Boot Mac OS From External SSD HD Enclosure on Older iMac 

Thanks and im glad the external boot ssd works good. Yes it is as fast as modern imacs for most things. Thanks for watching and please subscribe if you can.

Thanks for feedback and watching

Thanks for the new words and good luck with everything. I hope the video helped you. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for nice comments. Booting off ssd is night and day difference and you can still boot off spinning drive when you need to. I edit videos on my system 1080 with no dropped frames. Thanks for watching.

Thanks chris. Im glad it helped and thanks for watching and supporting the channel. We love the feedback.

Good luck. You can use a good external USB 3 drive and be fine. It will give you a good 350 to 450 Mbps and run actually much faster than the fusion drive. Just keep your other drive so you can boot back into that later if you ever need to but I boot off my externals and have been doing it for a few years now.

Thanks for watching and the nice words.

Nice, and I'm glad it helped out. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching. That was I think my first video ever or one of them. I now have over 550 so I hope you can sub and find a few more. Thanks again for the feedback and I'm glad it's working good.

I just discovered this video and am in the same position. 2011 iMac dead hard drive. If my hard drive is dead and I can’t boot the iMac up ( I can get to recovery. Mode) would I have to first install the new OS on the new ssd drive using another computer? Or is this something I can do in disk utility. I might even have the original boot disk somewhere as well.

Thanks for the nice comments

You are welcome and I hope it helped. Yes, they run quite fast after the upgrade. It's like a brand new system.

What ssd and enclosure did u use. What are your read write speeds?

Thanks for sharing that it worked for you. Yes, installing internally is not a bad idea if you want to do that but this tends to be easier for sure. Thank you.

Thanks for watching and for the feedback. I hope it helped.

Thanks Nikita for watching.

Thanks Allan. Let me know if you want to see any topics and I can cover them in some future videos. Thanks for watch and please subscribe if you haven't as once I get to a 1000 subscribers I'll do a few giveaways for sure.

Thanks and good luck with everything. Wish you the best

Thanks again for the nice words and watching the video on booting from external SSD. I hope it helps.

I realize Im pretty off topic but does anyone know a good place to stream new movies online ?

@Coleman Derek Try FlixZone. Just search on google for it :)

@Coleman Derek i watch on Flixzone. Just google for it :)

Good luck and that's for feedback

Ok, and good luck with things. Make sure they are the Thunderbolt version of the drives.

Thanks Krystal for watching and the nice words. I hope it can help a few people bring these expensive systems back to life.

@@craigneidel great tutorial....i have a question please. I have a mid 2011 21.5 inch iMac, I would like to install Windows 10 on an external ssd/hdd, will this procedure work? Thanks for answering

Yes, and thanks for the info. I have a system that I mounted to back and they even sell metal parts that can be mounted back there. Thanks for watching Mark.

Yes but you need to use that external enclosure like I did and replace HDD with SSD. It's then very good. Thanks for watching.

Great, I hope it helps and thanks for watching. That will make a big difference for sure.

Thanks for posting and your experience with that. It helps out people who are trying this. I'm glad is helped. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching the channel.

Thanks for the nice words Arty. I hope it helps you out and thanks for watching. I make videos on all types of things from Apple to investing so if interested I would love to have you as a subscriber. Thanks again and I'm glad it helped you out. No reason to sped so much on an iMac when you can get a pretty quick one using this method.

You are welcome and thanks for watching and supporting the channel. I hope it helped.

Thanks for the nice words and sub.

Yes, the very old thunderbolt connection works if you can find one of the old Lacey drives like I had in the video. And you can replace the drives (then format it).

I will look into that for a video topic. Thanks for watching Erkinjon.

Thanks for watching and supporting the channel. I'm glad booting from an external SSD for your iMac worked out. Thanks Nick.

Thanks Bruce. Yes, it works pretty good and load times should really come down. Thanks for posting your experience.

Thanks for watching and supporting the channel.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the upgrades. It sounds like you removed the screen and put this all in internally. It's amazing how fast the older iMacs can be if you just replace the hard disk and ram. I used an external SSD because of the 10 Gbps port on the 2001 model which makes it a bit easier to do because I know removing the glass can be a job. Thanks for your post.

@@craigneidel the biggest fear is breaking the glass because the magnets are powerful. The old hard drives generate a ton of heat, the fans hardly run now. Its worth doing it, do u know about the problem with the video cards ?

Yes, I know the 2010 and 2011s had some issues with the video cards etc. and I think a ton burnt out. I do agree that opening the screen is the best way to upgrade if you can do it. I was just providing an easier way to upgrade to an SSD without the screen removal but fully understand it makes sense to do that if you can swing it.

Thanks. I have a few other videos on that topic with examples if you browse my videos. Thanks for watching.

Yes, if you use that external enclosure with the thunderbolt connection you can get speeds around 350 to 400 Mbps. It's a great solution. You can find them used on eBay for under $100 but you need to look around to find them. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching. No the lacie has the Thunderbolt 1 connection which is required for speed to ssd. So that is needed for it to be fast enough. If you find another thunderbolt 1 external that might work but i only tested the lacie.

@@craigneidel Thanks!

Just remember to use the fasted port. you have to connect to the drive. On a 2012 I still think it is Thunderbolt but it would be hard to find an enclosure for cheap with Thunderbolt 2. You might want to use the USB ports on that model (2012) but would only get a max of about 500 MB/s. But, it would be much cheaper to find an external SSD on USB vs. Thunderbolt 2.

Thanks for the info Eduardo. Yes, I have used that before and it works great. Thanks for watching.

As long as your comfortable using it. Thanks for watching.

Thanks for watching Skione

Yes, for sure. If you have a 2012 then you have a USB port that is faster than what's on the 2011 iMac. So you can boot off an external drive that plugs into the USB port instead of using Thunderbolt. That will save you quite a bit of money. After you start booting off the external SSD you can always use the drive inside the iMac for things like TimeMachine etc. It will show up as a drive but just not the boot drive. I normally just leave them alone as then you can always boot back into that drive at any time (I don't erase them). But you can erase or even just leave alone so you can always boot back into it but still store files on it.

Thanks very much. Happy new year

Make sure it is Thunderbolt 1 (connection type) plus you need to replace the 4TB drive and put in the SSD drive. So there is no need to buy such a large drive. It's just the Thunderbolt connection that matters and then replace with Samsung SSD like I did in video. If you just get the Lacie 4TB and that is a 5400 or 7200 spinning drive it would be slower. Thanks.

I have a video a bit before that one that shows you how to replace the drive and step by step instructions. So make sure you watch that video. It was one of my first videos I made.

@@craigneidel I think it’s thunderbolt 1 but it could be thunderbolt 2, in either case it will give the computer a kick 🦵 anyway man if I do it. Maybe not 5 times faster, but much faster tho.

Unless I’m missing something - can I just buy an ‘enclosure’ with the thunderbolt cable integrated? I thought this LaCie 4TB rugged was one of the only options left. Confirm. Deny?

Thanks. Yes anything older than 2011 imac won't work as USB ports are too slow and no thunderbolt.

Thanks for the feedback. When you boot off the SSD apple sees that as a completely new computer. So if you move apps to the SSD it will count as new computer so you might then need to uninstall from old boot drive for licensing reasons. But I run all my apps on the new bootable SSD since they will run much faster for you. I leave the old boot drive operational so you could boot back to it if needed in emergency but normally install all apps on new SSD. It's basically a new computer when you boot off ssd. Hope that helps.

@@craigneidel Thank you for your speedy reply. I have just installed all the Adobe applications on the new drive -- and not surprisingly, they run so very much quicker - almost like a new computer. Going through your entire process has given a huge boost to an otherwise nearly dead-end machine

Thanks for sharing the success. Yes, it's easy and you can get the OS back on there a few different ways. My method provides you with basically a new mac and you reload apps ect. I just leave the older drive alone so I can boot back into it if need be but others reformat the older drive etc. Thanks for sharing how you did it and watching. Hope you can sub if not already.

@@craigneidel Yes I already subbed! Still can't believe how fast my ( Obsolete , according to Apple) Imac is running now. Bootup used to take 4 minutes to get to an open RU-vid page, now its less than 30 seconds. Before I upgraded did a blackmagic speed test on the spinning hard drive & was getting an average of 60 Mbps......... NOW the SSD is running at an average of 350Mbps via the thunderbolt drive! As you probably know it's virtually impossible to find a thunderbolt 1/2 " adapter" ,......so your video was invaluable to me! .....RESPECT!!!

@@paulychannel7914 thanks for feedback and I'm glad it worked out good.

The size of the drive won't matter as long at it is an SSD and you use that Thunderbolt enclosure since the enclosure provides the speed to the SSD. That is the key part. Thanks for watching.

A 2011 imac doesn't have USB 3.0 and it only has Thunderbolt one which is fast enough for this to work. The usb it does have is super slow. So that is really your only option is to use the Thunderbolt if you're using an iMac from 2011 and want to boot from external ssd. Thanks for watching.

Your welcome Christopher

I just noticed I never responded and I wanted to say thanks for the nice words. Good luck with everything.

I don't think it will unless you remove the internal SSD and boot from the external ssd. The internal SSD will still be usable and you can boot back into when you boot from an external so I don't think it will solve your issue.

Putting the SSD in the actual computer is better but also tricky as you need to open up the screen and know how to replace it etc. The external SSD is a way to do this without that but it is not as good as a direct connection into the motherboard. It's a trade off. Thanks for watching.

I have a Late 2012 and am wondering the same thunderbolt vs usb ???? Anyone know which is best and cheapest route to go?

I always say go with the fastest port and SSD you can attach. The big difference with your machine is it's a 2013 and not a 2011. So if you have a usb3 port you can find those enclosures much cheaper and put a SSD in the enclosure. Even if you are getting 400 MB/s it will be a world of difference to a spinning drive for sure. Just leave your current drive (don't reformat) and you can always boot back tot that drive if you want to.

could I use a portable ssd like a Samsung t7 1tb, it has a usb3.2 but I believe it would be backward compatible thanks

@@paschal77 Yes, something like that should work. I have not tried it personally but know of people who have and it worked for them.

Hello Tom. When you install the OS on and external SSD (using Thunderbolt) it is just like a new operating system install. So any apps would need to be reinstalled on the new SSD. Also, once you change the iMac to boot off the SSD it doesn't use the internal drive any longer when you boot up. You can still save files to the older internal drive but it is an extra drive at that point. You can either leave the internal drive as is with the OS for later and choose to boot from that drive later or reformat that (after all data is off) and use as a file or backup drive. Since the two are unrelated there should be no complications and you can choose to boot from either one. The external SSD is really a completely different setup and you could unhook that drive and move it to another different iMac (like a friends) then boot to that drive and it's like your computer is there even though it on a different iMac. So think of this as a completely new setup that could even be mobile if you wanted it to be. But it sure makes systems faster. For example you can purchase an older Mac Mini too and boot from an external SSD (with a fast interface). The reason you need the fast interface is so that you get at least 350 mbps which will be much faster than a spinning drive and make the system faster. Sorry for the long email and thanks for watching.

@@craigneidel Craig - thanks for the clear, detailed answer. I think that an external SSD is in my future...

Thanks for watching. Yes, I have used Open Core many times but this is an older video and another way to update the older iMacs. I'm not sure about pulling the cable but I'm guessing it should recover. I think I had a power cut once and it was fine.

You can't use the USB ports on those older systems since the speed of USB back then was way too slow. So even if the external ssd and enclosure is fast the usb port can't push the data. You need to use Thunderbolt 1 on those older systems and find the enclosure I talked about. They made a few others with a Thunderbolt 1 port on the external enclosure (one was called storagejet) but they are indeed harder to find now. Thanks for watching Vikki.

Thanks for watching and the nice words.

If it is thunderbolt 1 then it should work. I just have not tried that one but all you need is the fast connection to the SSD and enclosure and nothing special with that. So I do think it will work fine. Thanks.

@@craigneidel ​ question: do you need the fast connection, USB3 with the slower USB's work also, but a a slower speed, which would be understandable? I am trying to do the something, but it won't recognise the drive at the boot time menu, sometimes I do get, a one line of text, top left of screen say ".....windows..." , the has been used on a windows PC before, and formatted for a PC it will boot PC from a USB port okay, boot when formatted as a MAC, nothing?

does it have to be SSD drive and not a spinning Rust, mechanical HD disk drive?

Yes, if you have a 2012 then it should have a faster usb port than the 2011 had. The reason you had to use the Thunderbolt port on the 2011 is the usb ports were very slow. Of course using Thunderbolt in any situation will be faster than usb if you can find an enclosure like that since it is a faster connection to the enclosure. You need to make sure it's an SSD in the enclosure (not spinning drive) also since that is the other part that speeds everything up. Thanks.

@@craigneidel Thanks for the reply. I gave up on finding a La Cie enclosure and going that route. I used a Western Dig 2TB SSD external (really small thing -- just bigger than a credit card) which I'd bought to back up a PC hard drive and tried it via the USB on the Imac. It took me a bit to figure out how to clone as the format for the internal had 2 volumes. It worked out OK.... the speed (using black magic as a tester) is much faster on reads and writes. Boot up is quicker but it's the speed w which apps load. I think having a faster drive for caches also makes some of my apps run faster. The SSD doesn't appear to heat up and is, of course, silent. Thanks for the good video which was exceptionally clear on the process. The SSD speeds on blackmagic are in the low 400s but the internal spinner was about 35-40 so it was really lugging. Cheers.

The problem if you have a 2011 is you need an external SSD enclosure that is Thunderbolt 1 and there are only a few. So going with an NVME isn't really an option unless you can find a Thunderbolt 1 to NVME enclosure. So about the best you can get with the enclosure I listed in that 400 Mbps but it makes a huge difference for sure in load times and just everyday work. If you can open it up that is best but for those that don't want to then an external SSD can work.

Yes, but make sure you have all your data off of the drive first. I actually don't reformat the main drive. I leave it so I can boot from that drive again if I want to boot into it in the future - like having two different computers. You can access that original drive also using Finder when on the external drive so maybe just create a folder on the older drive and use that to backup files if you need to. That way you don't need to reformat it and can boot back into the original drive But, if you want to reformat it you can do that for sure. Just make sure you selected the new drive (external drive) to boot into using the Start Up icon (under preferences) in MacOS before you wipe the older drive. Once your mac has learned to boot to the new drive you can reformat the older drive.

@@craigneidel thanks for the answer. If that wont cause problems, i will leave it too

I'm not sure what that error is but the folder icon usually means a bad hard drive. Yes, you should be able to load MacOS maybe on something like a SD card and then try and use that to install the OS on the external drive. I have not done this but I would research that file icon to first see how to fix that and then you can follow the video to boot off the external drive. Thanks Rafick.

Thanks for watching. That's an old video but still works.

No, it is only 8 GB and I didn't do any upgrades. I might soon and may test again. You can go up to about 32 GB I think on these and also change out the CPU but the CPU would require you to open up the screen which is always a risk. The ram is easy to upgrade on the outside. Thanks for watching.

Not really. The 2011 imac has thunderbolt and you need that connection since usb was too slow on the 2011 imac. The 2010 doesn't have thunderbolt. You need a fast connection to external drive. So 2011 is really oldest imac you can get good results with.

Thanks for your reply

For sure it is. Thanks for watching.

I have external SSDs (running the OS) on about 4 different iMacs and Mac minis and I've had no issues at all. I have been running for about 2 years. Again, I can speak of all cases but I use them from everything from video editing to browsing and they all work fine over the years. Thanks for the question.

@@craigneidel Thanks so much for your reply.

Thanks for watching the channel.

Hello Harish. Thanks for watching and the nice comment. I always just say go with the fast port on your mac, the fastest cable to the external ssd, and the fastest SSD you can get. For instance. make sure the external enclosure is 10 Gbps not the 5 Gbps etc. but even if you don't have a port available the 5 Gbps port will still work but top you off in that 500 MB/s range. So you can use any external enclosure on the 2015. On the 2011 iMac in my video I had to use the Thunderbolt 1 port since the other ports are older USB and very slow so the Thunderbolt was the only one I could use.

@@craigneidel thanks a lot.

No but same type ssd should work. I just found samsung usually always work great but any ssd to fit enclosure that is ssd should work.

@@craigneidel ok, have you seen the Transcend StoreJet 500 1TB Portable SSD it has both USB 3 and thunderbolt connections all in one so need need to purchase two separate devices, what do you think?

@@user-fi9dk3gt6d i think i saw a video on youtube where they use that so it should work good as long as it has Thunderbolt. I do think they are expensive though. Thanks for watching.

Let us know how it goes. Thanks for watching.

How did it go

I usually just keep the original drive in there so I can boot to the original if I need to later. Then I boot to the new external SSD and set that up so it does it automatically. You can still save files to the older spinning drive or access that at any time. You can also re-boot into the older drive at any time by just changing the boot drive. Maybe once you make sure everything is working perfect you can decide if you wanted to remove the spinning drives OS but I usually keep it on there just in case and use it from time to time. thanks again for watching.

@@craigneidel I have been using Time Machine to back up the iMac to a backup disk (called External B) and I would like to continue backing up to that same drive (External B). Can you back up this new external ssd to that external drive (External B)?

Can't you download it on the 2011 imac like I had done in the video and then install on external SSD. I have not done it your way only the way in the video. So I know that way works good. Thanks and if I find anything on this I'll update this message.

You can change the boot drive when closing down the iMac so it boots the the drive you want it to next. If you are using a 2011 iMac then just make sure you use that specific Thunderbolt 1 enclosure and SSD since USB isn't fast enough on 2011s. If you have a 2012 or newer you can use USB instead.

Thanks for the nice words. That is an older video but I listed the exact model number in the video so you should find it there. You really need that version since it has the Thunderbolt 1 connection which provides the fast connection to the SSD.

@@craigneidel Cheers Craig. Yeah I noticed the model number after watching the vid again. Lacie website has a really great model comparison to be able to choose which is the best drive that suits the needs too. Hopefully, if everything goes well, I’ll post and let you know! Keep up the great work, and the informative vids coming 👍🏻

@@craigneidel Went ahead and followed your great tutorial, and all seems cool. The difference in speed is so obvious now. Thanks dude! One thing I do now want to do, is upgrade the OS from Sierra to Mojave. What would be the best way to this now though? I’ve made a boot up usb for Mojave, but obviously don’t want to lose all my data by doing a new install. Would it be best to use migration assistant to do this, as I’ve read that time machine backups can often not copy over certain files to a new OS.

Thanks for watching and sharing the information. Yes, with the older 2011 iMacs the Thunderbolt port is really the only one this will work with so the external ssd is fast enough to boot MacOS. Thanks for watching.

I have not tried that but if you can hook it up then it should work if you format at OS Extended Journaled. But, the 2012's have a faster USB port so you could maybe use something like a Samsung T5 etc. On the 2011 it didn't have the faster USB 2 ports.

Yes, it's hard to find anything Thunderbolt 1 right now. If you do it's expensive. I found my Lacie on Ebay and got a good deal.

Craig Neidel Yeah I got the exact one because a seller offered one at 2 o’clock in the morning for $75 shipped and taxed. I will say though, does TRIM and S.M.A.R.T. work over thunderbolt? I know it’s basically a pcie connection right? Also, does it cap out at the max 6gp/s or can it get upto 10gb/s as rated by Thunderbolt?

Yes, it is basically a direct connection but I have been using my setup for over 1.5 years with no issues. For the speed you should get somewhere like 350 to 425 MBps depending on the drive (SSD) you use (read and write). The actual Thunderbolt connection is capable of 10 gb/s but you really can't even use half of that with a non-NVME drive. So the connection is plenty. The key is making sure you don't try and use the older usb connections as those can't move any data and the Thunderbolt is the only option. Anyhow it's much faster than a spinning drive and should boot up in like 15 seconds. Just remember it will be basically a brand new OS and MAC. You can always boot to your old drive but when you boot to the external SSD it like having a brand new Mac so you need to load programs etc. Thank you.

Craig Neidel I used a drive duplication software called “SuperDuper!” to make an exact copy of my HDD to leave off exactly where I started but with a faster SSD. It’s actually kind of funny, in a 2011 imac, you have the main SATA III on the Mother Board, the secondary slave SATA III port on the Motherboard, a thunderbolt 1 port, and a firewire 800 port. Assuming you had a 2tb drive attached on each of them, you could have 8 TB of expansion all running at a minimum max speed of 800mb/s. Edit: reality is often disappointing because practical read write of FW800 is about 80Mb/s.

@@ssplintergirl yes the firewire port is useless for my video and thunderbolt is only way to go. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for watching Rudolf. If you have a 2013 iMac then you have USB 3 ports. If my video I had a 2011 iMac and that only had USB 2 ports. Your USB 3 ports are capable of 5 Gbps (which you divide by 8 coverting bytes to bits) and this port is capable of 625 MBps. Of course there is overhead with the external SSD if you are booting from that but if you install a regular Samsung SSD then you might still be able to get 400 MBps read and writes. So you might just get an external enclosure that has USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) speed and you should get about 80% of the speed of the SSD if you boot off it and that is going to be worlds faster than the internal spinning drive. Plus it would be way easier and cheaper to find a USB 3 (5 Gbps) enclosure than the Thunderbolt 1 Lacie. I recommended that since I have the 2011. So I hope that solves your issue and good luck with your project. Thanks for watching.

@@craigneidel thanks so much. I had thought that much but just wasn't sure. I'll wait and see what happens to the bids I've placed on some LaCie drives and then take your suggested route. Thanks again for replying.

@@craigneidel sorry to bother you again, but do you know what the speed differences are between the external SSD via USB 3 and swapping out the internal HDD for an SSD? Will the internal SSD install yield even faster speeds? And if so, do you know if I'd need to install a thermal sensor?

Hello Harry. When you do this it's like a fresh install. You can leave your internal drive along (don't format it) and can boot back into that drive at any time by changing target disk in startup disk. If you are on the new OS install on the SSD (external) then your older drive is still accessible and you can grab files from it but just not load programs the same way. So think of it as a new install and apps would need to be loaded on the new OS install.

Thanks Craig ! 👍🏻😀

Yes, if you follow this video you will have a completely new OS install and really computer on the external SSD. So any apps etc. would need to be copied over like it is a new MAC. Thanks Johnny.

Good Question. The newer drives (SSDS) have quite a bit of endurance built into them and I'm not using Trim on these devices. If you are worried you can pick something like A DC Intel model that might have something like 3000 TB read writes (or more) before you might run into issues. I have personally not seen any issues at all and have a number of these running for over 2 years. Mine are Samsung EVO and QVO drives that might have endurance in the 600 to 800 TB range. Of course buying a quality drive or one made for a datacenter can expand the life of the drive. Thanks for watching.

Yes, that one will work with the Thunderbolt 1 port but you need to remove the 2 TB HD and replace with an SSD like in the video. The Thunderbolt connection is the key (so is the SSD) otherwise it will be too slow to run the OS. With it though it will be quite fast once you are done. Thanks for watching.

@@craigneidel Thanks Craig. I'll let you know how it turns out. Keep up the good work. Is there a model of iMac (vintage with two thunderbolt ports. I run run a Cinema Display at the moment out of the single Thunderbolt port.

Sorry Craig. I just checked mine. It has two ports.

@@bobbourke9195 Thanks. Yes, I think the 27" had two ports so you should have one left for the lacie. Thanks.

@@craigneidel Hi Craig. I upgraded my Mac about a month ago and everything is great. Thanks for the advice. Just one question ... I have ended up with a home folder on my old boot drive and my new boot drive. Do you have a suggest as to how I can simplify this and avoid confusion? Thanks again

Yes if you get true thunderbolt enclosure it is best and will be fastest way to go. Especially is you use nvme drive but either way it seems thunderbolt is best but if other port is 5gbps that should also work. Thanks for watching

Craig Neidel watching your video seems you get around 350 MB/S speed using the Thunderbolt 1 enclosure. Now, I had the chance to try a Samsung SSD EVO 680 in USB enclosure connected to my iMac 27 (Late 2012) through the USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) port and had 420-430 MB/s speed. Seems like iMac USB 3.0 ports are faster than Thunderbolt 1.

Hello Angel. Please try this page and there should be a link to download High Sierra here support.apple.com/en-us/HT208969 . I did this a while back but think it should still be available. Good luck with everything and it really runs great once you install the OS the external SSD. Just make sure you use the Thunderbolt external drive. Thank you.

@@craigneidel I decided to run Mojave instead and it's working just as good following your same method. Thank you for taking the time to enlighten others!

Hello Kevin. Mine had an i5 with 12 GB of ram (user upgraded to that). With the SSD upgrade using the Thunderbolt external I think a i7 with 16 GB will be quite a bit faster. I do think the 27" is a better experience if you have room and budget because the screen is much easier on the eyes being 1440P instead of 1080P. Plus you get that real estate when working on multiple things. But if the 21.5" is best for you I do think it would be fine. You can also see if you can find a 2012 and do the same upgrade on the hard drive. The spinning drives make the systems way too slow but it's a world of difference when you upgrade the drive. Thanks again for watching and please subscribe if you want to see more videos. I appreciate that for sure.

Yes you can but I actual leave it alone so I can boot back into it at any time. Plus it shows up as drive so you can save files to it if your booting off the SSD.

I havent tried with such a large ssd but think it should work. Thunderbolt 2 is compatible with thunderbolt 1 so that is fine but not sure if that enclosure has any limits over 2 tb. My guess is no. Good luck and thanks for sharing.

Does it have the same connection as the computer I used. If so it should work.

Thanks for the feedback Chuck as it helps the community. I'm glad it helped and thanks for watching my videos. Please subscribe if you have not and I will do my best to make more content on Mac and Apple products.

@@craigneidel I dont think you read my comment lol I was asking you a question.

Sorry I read it but thought you said it made it faster. To answer the question it should make it faster but with video editing memory and cpu are maybe more important. But if you have a spinning drive going to an ssd will make all programs load quicker and everything will be snappier. I noticed my video scrubbing as better to. Since I have not used Hitfilm I'm not sure how it is optimized but adding the external ssd won't hurt and should help with the overall experience. Rendering times less so as thats cpu and ram. Thanks Chuck.

@@craigneidel ok thanks I went ahead and bought the lacie and the samsung evo 860 1 tb drive hope its gonna be worth it paid 160 for both

I have a few videos on doing this with my 2017 imac so look for those. I would just use the fastest USB port you have on the 2014 imac to connect the external enclosure to. Even USB 2 should do the tick. The 2011 only had Thunderbold and very slow USB so that is why we had to do all that with the enclosure to get it to work correctly.

You can always boot back into the older drive and if you don't delete or reformat that drive you can always reboot into it and use the older apps as needed.