Hard Drive Toast which way should I go: My 27in imac (2011) is very sick and needs it's hard drive replaced. I am thinking about buying a mac mini to replace it and then using the 27...

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

My 27in imac (2011) is very sick and needs it's hard drive replaced. I am thinking about buying a mac mini to replace it and then using the 27 in monitor with it. The other option is to replace the whole machine. Does anyone use a mac mini and what are your thoughts? I could also replace the hard drive, but I would need to find one and get it replaced on my own. Apple does not support this computer anymore.

twowindsbear

Does it use a 'special' hard drive?

rplain1 Loc: Dayton, Oh.

Country's Mama wrote:

My 27in imac (2011) is very sick and needs it's hard drive replaced. I am thinking about buying a mac mini to replace it and then using the 27 in monitor with it. The other option is to replace the whole machine. Does anyone use a mac mini and what are your thoughts? I could also replace the hard drive, but I would need to find one and get it replaced on my own. Apple does not support this computer anymore.

I would go to my best local computer store and ask them.

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

twowindsbear wrote:

Does it use a 'special' hard drive?

Not sure. I would have to do some research as to what I could put into it.

Country's Mama Loc: Michigan

rplain1 wrote:

I would go to my best local computer store and ask them.

I talked to the tech about my options, she didn't really think one was better than the other. I was looking for opinions from people who have a mac mini, or have replaced the hard drive themselves.

Boris77

Country's Mama wrote:

My 27in imac (2011) is very sick and needs it's hard drive replaced. I am thinking about buying a mac mini to replace it and then using the 27 in monitor with it. The other option is to replace the whole machine. Does anyone use a mac mini and what are your thoughts? I could also replace the hard drive, but I would need to find one and get it replaced on my own. Apple does not support this computer anymore.

I had a Mac Mini back when my basic computer was a Tower. Totally unimpressed by the Mac Mini. When the Tower motherboard gave out I purchased a resale 27in iMac (2011) from MacHeadquarters in St Louis. Eventually gave the Mac Mini to a friend who later traded it in on a real computer.

IF the iMac does what you want, REPAIR IT if at all possible! Aside from the obvious computer functions I love the: 1) SDXD card slot for download of photographs; 2) Optical Drive for burning disks; and 3) Quality Speakers that carry into the next room. Of course this is on top of the beautiful screen, well designed cabinet, many ports (I use Thunderbolt on back up hard drives), etc, etc.
I bought a second used one for my back up computer.

If you do not have a good computer repair shop at hand, it would be worth a road trip (with internet guidance) to get whatever help you need to repair the 2011.
Boris

rplain1 Loc: Dayton, Oh.

Country's Mama wrote:

I talked to the tech about my options, she didn't really think one was better than the other. I was looking for opinions from people who have a mac mini, or have replaced the hard drive themselves.

I am not a computer expert and in this forum you are asking a lot
of other non-computer experts what you should do. Now I am sure there are many people in this forum that are experts, but do you know which ones they are? If I were in your situation, I would go to computer experts and ask the question. If your local tech didn't have the answer, then I would look for another. Also, you are looking at an seven year old computer. That is a dinosaur. If it were me - I have no doubt that I would just trash it and get something up to date. Probably not the answer you wanted, but you did ask it on this forum. And no, I am not trying to be snarky - just honest.

MichaelH Loc: NorCal via Lansing, MI

Country's Mama wrote:

My 27in imac (2011) is very sick and needs it's hard drive replaced. I am thinking about buying a mac mini to replace it and then using the 27 in monitor with it. The other option is to replace the whole machine. Does anyone use a mac mini and what are your thoughts? I could also replace the hard drive, but I would need to find one and get it replaced on my own. Apple does not support this computer anymore.

Another route would be to buy a 22" iMac that would have better graphics and a newer processor and use your current iMac as a second monitor on that. The MacMini has not been upgraded for quite a while now.
The 21.5" iMac similarly configured to the older MacMini is only $400 more (Mini 1Tb, 16Gb, i5 @ $1200 versus iMac 1Tb, 16GB, i5 @ $1600).

As a side note: the older iMac and the new 4K iMac will have very different monitor pixel densities (pixels per inch) so when moving from one to the other you will notice a big difference in the size of objects (like your cursor). It will appear to get bigger when it moves to the older monitor. And your current iMac WILL run off of an external drive - just more slowly.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Disassembling an IMac for access to the drive is not a trivial matter, but can be done using the correct tools and a careful methodical approach. As long as I was inside, I’d replace it with an SSD which would give you a very noticeable increase in performance. If it’s not large enough to hold all your data, you can put the OS and applications on the SSD and photos on an external HD. I’d certainly choose that approach over a Mac Mini.

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

I went with a 15" MacBook Pro, which is thin and light and easy to take along on a shoot. Its equipped with Lightroom and Photoshop (Adobe Creative Cloud). Back in the office, I plug it into a 24" monitor (need an HDMI cable from Apple), Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The MacBook has plenty of power for post processing and can even handling video editing.

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Country's Mama wrote:

Not sure. I would have to do some research as to what I could put into it.

It is probably a standard SATA HD nothing special. There are probably replacement drives certified by Apple to work. Any local Mac shop with a service dept should be able to help.

inbigd

I've had a Mac mini since 2013, got it new at the Apple Store. Are there faster, better options - yes. But for normal, everyday computing and even photo processing I find it more than capable and have been pleased with it. Mine is a late 2012 model, 2.3 ghz i7, 8gb of ram.

happy sailor Loc: Ontario, Canada

Country's Mama wrote:

My 27in imac (2011) is very sick and needs it's hard drive replaced. I am thinking about buying a mac mini to replace it and then using the 27 in monitor with it. The other option is to replace the whole machine. Does anyone use a mac mini and what are your thoughts? I could also replace the hard drive, but I would need to find one and get it replaced on my own. Apple does not support this computer anymore.

I had a hard drive in my 2007 iMac 24 fail a few years ago, I took it to a third party apple repair shop, he replaced the 320 gb drive with a 1 terabyte drive, imaged the old drive and installed the latest OS, total cost was $200. That machine is still running.

You might want to check out an apple repair shop and get a price for having the drive replaced, may be the most frugal option.

Harry0 Loc: Gardena, Cal

Humbug. Youtube, Google and eBay are your friends. https://youtu.be/43IDOK82kWo
I just replaced a drive in a 21.5" imac. Piece of cake. BUT! you need to understand that that drive is empty! Which could be a "Good Thing". Start with your operating system install media, then your apps, then your data. A clean install is a fast install.
If the old drive isn't completely dead, write/print a list of all your programs that you use, and find media for them. You can get a cheap USB to Sata gizmo to transfer data.
Mac minis suck.
This is written on a 10 year old dual quad Xeon MacPro running Win10 at the mo. Sometimes Yosemite. If you do get another computer, get a screen for that one. Put another drive, and maybe ram to 8gb in the old one and load Windows. Adobe likes Windows.

doclrb

Country's Mama wrote:

My 27in imac (2011) is very sick and needs it's hard drive replaced. I am thinking about buying a mac mini to replace it and then using the 27 in monitor with it. The other option is to replace the whole machine. Does anyone use a mac mini and what are your thoughts? I could also replace the hard drive, but I would need to find one and get it replaced on my own. Apple does not support this computer anymore.

The rumor mill suggests that Apple will release an upgraded Mac Mini during the Fall. I would wait and see.

Les