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How Best To Restore My System & Files To a New Hard Drive On My iMac?

I brought my late 2012 iMac (with High Sierra and a fusion drive) into the shop for repair and they said I need a new hard drive. They will install High Sierra for me and then I can restore everything else from my Time Machine backup. Or I can tell them to just install the drive and I can install the system and files from the recovery partition and Time Machine.

Is there any advantage to letting them install the operating system or better to do it myself? Are there any special issues with a fusion drive?
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Richard

Comments: 2 Responses to “How Best To Restore My System & Files To a New Hard Drive On My iMac?”

    6 years ago

    If it is a shop that you trust, then I'd say let them do it. That way they can test it out and make sure it is working before giving it back to you. You can always re-install the system when you get it home if you like. Just boot into recovery mode and go from there if you have the time and patience as it will take a while.

    For most users, a fusion drive won't make any different. Well, it will be much faster than a hard drive, but what I mean is you won't notice any special issues or have to do anything differently.

    Richard Silverberg
    6 years ago

    Dear Gary,
    Thank you very much for your prompt and helpful reply.
    I switched from many years in the PC world to the Mac around six years ago and your website has been a tremendous boon to my knowledge. I have watched literally hundreds of your wonderful videos.
    I am retired, living in Thailand, and the Mac support here is pretty minimal, so I have virtually nobody to turn to with an issue. Luckily Apple products are quite reliable.
    Thanks once again for sharing your knowledge with our community!

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