I was told that the SSD has a heat sensor which has to be connected. I have asked Crucial and they recommend the MX 500. 2 TB Has anyone done this upgrade and had any problems?
Thanks
iMac 21.5″ 4K, macOS 13.4
The internal drive in a 21.5 inch iMac is not user replaceable. Very questionable about an Apple Store or Certified Service Provider doing this for you, or without huge charge.
You would be better served to use an external USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Mbps) drive. I use Crucial X8 2TB external drives (1050 MB/s) drives as Time Machine drives connected via USB-C to either a Mac's Thunderbolt 3/4 port, or to a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 rated hub (startech.com) that I then connect to the preceding Thunderbolt 3/4 port. These would be very fast for running macOS externally. These drives comes with a USB-C to USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 cable and a USB-C to USB-A dongle.
Crucial's MX 500 is slower than the second coming compared to other external drive options.
I would use Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to clone the Internal drive to the externally mounted, APFS formatted X8, set the macOS Settings > General > Startup Disk to the Crucial X8, and reboot. Recommend a second Crucial X8 as a Time Machine drive to the other TB3 port. This is what I use.
The internal drive in a 21.5 inch iMac is not user replaceable. Very questionable about an Apple Store or Certified Service Provider doing this for you, or without huge charge.
You would be better served to use an external USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (10Mbps) drive. I use Crucial X8 2TB external drives (1050 MB/s) drives as Time Machine drives connected via USB-C to either a Mac's Thunderbolt 3/4 port, or to a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 rated hub (startech.com) that I then connect to the preceding Thunderbolt 3/4 port. These would be very fast for running macOS externally. These drives comes with a USB-C to USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 cable and a USB-C to USB-A dongle.
Crucial's MX 500 is slower than the second coming compared to other external drive options.
I would use Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) to clone the Internal drive to the externally mounted, APFS formatted X8, set the macOS Settings > General > Startup Disk to the Crucial X8, and reboot. Recommend a second Crucial X8 as a Time Machine drive to the other TB3 port. This is what I use.
You could do that, but it is very difficult and you could easily end up with a basket case.
If you insist, get the OWC drive upgrade kit and check out their video guide.
see > https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/imac-2017-21.5-inch
However, I concur 100% with VikingOSX
Because it gives you a faster drive without doing the risky DIY.
see > Use an external SSD as your startup disk … - Apple Community
That machine has both USB-C (Thunderbolt 3) and USB-A (USB 3.0) ports. So you have several ways of attaching an external SSD.
An external Thunderbolt 3 SSD could provide speed rivaling that of an internal SSD, without the risks that go along with opening the 21.5" iMac's case. Though if you have a 5400 rpm hard drive or a 1 TB Fusion Drive in there now, any good external SSD is going to seem like a huge upgrade.
I have an Imac Retina 4K 2017 21.5 inch which SSD upgrade would be suitable?
