A tale of two iMacs

[Haole Boy]

Aloha. Need some Mac expert assistance on this one.

Customer has two iMacs. iMac1 has been his personal machine, but has a history of dying. Logic Board and power supply have been replaced more than once by local Mac store (not me). Currently it's not working, and he does not want to pay for another logic board and power supply. Apple told him 'too bad" when he tried to get them to replace these parts again. So, he's done with this machine.

iMac2 was just given to my customer by a friend. It runs really slow (like the hard drive is dying). I booted from my external drive and SMART did not show any problems, but we all know how (in)conclusive SMART is.

In an ideal world, I would take the hard drive out of iMac1 and install it in iMac2 and everyone lives happily ever after. But, this is the real world. Assuming the hard drive in iMac1 is in good shape, is it possible to do this and have it work?

From what I can find searching the internet, both machines are using SATA drives, although iMac1 might be a 2.5" and iMac2 might be a 3.5" (hopefully this can be resolved with a standard 2.5" to 3.5" mounting bracket).

He also wants to move the RAM from iMac1 to iMac2. The Apple machine specs I've found on the web don't list the specific type of RAM based on Serial number of the machine. If someone has a link that will tell me this, I would love to have it.

Here are the details on the two machines:

iMac1 (dead machine w/ good hard drive)
iMac "Core i5" 2.9 21.5-Inch (Late 2012)
Model A1418
EMC No: 2544
Model Identifier: iMac 13,2

iMac2 (working machine that runs real slow)
iMac "Core i5" 3.2 27-Inch (Late 2013)
Model A1419
EMC No.: 2639
Model Identifier: iMac14,2

Let me know if you need more info about either of the machines,

Mahalo!

Harry Z

 

[timeshifter]

If I'm opening an iMac there's no way I'm not putting an SSD in in place of a hard drive.

Use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the drive you want to the new SSD.

 

[Markverhyden]

Never seen an iMac with an original 2.5" drive. This is my definitive source for Apple specs as OEM - https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/

@timeshifter is correct. Don't waste time trying to migrate a spindle. SSD's are dirt cheap these days. As far as drive health Mac1 might be good. But you'll be spending time testing so why not just move it to a SSD. RAM should move but if you need specs just pull sticks on both. You'll have the part numbers for the specs.

 

[Haole Boy]

If I'm opening an iMac there's no way I'm not putting an SSD in in place of a hard drive.

Use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the drive you want to the new SSD.

Never seen an iMac with an original 2.5" drive. This is my definitive source for Apple specs as OEM - https://everymac.com/ultimate-mac-lookup/

@timeshifter is correct. Don't waste time trying to migrate a spindle. SSD's are dirt cheap these days. As far as drive health Mac1 might be good. But you'll be spending time testing so why not just move it to a SSD. RAM should move but if you need specs just pull sticks on both. You'll have the part numbers for the specs.

Good point! The dead iMac supposedly has a 1 TB "Fusion" drive in it. A 1 TB SSD is ~ $140, not real expensive, but a lot more than a 250GB SSD. I know for Windows there are some utilities to change the size of partitions when moving a system from a spinner drive to an SSD. Is there anything like this for Mac? Do either of the programs you mentioned have this capability?

As for the 2.5" drive size, I saw that on a site where I was looking up specs, but they only let you enter two serial numbers in 24 hours unless you want to pay for the info. I closed the page and I'm not going to pay...

Mahalo for the responses. Definitely giving me something to think about.

Harry Z

 

[Haole Boy]

Update: Never mind... found this: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIDIMACHDD12/

Customer has given OK to upgrade to SSD in the 27" iMac. I found step-by-step instructions on how to do the replacement in ifixit.com. The instructions include putting the SSD in an enclosure that also has a temperature sensor for the cooling fans. Any idea what brand or where I can source this? OWC has an enclosure, but I did not see anything about a temperature sensor.

Here's the ifixit instructions: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2639+Hard+Drive+Replacement/19643 References to the enclosure start at step 36 (about 3/4 of the way down the page).

Mahalo,

Harry Z

 

[Markverhyden]

I've done many of these models. Fan control software solutions have worked fine for me. The biggest problem is some of the 2.5 to 3.5 trays don't have the proper geometry. So you may have problems with cable connections. The last two I did I had to take my disk grinder to the tray to create the necessary space. And don't use a tray that has room for two SSD's. Most likely it'll be too high and you won't be able to seat the screen.

 

[TECCS]

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Desk...Kit+(BK-PCBS)&qid=1562245740&s=gateway&sr=8-1.

I know these are more expensive but in the uk I use these and add to the price for iMac SSD upgrades. the dimensions are 3.5" and they are well made. If its a mac i always think they paid premium for a mac so they want premium for everything in it.

plus if your having to take the effort of a grinder etc to caddys that seems like effort and time

 

[Markverhyden]

plus if your having to take the effort of a grinder etc to caddys that seems like effort and time

Discovering that undocumented feature at 7pm on a Sunday didn't leave me with many options. LOL!!!

 

[TECCS]

Discovering that undocumented feature at 7pm on a Sunday didn't leave me with many options. LOL!!!

well yeah that doesn't help

 

[Paul Rodgers]

You really don’t need a cloning program. Just use the built in migration assistant. I don’t know what the cutoff was for the removal of the magnetic glass, but you should look into that and buy the 3M tape strips from OWC if you don’t already have them on-hand.

 

[Markverhyden]

You really don’t need a cloning program. Just use the built in migration assistant. I don’t know what the cutoff was for the removal of the magnetic glass, but you should look into that and buy the 3M tape strips from OWC if you don’t already have them on-hand.

Seem to remember if it has an opti drive it's magnetic.

 

[timeshifter]

Best tool for knowing which Mac is which, latest OS supported, etc. etc.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mactracker/id430255202?mt=12

 

[Haole Boy]

You really don’t need a cloning program. Just use the built in migration assistant. I don’t know what the cutoff was for the removal of the magnetic glass, but you should look into that and buy the 3M tape strips from OWC if you don’t already have them on-hand.

I would love to use the migration assistant, but the "old" iMac is dead (power supply and/or logic board issue). Everything I've read about the Migration Assistant requires a running Mac, or a Time Machine backup as input. Neither of which I have. If you know of a way to get around this limitation, I would love to hear it.

I have a USB-attached docking station that I can put the drive from the "old" iMac into, Is it possible to attach the docking station to the new iMac and then boot from the old iMac's drive? If so, then I could (theoretically, at least) create a time machine backup to use for the migration assistant.

Harry Z

 

[Markverhyden]

I would love to use the migration assistant, but the "old" iMac is dead (power supply and/or logic board issue). Everything I've read about the Migration Assistant requires a running Mac, or a Time Machine backup as input. Neither of which I have. If you know of a way to get around this limitation, I would love to hear it.

I have a USB-attached docking station that I can put the drive from the "old" iMac into, Is it possible to attach the docking station to the new iMac and then boot from the old iMac's drive? If so, then I could (theoretically, at least) create a time machine backup to use for the migration assistant.

Harry Z

Yes, you can boot from the USB dock assuming the drive is still good. Just hold down the Option key when powering up and you'll see the orange USB icons. They'll probably be 2, it's not the one that says recovery or what ever.

 

[Paul Rodgers]

Yes, you can boot from the USB dock assuming the drive is still good. Just hold down the Option key when powering up and you'll see the orange USB icons. They'll probably be 2, it's not the one that says recovery or what ever.

Hell you don’t even have to boot from it. Just install macOS on the new drive and iirc you’ll get the option to restore. Its been a bit since I’ve done one.

 

[Haole Boy]

Yes, you can boot from the USB dock assuming the drive is still good. Just hold down the Option key when powering up and you'll see the orange USB icons. They'll probably be 2, it's not the one that says recovery or what ever.

Well, the assumption that the old HDD is good was wrong. I first put it in the dock and tried to boot, but it does not show up in the list of bootable drives. Next I booted the 27" iMac from it's internal drive and connected the dock. No signs of the drive when looking in Finder. Used the Disks utility and there is a 1TB drive that shows up there but it says it is "Unformatted"! Yikes!

When looking at the drive when attached to a Linux machine, gParted shows the partition as Unknown.

I'm going to start a new post on the Unformatted issue so that the HD Recovery folks can (hopefully) see it and provide some options.

Mahalo for your assistance on this!

Harry Z

 

[Markverhyden]

You're welcome. It's possible, thought doubtful, that the drive may have File Vault enabled. Properly functioning FV enabled drives, upon being scanned by Finder, usually prompts for the password to mount it. You could try manually mounting it in Disk Utility. If it sees FV it'll prompt for the password. Which is the same as the password for the user's login. Best of luck!!