Hard drive running to slow

My local AASP is advertising $120 + drive for HDD replacement or $140 + drive for SSD replacements/upgrades.

Apple Stores seem to be limited to OEM parts, which cost more.

I would strongly advise against a simple HDD replacement. Any 2.5" 5400rpm HDD will likely be nearly as slow.

+1 for an external SSD.

Hi dopollard4,

The speeds for that hard drive are the acceptable speeds, but it might be slightly slower than normal. It is a very slow hard drive. You are better off buying a USB external SSD and running macOS off that. You will see about a 10 times speed improvement for storage.

If you want to proceed with the SSD, I recommend the: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HLRB2VC/A/g-technology-1tb-g-drive-mobile-ssd-r-series-storage?fnode=bf3b03e3682baa864343a19b606a186edb3d576b7a823e2e72119546b04d712dd19e34b765e00f01d9ecc42484bd9cdc53fab3c79524884df7259fafaabca00d042a1064e7dc1aa3ea54de2d4b27afb92189900a09ed2f311b759a705bba73e3. Also, Apple sells it, so Apple themselves trust the drive. It comes in 500GB, 1TB, and 2TB sizes. I can walk you through the steps in a separate post. (It will get too long in one.) If you get this drive, you will also need this cable: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/belkin-3-3-usb-type-c-to-usb-type-c-cable-works-with-chromebook-black/6288069.p?skuId=6288069.

Let me know your thoughts.

Cheers,

Jack

I just got a Samsung T5 1TB SSD external from Best Buy for under $150. It's booting up my iMac in Catalina and storing all my downloads. Best purchase I made this year.

I bought the same SSD last week. I installed macOS Big Sur on it and use it as the boot disk to overcome very slow iMac from the internal HDD. Using this requires lots of time and calls to Apple support to restore full use of Safari (bookmarks), Mail (mailboxes & saved emails), and general iMac OS settings. But it is a short term fix until I am vaccinated and feel safe to take my 2019 21.5 iMac to the Genius Bar at the local Apple store for them to run diagnostics.

There is definitely an internal problem with my iMac as the external SSD boot allows fast operation - including fast response to 3rd party Apps and data files stored on the internal hard drive. After all, I am using the same 3.6 Ghz and 1TB SATA HDD, but booting from SSD external eliminates slow problem.

An example of the speed problem is that it took over two hours to update macOS Big Sur. My wife's MacBook Air took 35 minutes. Installing Big Sur on the SSD external took about 30 minutes.

Chances are, there is nothing wrong with your iMac. The internal HDD is really just slow. Even if the internal hard drive was having an issue, the external SSD will always be at least 8 times faster.

Also, you should move your apps/data to the external SSD, if possible.

Cheers,

Jack

David,

I was provided with this Apple support publication:

How to create a bootable installer for macOS

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

I did not proceed further with the instructions after I downloaded the MacOS I selected onto my external solid-state drive.

At that point, I shut down the computer, then pressed the power button and immediately held down the Option key until about ten seconds after the Apple appeared on the screen. I selected the icon of the external drive, and MacOS on the external drive booted-up. From the desktop, I then had a lot of work to restore user setting for apps, such as Safari bookmarks, mail, and other misc. items.

My suggestion is to do none of this without direct help from Apple Support while you do these things. You have to ask for a senior adviser knowledgeable on this kind of setup. This has taken me a lot of time and help.

Hi Jack! Thanks for your reply.

I have installed on the SSD external the 3rd party apps I use. And I have all of the MacOS apps in the /Applications/ folder.

I am able to quickly access files stored on the internal hard drive. So the internal hard drive works normally when the MacOS is booted from the SSD external, but the hard drive is very slow when I boot using the internal hard drive.

My SSD external is 1TB, which I have partitioned into a 100GB bootable MacOS, and a 900GB Time Machine partition the I use for Time Machine. When I back up using Time Machine, I back up the internal SATA hard drive. The reason I am doing it this way is when I take my iMac to the Genius Bar at the Apple store, they may want to wipe my hard drive clean and then install a fresh Big Sur. At the time, I would want them to restore from Time Machine. Having Time Machine backup on the SSD I can fit in my pocket is beneficial.

Incidentally, a total of 6 senior advisors from Apple Support have been involved in this setup. They have been on the phone and have screen shared when all this has been done.

The first senior adviser gave me three options:

#1 - Rollback to an earlier MacOS

#2 - Perform a clean install

#3 - Use an external solid state HD as a bootable drive.

#3 seemed to be the best option for me, and it has worked out well.

Btw, if I wanted to bypass the internal hard drive, I can simply use my other external HDD which I had previously copied all of my data files onto a week before. With two thunderbolt ports, I can use both external drives at the same time. I have actually done so as a test to know my options if the Genius Bar cannot resolve the issue. I plan to go there sometime after mid-May.

Again, thanks for your reply.