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Upgrading late 2012 iMac

B

baxlobs

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 21, 2012
238
14
Suffolk UK
Hi,
I have a late 2012 iMac with 16Gb RAM. I have stuck with El Capitan OS as I seem to recall there were some issues with the next upgrade so I decided to stick with the devil I know. However although it works pretty well, just occasionally I get stuck with a spinning ball and have to do a hard reset, I have recently come across one or two Apps which say they can't install because the OS is too old.
My question is will this Mac be OK upgrading to the latest OS, and if so how best to do this?
TIA
 
My iMac (which is a Mid 2010 model, not 2012 as I've just posted elsewhere on here) only updates as far as High Sierra - v10.13.6. Your may update further. Could be time for an upgrade. I know I'm looking - even more so now it's two years old than I thought it was. Damn!
 
My thoughts:
- Low Sierra (10.12) -- solid release
- High Sierra (10.13) -- don't bother, go to Mojave instead
- Mojave (10.14) -- solid and smooth
- Catalina (10.15) -- don't risk it!

But more importantly...
What kind of drive does the 2012 have inside?
Is it:
- a platter-based hard drive?
- a fusion drive?
- SSD?

If it's still a platter-based HDD, and if you have USB3 (I'm not sure if all the 2012 iMacs did), then THE BEST "upgrade" would be to get an SSD and use that as your boot/run drive.

You could pry open the iMac and install it that way, but you'd better be VERY confident of your skills -- too easy to break something in the process.

Another way is to get an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, and plug it in and set it up to run that way -- the Mac doesn't care WHERE the drive is, what matters is that it has a good copy of the OS on it.

You'll see read speeds of about 420MBps with a USB3 external SSD.
What kind of speeds are you getting now?
Use the free Blackmagic Speed Test (from the App Store) to check.
 
Fishrrman said:
My thoughts:
- Low Sierra (10.12) -- solid release
- High Sierra (10.13) -- don't bother, go to Mojave instead
- Mojave (10.14) -- solid and smooth
- Catalina (10.15) -- don't risk it!

But more importantly...
What kind of drive does the 2012 have inside?
Is it:
- a platter-based hard drive?
- a fusion drive?
- SSD?

If it's still a platter-based HDD, and if you have USB3 (I'm not sure if all the 2012 iMacs did), then THE BEST "upgrade" would be to get an SSD and use that as your boot/run drive.

You could pry open the iMac and install it that way, but you'd better be VERY confident of your skills -- too easy to break something in the process.

Another way is to get an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, and plug it in and set it up to run that way -- the Mac doesn't care WHERE the drive is, what matters is that it has a good copy of the OS on it.

You'll see read speeds of about 420MBps with a USB3 external SSD.
What kind of speeds are you getting now?
Use the free Blackmagic Speed Test (from the App Store) to check.
Click to expand...
Thanks for that, sounds a good idea to go for Mojave rather than Catalina. I am pretty sure my drive is a normal HDD, so will look into maybe getting an external SSD, is USB 3 as fast as thunderbolt? I think I have USB3, will check, but definitely have 2 Thunderbolt slots.

I have tried the Black Magic tests and it mostly shows low 60s Mbps, so not very quick!
 
Last edited:
Using two external SSD's for backups, one TB and the other USB3. Find they are both the same speed when backing up, however the TB drive boots much, much more quicker than the USB drive.

Regarding Catalina, find it very smooth and fast.
 
A log shot but if you have the 27” 2012 iMac, which you can upgrade to 32GB of memory, you could be possibly be running low on memory and it’s swapping from the HDD causing it to choke. It’s more of a power user issue though. See if Mojave does the trick first and if no luck then see what’s what using Apple’s Activity Monitor.
 
Thanks for replies. Mine is a 21" Mac, so I think 16Gb is Max RAM. Anyway there is no way I could dismantle a Mac!!!
The Mojave install eventually worked OK after some help from others on the forum, so I am now thinking I should get a Thunderbolt SSD to use as the system disk. Is it as simple of using SuperDuper to copy the Macintosh HDD to the new Thunderbolt SSD and then use Startup Manager to make it the boot drive, or is there more involved? What then happens to the internal drive, is it redundant or should it be a standby in case the external drive fails?
 
I have late 2012 27 that i put an external SSD on usb where I put Catalina on and currently running the machine off of that...I‘ve left the inside fusion as is with I think it’s still on Sierra.
 
OP wrote:
"The Mojave install eventually worked OK after some help from others on the forum, so I am now thinking I should get a Thunderbolt SSD to use as the system disk."

If you have USB3, a thunderbolt drive isn't going to be any "faster".
In fact, it may be slower...
 
Fishrrman said:
OP wrote:
"The Mojave install eventually worked OK after some help from others on the forum, so I am now thinking I should get a Thunderbolt SSD to use as the system disk."

If you have USB3, a thunderbolt drive isn't going to be any "faster".
In fact, it may be slower...
Click to expand...
I was following on from Fishrrman’s post3 in which he suggested an SSD ext drive for the boot drive. Is Thunderbolt inherently faster than USB3? I have both available.
 
Well, if you have both drives available, I suggest you run BlackMagic Speed Test (free from the App Store) to see which one is faster.
Then... use that one.
 
Fishrrman said:
Well, if you have both drives available, I suggest you run BlackMagic Speed Test (free from the App Store) to see which one is faster.
Then... use that one.
Click to expand...
Sorry you misunderstood my meaning. I am looking to buy an SSD, and I have both Thunderbolt and USB 3 ports available and was wondering which might give the best performance?
 
I have ordered a USB3 SSD drive. I am unsure how to install Mojave on that so that it can be the boot drive. Would someone kindly lay out the steps required to create a bootable external drive?
 
Fishrrman said:
My thoughts:
- Low Sierra (10.12) -- solid release
- High Sierra (10.13) -- don't bother, go to Mojave instead
- Mojave (10.14) -- solid and smooth
- Catalina (10.15) -- don't risk it!

But more importantly...
What kind of drive does the 2012 have inside?
Is it:
- a platter-based hard drive?
- a fusion drive?
- SSD?

If it's still a platter-based HDD, and if you have USB3 (I'm not sure if all the 2012 iMacs did), then THE BEST "upgrade" would be to get an SSD and use that as your boot/run drive.

You could pry open the iMac and install it that way, but you'd better be VERY confident of your skills -- too easy to break something in the process.

Another way is to get an EXTERNAL USB3 SSD, and plug it in and set it up to run that way -- the Mac doesn't care WHERE the drive is, what matters is that it has a good copy of the OS on it.

You'll see read speeds of about 420MBps with a USB3 external SSD.
What kind of speeds are you getting now?
Use the free Blackmagic Speed Test (from the App Store) to check.
Click to expand...

It's possible, as you made clear, be VERY CONFIDENT of your skills , if you pursue this path, I would HIGHLY discouraged it. I've done it, remove the screen, making the changes and re-fitting the screen is incredibly difficult and needs to be very precise, I've some photos somewhere that I've looked at on occasion, I think " what were you thinking"?, but got out of it ok, so it can be done, best to go with external usb I think.

Edit, just saw you made alternate plans, smart move.
 
Hi there! I would recommend Mojave because I found absolutely no issues on that version!

Similar to you, the main issue that I had with my 2012 iMac for the longest time was the spinning hard drive that would just hang on certain apps, the beach ball, and how slow apps were opening. In 2018 I made the investment to upgrade to an SSD and it was well worth it! Every problem that I had with the machine just seemed to fade away, the beach ball was no where to be found.

Just a heads up but if you're booting externally you might notice a slight delay when moving your cursor (that feeling that something is off). It's a very minor thing that only really matters if you play games.

Side Note:

Unfortunately, in December, 2019 my 2012 iMac froze whilst watching a video and when I tried to reboot the machine, I found myself unable to boot up ever again. Recovery mode failed, internet recovery mode failed, safe mode failed, booting from another disk failed, the apple hardware test would not open, and resetting the PRAM/NVRAM + SMC did nothing. Even my local repair shops (+ some apple authorized ones) could not determine the issue.

Now I am stuck with my 2017 Macbook Pro that is plagued with problems (keyboard issues + screen damaged by Apple Store repair) .
 
OP wrote:
"I have ordered a USB3 SSD drive. I am unsure how to install Mojave on that so that it can be the boot drive. Would someone kindly lay out the steps required to create a bootable external drive?"

Follow my instructions below, and I think you'll do fine.
PRINT OUT this msg and check it off as you go along.

1. Download CarbonCopyCloner from here:
www.bombich.com

Download CCC - Bombich Software

www.bombich.com www.bombich.com
CCC is FREE to download and use for 30 days -- this costs you nothing.
IMPORTANT:
You want to download CCC Version 4, not the latest version.
Scroll down a bit on the CCC download page to find it.

2. When the drive arrives, connect it to the Mac. Let its icon appear on the desktop.

3. Open disk utility. You should see the new drive "on the left" in disk utility's window.

4. Click on the line for the external SSD, then click the erase button.
Erase the drive to "Mac OS extended with journaling enabled", GUID partition format. It should take only a few seconds.
Give the drive a name that is meaningful to you. "Mac SSD", for example.

5. Quit disk utility and open CCC.

6. Accept all of CCC's "default settings". Put your "source" drive (the internal drive) on the left. Put the "target" (the SSD) in the middle.
Leave the rightmost box (scheduling) empty -- you don't need it.

7. Click the clone button and "follow through".

8. CCC will probably ask if you want to clone the recovery partition. YES, you want to do this too.

9. The copying will take a little while, so be patient.

10. When done, quit CCC. Open the "startup disk" preference pane (system preferences). You should now see the icon for the SSD, available to be used as a boot drive.

11. Click the lock and enter your password, then click the icon for the SSD.
Close system preferences.

12. Reboot. If you're booting from the SSD, things should go faster.
When you get to the finder, things should look "just as they looked before" (it's "a clone", get it?). Go to "about this Mac" to verify that you are booted from the SSD.

Good luck!
 
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Many thanks Fishrrman, that’s just what I needed, will follow carefully and hope for a good result.
 
A further question, I see you advised that I download CCC4, but on their website they state that CCC5 is the correct version for Mojave, can you just confirm that I should get 4 as you said?
 
Hi,
Sorry we seem to be at cross-purposes! I have successfully upgraded to Mojave which is running fine, so it would be that for which I need CCC to create the new Mojave SSD boot drive. So should it be version 5?
 
Further update for Fishrrman, I followed your instructions and all went well, so now have an external SSD as the boot disk. It has certainly speeded things up appreciably, and no problems so far.
Thanks again for your advice.
Only question now is how do I make use of the 1TB internal drive that is "free"?
 
What you could do (this depends on the size of the SSD):
(did you say how large the SSD is?)

IF the SSD is the same size as the internal drive:
a. Use disk utility to erase the internal drive
b. Use CCC to clone a copy of the SSD back to the internal
c. Update the clone once or twice a week.
Now, your internal drive becomes "your backup". If there's a problem with the SSD, just "boot back to" the internal drive, and resolve things from there.

IF the SSD is SMALLER THAN the internal drive:
a. You could partition the internal drive, with one partition (first is best) the size of the SSD. Let the other partition use whatever space remains.
b. Again use CCC to create a cloned backup of the SSD on the internal "backup partition". Use the other partition for whatever storage you wish.
This way, you still have a cloned backup of your boot SSD, always there are ready to use in a "moment of need"...
 
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