iMac 2017 SSD upgrade questions

[SonicDaHerzog]

Hi all!

I want to upgrade the storage solution of my iMac 2017. It is currently a 1TB fusion drive so its starting to show its age. I want to replace it with 1TB m.2 SSD and possibly another SATA SSD to replace that infamous 5400rpm hard drive. I have all my data cloned via Carbon Copy Cloner.

Here is my question: Since my data was cloned, will it cause any issue if I restore my data that was backed up from a fusion drive setup to the newly installed 1TB m.2 SSD? And will it freak out if it detects that there's a duo SSD combo instead of the 1 SSD and 1 HDD fusion?

Thanks!

 

[CheesePuff]

Good question.. it shouldn't, as software-wise it should see the Fusion Drive as a 1.12 TB single drive, and when making a disk image of it and restoring it, will be as a single drive.

 

[rbart]

If you just replace the SATA HDD drive by a new SSD drive, you will break the fusion setup.
You will have to separate drives.
It's possible to fuse again the 2 drives or use them as separate drives.
No problem to restore your data in the 2 cases

 

[Fishrrman]

The 2017 iMac (at least the 27") has USBc/thunderbolt3.

Why not "do it the easy way"?
That is:
Get a Samsung X5 tbolt3 SSD, plug it into the USBc/tbolt3 port, and boot and run that way.

Then... just leave the internal fusion drive "as is", and use it as a cloned (and bootable) backup.

 

[costica1234]

The 2017 iMac (at least the 27") has USBc/thunderbolt3.

Why not "do it the easy way"?
That is:
Get a Samsung X5 tbolt3 SSD, plug it into the USBc/tbolt3 port, and boot and run that way.

Then... just leave the internal fusion drive "as is", and use it as a cloned (and bootable) backup.

What read / write speeds can be achieved using the setup you suggest?

 

[easy4lif]

I ended

Hi all!

I want to upgrade the storage solution of my iMac 2017. It is currently a 1TB fusion drive so its starting to show its age. I want to replace it with 1TB m.2 SSD and possibly another SATA SSD to replace that infamous 5400rpm hard drive. I have all my data cloned via Carbon Copy Cloner.

Here is my question: Since my data was cloned, will it cause any issue if I restore my data that was backed up from a fusion drive setup to the newly installed 1TB m.2 SSD? And will it freak out if it detects that there's a duo SSD combo instead of the 1 SSD and 1 HDD fusion?

Thanks!

I ended up upgrading both the blade ssd and traditional hard drive as well as upgrading to 32gb of ram

I’d recommend if you plan to replace the blade ssd get the ram done as wel.

My replacement parts were:

1tb aura pro x2 ssd
500gb crucial mx500
32gb crucial ram

overall it runs pretty damm fast compared to fusion drive.

 

[yachtmac]

What read / write speeds can be achieved using the setup you suggest?

I have the Samsung setup as well and get read write speeds that are almost comparable to the newer Apple internal SSD’s

 

[Roxy.music]

I am thinking of getting this it is a bit more than I wanted to pay
iMac 27 5k 2017 i5 3.5 24 GB Radeon Pro 575 with 256 SSD for £1,600
Other than that it would be 3.4 8gb 1TB for £1,250 with one year guarantee if I got the second one I would have to get 16 GB of Ram(2 x 8) which would cost 65 pounds on Amazon. I just want it for basic stuff and some gaming I will be new to that.

This Apple iMac is in Mint condition and complete with the original box. It was a customised upgrade, that would cost £2,699 if purchased from Apple Direct. It has barely been used - bought for freelance work and no longer required and not used to its super-fast capabilities so no longer keeping.

i
I can see a couple of tiny white dots at the top of the machine are they anything to worry about? or are they a reflection?

 

[Roxy.music]

Are the internal Apple SSD s faster than other makes of SSD,s?

 

[redfirebird08]

What read / write speeds can be achieved using the setup you suggest?

Pretty good actually. I have an external 1 terabyte Thunderbolt boot drive hooked up to 2017 iMac. Write speed is 1,800 megabytes per second and Read speed is 2,000 megabytes per second. My iMac has an internal SSD but it's only 256 gigs of storage and I want to preserve the life of the internal drive. One way to do that is to run the machine via external boot drive.

 

[Richy85]

I bought a proprietary used nvme ssd from apple on ebay, to avoid having to use adapters, also a sata ssd.
and finally take advantage and change the i5 3.4 processor for an i7 4.2

 

[Roxy.music]

Pretty good actually. I have an external 1 terabyte Thunderbolt boot drive hooked up to 2017 iMac. Write speed is 1,800 megabytes per second and Read speed is 2,000 megabytes per second. My iMac has an internal SSD but it's only 256 gigs of storage and I want to preserve the life of the internal drive. One way to do that is to run the machine via external boot drive.

I have a Samsung Evo used it for 2 years and only used 87gb pf it, it is a 512gb, So a 256 GB should be enough
for me, when I get a new machine.

 

[redfirebird08]

I have a Samsung Evo used it for 2 years and only used 87gb pf it, it is a 512gb, So a 256 GB should be enough
for me, when I get a new machine.

Yeah, I have about 115 gigs being used right now. Previously had a 500 gig external SSD with USB3/SATA. It was running about 380 megabytes per second for write speed and 400 megabytes per second for read speed. It has served me well the last few years. I got the Thunderbolt drive to amp up my speed, but I still have the older external drive as a nice backup. Meanwhile my internal drive is being preserved with no usage.

 

[Roxy.music]

Yeah, I have about 115 gigs being used right now. Previously had a 500 gig external SSD with USB3/SATA. It was running about 380 megabytes per second for write speed and 400 megabytes per second for read speed. It has served me well the last few years. I got the Thunderbolt drive to amp up my speed, but I still have the older external drive as a nice backup. Meanwhile, my internal drive is being preserved with no usage.

There is a moral to the story, that I could still get one with a Fusion drive. As I have two 2NVMe SSD external drive one is a 1tb Cruical the other one is a 512 Adata which I am not using at present. Plus I have a Seagate 6tb for backups plus a couple of SSD one was a part of a Fusion drive, So not short of backups. I will use one for my Raspberry pi4. I only do basic stuff that is probably why I don,t have much data on my drive.I PAparalas desktop that's what takes up space but not used it for some time it took a lot of space up.