imac 2011 and BOOTCAMP

grumpycrab

Bit out of my depth here so advice please.  A colleague has lumped this massive imac on me and said "put windows10 on it".  Always up for something new to play with...
2 options I think:-  parallels (surely windows will be mega slow in a VM?); BOOTCAMP the best option surely.
After trying to get BOOTCAMP to use the windows10 iso I've downloaded to the mac desktop I'd almost come to the conclusion that 2011 imacs don't want windows10 intalled on them.
I was just about to give up with iso on desktop and iso on USB when I threw an ancient windows10 DVD in and BOOTCAMP started to install it!
2 problems :-   1. windows10 wouldn't install to the BOOTCAMP partition because its not NTFS.  I guess I can reformat under the windows10 install?
2. I couldn't get the imac to boot back to IOS -kept asking for DVD.  Fixed this by reselecting the mac partition as "startup disk"
Am I wasting my time here?  Is putting an SSD in a 2011 imac hard?  cheers.

Neil_Jones

Have to jump through some hoops first, can't just shove a disk in and Bob's your uncle:

https://gist.github.com/oznu/8796d08d73315483c3b26e79a8e3d350

datostar

I ran Windows 10 under Parallels on a 2010 iMac with no discernible difference in speed between that and the native OS, latterly Catalina. Now transferred to a 2021 Big Sur iMac with internal SSD and even faster. Advantages:- no rebooting to use; seamlessly switch between 2 systems, run both at the same time, optional access to programs and data from one OS to the other.  Also have Linux Mint on the system. Same interoperability applies. Only disadvantage: Parallels costs!  BTW, VMWare is now free - I've used it but find Parallels more user friendly.

ann_droid

Hi

2011 imacs will default to a start date of circa 1970 if/when the cmos battery depletes itself.
That causes the odd problem or three.

There was a BOOTCAMP for Windows 7, used it without problems.
Windows 10 2015 also used it and worked as an upgrade to 7.

You can install assorted linuxes, assorted imac os's and windows as well. 
Sometimes a Boot Manager like
rEFIt or rEFInd
can help with selecting the appropriate OS to start.

Johnmcl7

With hardware support for virtualisation, VM performance these days can be extremely good (all our servers at work run are VM's) and as noted by the user above it's much easier to set up.

As for installing an SSD I think it's fairly difficult on these models as you need to remove the screen to get to the drive but you can check your exact model for a teardown to see.

Sandtree

Its fiddly to put an SSD in a 2011 iMac but doable... the protector screen is held on by magnets so pulls off using a suction cup. Screen has 8 or so torx screws holding it in place and it will then come forward. The tricky bit is the connectors to the screen are very short and at least one is a push in ribbon type meaning its easy to remove but a pain to replace (my iMac nearly went out the window more than once).

If memory serves me correctly, the macs HD has an extra connection to do with temp, its not a problem as you can just not connect it to the new SSD however back in the day it meant the internal fan would constantly spin as a precaution. At the time I installed a fan control app that was able to control the internal fan speed based on the other internal temp sensors and ignore the fact one was missing... I left it installed but no idea if possibly the OS itself in later iterations was able to deal with it.

Another vote for VM machine using the likes of Parallels assuming you're wanting it for business applications etc rather than gaming or video rendering or such.

datostar

Sandtree said:

Its fiddly to put an SSD in a 2011 iMac but doable... the protector screen is held on by magnets so pulls off using a suction cup. Screen has 8 or so torx screws holding it in place and it will then come forward. The tricky bit is the connectors to the screen are very short and at least one is a push in ribbon type meaning its easy to remove but a pain to replace (my iMac nearly went out the window more than once).

If memory serves me correctly, the macs HD has an extra connection to do with temp, its not a problem as you can just not connect it to the new SSD however back in the day it meant the internal fan would constantly spin as a precaution. At the time I installed a fan control app that was able to control the internal fan speed based on the other internal temp sensors and ignore the fact one was missing... I left it installed but no idea if possibly the OS itself in later iterations was able to deal with it.

Another vote for VM machine using the likes of Parallels assuming you're wanting it for business applications etc rather than gaming or video rendering or such.

The screen holder magnets were used on pre late 2010 models. The 2011 model has the glued tape to fix the screen which has to be very carefully split around the entire screen taking special care in the vicinity of the camera.  When the HDD on my old late 2010 model became suspect I didn't want to risk it so got an external SSD to use as a boot drive. The machine ran much faster.