Repurposing an old iMac

[doodah]

I know next to nothing about Macs and OSX.

I might be able to bag myself an outgoing 2011 iMac from work and keen to take it on as a project and potentially give to my future mother-in-law as a home computer.

It's not been used properly for years and has a bunch of accounts on there, all of which have since left and no one remembers any of the passwords.

Found a number of tear down videos and think I can upgrade the HD and RAM, thinking of going with a 500GB SSD and doubling whatever memory config is in there.

However it's the OS I am not sure about. What are my options? Can I just buy the latest copy of OSX and install it on the new HD?

 

[Feek]

To answer the latter first - No. The current version of macOS won't work on a 2011 iMac, however the previous version will and there is no charge for it.

If you're replacing the drive on s 2011 vintage iMac then you'll need a temperature sensor to stop the fans going crazy but this is well documented. I did this on my iMac when I swapped the internal 1Tb drive for a 4Tb and it was painless and pretty straightforward, the only concern was making sure the screen was dust free.

Once you've installed it, boot into internet recovery mode by holding down cmd-option R as it boots which will allow you to install the most recent version of the OS that it supports onto the new drive.

The 2011 iMac is still a decent machine even though it won't run Mojave. Just be aware that there is a known fault on the GPU which means it could be a bit of a time bomb waiting to go off. Many have failed already but others are still going strong (both mine were working perfectly when I sold them and as far as I know, they're still OK).

 

[doodah]

@Feek - thank you for the quick response.

The last tear down video mentions the temp sensor so will be careful.

I assume you mean time bomb as in failure? Rather than some a little more firery ? I hope it's very light usage will prolong avoiding this haha.

Sweet - seems that this machine will go up to High Sierra .

Still need a final OK from my boss but fingers crossed and it will be the perfect excuse to finally get my head around the Apple ecosystem.

 

[Feek]

Yeah, it's not a Samsung so you don't need to keep a fire extinguisher nearby at all times

 

[Zenith]

If it’s a 2011 iMac don’t they all have a second hard drive cable? I installed a ssd in my mid 2011 iMac and taped it to the cd drive, because the original hard drive is still there the temperature sensor isn’t a problem. Once I installed the OS on the ssd it made a huge difference in performance.

 

[doodah]

I will look out for one. I forget what RAM config it has but assume I will end up with either 8GB or 16GB if I am lucky once I am done, along with an SSD it should be great for browsing/work .

 

[doodah]

I finally got in, bless this little machine...

 

[Feek]

Oh no, blitz that OS and get High Sierra on it (and more giggabytings memory).

 

[doodah]

Just looking at the specs on Apple and it mentions....

Configurable to 2TB hard drive or 256GB solid-state second drive, only at the Apple Online Store.

I presume they say 256GB because at the time, that was likely the largest SSD capacity?

 

[Combat squirrel]

Just looking at the specs on Apple and it mentions....



I presume they say 256GB because at the time, that was likely the largest SSD capacity?

Yeah basically - you can fit any size HDD in as long as its the correct interface, no real world limit on hard drive capacity for OSX

 

[Feek]

Yeah, that’s the largest they supplied. I ordered mine with the 256Gb SSD and 1Tb HDD and after a few years I swapped the HDD for a 4Tb device. It’ll take anything you care to throw at it.

 

[doodah]

Thanks, sorry just realised another.

The HD in there is due for a magnet and hammer and of course there are a plethora of user accounts on there, almost all of which have since left. The boss has said OK and IT will not prioritise data recovery from something so old so I have offered me attempting to see if there is anything worth saving on there.

If this was a PC I would simply plug the HD into another computer or use Slax (a pre-install environment) to get the data off. What are my options for OSX?

 

[GSXRMovistar]

Another thing to consider rather than replacing/adding another drive internally is to just run off an external FireWire drive, my old 2011 iMac has been doing this for the last several years without any issue at all.

Also on the note about the GPU I've has mine fail 2 or 3 times now, each time with Apple replacing for free but I expect the next time it goes it may force me into a new purchase which seems a shame as this old beast still have plenty of kick in it for its age (3.4 GHz Intel Core i7).

 

[doodah]

Moment of truth. As I can't take the Mac offsite to remove the HD, I am doing after work in the office today. The amount of steps on iFixit is daunting .

Edit - a little advice needed. The guide I'm following is to install an SSD along with the original HD staying in its place. However I have to remove the original hard drive for GDPR reasons at work, so wouldn't it be easier just get a 2.5>3.5" adapter/gerryrig and put the SSD there. Otherwise the guides have you take the logic board out to install the SSD on the back on the DVD drive.

Edit - several solutions regarding the temp sensor. I can short one of the sensor wires apparently though I don't how good I feel about doin this. There is a software solution but this is more of a band aid solution. Or I can buy a sensor but **** paying £20-40 for a damn sensor.

Edit - well that was fun. Impressive engineering especially as it's nearly a decade old. I have used the OD temp. sensor on the SSD. Turned on the first time and was greeted with a black screen and a beep every few seconds - turns out I forgot to put the RAM back in . With attempt 2 - it seems to work fine, I get a white screen with a blinking folder which I presumes it can't detect an OS/HD. The fans didn't seem to ramp up, hopefully a good sign there are no issues with the temp sensor.

Edit - slight twist. I had downloaded Sierra and put it on a USB but I must have entered internet recovery mode instead on first boot. It's downloaded and installed Lion instead. However when I go to the App Store, it won't let me upgrade to Mojave. Found High Sierra on the App Store and had the same issue. I have updated the machine as well. It's suggesting I need to buy Mountain Lion first and then upgrade - is this right?

 

[NickK]

You could run windows on it.. if the OSX falls out of date.

I have a 2009 mac mini that I'm running windows 7 on, if Windows 10 works on a Core Duo 8GB then I may even upgrade it as it gets used for MS office.

 

[doodah]

I could but not really interested as there will be two other Windows machines in the house and I think the OSX experience would be better for my mother-in-law, plus I can learn how to use/fix a Mac.

It seems to run fine on Lion for now, giving it to her for her birthday tomorrow. The memory upgrade can come after the wedding .

IT were happy to take the old hard drive off me once I did the leg work lol.

Edit - Godsend, the accompanying Magic Mouse was in a draw next to where it used to be .

Edit - weird issue. The machine doesn't see to connect to the Wifi automatically when turned on, I have to do it manually every time. Any ideas?

Edit - I've finally updated it after repeated hurdles with it saying it was up to date with Lion. Shouldn't have skimped out on the SSD (256) as there's only 100GB left but for browsing/light media consumption it should be fine. Just need to upgrade the RAM and we're all good . Thanks again.