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User profile for user: ScottCMac
ScottCMac Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

External Hard Drive for old iMac

Hello! I have an ancient iMac (20-inch, Late 2006) that I'd like to connect an external hard drive to. Before I buy one, though, I need to know if the hard drive will work with the outdated OS. It's currently running Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5. I can't update it any newer than that, do to it's age.


Does anyone have any recommended external hard drives that will be compatible with the old operating system? It appears the hard drives sold by Apple require a much more updated OS to work.


Thanks!

iMac Line (2012 and Later)

Posted on Nov 24, 2020 9:07 AM

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User profile for user: a brody
a brody
User level: Level 10
84,325 points

Posted on Nov 24, 2020 1:35 PM

Any will work. Firewire on the older Macs are a lot faster than USB. IF you can get a Firewire 800 hard drive, those up to 3 times faster than USB. Disk Utility needs to format them for their use:


https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3003

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External Hard Drive for old iMac

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