I see my external hard drive, Intel iMac / 500 GB, G-Drive

Why can't I see my external hard drive? I have a new iMac, Intel based i5, running Lion (2-3 months old). I have a 500 GB G-Drive external hard drive that has showed up when connected to my iMac for the past 2-3 months. Now it's gone. It's NOT visible when using Disk Utilities. I have all of the radio buttons chosen in the Finder Preferences. I've unplugged and replugged in the drive, have switched the cable ports and have switched firewire cable. The G-Drive powers up and whirls, so I don't believe the problem is with the drive. Yes, I set my Preferences to make sure ALL disk types are visible. I've restarted my iMac on a number of occations. I rest my SMC by totally unplugging my iMac for a minute, then plugging it back in. Any suggestions?

Unplug the HD, Zap the PRAM, reconnect the HD, power it up, and see if that fixes the problem. If not, then maybe the HDs bitten the dust. Try on another computer to verify.

Compare hard drives on imac

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