Good morning everybody
I was told it's better to stick at Mojave OS version (or even older) if I have a "mech" hard disk (not SSD).
Is it suitable according to your experience?
I have iMac 21.5 inch, 2019, 3 GHz Intel Core i5, Apple HDD 1 TB APFS.
Thank you in advance for any comment
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iMac 21.5″, macOS 14.4
It isn't Mojave that's the issue with HDD performance. It's the APFS disk format.
APFS was first released in High Sierra (10.13.x) but High Sierra was selective in that it defaulted to using MacOS Extended (Journaled) aka HFS+ format for system drives that were HDDs but used APFS if it was an SSD. You could optionally install High Sierra on an HDD formatted as APFS but it wasn't advisable.
Starting with Mojave, APFS became required for system drives regardless of whether they were an HDD or SSD. But you can still format non-system (aka data) drives as MacOS Extended (Journaled) and they will work perfectly fine.
+1 for the suggestion already made to adding an external SSD to your iMac and use that as your startup drive. Your iMac supports USB 3.0, so you could use any USB 3.0/3.1/3.2 drive (but not USB 4 unless the drive specs say it also supports USB 3.x)
A USB 3.1 Generation 2 (up to 10 Gbps) drive connected to one of the Thunderbolt3/USB-C ports on your iMac would be the fastest connection.
It isn't Mojave that's the issue with HDD performance. It's the APFS disk format.
APFS was first released in High Sierra (10.13.x) but High Sierra was selective in that it defaulted to using MacOS Extended (Journaled) aka HFS+ format for system drives that were HDDs but used APFS if it was an SSD. You could optionally install High Sierra on an HDD formatted as APFS but it wasn't advisable.
Starting with Mojave, APFS became required for system drives regardless of whether they were an HDD or SSD. But you can still format non-system (aka data) drives as MacOS Extended (Journaled) and they will work perfectly fine.
+1 for the suggestion already made to adding an external SSD to your iMac and use that as your startup drive. Your iMac supports USB 3.0, so you could use any USB 3.0/3.1/3.2 drive (but not USB 4 unless the drive specs say it also supports USB 3.x)
A USB 3.1 Generation 2 (up to 10 Gbps) drive connected to one of the Thunderbolt3/USB-C ports on your iMac would be the fastest connection.
You could add an external SSD to that iMac and use the external SSD as your startup drive.
That would let you upgrade your startup drive’s speed while avoiding the need for an expensive repair shop trip to replace the internal hard drive.
Servant of Cats wrote:
Actually, a Thunderbolt 3 SSD would be faster … but a SSD that connected via USB-C (USB 3.1 Gen 2) would be cheaper, and probably more than fast enough.
That's exactly why I suggested a USB 3.1 Gen 2 drive.
Why are you asking? If you're having speed issues, i.e. boot time, application launch and document saving time, it could be due to problems with your drive other than format.
Download and Etrecheck.
Copy the report
and use the Additional Text button to paste the report in your reply.
Then we can examine the report and see if we can determine the cause of the problem.
This should be down before changing the drives format, upgrading to the latest system that the iMac can support, Ventura, or getting an external SSD.
MartinR wrote:
A USB 3.1 Generation 2 (up to 10 Gbps) drive connected to one of the Thunderbolt3/USB-C ports on your iMac would be the fastest connection.
Actually, a Thunderbolt 3 SSD would be faster … but a SSD that connected via USB-C (USB 3.1 Gen 2) would be cheaper, and probably more than fast enough.
It’s good advice - if it ain’t broke…
Will an HDD or SDD be best for my iMac running macOS Mojave?
