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Need replacement hard drive

So, I have a late 2014 iMac 27" Retina screen with a 3tb fusion drive that just blew up.. The local Mac store won't replace it, but I'm kinda sentimental to it and would like to replace it with a 2tb drive.. problem is, I have no idea what drive is recommended for these machines.. If anyone has recommendations (with links) please let me know.. Thank you..

iMac 27″, OS X 10.11

Posted on Apr 22, 2021 3:49 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 22, 2021 4:14 PM

Hi sstrams,


If you are 100% sure the Fusion Drive is to blame, use an external SSD as your startup disk and run macOS from that. Don't open up the Mac. For instructions and SSD recommendations, read: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as y… - Apple Community. Another SSD option not in the article is the OWC Envoy Pro EX USB 3.


Cheers,


Jack

13 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Apr 22, 2021 4:14 PM in response to sstrams

Hi sstrams,


If you are 100% sure the Fusion Drive is to blame, use an external SSD as your startup disk and run macOS from that. Don't open up the Mac. For instructions and SSD recommendations, read: How to Setup and Use an External SSD as y… - Apple Community. Another SSD option not in the article is the OWC Envoy Pro EX USB 3.


Cheers,


Jack

Apr 22, 2021 4:39 PM in response to Jack-19

Thank you, Jack! Petty sure its the drive.. I can boot the iMac with an external bootable drive, but the internal hard drive appears to be dead and buried.. it'll show up on desktop, then disappear lol.. But, it boots up in mere seconds with an external bootable drive.. I'm more a programming/graphics guy and not a hardware guy, so I really appreciate the help..

Apr 23, 2021 6:29 AM in response to Jack-19

Thanks again, Jack.. I currently have the iMac fired up via a bootable drive and, although limited with what I can do with it cuz there's not much software on it, I did everything I could with it jus tot make sure something else wasn't goofed up.. Surfed the net, fired up notes and other simple programs, checked out the hard drives in Disk Utility etc.. everything seems to function fine.. Unfortunately the internal hard drive icon WAS on the desktop, then disappeared.. before it did I was able to pull a few small files off it onto the external.. but, I do have everything (except applications) backed up on a different external.. So, I went ahead and ordered the Lacie SSD 2tb drive in your link.. I really think that's gonna work.. thank you so much for your help.. its pretty ANNOYING that the official Mac repair store here didn't mention that as an option.. They just told me my hard drive is dead and my best bet is to buy a new computer - which they obviously also sell.. never once mentioned your external drive fix... thank yu, again.. Steve

May 5, 2021 12:59 PM in response to Jack-19

Hey Jack! Just wanted to let you know that I finally got the external drive from your recommendation set up as the start up disk for the blow up iMac and she's running really smooth.. currently loading software on it, as we speak... It took me a while to get to it because I went ahead and got another computer to set up all my audio studio stuff on.. I'm going to use that computer strictly to record audio with.. This computer - with the external drive - will be running almost everything else: full adobe suite and all the regular stuff.. Anyways, THANK YOU so much for your help with this.. I really thought that computer was a goner, but she's back in business..!

Need replacement hard drive

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