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Repair guides and support for the 24" iMac with M1 chip, introduced in April 2021. Identified by model A2438.

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SSD replacement for iMac EMC2544 with Fusion drive

I just received an iMac Intel 21.5" (Late 2012-2019) SSD Upgrade Kit hoping to replace the OEM HDD with the new SSD. I haven't opened up the Mac yet.

While perusing the several installation instructions, I might have a blade SSD on the control board (unconfirmed) that is part of the"Fusion" system

Will I be able to just replace the HDD with the SSD and format and install the OS as usual and not deal with the Blade SSD, or ????

Thanks in advance for any help,

Richard

Update (01/22/24)

About this Mac screenshot:

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Bottom of base showing EMC 2544:

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Can you narrow down your exact system. Go to the About This Mac, let us known which.

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If you have a Fusion Drive then you have both a regular HDD which is more readily accessible as well as a blade SSD which is behind the logic board. If you want to replace it with just a dedicated SSD, it's probably recommended to remove both parts of the Fusion Drive, but you should make sure you back up your data first before splitting the Fusion Drive. Alternatively, you could just replace the HDD with the new SSD and then link the two SSDs together as a Fusion Drive, the only downside I can think of is that doing so would create two points of potential failure instead of one. Good luck!

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@zpl - Well no fusion drive in this system!

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Thanks! Sorry, responded before the update.

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I would rather not go through the many steps to replace the stick SSD. IF I were to replace the HDD only and leave the stick SSD, how would I link the two drives? Can I just reinstall the OS and let the OS handle it? Or something else?

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@rarcher42 - Sadly there is no in the field upgrades internally for your system. Review this great teardown the iFixit team did on the system iMac M1 24" Teardown here you’ll see the RAM and flash storage is soldered in and not serviceable.

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@rarcher42 - don’t forget to score the answer and accept it thanks!

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Richard Archer will be eternally grateful.
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