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Help needed - Mid 2011 iMac hard drive options

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bennettave

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 18, 2011
73
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I have a mid-2011 iMac with a 256 flash SSD and a 1 TB SATA disk HD. I am almost out of room, storing photos and videos - and do not want to delete files to make space. I am looking for help on what my options would be to improve my storage issue.

Is there an additional bay - could I have another hard drive installed (HD 3)?

How feasible is it to install a 4 TB hard drive in the place of the current 1 TB drive? Is there a drive that will work better than others? No fan issues, etc.?

Is there an external drive that is recommended? This is my least favorite option as I like the simplicity of an internal drive that is automatically backed up with my Time Capsule.

Any ideas?
 
If your going to go to a 4TB drive I would recommend a WD Black drive. They defiantly seem to be the most reliable. If you feel comfortable taking the iMac apart this is a fairly easy install. There are plenty of videos online showing how to do this. Maybe watch a few and see if its something you want to tackle. As far as having 3 drives I'm not sure where you would mount it in there. But if someone else knows something else about that they can chime in.
 
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bennettave said:
I have a mid-2011 iMac with a 256 flash SSD and a 1 TB SATA disk HD. I am almost out of room, storing photos and videos - and do not want to delete files to make space. I am looking for help on what my options would be to improve my storage issue.

Is there an additional bay - could I have another hard drive installed (HD 3)?

How feasible is it to install a 4 TB hard drive in the place of the current 1 TB drive? Is there a drive that will work better than others? No fan issues, etc.?

Is there an external drive that is recommended? This is my least favorite option as I like the simplicity of an internal drive that is automatically backed up with my Time Capsule.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

You are already using both bays with an SSD and a HDD, you should be able to just swap out the HDD for a bigger one. Look up how to on iFixit's website.
 
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Samuelsan2001 said:
You are already using both bays with an SSD and a HDD, you should be able to just swap out the HDD for a bigger one. Look up how to on iFixit's website.
Click to expand...
You can get one of these kits and do it yourself http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMACHDD11/ but yo need to 1. Have a tech friend to help 2. Have confidence you can do it. Alternatively, I LOVE this drive. It is powered by the USB port and is RAID so super fast http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Portable-External-Storage-STDA4000100/dp/B00HXAV0X6 large at 4TB, and small.
 
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bennettave said:
I have a mid-2011 iMac with a 256 flash SSD and a 1 TB SATA disk HD. I am almost out of room, storing photos and videos - and do not want to delete files to make space. I am looking for help on what my options would be to improve my storage issue.

Is there an additional bay - could I have another hard drive installed (HD 3)?

How feasible is it to install a 4 TB hard drive in the place of the current 1 TB drive? Is there a drive that will work better than others? No fan issues, etc.?

Is there an external drive that is recommended? This is my least favorite option as I like the simplicity of an internal drive that is automatically backed up with my Time Capsule.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

I strongly recommend using external drives to store you large libraries. If you are like most users, those large libraries are photos, music and movies. I have the same configuration as you and keep all my 100,000 photo library on 1 EHD, my 60GB music collection on another and finally my near 500 movies on a third. I don' t have any performance problems.
 
Samuelsan2001 said:
You are already using both bays with an SSD and a HDD, you should be able to just swap out the HDD for a bigger one. Look up how to on iFixit's website.
Click to expand...
Sirmausalot said:
You can get one of these kits and do it yourself http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMACHDD11/ but yo need to 1. Have a tech friend to help 2. Have confidence you can do it. Alternatively, I LOVE this drive. It is powered by the USB port and is RAID so super fast http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Portable-External-Storage-STDA4000100/dp/B00HXAV0X6 large at 4TB, and small.
Click to expand...

Go with what Samuelson2001 said and replace the internal drive with a larger drive.. And you're gonna need that kit from OWC that sirmausalot mentioned in his post to control the fan issue...

I replaced my 1TB with a 2TB and installed an SSD into my 27" mid'11 iMac....
 
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Thanks for all the wonderful options. I am not completely confident about taking the computer apart. Perhaps I could take it in and have the work done. I think that the 4 Tb internal drive would be the slickest solution...but am concerned about the fan issue.

Is there an Apple approved option that would be compatible and work with the existing fan controls in the computer?
 
bennettave said:
Thanks for all the wonderful options. I am not completely confident about taking the computer apart. Perhaps I could take it in and have the work done. I think that the 4 Tb internal drive would be the slickest solution...but am concerned about the fan issue.

Is there an Apple approved option that would be compatible and work with the existing fan controls in the computer?
Click to expand...

That question was already answered...
 
bennettave said:
Thanks for all the wonderful options. I am not completely confident about taking the computer apart. Perhaps I could take it in and have the work done. I think that the 4 Tb internal drive would be the slickest solution...but am concerned about the fan issue.

Is there an Apple approved option that would be compatible and work with the existing fan controls in the computer?
Click to expand...

Hello.
I have a iMac Mid2010 27".
And I upgrade my internal Hd 1tb WD with the new Seagate 4tb Hibrid HDssd.
You can see here: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Gaming-3-5-Inch-Internal-ST4000DX001/dp/B00FQH7MQ2

I buy in Barcelona after some isues with other HD.... Fans work a lot etc...
This HDSSD in compatible with apple and work perfectly... I don't need any extra software to control the Fan.
You only need to connect the thermal sensor to the 2 pins more far away the power conector.

I have a another SSD install on my iMac and I created a Fusion Drive with the 2 Hdd.
 

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You say that you store photos and videos. Do you have a backup of those in another place? Most people don't think about backups, but hard disks fail and your photos are memories of a lifetime.

For me, you should get a NAS. That is a disk or disks that connect through ethernet. If you use ethernet cable you can get 100MB/sec transfer rate with gigabit ethernet. With a NAS you get extra benefits. You can access your files when you are away from your home, you can run a torrent downloader and can have your files accessible from multiple computers.

I have a NAS in my home with three 3TB drives and have my photos automatically copied to each of the three disks for a tripple backup.
 
External drives can be automatically backed up with Time Capsule. So, that's one less thing to worry about. You should have a firewire port and there are adapters available to USB-3, so you could access content on an external drive quite quickly. And USB-3 drives are readily available. And when it's time to upgrade your computer, it's a quick way of moving your big ticket items.
 
You really only have 2 options: either swap out the 1TB HD for something bigger, or simply add an external drive. I believe you could also swap out the optical drive for a an HD using OWC's data doubler, but don't quote me on that. By far your cheapest option is to just add an external.
 
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