iMac 27 mid 2011 conundrum

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iMac 27 mid 2011 conundrum

hello and thank you ;

this is my first post ,

I mac 27 mid 2011 / 1 TB spinner , Intel I5 , 32 RAM , runs High Sierra , and probably has a hidden partition with the initial Snow Leopard ; I have only Photoshop , Lightroom Classic , Capture one and three programs for boat design

here comes the tricky bit ; Adobe froze all old versions of Lightroom , Classic or otherwise ; above version 9 , no Lightroom will run on High Sierra ( I do have a plan for LRC and PS , alas , on a win doze machine , 16 RAM , but LRC , to say nothing about PS ; both hiccup frequently )

is it possible to repartition the disk , keeping only the OS with the above mentioned software ?

if yes , I'd liked to clone that partition on a SSD

I am a very old man and have no bottle to open up the Mac and replace the spinner with an SSD

I've read here , that it is not that bad if one runs the OS from and external SSD with Transcend 240GB JetDrive 825 Thunderbolt Ahci PCIe Portable SSD Solid State Drive TS240GJDM825

one or two members said that it runs faster than a spinner

for about two weeks I tried to 'phone Adobe , but the lines were continuously engaged ; I've read on a forum from an "Adobe expert" that it might be possible to get LRC version 9 , but I do have some doubts .

in case nothing of the above works , I'm done and condemned to the win doze machine .

please , can someone con/in/firm if running from external SSD ,the system will work decently

I am not one for speed

countless thanks & Happy New Year

iMac 27″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Dec 27, 2024 1:33 AM

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Answer 1

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padams35

Level 4

3,639 points

Dec 27, 2024 1:03 PM in response to viorel275

The basic theory is sound (cloning a partition to an external SSD), however a JetDrive 825 will NOT work with a 2011 iMac. The problem is that the JetDrive 825 is a bus-powered thunderbolt 3 drive, but Apple's Thunderbolt 1 to Thunderbolt 3 adapter does not transfer power and only works with self powered devices.

USB is an option, but USB 2.0 is situationally slower than the internal spinner and not recommended.

I have four suggestions:

a) Find a Thunderbolt 1 to eSATA + USB 3.0 adapter, and then buy a cheap USB SSD such as a Crucial X6. (You may also need a USB-C to USB-A cable). The only problem is these adapters have been out of production for years and remaining stock can be hard to find. The new Thunderbolt 3 to eSATA + USB 3.0 adapters will not work for this purpose.

b) Buy a Thunderbolt 3 or 4 drive (or dock) that has its own power supply such as the OWC miniStack STX. These will work with Apples Thunderbolt 1/2 to Thunderbolt 3 adapters. However they cost almost as much as a used iMac which brings me to...

c) Buy a used 2013-2017 iMac. These are old enough that they can still run High Sierra but are new enough to have native USB 3.0 ports for reasonable external drive performance.

d) Pay an Apple Certified technician to upgrade the internal spinner to an SSD for you. Just don't let them install the entry level version from any vender that sells two SATA SSD tiers. For example the Crucial MX500 is a great option while a Crucial BX500 leads to regrets.

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Answer 2

Dec 29, 2024 7:12 AM in response to viorel275

A solution that no-one has mentioned is to create a Virtual Machine (VM) within High Sierra into which you would install Snow Leopard to run concurrently alongside High Sierra. For many users this would mean getting enough RAM to run 2 OS's at once, but with 32GB you have way more than enough!

The main VM companies:

Parallels (good but now a subscription service, unfortunately)
VMWare (almost as good as Parallels, and now free for personal users)
VirtualBox (has always been free, but clunkier than the other two)

Once you've got over the initial learning curve, VM's are a great way of running older software (or even newer - in Mavericks I can run both 10.6.8 and 10.13.6). It means you can solve your problem entirely via software, no hardware changes required.

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