iMac 2020 Storage replacement in a few years

[aa009]

I'm looking at my options before purchase of the 2020 iMac.
What happens if the 2020 iMac internal storage fails after the apple care ends, is there a way to replace or only add an external thunderbolt drive (not sure if can be used to boot?)

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

You can only add external drives. The internal SSD is soldered on.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

I’m booting the Big Sur beta from an external USB-C SSD. In order to boot from an external drive, you have to change a setting by booting into recovery mode and using the secure boot utility to allow this.

 

[aa009]

I’m booting the Big Sur beta from an external USB-C SSD. In order to boot from an external drive, you have to change a setting by booting into recovery mode and using the secure boot utility to allow this.

Can this be done after the internal SSD fails?

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Can this be done after the internal SSD fails?

You’ll want to activate the ability to external boot before the internal drive fails. I don’t think there is a way for a user to activate external booting once the internal drive is gone.

 

[Fishrrman]

The 2020 iMacs have (for all practical purposes) NON-replaceable internal drives, which are tied into the t2 control chip.

You can DISABLE some of the t2 restrictions by booting to recovery (or internet recovery) and then going to the "startup security" utility, BUT... it will require an administrative password to open it. That means you have to do a basic setup FIRST, which creates an administrative account.

This was one of the first things I did when I got my 2018 Mini (which also has t2) -- go to Startup Security and DISABLE it, as much as it could be "disabled"...