"Hard drive appears to be failing" - what are my options

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Level 1

19 points

"Hard drive appears to be failing" - what are my options

I have had this iMac for just over 3 years (2017 21 inch, 4K) ... it has always been slow and I've put it down to not getting an SSD when I bought it. I've been thinking that maybe I could get an external SSD and use that as the startup drive instead of the inernal drive but the guy in the local mac shop told me this would be difficult to do unless I knew what I was doing and expensive ($850Aus). It doesn't seem that complicated to me to download the OS onto another drive & make that the startup drive, so I am not sure what he meant.

Is it more complicated than I think to run the Mac off an external drive?

He said it might also be possible to replace the internal drive with an SSD depending on what 2017 model it is.

I just ran an Etrecheck report on it & it says the hard drive appears to be failing, which says I have a more serious problem than it just being annoyingly slow. I'm wondering what my options are: new Mac, replace the hard drive or get an external one - would that be about it? If the hard drive were to fail would it be better to have it replaced rather than use an external drive (that I could move between Macs)?

The report is here. Thanks for any advice.

Etrecheck

iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 10.14

Posted on Apr 15, 2021 3:33 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Jack-19

Level 8

46,014 points

Apr 15, 2021 9:51 AM in response to sleepydwarf

Hi sleepydwarf,

You should use an external SSD as your replacement. Not only will it fix the failing drive (since you're using a new drive), but it will also be so much faster than your internal drive could ever be - from 16 to 50 times faster. For more information, what SSD to buy, and instructions, please read: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as y… - Apple Community.

Also, you may have adware, so please run Malwarebytes for Mac (free) and make sure you don't: Malwarebytes for Mac.

Cheers,

Jack

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Answer 2

sleepydwarf Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 16, 2021 4:39 PM in response to Jack-19

Thank you @Jack-19 - that is very helpful. I am looking at the Lacie USB model that you recommend in the article &, of course, it is out of stock everywhere in Australia. I notice that the Apple store also has this drive https://www.apple.com/au/shop/product/HLRB2VC/A/g-technology-1tb-g-drive-mobile-ssd-r-series-storage - would this be as good as LaCie? I'm assuming as Apple sells it they are happy with its performance??

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Answer 3

padams35

Level 4

3,445 points

Apr 15, 2021 5:25 AM in response to sleepydwarf

Don't replace the internal HDD with another HDD. Those 2.5" 5400rpm drives run MacOS slowly and get even slower when running OneDrive and/or DropBox file syncing.

External drives are easy and relatively inexpensive.

1) Buy a drive. Any drive. I'd suggest something USB-C / USB 3.1 or USB 3.2 Gen 2, preferably without fancy fingerprint encryption extras.

2) Use Disk Utility to reformat the drive as APFS with a GUID partition map.

3) Boot into recovery mode, and install MacOS onto the external drive.

4) When prompted select your internal drive or a time machine backup to migrate your user data.

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Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

143,916 points

Apr 15, 2021 9:58 AM in response to sleepydwarf

Definetely a +1 on an external SSD. Here is what I'd recommend as a high quality, quick and reasonably priced external SSD:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/TB3ENVP10/

This drive is EXTREMLY fast, orders of magnitude over your existing HD.

If you are looking for a less expensive solution, then use the following:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MS8U3SSDT1.0/ and a https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MOTGPWR/

If you need help installing Mac OS let us know. It's really pretty easy but do it before the internal HD fails all together!!!!

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Answer 5

Jack-19

Level 8

46,014 points

Apr 16, 2021 4:50 PM in response to sleepydwarf

I like G-Technology a lot. The reason it wasn’t in the article is because it ships with a very short cable. So, you would need something like the: EDIT: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/belkin-3-3-usb-type-c-to-usb-type-c-cable-works-with-chromebook-black/6288069.p?skuId=6288069.

Cheers,

Jack

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Answer 6

sleepydwarf Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 20, 2021 12:27 AM in response to Jack-19

Hi @jack-19 - I have the G-Technology drive. It's mounting twice, once formatted for MSDOS with 4.08 GB and once as MAC OS Extended (Journaled) with 995 GB available. I've never come across this before.

Usually when I format a new external drive I would format it as MAC OS Extended (Journaled) but your instructions say to format the drive as AFPS --- will the APPS format get rid of the MS-DOS partition (I presume it's a partition)?

Or do I just leave it as MAC OS Extended (Journaled) & install the OS on that?

I'm having bonus problems befause my wifi has gone down and I am having to hotspot to my phone until at least Friday.

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Answer 7

sleepydwarf Author

Level 1

19 points

Apr 24, 2021 5:01 AM in response to rkaufmann87

Thanks again @Jack-19 - it's all installed & seems to be working fine, apart from one folder that got lost in the migration that I just located. So much faster & no beachballing. I should have done this months ago!

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