want to boot my imac from an external ssd - best options

snow patrol · 24 Apr 2015 at 22:14

hi all,

as title really. I'm getting a bit tired of the slight sluggishness of old fashioned hard drives. I'm pondering getting a large (ish) capacity ssd for my boot drive. I have a 2011 27" imac so even if i wanted to open it up (which i don't), i'd have the problems with fan noise once you tamper with the drive.

The current hd is 1tb but i'm only using about 650 and a lot of that is probably junk and clutter that needs to be deleted. I could PROBABLY make do with a 500gig drive as my boot drive and still have all my apps on it.

So what are my best options? A 500gig ssd with a thunderbolt caddy and cable? Or a ready made thunderbolt ssd? USB? (like this one: https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-195-SA&groupid=701&catid=2104&subcat=2974)?

has anyone done this?

snow patrol · 25 Apr 2015 at 10:11

thanks,

the lacie 500gb option looks tempting as it's an all in one package and i wouldn't have to get anything else. So would it be a case plugging it in whilst booted into my current imac os, then installing yosemite onto the ssd, setting it as a boot drive, restarting and using migration assistant to move apps?

or could i just plug it in and ghost my current internal drive to the ssd?

snow patrol · 26 Apr 2015 at 09:57

guttingly, my imac doesn't have usb 3 so i guess i'm forced down the more expensive route. Thunderbolt enclosures seem very expensive. I'd love to get a 1tb option but it just seems so pricey

snow patrol · 26 Apr 2015 at 10:10

hmmn, i could use a thunderbolt to esata adaptor (still rather pricey, but cheaper than an enclosure) and just have the drive bare..any issues with that?