Great idea if you don't want to open the computer, which is very tricky and requires patience and a steady hand. You can save some time by going into recovery mode (Option R), then perform a "restore" to the USB drive. This will "clone" the old HD to the new one, saving you the time of backing up, and then re-loading a fresh copy of the OS (which is actually unnecessary). Then you can use the option key to set the default boot device to the newly cloned external HD. I've just been through this, and it works. I went one step further: I removed the screen and properly installed the newly cloned SSD drive inside the enclosure. A word to the wise if you attempt this: don't use a metal knife to cut the glue on the monitor, I have wrecked two monitors in my experimentation. Use a plastic bladed "pizza cutter" to cut the glue strips. You can buy this tool on Amazon, and it comes with the tape to glue the monitor back on. Cheers!
Your idea is great idea also! I have a late 2012 27" running sonoma with OCLP. So, theoretically, if I'm making this restore in recovery with the disk utility, all my files and settings and apps with all the drivers installed by OCLP will be the exact clone of my internal HD, and i can boot from there? Would be awesome. Of course i will ask also the OCLP community , will it work with all the OCLP patches. Thanks the advice! Ps: one more thing: is it necessary to format the SSD to MacOs extended, or in my case to APFS, or it's unnecessary with the "restore" function?
I have the same iMac and it’s super slow. Once you moved the os to the external ssd was the data on the fusion drone still intact? Do the apps also get transferred or they remain on the Fusion Drive? Thanks
I opened my 2015 27” i7 iMac with some ifixit stuff around 4 years ago and upgraded to an NVMe Samsung 2TB drive giving me about 3GB/s read and write. I also installed a Samsung SATA drive inside. But it’s hugely inferior to the NVMe drive. Recently I upgraded it to Sequoia with OpenCore Legazy Patcher and wow…it’s faster than ever. I highly recommend going this way even it’s much more complicated and risky.
September 2024: This is EXACTLY what I needed---I followed this guidance and, at a cost of $85, incredibly improved the performance of my Late 2015 iMac. It was super easy--and was able to transfer all the HDD files to the SSD in a couple of hours. THANK YOU Lee-Loi!
Thank you so very, very much. My husband would have a fit every time he tried to work on our iMac...to pay a bill or check something, etc. Ugh. It was so very frustrating. You literally saved us so much time, money, and headaches! Installed the new SSD external drive and followed your directions. What a changed world it is to use that machine now! Oh, my. You are such a Godsend. Thanks, again! Cheers from across the pond! Slainte!
Thank you so much! I bought a 2019 Mac right before they updated them. It’s been super slow and super frustrating. I was getting ready to either buy a mini Mac or replace the hard drive with a ssd internally. This was so much easier. You’re the best!
Was going to fork out £250 on ebay for a new imac but only spent £35 after seeing. It's like I have a new computer! I can go back to making house music without lagging issues. Massive respects bruv 🙏
I just used this method to upgrade my late 2015 imac 21.5" with a 1TB fusion drive; I added an external 1TB Samsung T7 SSD, for $99 ; it took me better part of a day -- I restored from a Timce Machine backup -- but also upgraded to Monterey from Big Sur. Took some tweaking but now it runs SO fast... take a couple of minutes to boot up (it is new software on an old machine) but once it's booted it is running incredibly fast. Thank you, Lee Loi-Chang for this, you probably saved me $1000!!! Very simple and easy.
THANK YOU for the fantastic tutorial and explanation to understand why so many iMacs have a problem with speed. I’ve been suffering with my annoyingly slow iMac desktop for the 3 years-ever since I bought it-and even tried to get professional help. Lately it’s become so slow, with the constant spinning wheel, I couldn’t stand it anymore and turned to TH-cam for help. What a great solution-thanks again for your video. 💯
DEAR LORD, i did not think this would be so hard to find. Thank you so much for this video. Exactly what i was looking for, simple and to the point. YAY! NEW SSD FOR MY MAC MINI 2014!!! :-)
Oh man, this is huge advice and tutorial from you for us, thousands thanks for it, now my iMac 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i3 is rapidly speeded up using LaCie 1TB mobile SSD. It is a vast difference than before, quite easy to understand what you have done step by step. Again huge thanks, bro 😎👊
Hi Again. Looks like I celebrated a little too early :P My iMac (late Dec 2013) is stuck on the globe screen showing 0:01 as the remaining time... Been a couple hours.. Is it okay to force reboot the Mac or will it damage the OS on my hard drive? Please advise :)
@@simplysarab13 Hi Sarabjit Singh! That means it's having trouble downloading macOS off the internet. If you force reboot you will be ok as this how to guide never touches your old install. If it's having trouble downloading and you have a spare USB key lying around feel free to download Mac OS Big Sur ISO to the memory stick and install offline. :)
@@simplysarab13 Dos1Dude has a patcher that allows you to install MacOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs but his tool is actually a very good way of putting Mac OS Big Sur on to a USB Thumb Drive so that's something you can try. :)
Hello there! Thank you for this great video! I have one question, in terms of speed/performance is there a difference between using an external portable SSD vs opening the computer and installing an internal SSD? I would like to avoid the latter solution for a number of reasons. Moreover, my computer (late 2015 imac 27 retina) does not support PCI type internal SSD (only SATA-at least so I have been told) so my options are either an external USB 3.0 SSD or an internal SATA connection SSD. Thank you in advance!
I think there would be minor speed increases by using it internally but you can read the other comments down below a lot of people are very happy with their external SSD. Why go through all that effort!
@@ImLeeLoi thank you for your reply! actually I was planning to give it to a third party certified repair shop, they charge 270 euros in total for the work and SSD. I would never attempt to do something like that on my own! My biggest worry is of psychological nature I would say, running the whole computer from a tiny little stick hanging outside the computer feels a bit bizarre lol. However I may consider this option and if I am not happy I might as well keep the external SSD and go for the upgrade later on. Thanks again for your time!
Your video definitely helped speed up my 2013 iMac . Just have to make sure that the computer is always connected to the internet when setting this up. I had to connect back to wifi about 4 times and it finally worked
I did it! I think the computer gods were looking out for me because at a certain point (Install) I felt like I was jumping off of a cliff. I did call Apple Tech Support to verify I was using the SSD as my start drive. Everything is good. Enjoying the speed. If I can do it, anyone can! Thank you so much.
So I went the long PITA (pain in the ...) way of disassembling the whole machine to replace the 1TB HD with a 1TB SSD. While I was in there I upgraded the ram. This is a much much simpler upgrade and something I will keep in my mental toolkit. Great video.
Thank you so much for this video. My late 2015 was extremely slow for few years now. We completely wiped it out and the speed only improved by a little. I followed all the steps in this video, didn’t transfer anything since I still have access to the original HD, I copied and pasted whatever files I needed to my external ssd. I am using San Disk Extreme Portable SSD 1tb.
Thank you! I used a sandisk extreme on a late 2015 Imac and runs much faster than when i got it brand new! Is like having a new computer! Thanks so much!
To people seing this, a got a hack if ur Mac has an intel processor, download windows from the pre-installed app bootcamp, then switch back to Mac, and that Windows somehow acts like an external storage and fastens the Mac. Worked on my 2017 super slow Mac and 1min45 to open safari, now it's as fast as ever
Thanks for this video. I bought a renewed Best Buy 2019 21.5 4K . 1TB HDD. It was a good price. I thought I was going to have to open the whole computer, remove the screen panel, and all until I saw this alternative of installing an external ssd instead. . Thanks for sharing. You saved me the hassle 👍
wow. great video. 2017 21.5in iMac that I thought was broken bc of how slow it was. I've contacted Apple numerous times to discuss how slow start up was and they finally recommended me to a local Mac repair company to upgrade the RAM and/or SSD. Thankfully I found your video bc I was quoted over $400 USD just to replace the HDD with an SSD. I will definitely try this first to see if it works for me. Thanks!
I can only recommend what I've used. I'm sure new drives came out. 400USD isn't actually that bad depending on how big the SSD is if it's like 1TB or something I'd probably pay that but yeah if it's like 240GB or something definitely go the external route. SanDisk or SanDisk Pro or Samsung are great bets. :)
@@ImLeeLoi Thank you. Will start with the external. The internal was 1TB but I'll start with the Samsung T7 to save more than half. If down the road I decide to have them do the internal SSD, then I'll format the external and give it to my kids for their PlayStation so it wont go to waste. Thanks again!
Excellent video, thanks a lot. I did this a year ago with a SanDisk v1 that was formatted with APFS and it was a great improvement once it loaded the O/S - loading the O/S however took ages (+10 mins!!). I now followed this manual with a SanDisk v2 device and formatted with Mac OS Extended / Journaled as suggested and it really rocks!! Far less than a minute for booting and even a bit faster whilst using the machine.
I did this with late 13 after it all of a sudden started performing extremely slowly. Only day 1 but seems to have worked great so far! Apple in store and on phone didn't even suggest me to try this. Just save over £1,500 by getting a new 2tb drive
sorry for late reply. Glad this worked for you! hopefully you can get a few more years before upgrading. Although your local second hand buy and sell will start to have great deals soon on M1 iMacs etc.
Best vid I've seen so far regarding this method. Mainly because I want to do a fresh install and not clone the old HDD like most other vids show but well explained as well.
I’m going to be doing this to my early 2014 Mac this week. Right now it’s got a 1tb HDD but it runs so slow. I can’t wait for a performance boost a cheaper fix than having to pay extortionate prices for a Mac upgrade which isn’t affordable right now
Thank you for this, I was having a problem installing Mac OS to an external hard drive when dowloading it from the App Store, this worked perfectly and saved a lot of headaches.
A really easy, much cleaner and potentially cheaper way to get this done is to use a 256gb flash drive from Sandisk or Lexar with a 550Mb/s minimum read speed. They cost about $30 bucks on amazon. I just did this and the performance is amazing, on par with what's described here. Small footprint, less likely to lose connection/ fall out.
Flash drives aren't really built to last the same way SSDs are. It's not the Port being USB that's the deficiency, it's what the actual flash memory was designed to do.
When I download on my 2013 with 1tb SSD it gives me a failed to upload while waiting there for 40 minutes then its gave me the message This video is so relevant even now in 2024 but I am still trying and will have to see how someone else does it. Thanks so much
Thanks for the great video. However, I have encountered an issue. When installing the latest OS onto my SSD the mac restarts. It defaulted back to the original internal drive once, so tried again. This time, I caught it mid reset by holding down the alt key to switch to the SSD however it is no showing up? Am I missing something?
So If the install isn't finishing the SSD won't show up when you hold alt. Make sure you formatted the SSD correctly as Journaled and NOT Apfs. I hand wrote the subtitles in video, turn them on and double check! :)
I was willing to upen up and probably completely destroy it in the process of changing the HDD to SSD. But doing it loke this is so much easier. Thanks a lot man, now my girlfriend is gonna understand the difference between Macs and Pcs when she sees the speed
Great video. I purchased a Samsung T5 500Gb external SSD. I used carbon copy to clone the HDD. It worked great for about 2 months and then started restarting without warning. I had to go back to the slow internal HDD again. So I’m thinking to just take the plunge and open her up.
Well your start up time is super fast in my books. LOL. I have a 2019 iMac and it currently takes 12 minutes to start up and another 3 minutes to become properly usable. I have run disk repair many times and still cannot get it faster. My guess is the RAM I got installed years ago is causing the problem, but I don’t know. Thanks for your video!
Hey Lee-Loi, thank God I found this video! Been searching for a solution since last year. I just bought the Sandisk Extreme Pro 1TB and followed your tutorial - my iMac feels like a new M1 Mac computer. lol. Since I totally erased my hard drive prior to the installation of OS in SSD, I'm wondering what's the use of my 1TB HDD? I can see it using disk utility but not in finder. Thank you so much!
Exellent video was thinking of buying a refurbished iMac 2015, I was unsure because of the year it was produced, but getting an external hard drive so somebody like myself who is not the most tech savvy is very easy well done 👏 thanks.
Thanks for this video. I noticed that the SSD you used, while inexpensive, had a much lower storage capacity that the original HD. Were you using the SSD only for system operations, and the original HD for regular document, email and/or image file storage, or did the SSD take over those functions as well? Thanks again for a well-thought, well-presented video.
Either or! Many in the comments are keeping their photos and videos on the old drive for infrequent access and most iMacs have 1TB which is a lot. It's the family computer so not much is stored on it in this situation.
Your video is so interesting to me. I have an iMac 27" that I love. Your step by step video on adding an external SSD as StartUp Disk was very encouraging! Is there any new information you can offer since your August 2020 video. Should the SSD be formatted as APFS versus Extended? Many thanks.
No, please only use Mac OS EXTENDED JOURNALED. APFS is better for SSD's if their inside the iMac - there's something about that doesn't play nice with external USB.
I have a late 2012 iMac and have been using this method for year. However, my iMac would hang when it goes into power save mode and then you try to wake it up. I solved this with an inexpensive externally powered USB hub so that the SSD never loses power.
Hi Lee-Loi, I recently discovered your channel searching for videos about the possible purchase of the old but very reliable Canon 600D camera, as I am finally ready to turn my curiosity about photography into something tangible. I am also considering switching from my 2013 ASUS Windows 8 laptop to a newer model and I'm interested in a Mac because people have been raving for years that it's so much more stable than Windows :-) ..... I've watched a few of your videos and what strikes me is your kind demeanor, your charisma and your knowledge of all the products you display. Just wanted to let you know and of course I immediately hit that Subscribe button. Keep up the great work.
I got a 2009 iMac for next to nothing, I’m running High Sierra on an external SSD, definitely a bit faster but going to try my hand installing it internally this week.
Lee, this is awesome and you have given me the confidence to do this to my ever slower late 2015 iMac with Fusion Drive 1TB. Question: should I upgrade internal drive to latest OS so it is the same as what the new SSD drive will have on it? Have been hesitant because I'm terrifed of the slowness getting worse... thanks!!!
Hey Ed - answered your newest message earlier, i've been slow to reply with work commitments so apologies for not answering before you upgraded but I wouldn't recommend upgrading past what your iMac can handle. If your iMac automatically upgraded to the latest OS, that's great and will extend the software support but I wouldn't be running DosDude1's patcher on your home computer that you use every day!
Hey… I followed all the steps on my late 2015 and it didn’t work. I am running macOS Monterrey. Weirdly I don’t get the option to choose the HD where it will be installed =X
I thought this would work for my late 2013 iMac. Got LaCie SSD recommended by Apple. You did mentioned when formatting need to use OS an guid partition choices with disk utility. Used web to find out you need to use View and select all devices. Then I installed Catalina and it goes to a X circle screen
Hi there. Yes it will. OR go to system preferences and press startup disk and select the External USB drive manually if it had not done so automatically.
I opened up my 2019 iMac and threw in a 1tb SSD. I should have thrown in some memory as well. My next step is to replacce the screen and maybe upgrade the SSD with a faster performing one. Maybe even check for a connector for a nvme SSD. It more then likely wont have that option, but I can still clean things up. Great video though. You can get a HUGE performance boost with a SSD. even a slow MSATA being put in the system,.
@@ImLeeLoi It was a no brainer. My boot time was absolutely terrible. I have been looking into adding an NVME drive. If I recall correctly I could add 2 to this system. There is supposed to be one that is the standard apple and a hidden one that is pci-e. It involves a it of work and some resisters and connectors to be soldered. Would be NVME, Pci-e, and sata. I watched a video of them doing that. I feel slightly comfortable in trying this, or paying someone to do it.
Thank you so much for your detailed video. I was successful this process and increased my speed tremendously. The boot drive is awesome. I have only 1 question, it appears I cannot use the rest of the drive for storage? Or is there a way. It is saying I don't have the permissions even though I'm the administrator. Thanks for your advice.
I figured it out how to partition the remaining part of the 1TB drive to get my storage. I am one happy camper with my 2015 Imac now running super fast...Thank you soooooooo much Lee.
About to do this for my Valkrie's Imac. I bought a M.2 2280 128g drive with a external 3.0 usb enclosure. I will follow your steps and let you know how it goes !!
@@ImLeeLoi i did and it would not update. going to try again. It gets to 70% updating then says it fails to update, this went on for 3 times, so I will erase and retry again tomorrow.
@@drewdegeer4432 Make sure the hard drive is formatted correctly as Mac OS Extended Journaled and nothing else is plugged into the USB Ports and retry. The SSD could potentially be damaged. ALTERNATIVELY: In Disk utility you can click on your new SSD, press the restore tab and then restore from your original Macintosh HD and that will copy the entire old hard drive to your new SSD. I don’t like this method because your transferring over old baggage which will slow boot times and performance but it could be a good way to troubleshoot to double check your new SSD works correctly.
Almost complete... Press shift on the drive in the boot drive select screen(alt at startup); to make sure the computer boots from it by default if it keeps starting up from the old drive. Also for bootcamp.
Great video. Just wondering if you put the Time Machine back up onto the new drive as well? Otherwise, with all the apps and docs still on the old HDD, I would expect them to open much more slowly.
Great video Lee! I am thinking of installing an SSD internally and removing the old hard drive in my late 2012 iMac. After the installation do I need to hold the command, alt, r keys as you did in this video? The original hard drive will not even boot anymore.
I have a 2011 Imac that came with 4GB RAM & 500GB hard drive. Just ( easily installed ) another 8GB RAM . Computer is already running much faster! So I'm waiting for a Lacie 2TB external thunderbolt hard drive & will "clone" the spinning hard drive on it with a Samsung 870 EVO ( 500 gb) SSD. So then....... without having to open up the computer ETC .....I will hopefully double or triple the speed of this old..... ( but still very good).....2011 Imac .... Wish me luck!
Thank you for the video! I just have one question before I attempt this. Will all my files still be on the HD and accessible? Or will it erase them during this process?
Hi just seen ur video, gives me hope for my iMac 27” that I bought in 2012. I rammed it with 32GB RAM memory, and 3 TB hdd. BUT it is a Fusion Drive. Checked my CPU, and ram memory usage I have tonnes of it to spare as I only use to surf and watch movies and music. Nothing mayor. Yet it suddenly went mega slow on me the rainbow circle spinning away. I’m hoping this will buy my lovingly taken care of iMac a few more years as the new apple stuff looks like shit in my eyes and design was part of the apple parcel that made me go for it. Keep fingers crossed and will see if this works out for me 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
Hi Lee, just finished the process and my 2017 27inch iMac is running absolutely perfect! What a change! 😃 Just one doubt, when I check the new SSD info, it says the format is APFS but I had formatted it as MAC OS Extended (Journaled). Right now everything is running super smooth. Have I done anything wrong? Will this cause any problems?
If it's not causing issues I think you are good but most people had better performance and compatibility with Mac OS Extended Journaled. Read the other comments down below.
@@ImLeeLoi yes I did format it in mac os journaled but somehow the drive shows that it’s APFS. Not sure why is that. But yeah it’s still running smooth, tested it for a week
This is a good video and proves that a simple start up drive really increases performance. I have a 2011 iMac and removed the internal optical drive which was knackered and replaced it with a 2TB SSD which I then partitioned, then cloned my system HDD onto. This has made a huge positive difference in start up and processing times. Also the inside of the Mac badly needed vacuuming, especially the fans.
Hey, great video. I am going to do this. However, please could you let me know if the sata ssd drive with an enclosure has any benefits over just an ssd external hardrive? For example, speed,. performance etc? Thanks
Great video, my mac has slowed down over the years, and will definitely be giving it a go, can you recommend the best SSD for my iMac it is a (27-inch, late 2013) , processor 3.2 GHz quad-core intel core i5. Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, with 4 USB, I'm not sure if it has USB c 3.0 or 3.1. Iv looked on amazon and there is so many SSD being sold it's a bit bewildering and I would just be guessing. would really appreciate your advice as I don't have a clue thanks again. ;)
Hi Alan, it depends on how much you want to spend as I said in the video. If you got the Cash get the SanDisk or Samsung T5. They run at USB 3.1 but will slow down to USB 3.0 for your iMac but when you eventually do upgrade the new Computer would take advantage of it. Because it is an old iMac, if you want to save some cash - consider getting an SSD from Kingston and an enclosure like I demoed. :)
My cousin just gave me a 2013 iMac a few days ago and it's kinda slow. I'm about to get on Amazon and find an SSD, and the part that's needed to connect the SSD to my computer. If I need any help, I'll let you know. Thanks, man!
I've been using this method on my 2012 iMac 21.5 inch. Tried putting an SSD internally but it won't let me install macOS on it for unknown reason. If I have the original HDD that came with it. It works fine. Something to do with the cable. These iMacs are hard to disassemble. Solution I added a Portable NVMe Drive USB 3.0 + Samsung 980 and it works smoothly. I also removed the internal HDD from the iMac.
Awesome video! I just purchased my iMac 27" 2013 - i7 @ 3.50GHz 16GB RAM 1TB HDD 120GB SSD. I hope it runs great, what do you think, of course I will try to see if my OS is installed on the SSD.
@@ImLeeLoi it works great, it also has Nvidia graphics card. I have been playing counter strike global offensive on it. The only negative I have is the screen size, I should have gone to something smaller. 27 inch is too much for my eyeballs to handle, I feel the strain. Overall I’m satisfied with my purchase. It’s a late 2012 model and only got it for 400 dollars. I don’t see myself getting the newest iMac for 4X amount of dollars.
I did this and its fast and I love you for this video.....i had a problem today when I turned on my mac and it took 3 minutes to get to the home screen and once I was there everything was quicker.....what did I do wrong? PLLEASSSEE! Thank you Thank you.😍
Awesome video , just wondering if I do this on a 2015 iMac , will I be able to have the latest 2022 OS ? And also will il still be able to save my stuff on the 1TB ? Thanks 😊
![How To Fix Slow iMac 2012-2020 External SSD [Updated Guide]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/IB0SUcCAMig/mqdefault.jpg)
![How To Fix Slow iMac 2012-2020 External SSD [Updated Guide]](/img/tr.png)
Nailed it, homie. Couple years after you post this, and it's still relevant. Thanks!
Yay! Delighted to hear.
Great idea if you don't want to open the computer, which is very tricky and requires patience and a steady hand. You can save some time by going into recovery mode (Option R), then perform a "restore" to the USB drive. This will "clone" the old HD to the new one, saving you the time of backing up, and then re-loading a fresh copy of the OS (which is actually unnecessary). Then you can use the option key to set the default boot device to the newly cloned external HD. I've just been through this, and it works. I went one step further: I removed the screen and properly installed the newly cloned SSD drive inside the enclosure. A word to the wise if you attempt this: don't use a metal knife to cut the glue on the monitor, I have wrecked two monitors in my experimentation. Use a plastic bladed "pizza cutter" to cut the glue strips. You can buy this tool on Amazon, and it comes with the tape to glue the monitor back on. Cheers!
I believe the keyboard sequence is COMMAND R for recovery.
@@petelc559 I stand corrected!
@@timallix4407 I tried both and the working one is COMMAND+R
My external glass is broken is it possible to remove the glass and just stick some tempered glass? Or the screen and glass are glued together?
Your idea is great idea also! I have a late 2012 27" running sonoma with OCLP. So, theoretically, if I'm making this restore in recovery with the disk utility, all my files and settings and apps with all the drivers installed by OCLP will be the exact clone of my internal HD, and i can boot from there? Would be awesome. Of course i will ask also the OCLP community , will it work with all the OCLP patches. Thanks the advice!
Ps: one more thing: is it necessary to format the SSD to MacOs extended, or in my case to APFS, or it's unnecessary with the "restore" function?
Thanks for this video. In agreement with everyone else, my 2017 iMac 5k feels like a brand new machine now after adding a 1Tb SSD.
Great to hear! Glad this worked for you and your getting those performance boosts.
I have the same iMac and it’s super slow. Once you moved the os to the external ssd was the data on the fusion drone still intact? Do the apps also get transferred or they remain on the Fusion Drive? Thanks
I opened my 2015 27” i7 iMac with some ifixit stuff around 4 years ago and upgraded to an NVMe Samsung 2TB drive giving me about 3GB/s read and write. I also installed a Samsung SATA drive inside. But it’s hugely inferior to the NVMe drive. Recently I upgraded it to Sequoia with OpenCore Legazy Patcher and wow…it’s faster than ever. I highly recommend going this way even it’s much more complicated and risky.
September 2024: This is EXACTLY what I needed---I followed this guidance and, at a cost of $85, incredibly improved the performance of my Late 2015 iMac. It was super easy--and was able to transfer all the HDD files to the SSD in a couple of hours. THANK YOU Lee-Loi!
Yay!
Thank you so very, very much. My husband would have a fit every time he tried to work on our iMac...to pay a bill or check something, etc. Ugh. It was so very frustrating. You literally saved us so much time, money, and headaches! Installed the new SSD external drive and followed your directions. What a changed world it is to use that machine now! Oh, my. You are such a Godsend. Thanks, again! Cheers from across the pond! Slainte!
Yay! So happy this helped and made your computing experience much easier!
Thank you so much! I bought a 2019 Mac right before they updated them. It’s been super slow and super frustrating. I was getting ready to either buy a mini Mac or replace the hard drive with a ssd internally. This was so much easier. You’re the best!
Congratulations Becca! I'm so glad this helped you. Main thing is your iMac is fast now. :)
Was going to fork out £250 on ebay for a new imac but only spent £35 after seeing. It's like I have a new computer!
I can go back to making house music without lagging issues.
Massive respects bruv 🙏
I just used this method to upgrade my late 2015 imac 21.5" with a 1TB fusion drive; I added an external 1TB Samsung T7 SSD, for $99 ; it took me better part of a day -- I restored from a Timce Machine backup -- but also upgraded to Monterey from Big Sur. Took some tweaking but now it runs SO fast... take a couple of minutes to boot up (it is new software on an old machine) but once it's booted it is running incredibly fast. Thank you, Lee Loi-Chang for this, you probably saved me $1000!!! Very simple and easy.
Ed! I am SOO happy to hear this. That is SOO much money right - have a holiday for that!
THANK YOU for the fantastic tutorial and explanation to understand why so many iMacs have a problem with speed. I’ve been suffering with my annoyingly slow iMac desktop for the 3 years-ever since I bought it-and even tried to get professional help. Lately it’s become so slow, with the constant spinning wheel, I couldn’t stand it anymore and turned to TH-cam for help. What a great solution-thanks again for your video. 💯
K! I'm so happy this has helped you!
Wow what a difference!!!!! Thank you so much I had a spare SSD and now my 8 year old MAC works again like new.
I'm so glad it worked for you. For best compatibility make sure you format the SSD as Mac OS Extended Journaled and not AFPS
This was just what I was looking for. Solved my problem and saved me a £200 repair. You sir are a legend.
Glad it helped you Gareth! :)
see Mint Above
Your the best!!!! I was going to open heart surgery on my iMac 2012 to upgrade the ram. You save my life!!!
This doesn't help ram but you are very welcome!
DEAR LORD, i did not think this would be so hard to find. Thank you so much for this video. Exactly what i was looking for, simple and to the point. YAY! NEW SSD FOR MY MAC MINI 2014!!! :-)
Glad I could help!
Oh man, this is huge advice and tutorial from you for us, thousands thanks for it, now my iMac 3.6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i3 is rapidly speeded up using LaCie 1TB mobile SSD. It is a vast difference than before, quite easy to understand what you have done step by step. Again huge thanks, bro 😎👊
Glad to hear it helped!
Awesome. Saved me a lot of money and the torture my iMac would have undergone to install an internal SSD. And you explained it very nicely buddy 👍🏻❤️
Yeah I’m glad it worked for you! :) Thanks for supporting the channel.
Hi Again. Looks like I celebrated a little too early :P
My iMac (late Dec 2013) is stuck on the globe screen showing 0:01 as the remaining time... Been a couple hours.. Is it okay to force reboot the Mac or will it damage the OS on my hard drive?
Please advise :)
@@simplysarab13 Hi Sarabjit Singh! That means it's having trouble downloading macOS off the internet. If you force reboot you will be ok as this how to guide never touches your old install.
If it's having trouble downloading and you have a spare USB key lying around feel free to download Mac OS Big Sur ISO to the memory stick and install offline. :)
@@ImLeeLoi Thank you. Was able to reboot. Will try it again tomorrow. Thanks again :)
@@simplysarab13 Dos1Dude has a patcher that allows you to install MacOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs but his tool is actually a very good way of putting Mac OS Big Sur on to a USB Thumb Drive so that's something you can try. :)
I can’t thank you enough for this. I thought my iMac was dying until I tried this, feels like a brand new computer. THANKS!!!!
Juan! I am so so happy this works for you!
Hello there! Thank you for this great video! I have one question, in terms of speed/performance is there a difference between using an external portable SSD vs opening the computer and installing an internal SSD? I would like to avoid the latter solution for a number of reasons. Moreover, my computer (late 2015 imac 27 retina) does not support PCI type internal SSD (only SATA-at least so I have been told) so my options are either an external USB 3.0 SSD or an internal SATA connection SSD. Thank you in advance!
I think there would be minor speed increases by using it internally but you can read the other comments down below a lot of people are very happy with their external SSD. Why go through all that effort!
@@ImLeeLoi thank you for your reply! actually I was planning to give it to a third party certified repair shop, they charge 270 euros in total for the work and SSD. I would never attempt to do something like that on my own! My biggest worry is of psychological nature I would say, running the whole computer from a tiny little stick hanging outside the computer feels a bit bizarre lol. However I may consider this option and if I am not happy I might as well keep the external SSD and go for the upgrade later on. Thanks again for your time!
@@garyfalosparisis9039 as I said: VELCRO!!
Your video definitely helped speed up my 2013 iMac . Just have to make sure that the computer is always connected to the internet when setting this up. I had to connect back to wifi about 4 times and it finally worked
Nice Thanks a lot, This is going to save me like $600 on my two 2013 imacs!
Incredible savings! I’m glad you found this useful! 💸💸💸
This little manoeuvre just saved me 750 bux, I can't believe it. It costs 900 to upgrade to an internal SSD. Thanks for this
LOL!!!!! Buy a new computer at that point haha
Thanks for the tutorial video.
Very easy, right to the point and well explained.
Cheers.
I'm glad this helped you Isabela! :)
I did it! I think the computer gods were looking out for me because at a certain point (Install) I felt like I was jumping off of a cliff. I did call Apple Tech Support to verify I was using the SSD as my start drive. Everything is good. Enjoying the speed. If I can do it, anyone can! Thank you so much.
So I went the long PITA (pain in the ...) way of disassembling the whole machine to replace the 1TB HD with a 1TB SSD. While I was in there I upgraded the ram.
This is a much much simpler upgrade and something I will keep in my mental toolkit. Great video.
Glad it worked!
This is a great solution for an older iMac I have at the office that I'm not willing to crack open and go through the internal SSD upgrade. Thank you!
Glad it helped ! :)
Thank you so much for this video. My late 2015 was extremely slow for few years now. We completely wiped it out and the speed only improved by a little. I followed all the steps in this video, didn’t transfer anything since I still have access to the original HD, I copied and pasted whatever files I needed to my external ssd.
I am using San Disk Extreme Portable SSD 1tb.
That's exactly what I recommend. Copy stuff over as needed and keep your new fast drive fresh. :)
This is what I’ve been looking for! I have a late 2013 iMac that is ultra slow so I’m gonna try this.
Thanks so much!
Thank you! I used a sandisk extreme on a late 2015 Imac and runs much faster than when i got it brand new! Is like having a new computer! Thanks so much!
Glad I could help! Glad it brought some life back to your iMac!!
To people seing this, a got a hack if ur Mac has an intel processor, download windows from the pre-installed app bootcamp, then switch back to Mac, and that Windows somehow acts like an external storage and fastens the Mac. Worked on my 2017 super slow Mac and 1min45 to open safari, now it's as fast as ever
Thanks for this video. I bought a renewed Best Buy 2019 21.5 4K . 1TB HDD. It was a good price. I thought I was going to have to open the whole computer, remove the screen panel, and all until I saw this alternative of installing an external ssd instead. . Thanks for sharing. You saved me the hassle 👍
Glad this worked for you Freddy, enjoy the new iMac!
wow. great video. 2017 21.5in iMac that I thought was broken bc of how slow it was. I've contacted Apple numerous times to discuss how slow start up was and they finally recommended me to a local Mac repair company to upgrade the RAM and/or SSD. Thankfully I found your video bc I was quoted over $400 USD just to replace the HDD with an SSD. I will definitely try this first to see if it works for me. Thanks!
I can only recommend what I've used. I'm sure new drives came out. 400USD isn't actually that bad depending on how big the SSD is if it's like 1TB or something I'd probably pay that but yeah if it's like 240GB or something definitely go the external route.
SanDisk or SanDisk Pro or Samsung are great bets. :)
@@ImLeeLoi Thank you. Will start with the external. The internal was 1TB but I'll start with the Samsung T7 to save more than half. If down the road I decide to have them do the internal SSD, then I'll format the external and give it to my kids for their PlayStation so it wont go to waste. Thanks again!
@@RMatSLU79 Oh brilliant idea! Yeah the T7 is the new one right? I think the T5 or T7 would be perfect. Glad I can help. :)
You quite an adept and knowledgable Apple and Tech individual. Great job!
Thank you!
Thanks for the video, the hard drive in our 2012 iMac failed and the repair company tried to charge us $600 to replace it with an SSD!
The price of a weekend holiday!
Excellent video, thanks a lot. I did this a year ago with a SanDisk v1 that was formatted with APFS and it was a great improvement once it loaded the O/S - loading the O/S however took ages (+10 mins!!). I now followed this manual with a SanDisk v2 device and formatted with Mac OS Extended / Journaled as suggested and it really rocks!! Far less than a minute for booting and even a bit faster whilst using the machine.
Delighted to hear it's working much better than APFS. :)
I did this with late 13 after it all of a sudden started performing extremely slowly. Only day 1 but seems to have worked great so far!
Apple in store and on phone didn't even suggest me to try this. Just save over £1,500 by getting a new 2tb drive
sorry for late reply. Glad this worked for you! hopefully you can get a few more years before upgrading. Although your local second hand buy and sell will start to have great deals soon on M1 iMacs etc.
Just set up a Samsung T7 on my late 2012 iMac and Whoa!! What a difference. Night and day!
Delighted to have helped!
Best vid I've seen so far regarding this method. Mainly because I want to do a fresh install and not clone the old HDD like most other vids show but well explained as well.
Hope this helps! :)
Please make a video on How To Use The 21.5 as a dual monitor.
I followed this tutorial year's ago and it was extremely help, Thank You!
I would LOVE to do this, but it's not really possible. If you search on TH-cam Luke Miani, he has a video on doing it with a 5k imac. Not cheap.
I’m going to be doing this to my early 2014 Mac this week. Right now it’s got a 1tb HDD but it runs so slow. I can’t wait for a performance boost a cheaper fix than having to pay extortionate prices for a Mac upgrade which isn’t affordable right now
Good luck with the upgrade. Again make sure the new drive is Mac OS Extended Journaled and NOT AFPS.
Thank you for this, I was having a problem installing Mac OS to an external hard drive when dowloading it from the App Store, this worked perfectly and saved a lot of headaches.
I'm glad this helped you! :)
Thanks so much for this I Just scored a 2017 iMac for $150 this video is soooooo helpful.
A really easy, much cleaner and potentially cheaper way to get this done is to use a 256gb flash drive from Sandisk or Lexar with a 550Mb/s minimum read speed. They cost about $30 bucks on amazon. I just did this and the performance is amazing, on par with what's described here. Small footprint, less likely to lose connection/ fall out.
Flash drives aren't really built to last the same way SSDs are. It's not the Port being USB that's the deficiency, it's what the actual flash memory was designed to do.
Currently trying this on my 2015 iMac!
When I download on my 2013 with 1tb SSD it gives me a failed to upload while waiting there for 40 minutes then its gave me the message This video is so relevant even now in 2024 but I am still trying and will have to see how someone else does it. Thanks so much
Thanks a bunch! I followed the instructions and this old IMac feels like completely different computer now.
I am so glad this helped you Miller! Quite the difference right
Thanks for the great video. However, I have encountered an issue. When installing the latest OS onto my SSD the mac restarts. It defaulted back to the original internal drive once, so tried again. This time, I caught it mid reset by holding down the alt key to switch to the SSD however it is no showing up? Am I missing something?
So If the install isn't finishing the SSD won't show up when you hold alt. Make sure you formatted the SSD correctly as Journaled and NOT Apfs. I hand wrote the subtitles in video, turn them on and double check! :)
Thank you! I was able 2 take a computer I hated since purchased in 2017 and turned it into a very usable machine in 2 hours!
Oh fantastic! I love to hear it.
I was willing to upen up and probably completely destroy it in the process of changing the HDD to SSD. But doing it loke this is so much easier. Thanks a lot man, now my girlfriend is gonna understand the difference between Macs and Pcs when she sees the speed
Hey Andre, definitely don't open it up! I hope this works well for you. Enjoy! :)
I did this to my 2015 iMac with a 1 TB Crucial SSD USB 3.0 external. It speeded it up VERY FAST!!
Delighted this worked! :)
Thank you!!! I’m going to be trying this method. I’ve been scrolling for a video for hours and yours was by far the best and most clear. Cheers mate 🙏
Great video. I purchased a Samsung T5 500Gb external SSD. I used carbon copy to clone the HDD. It worked great for about 2 months and then started restarting without warning. I had to go back to the slow internal HDD again. So I’m thinking to just take the plunge and open her up.
Oh no! Have you considered doing a fresh install on the T5 to see if that stops that. I'm not a big fan of cloning mechanical hard drives to SSDs.
This video just saved my iMac from a Vertical Suplex. It’s unrecognizably fast now. Thank you so much! ^_^
Glad to hear it! :)
For an operating system drive you should always use an SSD with a DRAM cache. The Kingston A400 drives have no DRAM.
Cheap and cheerful but a great note!
2023. Thank you for this incredible video. Easy to follow instructions
. Peace
Glad this helped you Nelson! :)
Well your start up time is super fast in my books. LOL. I have a 2019 iMac and it currently takes 12 minutes to start up and another 3 minutes to become properly usable. I have run disk repair many times and still cannot get it faster. My guess is the RAM I got installed years ago is causing the problem, but I don’t know. Thanks for your video!
That's terrible. Absolutely unacceptable for an expensive Computer purchased in 2019
Hey Lee-Loi, thank God I found this video! Been searching for a solution since last year. I just bought the Sandisk Extreme Pro 1TB and followed your tutorial - my iMac feels like a new M1 Mac computer. lol. Since I totally erased my hard drive prior to the installation of OS in SSD, I'm wondering what's the use of my 1TB HDD? I can see it using disk utility but not in finder. Thank you so much!
It's still there! In finder preferences make sure you tick to show all hard drives on the desktop and in the side bar.
Exellent video was thinking of buying a refurbished iMac 2015, I was unsure because of the year it was produced, but getting an external hard drive so somebody like myself who is not the most tech savvy is very easy well done 👏 thanks.
Late replying but I hope it worked out for you.
Thanks for this video. I noticed that the SSD you used, while inexpensive, had a much lower storage capacity that the original HD. Were you using the SSD only for system operations, and the original HD for regular document, email and/or image file storage, or did the SSD take over those functions as well? Thanks again for a well-thought, well-presented video.
Either or! Many in the comments are keeping their photos and videos on the old drive for infrequent access and most iMacs have 1TB which is a lot. It's the family computer so not much is stored on it in this situation.
Your video is so interesting to me. I have an iMac 27" that I love. Your step by step video on adding an external SSD as StartUp Disk was very encouraging! Is there any new information you can offer since your August 2020 video. Should the SSD be formatted as APFS versus Extended? Many thanks.
No, please only use Mac OS EXTENDED JOURNALED. APFS is better for SSD's if their inside the iMac - there's something about that doesn't play nice with external USB.
I have a late 2012 iMac and have been using this method for year. However, my iMac would hang when it goes into power save mode and then you try to wake it up. I solved this with an inexpensive externally powered USB hub so that the SSD never loses power.
great tip! I didn't see that being an issue!
Hi Lee-Loi, I recently discovered your channel searching for videos about the possible purchase of the old but very reliable Canon 600D camera, as I am finally ready to turn my curiosity about photography into something tangible. I am also considering switching from my 2013 ASUS Windows 8 laptop to a newer model and I'm interested in a Mac because people have been raving for years that it's so much more stable than Windows :-) ..... I've watched a few of your videos and what strikes me is your kind demeanor, your charisma and your knowledge of all the products you display. Just wanted to let you know and of course I immediately hit that Subscribe button. Keep up the great work.
Wow, Harry! Sorry I'm late responding but that is such a sweet comment! Thank you very much. :)
@@ImLeeLoi you're very welcome ☺
this was really helpfull!! I din't want to break my imac attempting to remove the screen
Yep!
I got a 2009 iMac for next to nothing, I’m running High Sierra on an external SSD, definitely a bit faster but going to try my hand installing it internally this week.
Likely because no spinning parts and a 2009 iMac's hard drive would be super old! But that model you can definitely open up. :)
Lee, this is awesome and you have given me the confidence to do this to my ever slower late 2015 iMac with Fusion Drive 1TB. Question: should I upgrade internal drive to latest OS so it is the same as what the new SSD drive will have on it? Have been hesitant because I'm terrifed of the slowness getting worse... thanks!!!
Hey Ed - answered your newest message earlier, i've been slow to reply with work commitments so apologies for not answering before you upgraded but I wouldn't recommend upgrading past what your iMac can handle. If your iMac automatically upgraded to the latest OS, that's great and will extend the software support but I wouldn't be running DosDude1's patcher on your home computer that you use every day!
Hey… I followed all the steps on my late 2015 and it didn’t work. I am running macOS Monterrey. Weirdly I don’t get the option to choose the HD where it will be installed =X
I thought this would work for my late 2013 iMac. Got LaCie SSD recommended by Apple. You did mentioned when formatting need to use OS an guid partition choices with disk utility. Used web to find out you need to use View and select all devices. Then I installed Catalina and it goes to a X circle screen
Did it work?
Yes. My old Mac has new life until the new model comes out😊
Have you ever thought about enabling TRIM?
Great vid fella - neat and very cost-effective solution to add an external SSD 🙂
absolutly fantastic. will the new drive have all my files on it ?
no. copy paste from old
Amazing video. Im gonna switch my 2015 iMac to a SSD this weekend.
Late to reply but hope it worked out!
Thanks for this well explained video. 👍🏼😎
Will the iMac always know to boot from the external USB drive?
Hi there. Yes it will. OR go to system preferences and press startup disk and select the External USB drive manually if it had not done so automatically.
Hey, I just finished your install procedure..so far so good ! Everything is working. Can I still use the storage on the internal drive?
yes! :) finder preferences enable show all hard drives
I opened up my 2019 iMac and threw in a 1tb SSD. I should have thrown in some memory as well. My next step is to replacce the screen and maybe upgrade the SSD with a faster performing one. Maybe even check for a connector for a nvme SSD. It more then likely wont have that option, but I can still clean things up. Great video though. You can get a HUGE performance boost with a SSD. even a slow MSATA being put in the system,.
You opened it up! Brave! Glad it's much faster. :)
@@ImLeeLoi It was a no brainer. My boot time was absolutely terrible. I have been looking into adding an NVME drive. If I recall correctly I could add 2 to this system. There is supposed to be one that is the standard apple and a hidden one that is pci-e. It involves a it of work and some resisters and connectors to be soldered. Would be NVME, Pci-e, and sata. I watched a video of them doing that. I feel slightly comfortable in trying this, or paying someone to do it.
Thank you so much for your detailed video. I was successful this process and increased my speed tremendously. The boot drive is awesome. I have only 1 question, it appears I cannot use the rest of the drive for storage? Or is there a way. It is saying I don't have the permissions even though I'm the administrator. Thanks for your advice.
I figured it out how to partition the remaining part of the 1TB drive to get my storage. I am one happy camper with my 2015 Imac now running super fast...Thank you soooooooo much Lee.
Excellent video my friend. Worked great. Question... How do i switch back to my internal HD?
Hold down the option key when computer turns on.
About to do this for my Valkrie's Imac. I bought a M.2 2280 128g drive with a external 3.0 usb enclosure. I will follow your steps and let you know how it goes !!
Great! Follow the instructions carefully, watch twice. I also write my own English subtitles for people to use as a courtesy, that may help!!
@@ImLeeLoi i did and it would not update. going to try again. It gets to 70% updating then says it fails to update, this went on for 3 times, so I will erase and retry again tomorrow.
@@drewdegeer4432 Make sure the hard drive is formatted correctly as Mac OS Extended Journaled and nothing else is plugged into the USB Ports and retry. The SSD could potentially be damaged. ALTERNATIVELY: In Disk utility you can click on your new SSD, press the restore tab and then restore from your original Macintosh HD and that will copy the entire old hard drive to your new SSD. I don’t like this method because your transferring over old baggage which will slow boot times and performance but it could be a good way to troubleshoot to double check your new SSD works correctly.
@@drewdegeer4432 If you google restoring mac hard drive to new SSD there should be a step by step guide for this method.
Almost complete...
Press shift on the drive in the boot drive select screen(alt at startup); to make sure the computer boots from it by default if it keeps starting up from the old drive.
Also for bootcamp.
Yep, or going to System preferences and selecting startup disk.
Very clear, thanks. One thing after watching 3 videos on this same topic, nobody mentions the safe GB capacity minimum for the external SSD to have?
No minimum needed! 120GB I suppose is as cheap as one can get!
Great video. Just wondering if you put the Time Machine back up onto the new drive as well? Otherwise, with all the apps and docs still on the old HDD, I would expect them to open much more slowly.
I don't Time Machine to the new drive.
Great video Lee! I am thinking of installing an SSD internally and removing the old hard drive in my late 2012 iMac. After the installation do I need to hold the command, alt, r keys as you did in this video? The original hard drive will not even boot anymore.
IF the old hard drive wont even boot anymore, then it is not necessary!
Thank god for this. Now I don't have to open up my imac and reseal it =D Thanks
Glad this worked for you! :)
I have a 2011 Imac that came with 4GB RAM & 500GB hard drive. Just ( easily installed ) another 8GB RAM . Computer is already running much faster! So I'm waiting for a Lacie 2TB external thunderbolt hard drive & will "clone" the spinning hard drive on it with a Samsung 870 EVO ( 500 gb) SSD. So then....... without having to open up the computer ETC .....I will hopefully double or triple the speed of this old..... ( but still very good).....2011 Imac .... Wish me luck!
Thank you for the video! I just have one question before I attempt this. Will all my files still be on the HD and accessible? Or will it erase them during this process?
Will still be on the HD
Hi just seen ur video, gives me hope for my iMac 27” that I bought in 2012. I rammed it with 32GB RAM memory, and 3 TB hdd. BUT it is a Fusion Drive. Checked my CPU, and ram memory usage I have tonnes of it to spare as I only use to surf and watch movies and music. Nothing mayor. Yet it suddenly went mega slow on me the rainbow circle spinning away. I’m hoping this will buy my lovingly taken care of iMac a few more years as the new apple stuff looks like shit in my eyes and design was part of the apple parcel that made me go for it. Keep fingers crossed and will see if this works out for me 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
Hi Lee, just finished the process and my 2017 27inch iMac is running absolutely perfect! What a change! 😃 Just one doubt, when I check the new SSD info, it says the format is APFS but I had formatted it as MAC OS Extended (Journaled). Right now everything is running super smooth. Have I done anything wrong? Will this cause any problems?
If it's not causing issues I think you are good but most people had better performance and compatibility with Mac OS Extended Journaled. Read the other comments down below.
@@ImLeeLoi yes I did format it in mac os journaled but somehow the drive shows that it’s APFS. Not sure why is that. But yeah it’s still running smooth, tested it for a week
Oh yeah. I’m going to send it for ssd replacement but now no need. Tks my friend so much.
Glad I could help
Omg! You are a godsend! My 2015 iMac runs faster than my 2021 MacBook! This insane!
Yay!
This is a good video and proves that a simple start up drive really increases performance. I have a 2011 iMac and removed the internal optical drive which was knackered and replaced it with a 2TB SSD which I then partitioned, then cloned my system HDD onto. This has made a huge positive difference in start up and processing times. Also the inside of the Mac badly needed vacuuming, especially the fans.
Hey, great video. I am going to do this. However, please could you let me know if the sata ssd drive with an enclosure has any benefits over just an ssd external hardrive? For example, speed,. performance etc?
Thanks
Thanks for the video. What happens to the internal hard drive? Are you still able to save files onto it or does everything save onto the external ?
You can save files onto it if you wish.
I’m about to do this I’ve had my parents iMac just stuffed away for about 3 years and I saw this video and about to give that iMac a second chance
Glad to hear it! Breathe life back into it!
Thanks bud , works a treat on my old 2014 Mac mini .
Glad this worked for you and on a Mac Mini too!!!
Great video, my mac has slowed down over the years, and will definitely be giving it a go, can you recommend the best SSD for my iMac it is a (27-inch, late 2013) , processor 3.2 GHz quad-core intel core i5. Memory 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, with 4 USB, I'm not sure if it has USB c 3.0 or 3.1.
Iv looked on amazon and there is so many SSD being sold it's a bit bewildering and I would just be guessing.
would really appreciate your advice as I don't have a clue thanks again. ;)
Hi Alan, it depends on how much you want to spend as I said in the video. If you got the Cash get the SanDisk or Samsung T5. They run at USB 3.1 but will slow down to USB 3.0 for your iMac but when you eventually do upgrade the new Computer would take advantage of it.
Because it is an old iMac, if you want to save some cash - consider getting an SSD from Kingston and an enclosure like I demoed. :)
My cousin just gave me a 2013 iMac a few days ago and it's kinda slow. I'm about to get on Amazon and find an SSD, and the part that's needed to connect the SSD to my computer. If I need any help, I'll let you know. Thanks, man!
Very informative Lee.
Thanks for sharing this helpful video.
Very welcome
Hi! Great video thanks. One question though, how do you get the data from the old hard drive? Time machine? Thanks!
You can retrieve it manually in the finder and browse through the old hard drive folders.
I've been using this method on my 2012 iMac 21.5 inch. Tried putting an SSD internally but it won't let me install macOS on it for unknown reason. If I have the original HDD that came with it. It works fine. Something to do with the cable. These iMacs are hard to disassemble. Solution I added a Portable NVMe Drive USB 3.0 + Samsung 980 and it works smoothly. I also removed the internal HDD from the iMac.
Glad to hear you found something that works!
are we suppose to select external ssd every time we turn on our imac?Thank you for the video.
Awesome video! I just purchased my iMac 27" 2013 - i7 @ 3.50GHz 16GB RAM 1TB HDD 120GB SSD. I hope it runs great, what do you think, of course I will try to see if my OS is installed on the SSD.
Sergei! Let me know how the iMac is working with the SSD. :)
@@ImLeeLoi it works great, it also has Nvidia graphics card. I have been playing counter strike global offensive on it. The only negative I have is the screen size, I should have gone to something smaller. 27 inch is too much for my eyeballs to handle, I feel the strain. Overall I’m satisfied with my purchase. It’s a late 2012 model and only got it for 400 dollars. I don’t see myself getting the newest iMac for 4X amount of dollars.
@@bouchser000 You can try change the resolution in system preferences? Big screen for watching movies. :)
I did this and its fast and I love you for this video.....i had a problem today when I turned on my mac and it took 3 minutes to get to the home screen and once I was there everything was quicker.....what did I do wrong? PLLEASSSEE!
Thank you Thank you.😍
Hmmm... I'm not sure. How is it now?
Awesome video , just wondering if I do this on a 2015 iMac , will I be able to have the latest 2022 OS ? And also will il still be able to save my stuff on the 1TB ? Thanks 😊
Mac OS Ventura unfortunately does not support 2015 iMac.
Thank you, Lee-Loi! You are a life saver, and a slow AF 2013 iMac saver!
I would say it should run warm, not incredibly hot that it burns to touch. But they should be well built.