Use of new external SSD drive for iMac

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Level 1

4 points

Use of new external SSD drive for iMac

I have an old iMac 27-inch mid-2011 vintage running High Sierra and have purchased a WD My Passport SSD (which comes formatted as Ex-FAT). I would like to use the SSD as both boot-up disk and for backups (done regularly using a third party s/w).

Should I partition the drive into two sectors, one for boot disk and the other for backups?

If yes, what size should the bootable disk sector size be?

Should I keep the ex-FAT format or change it to Journaled for the SSD?

Thank you in advance for help on this.

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on May 17, 2021 6:22 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

rkaufmann87

Level 10

143,694 points

May 17, 2021 7:02 PM in response to angstrom03

Well actually you can use an external SSD as a startup drive on a 2011 iMac but it would be slow as molasses so there is not benefit to doing so. The reason it would be slow is 2011's fastest wired interface is Firewire 800 which is orders of magnitude slower than USB 3 which became available in 2012.

So my recommendation is if you want to keep the 2011 running (however silly that is in my opinion) is to buy an internal SSD and install that in the 2011. The reason I think it's silly is you have a $100 computer, putting any money into a $100 computer does not increase it's value. It is also so outdated it is soon to left in the cold by getting no security updates, parts are nigh near impossible to get, and the latest version of Mac OS it can run is soon too be 4 generations out of date. Some people like antiques, I just don't see computers that way. I see them as tools.

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Answer 2

Jack-19

Level 8

46,008 points

May 17, 2021 6:30 PM in response to angstrom03

Hi there,

You can't use an external SSD as a startup disk on a 2011 iMac. You need a 2012 iMac or newer. If you do, it will be painfully slow. Much slower than your internal hard drive. This is due to the 2011 iMac's very old ports or I/O.

Cheers,

Jack

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Answer 3

angstrom03 Author

Level 1

4 points

May 18, 2021 10:34 AM in response to angstrom03

From what I can see by searching on the internet there is no way to back up an ipad directly to an external drive - no s/w that would allow a backup without an iMac or a Macbook as intermediary. Or does somebody know of such.

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Answer 4

rkaufmann87

Level 10

143,694 points

May 18, 2021 10:48 AM in response to angstrom03

I would start a new topic for your question. You can back up an IOS device to your Mac and f you are using Time Machine to backup the Mac (or using a Bootable Clone app to backup) then the iPad's backup is essentially on the EHD for TM or the Clone.

There is no way, as far as I know of backing up directly from an IOS device to an EHD, you can search for third party apps. Your choices now are to backup using iCloud or what I stated in the first paragraph.

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