Upgrading hdd

[Rtjr]

I am upgrading my 2019 27 inch iMac. I am only upgrading the hdd now to a sandisk ssd. I plan to upgrade the nvme drive later. If I clone the computer to the new ssd and put it back in, will that work? Will it clone the existing Apple nvme ssd also? Would there be problems with the Apple ssd when I install it? Or do I just clone only the hdd if the software will let me?
Thanks for any reply.

 

[gilby101]

If I have understood your configuration: You have a Fusion Drive (nvme+HDD). In that case you "clone" the Fusion Drive to the new SATA SSD, put that inside the iMac and, using recovery, tell the iMac to boot from the SATA SSD. The internal nvme SSD is then unused.

I trust you are happy about:
1) the "clone" process,
2) opening your iMac and installing the SATA SSD.

If you have any intention of replacing the internal nvme SSD, I would do it right away - avoiding opening the iMac for a second time.

I would avoid any "cloning" and just reinstall macOS and use Migration Assistant to recover from my Time Machine backup. But "cloning" is fine if done correctly.

Have you ruled out alternatives like using an external USB or Thunderbolt drive as your system disk? You could then continue to use the internal disks for data. That is what I would do.

 

[Rtjr]

If I have understood your configuration: You have a Fusion Drive (nvme+HDD). In that case you "clone" the Fusion Drive to the new SATA SSD, put that inside the iMac and, using recovery, tell the iMac to boot from the SATA SSD. The internal nvme SSD is then unused.

I trust you are happy about:
1) the "clone" process,
2) opening your iMac and installing the SATA SSD.

If you have any intention of replacing the internal nvme SSD, I would do it right away - avoiding opening the iMac for a second time.

I would avoid any "cloning" and just reinstall macOS and use Migration Assistant to recover from my Time Machine backup. But "cloning" is fine if done correctly.

Have you ruled out alternatives like using an external USB or Thunderbolt drive as your system disk? You could then continue to use the internal disks for data. That is what I would do.

Okay, thanks for the advice. I was going to wait upon changing the nvme because it took longer than I had time for. But I will look at changing them both at the same time.