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Lankyman

macrumors 68020
Original poster
May 14, 2011
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I have been considering bringing my mid-2011 iMac out of retirement for the wife to use. It previously had an SSD (which I fitted) along with the original HDD combo. However, I removed the SSD when I built a Windows PC to use it in that.

When I retired the iMac I formatted the existing HDD, installed Snow Leopard then updated via recovery until I was running Sierra or Yosemite, I can't remember which now. A few weeks back I updated it to High Sierra.

However, I had forgotten just how slow using a 'spinner' for you OS really is, so I thought I may install a 250 gig SSD. Obviously all the connections are still there under the optical drive, so not a big job. The machine also has 20 gigs of RAM.

Now then the question. I believe I first need to format the SSD using APFS before trying to clone the HDD, is this correct? If I format it (either before I install it or after installation) is cloning the only option? I do have a single full image Time Capsule backup, would this work or does anyone envisage problems using Time Machine?

Thanks in advance.
 
Now then the question. I believe I first need to format the SSD using APFS before trying to clone the HDD, is this correct? If I format it (either before I install it or after installation) is cloning the only option? I do have a single full image Time Capsule backup, would this work or does anyone envisage problems using Time Machine?

Thanks in advance.
Yes, it is correct. Besides cloning, you can do a clean install of High Sierra.
You should be careful with time machine. If your HDD is formatted as extended journal (most probably), when you recover from time machine, it will format the SSD to extended journal too.

So, you have two options. Format to APFS and clone your drive, or do a clean install and during the setup, transfer your data from your time machine backup.
 
Yes, it is correct. Besides cloning, you can do a clean install of High Sierra.
You should be careful with time machine. If your HDD is formatted as extended journal (most probably), when you recover from time machine, it will format the SSD to extended journal too.

So, you have two options. Format to APFS and clone your drive, or do a clean install and during the setup, transfer your data from your time machine backup.
Thanks for the info. I think format to APFS and clone is the most reliable way forward. Fingers crossed I don't damage any of the delicate screen wires when removing the LCD (again). I had to replace the flat data cable last time as multiple removals finally damaged it.

Still I managed to get a new one quite cheaply and which worked without issue.
 
Considering it's an SSD and that you updated the OS several times on the HDD, I would go for the clean install.

I've not used the transfer data option before, always full Time Machine backups. How does transfer data differ? Will it transfer all my programmes and if so will they transfer intact, or will I have to install them all afresh?
 
I've not used the transfer data option before, always full Time Machine backups. How does transfer data differ? Will it transfer all my programmes and if so will they transfer intact, or will I have to install them all afresh?
Yes, it should transfer everything like you had when you did the time machine backup.
when you restore with time machine it gets the OS and your data. When you transfer data during the setup after a clean install it will only transfer your data - applications, documents, etc, because the OS was just installed. You will be asked what do you want to transfer from your data and you can uncheck the apps box and manually install them later, if you want to.
 
Yes, it should transfer everything like you had when you did the time machine backup.
when you restore with time machine it gets the OS and your data. When you transfer data during the setup after a clean install it will only transfer your data - applications, documents, etc, because the OS was just installed. You will be asked what do you want to transfer from your data and you can uncheck the apps box and manually install them later, if you want to.
Thanks very much. Will be installing the SSD sometime this week. Fingers crossed for steady hands when I'm disconnecting/reconnecting the screen cables.
 
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