I replaced my aging 2011 27" iMac with a brand new 2017 version. Bottom of the line machine, but with disk upgraded from one to two terabytes, and 16 gigs more RAM ordered and likely to arrive from Amazon next week. Plus a new four terabyte Thunderbolt 3 backup drive.
The new machine arrived early in the afternoon of Wednesday, August 2, 2017. Here are photos of its birth. Click on any photo for a higher-resolution version.
On My Desk
Here's the new iMac, with my old bits restored from Time Machine, set up for work on my desk, and displaying these unboxing photos in the "Photos" application.
This was a very long series of help screens, which I quickly tired of reading.
Transfer Information
The first boot offered the option to transfer information from a Time Machine backup, and then said that my backup contained a newer version of the OS, so I should upgrade. I started that process, but then wondered what the "Continue" button would do, so I pressed it. It aborted the restore, and did a normal boot off of the OS-only disk. This turned out to be a good thing, because the restore I actually wanted was a full restore, which you get by holding down command-R during boot.
Restoring
Here's the full restore in progress, with the progress window shown.
3 Hours and 23 Minutes
This was the initial estimate of restore time, starting at 1:20pm.
14 Minutes
At 3:45pm, the estimate was for 15 minutes more restore time. So the restore actually took about two and a quarter hours for nearly a terabyte of files.
New Fan
I ordered a Caframo 7-Inch White Chinook AC Fan, to replace my old, very dusty, enclosed fan. It's very quiet and moves a lot of air. The blade is soft plastic, which hurts a little, but makes no cuts on a finger put into it while spinning. And the missing cage will make the blades very easy to clean.
New Fan Running
Old Machine Ready To Sell
The day after I received the new machine, I sold the old one to a computer store up the street, for cash, and almost as much as Gazelle offered.
