GENIUS TIPS Mac hardware
Mac hardware
We help to solve your hardware hassles, from
interrupted upgrades to running diagnostics
Hardware
quick-fire
questionsCan I upgrade the
Fusion Drive in a
new iMac 27?
> You’d need to get this
done by an Authorised
Apple Service provider
and ensure that it
doesn’t invalidate your
warranty or AppleCare.
Disassembling the
current iMac model to
replace its storage is
not easy, and it could
damage the display and
logic board, which are
costly to replace.Can I still use my
Mac with a dead
Ethernet port?
> Yes: Apple’s laptops
haven’t had Ethernet
ports since 2012. Some
things get tricky, as that
port’s MAC address is
used to identify it with
the App Store and other
services, which may
consider it’s a new Mac.
It’s normally costly to
repair, requiring a
new logic board.That said, if you only use your MacBook
Pro infrequently, or not at all over weekends,
say, it’s often best then to shut it down
altogether rather than leaving it asleep
for prolonged periods.
The reason that you’re seeing these
backup warnings when your Mac’s left
overnight is that the external drive is going to
sleep. In some external drives, this is difficult
to turn off. Sometimes it can be controlled in
the Energy Saver pane, by unticking the item
to ‘Put hard disks to sleep when possible’, but
other drives seem to ignore that setting, and
go to sleep when they see fit.
Ideally, when your Mac wakes from sleep
or starts up, any attached external drive is
best running and awake. That ensures the disk
is recognised and mounted, so that when Time
Machine wants to make a backup, the drive is
ready and waiting.Q
I’m trying to leave my MacBook
Pro running all the time, which I’m
advised is preferred. When I do so,
each morning I’m warned that its external
Time Machine backup wasn’t ejected
properly. Should I leave my Mac on overnight,
and how can I work around this problem?
by STUART KINGA
The advice to leave Macs on as
much as possible is mainly aimed
at desktop systems, particularly
those still spinning conventional hard disks,
which wear out more rapidly the more they
are started up and shut down.
Portable models are more commonly put
to sleep at the end of the day, to allow rapid
waking when they’re next needed. If your
MacBook Pro has an internal SSD, that is
probably the wisest way to use it.56 | MACFORMAT | DECEMBER 2019
Backup drive ejects itself overnight
macformat.com @macformatEven when you disable putting hard disks to
sleep in Energy Saver, some drives continue
to sleep and cause this notification.