I've a Late 2012 27" iMac 1TB Fusion Drive running on macOS High Sierra.
The 128GB SSD (SM128E) is faulty. Then the OS couldn't boot. So, I've reinstalled the OS. It's working now.
I want to replace the HDD with an 1TB SSD.
Do I need to remove the faulty SSD? (Super tedious to get into the SSD). Can I disable the SSD with software? What's the implication?
iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.2), Late 2012
Jessica,
You really should be in touch with an third party Apple Authorized Service Provider to ask this question. Changing out drives on 2012 and later iMacs is not something the average user can do so they would likely need to do the work anyway.
If you replace the hard drive with an SSD the Fusion Drive would have to be recreated. If you don't do that, your computer would simply see the new SSD and the faulty built in SSD. You can simply dismount that SSD and pretend it doesn't exist. Not that I'd want to perform this job. Were it mine, I'd probably let Apple repair it - or at least see what the cost would be.
Apple Authorized Service Provider: 1TB Fusion Drive cost would be about USD 300 and 10 working days.
That's a little too long. I rather switch to an SSD and get some saving.
Disable or remove SSD of Fusion Drive
