2017 iMac 18,3 Monterey 12.0.1 Internal HDD Replacement

[MACDADDYJ]

I am looking to upgrade the internal mechanical (platter) drive in my iMac. After purchasing and formatting a 10TB Toshiba drive, the system does not recognize it as usable. It is listed as a drive but not available to add files.

Is there a maximum allowable HDD size?

 

[stevecc]

did you format it in os extended journaled?.It will change to APFS on its own..GUID partion map,Name as you like.

 

[MACDADDYJ]

Hey, thanks for your help. Yes, I formatted it that way, as well as APFS and neither allows me to use the drive in Finder. Any ideas why?

 

[stevecc]

Maybe try downloading a copy of OS from Mr Macintosh ,s OS installer database.Then reboot holding they option key...then click install OS Big Sur I would try..let me know if that recognizes the drive.

 

[stevecc]

Monterey may be to new right now for the time been..Hope this works for you!

 

[stevecc]

Maybe try Os Mojave installer database from mr Mac.An older OS, once it recognizes it, you can go to the current OS

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

Your original post is unclear.

Is the drive (right now) inside or outside of the iMac?

If it's outside, how is it connected to the iMac?

 

[MACDADDYJ]

OP:

Your original post is unclear.

Is the drive (right now) inside or outside of the iMac?

If it's outside, how is it connected to the iMac?

It is inside the Mac. I followed Other World Computing's instructions to replace the drive. I chose a 10 TB drive in hopes of adding significant storage space. After installation, I tried formatting the drive to both APFS and Extended Journaled, GUID partition. Neither allowed me to use the drive in Mac Finder. It was recognized but not available to move files. Am I making sense?

This is the exact drive from Micro Center.

Toshiba X300 10TB 7200RPM SATA III 6Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive​

Toshiba X300 10TB 7200 RPM SATA III 6Gb/s 3.5" Internal CMR Hard Drive - Micro Center

Get it now! The Toshiba X300 Performance Internal Hard Drive is designed to deliver high performance and capacity that gamers and creative professionals demand. The X300 offers 7200 RPM and large cache size to keep your gaming experience going in real-time.

www.microcenter.com

 

[Fishrrman]

I have a suggestion that may help, or it may not.

Get booted and open disk utility.

Assuming disk utility can see the drive, go to the "partition" tab and partition the drive into 2 partitions (each will end up about 5gb in size or a little less).

You will now have 2 volume icons on the desktop.

Does doing this change anything?
Can you now access both partitions?

Again, this might have nothing to do with it, but I'm wondering if the built-in disk controller on the iMac cannot handle a drive that is 10gb in size -- but COULD handle partitioned volumes of smaller size...?

 

[MACDADDYJ]

I have a suggestion that may help, or it may not.

Get booted and open disk utility.

Assuming disk utility can see the drive, go to the "partition" tab and partition the drive into 2 partitions (each will end up about 5gb in size or a little less).

You will now have 2 volume icons on the desktop.

Does doing this change anything?
Can you now access both partitions?

Again, this might have nothing to do with it, but I'm wondering if the built-in disk controller on the iMac cannot handle a drive that is 10gb in size -- but COULD handle partitioned volumes of smaller size...?

That is a good thought and I tried it. Unfortunately, it still does not allow me to use the two partitions of 5TB each.

 

[Fishrrman]

My guess is that you're going to have to take this back OUT of the iMac, and try it in an external enclosure.

You really should replace the internal HDD with an SSD instead. Faster.

 

[MACDADDYJ]

My guess is that you're going to have to take this back OUT of the iMac, and try it in an external enclosure.

You really should replace the internal HDD with an SSD instead. FastThat probably would’ve been my only option if I had kept it. Took it back to Micro Center today and got a 4 TB instead.

 

[MACDADDYJ]

That probably would have been my only option if I hadn’t taken it back a couple of hours ago. Decided to get a 4 TB mechanical drive instead.

The PCie “blade“ drive was already replaced with a 2 TB. It is extremely fast. This is simply a back up drive for extra storage. Anything that needs accessing more quickly will go on the primary. Thanks again for the advice.

 

[MACDADDYJ]

By the way, the new 4 TB drive was working fine. Looks like it was just too much for the software to fully utilize.

 

[stevecc]

does anyone know how to get sound on a external isight cam microphone..camara works no microphone?..os monterey everyone is complaining that theres no isight update after 1.0.3 sight driver update back when snow leopard came out!

 

[MACDADDYJ]

does anyone know how to get sound on a external isight cam microphone..camara works no microphone?..os monterey everyone is complaining that theres no isight update after 1.0.3 sight driver update back when snow leopard came out!

This is probably the wrong thread for the question. I tried to close the thread but wasn't able to do it.