Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
an SSD, a Fusion or a HardDisk Drive?
- Thread starter zoran
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
As far as we know, yes. https://www.howtogeek.com/322856/how-long-do-solid-state-drives-really-last/
You should really tell us what you plan on using it for and on what and what OS, but in almost all cases, you would most likely want to go with a SSD.
HDD:
Pros - Cheap, there is usually warnings/symptoms when they starting to fail
Cons - Slow, hot, APFS is not optimized for HDDs, and there is a significant performance loss with Catalina (not sure about Big Sur)
SSD:
Pros - Fast, really fast, Runs great on modern MacOS, instant response, cool running, pretty much a must on Catalina
Cons - Expensive, usually no warning for failures,
Fusion Drives:
Pros - Can be fast, especially for short writes, and fast on data that is accessed often, cheaper than SSD, depending on how it is used and Fusion Drive size (or year) the Fusion Drive could be a decent choice for older OS versions.
Cons - Can be slow, especially for long writes and slow on data that is not accessed often, hot from the HDD portion, no failure warning from the SSD portion, sucks on Catalina,
Another thing about Fusion Drives is that they are not all created equal...
When they first launched with the Late 2012 iMacs, all of the Fusion Drives had a 128GB SSD portion. In 2015, Apple reduced the 1TB Fusion Drive's SSD to only 24GB, making it crappy. In 2017, Apple increased the 1TB Fusion Drive's SSD to 32GB, but still really tiny.
All of the 2TB and 3TB Fusion Drives have 128GB SSD portions, making them much more desirable than the newer 1TB Fusion Drive.
Bottom line, go with a SSD unless you really can't afford it. If what Apple charges for SSD is a problem, it might be worth it to just get the cheapest option and use a third party external SSD as your boot drive.
HDD:
Pros - Cheap, there is usually warnings/symptoms when they starting to fail
Cons - Slow, hot, APFS is not optimized for HDDs, and there is a significant performance loss with Catalina (not sure about Big Sur)
SSD:
Pros - Fast, really fast, Runs great on modern MacOS, instant response, cool running, pretty much a must on Catalina
Cons - Expensive, usually no warning for failures,
Fusion Drives:
Pros - Can be fast, especially for short writes, and fast on data that is accessed often, cheaper than SSD, depending on how it is used and Fusion Drive size (or year) the Fusion Drive could be a decent choice for older OS versions.
Cons - Can be slow, especially for long writes and slow on data that is not accessed often, hot from the HDD portion, no failure warning from the SSD portion, sucks on Catalina,
Another thing about Fusion Drives is that they are not all created equal...
When they first launched with the Late 2012 iMacs, all of the Fusion Drives had a 128GB SSD portion. In 2015, Apple reduced the 1TB Fusion Drive's SSD to only 24GB, making it crappy. In 2017, Apple increased the 1TB Fusion Drive's SSD to 32GB, but still really tiny.
All of the 2TB and 3TB Fusion Drives have 128GB SSD portions, making them much more desirable than the newer 1TB Fusion Drive.
Bottom line, go with a SSD unless you really can't afford it. If what Apple charges for SSD is a problem, it might be worth it to just get the cheapest option and use a third party external SSD as your boot drive.
For a boot drive:
SSD
There's no other option that will do a right and proper job running the Mac OS today.
For a data drive:
Either SSD or platter-based HDD, depending on the amount of data to be stored and your "use case".
Example:
If you have large libraries of data that you don't want to keep on the internal SSD, you could use an external USB3 SSD.
Then, BACK UP that "primary, external" storage drive to a platter-based HDD (that doesn't need speed).
SSD
There's no other option that will do a right and proper job running the Mac OS today.
For a data drive:
Either SSD or platter-based HDD, depending on the amount of data to be stored and your "use case".
Example:
If you have large libraries of data that you don't want to keep on the internal SSD, you could use an external USB3 SSD.
Then, BACK UP that "primary, external" storage drive to a platter-based HDD (that doesn't need speed).
That changes a lot.
What OS are you running on your Mid 2010?
With USB2 and FW800, there really isn't any good external options unless you were justing using them for storage or back up.
I would do an internal solution.
I personally would not open a Mid 2010 iMac and put on in unless I absolutely have to.
If you are opening your iMac, just spend a little extra and get a SSD, the prices are dropping everyday.
Im running ElCap, but i guess im planning to go to the top it can handle... i think it can do Sierra or HighSierra... correct?
Yup only for backup/storage i have a OWC's MercuryEliteProQuad2 drive bay... and yes it is slow.
What do u mean you would do an internal solution?
Yeah im opening it, i cant do otherwise, the factory hdd failed and im having a heat attack, i have to take it out, so that why i was thinking to replace it ;-)
Last edited:
This:
In context, I meant internal solution as opposed to an external SSD or HDD, or hybrid internal/external Fusion Drive. You didn't give use all the information in the beginning, so some of use was suggesting external drives as a possible solution, but now that we know it is a Mid 2010, I wouldn't suggest doing an external solution due to the slow external options.
The the drive was just used as a back up drive, then maybe I would consider using an external drive. I wouldn't want to boot off of it regularly though.
Yeah, it is supported up to High Sierra (but it is possible to get higher, just not officially supported).
Is the internal SSD an Apple OEM drive? Also, has your HDD completely failed or just failing?
You might have some firmware issues if you do not install High Sierra directly on an internal OEM drive.
If you need the data, I would attempt to back up the data.This is what happened to my drive. My files are just "read only"... some times... some other times they are not seen.
Heart attack i tell you! Heart attack!
The HDD itself might be salvageable, at least long enough to get some data off of it.
After, I would attempt to reformat the drive, and install High Sierra on it, just to get the firmware updates, then pull it.
There could be firmware updates that must be installed on an Apple OEM drive. Otherwise, you may not be able to install High Sierra. I personally ran into this issue on a Late 2011 iMac that I was repairing the GPU and failing HDD.
I was unable to install High Sierra to the newly installed SSD due to not having the updated firmware installed. The only way I could figure it out was to reinstall the failing HDD, then install High Sierra to the failing HDD which installed the firmware, and then pull the HDD and swap in the SSD.
I don't know if you will have this issue on your Mid 2010 iMac, but it might be worth it to get all the data off that drive that you need, then attempt to reformat the drive, at least long enough to install High Sierra on it.