Author Topic: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs  (Read 2858 times)

Offline jcarter

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my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« on: December 06, 2019, 04:13:28 PM »
I have to restart it a lot, its wicked slow, but it was still working this afternoon,,,,,,,,
But sadly, it gave me the only option to restore from my TimeMachine, and its still chugging.

So Ive picked out a new one, customized it, and will order it soon.  Direct from Apple.
We dont have a local Apple store here, closest is about 60 miles, or get it from Best Buy, but they wont customize anything.

Very very sad, as this machine has been in our kitchen for 10 years and is used every single day by all of us.
Got a lot of miles on it.




Offline dakota

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2019, 04:18:42 PM »
I know the feeling.  Same thing just happened to me, but before I had a chance to order the new one the video card went, so I had to pay a local place to repair it so I could transfer everything to the new iMac.  Ordered it from Apple directly as well.
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Offline Xairbusdriver

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2019, 04:38:26 PM »
While you can Restore an entire OS and all your files from TM, I highly recommend simply booting (USB or firewire) to a cloned backup and restoring from it. It's super simple and fast. I did that on my Mac mini a few days ago and Carbon Copy Cloner took all of 23 mins. :clap: Admittedly, that was with USB 3. Simply restoring can often remove the cruff and get things like caches cleaned up and make things much more usable and stable, at least while waiting for the new hardware.

Of course, if you don't have a CCC or SuperDuper clone... :coolio: :whistling: :blueeek: :scram:
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Offline jcarter

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2019, 05:24:07 PM »
No, sadly dont have CCC.
But hopefully I can get my stuff.
I have all my photos on iCloud on this one. And all the really important stuff.

Photos are what are important.
But this one is 6 years old,,,,,,,,

Offline jcarter

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #4 on: December 06, 2019, 07:17:29 PM »
Giving me the option of a Fusion drive or a regular SSD one. SSD is 500 bucks more. But I dont do anything much which would even tax an old fashioned hard drive now.

Offline jchuzi

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2019, 04:37:51 AM »
My internal drive is a fusion but I have three external SSD clones. When I boot from one of the clones, I don't notice any difference in speed compared to the fusion. But then, I rarely boot from a clone, using it mainly to run a utility on the fusion.

My guess is that you should save the $500. It seems, from your description, that your usage doesn't justify the extra cost.

My 2¢.
Jon

macOS 11.7.10, iMac Retina 5K 27-inch, late 2014, 3.5 GHz Intel Core i5, 1 TB fusion drive, 16 GB RAM, Epson SureColor P600, Photoshop CC, Lightroom CC, MS Office 365

Offline jcarter

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2019, 07:55:41 AM »
Thank you, thats what I was hoping.
Im not taking those wonderful photoshop classes any more.

I will order it now.

Offline jcarter

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2019, 08:21:21 AM »
The Seagate backup is complete, and shows 2019, but when I click on any of the most recent backup dates, it goes to 2015 and not to the present.
I assumed that this updated right along, and what didnt fit on the external HD, was old, and would be replaced by the newest stuff.
And it shows the newest dates.
But nothing shows beyond 2015
This is frustrating, as I dont want that, I want the newest stuff.

Offline jcarter

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2019, 09:27:37 AM »
Talking w. AppleCare, and he said to shut it down and start it up in Recovery Mode. Which I did, and that should let me use the most recent stuff on the ext. hard drive.
Hope this works,,,,,,

Offline jcarter

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #9 on: December 09, 2019, 08:06:12 AM »
Its working! 
Computer running fine. I took a ton of stuff off of it, and have deleted a ton of pictures which are on this newer iMac.
Got the most recent backup onto it, took a long while, even my grandson used it last night and he thought it was OK too.

Offline Xairbusdriver

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #10 on: December 09, 2019, 11:11:50 AM »
Good luck. One more ‘save’. But I hope you are saving your pennies and also starting to create cloned backups! Remember, the question is not if but when the hard drive/machine dies!
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system
CAUTION! Childhood vaccinations cause adults! :yes:

Offline jcarter

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #11 on: December 09, 2019, 11:38:17 AM »
I better do this for both of mine, the other one is the 6 year old one, and that has the banking and stuff like that on it.

https://www.backblaze.com/mac-backup.html

Found this, and I will do it. And I have the really old one, the 24 inch one with some photos on it. But I will just copy them, they are also on an old external HD. All I would need off that one is the photos.

For the clones, I could buy a 3TB Seagate and put all 3 on it?  No, probably better buy 3 one TB ones?

Thank you!

Offline Xairbusdriver

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #12 on: December 09, 2019, 02:32:17 PM »
Off-line backs are (usually) safe, but they can take hours for a full restore/download. 1TB drives with 5 yr warranties are less than $70. USB 3 "enclosures" with two slots are less than that. :dntknw: Buy 4 drives and swap them once a week/month. Store one set at a friends house. Get on with life. :doh:
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system
CAUTION! Childhood vaccinations cause adults! :yes:

Offline jcarter

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #13 on: December 09, 2019, 03:10:27 PM »
Yes, Ive got 2 ordered, and my life is just fine and dandy.

Offline Xairbusdriver

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Re: my 10 year old 27 iMac is on its last legs
« Reply #14 on: December 12, 2019, 02:48:00 PM »
Just wait a little longer, Jane! The rack mounted version of the Mac Pro (less than $6500, rack not included) will be here "soon"! :yahoo: :clap:
THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF COUNTRIES
Those that use metric = #1 Measurement system
And the United States = The Banana system
CAUTION! Childhood vaccinations cause adults! :yes: