Keep 2019 iMac 5K and return iMac M4? And Apple's thoughts on Disk Utility

[JUMA55]

I've posted messages about my problems in several groups here--probably more in the Sequoia forum--but since this is primarily an iMac problem, I'm going to post here.

After working great since June 2019 my 2019 iMac 5K started showing errors when I ran Disk Utility. The program would report resource forks missing on the Time Machine snapshots and finally would say the SSD was corrupt and it would fix it, but it didn't. Lots of folks said the drive was going south and replace it. That's easier said than done. I live 100+ miles from an Apple repair joint and travel at my age is not easy.

So I bought an iMac 24 with the most cores, 32GB and a 2TB internal. I used the Time Machine backup from the iMac 5K to move everything to the new iMac 24. All went well. No issues. But not convinced my problem with the iMac 5K wasn't software related, I ran Disk Utility on the new iMac about every 30 minutes from Friday until Sunday when it started giving me the same error message, with different numbers, that I was getting on the iMac 5K.

On Monday afternoon I called Apple. Went through the whole deal going back to the release of Sequoia, and after talking to two techs over a couple of hours and running a bunch of tests they finally said, in so many words, Disk Utility was a POS and just ignore it.

This then brings up the question of do I keep the iMac 5K and return the iMac M4 or trade in the 5K and keep the M4. I like the larger screen of the 5K and I think the quality of the image is better than the M4, but there is only 93% of the internal left and it won't run all the fancy Apple Intelligence stuff, which I don't need now but might in the future.

So what say you guys?

 

[Fishrrman]

"So what say you guys?"

Next time... try a Mac Mini instead...

 

[Moonjumper]

I would be tempted to keep the 2019 iMac, but do a macOS install on an external SSD. So if your internal drive fails, you can run your device from the external. It won't be quite as fast, but will be fine most of the time. I kept my 2015 iMac for a long time, but now have an M4 Pro Mini with a pair of 32" 4K monitors. However, I would probably have gone for an iMac if there was a larger screened version.

You say you don't need Apple Intelligence now, but might in the future. By that time there could be and M5, M6 or whatever to upgrade to.

 

[Macky-Mac]

... Lots of folks said the drive was going south and replace it. That's easier said than done. I live 100+ miles from an Apple repair joint and travel at my age is not easy....

You don't have to replace the internal drive, just boot from an external drive and don't use the internal drive.

 

[Adora]

Now when I think about it, the internal drive of my M3 iMac also had a corrupted file system and couldn't be partitioned because of that. I had to reformat it before.

But that was just a software issue and everything else worked I thought. But I had many Finder issues, when moving and deleting files, I often had to force quit it. That did not change with the external drive as main drive.

I don't have all this on my M4 Pro Mini.

You don't have to replace the internal drive, just boot from an external drive and don't use the internal drive.

It's even much more reliable on an intel Mac to use USB instead of Thunderbolt. And even if the internal drive is completely dead you can boot from an external drive.

The 2019 iMac could take 128GB cheap RAM. My 2015 already had 64GB and Apple only offered 32GB max. for much more money.

 

[JUMA55]

Thank you guys for your thoughts. Much appreciated. I decided to keep the iMac M4 and trade the 2019 iMac into Apple.

I thought very hard about a mini and Studio Display. If my selections and computations are correct, a mini with the same specs as the iMac I bought along with the Studio Display is $1,088.99 more than the iMac. And I just couldn't see it. I might be wrong but I believe the display unit in the Studio Display is the exact same model as the one in the 2019 iMac, which makes it at least six years old. Apple is supposed to be working on a replacement. Were that available now I probably would have spent an extra $1,100.

Thanks again.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Thank you guys for your thoughts. Much appreciated. I decided to keep the iMac M4 and trade the 2019 iMac into Apple.

I thought very hard about a mini and Studio Display. If my selections and computations are correct, a mini with the same specs as the iMac I bought along with the Studio Display is $1,088.99 more than the iMac. And I just couldn't see it. I might be wrong but I believe the display unit in the Studio Display is the exact same model as the one in the 2019 iMac, which makes it at least six years old. Apple is supposed to be working on a replacement. Were that available now I probably would have spent an extra $1,100.

Thanks again.

You're not wrong.

It is still a 27" 5k display, versus a 24" 4.5k display. So you DO get some benefit for your $1,100. You also have the option of M4 Pro in the mini, and/or upgrading the mini to a more powerful computer in the future without having to replace the display.

Whether that's worth $1,100 is a personal metric. If the value isn't there for you - then you made the right choice.

 

[JUMA55]

You're not wrong.

It is still a 27" 5k display, versus a 24" 4.5k display. So you DO get some benefit for your $1,100. You also have the option of M4 Pro in the mini, and/or upgrading the mini to a more powerful computer in the future without having to replace the display.

Whether that's worth $1,100 is a personal metric. If the value isn't there for you - then you made the right choice.

It's been about three weeks now with the new iMac. Doing it again I might spend the extra $1,100 for the larger screen, etc. But I'm getting cheap in my old age.

I'm also a little miffed at Apple. After spending over $5K on the iMac 5K I really think I should have gotten more than six years out of it. I got nine years out of the previous 27" iMac. And I have a Mini going on 14 years. So at this point I'm not interested in giving Apple more money.

 

[burgman]

It's been about three weeks now with the new iMac. Doing it again I might spend the extra $1,100 for the larger screen, etc. But I'm getting cheap in my old age.

I'm also a little miffed at Apple. After spending over $5K on the iMac 5K I really think I should have gotten more than six years out of it. I got nine years out of the previous 27" iMac. And I have a Mini going on 14 years. So at this point I'm not interested in giving Apple more money.

The Apple refurbished store is full of maxed out M4 iMacs, seems that buyer's remorse kicked in. Makes sense if that performance is needed to go with separate components. Agree with tech's on the inconsistency of Disk Utility creating ghosts in the shell

 

[pshufd]

I would be tempted to keep the 2019 iMac, but do a macOS install on an external SSD. So if your internal drive fails, you can run your device from the external. It won't be quite as fast, but will be fine most of the time. I kept my 2015 iMac for a long time, but now have an M4 Pro Mini with a pair of 32" 4K monitors. However, I would probably have gone for an iMac if there was a larger screened version.

You say you don't need Apple Intelligence now, but might in the future. By that time there could be and M5, M6 or whatever to upgrade to.

This is what I would do. He should get another four years of OS support.

I bought a 2017 iMac Pro a year ago and love it. The iMac 27 has spoiled a lot of us on the display.

 

[JUMA55]

The Apple refurbished store is full of maxed out M4 iMacs, seems that buyer's remorse kicked in. Makes sense if that performance is needed to go with separate components. Agree with tech's on the inconsistency of Disk Utility creating ghosts in the shell

I don't have buyers remorse. I just wish the screen was bigger. Heck, I'd like a 32" screen. When I started working a long time ago I had two desks, both of them 3" X 6" or so. I work at one and lay stuff out for the project on the other one. Hard to do today. I don't know how folks work on a multi-document job on a laptop.