Re-imaging iMacs:

3093bryant

Re-imaging iMacs:

I cloned an image from unit 1 (specs seen below) via Time-Machine and re-imaged unit 2 (specs seen below) using the clone from unit 1. The system on unit 2 runs, but seems to be 

a bit sluggish. My actions were actually a practice run to re-image 30 Late model 2015 iMacs (specs seen below). Can anyone help me/direct me on how to do this in a proper manner? It seems that for the image to work correctly, it must come from an identical unit meaning a unit that has the same specs. Also, is Time Machine okay to use (it's pretty simple)? 

I have seen tutorials that use Disk Utility or other software. 

Unit 1 Specs

iMac (21.5-inch, 2018), Display - Retina 4K display, Processor - 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Memory - 32GB, Storage - 1TB SSD, Graphics - Radeon Pro 560 with 4GB of VRAM​

Unit 2 Specs

iMac (21.5-inch, 2017), Display 21.5-inch, Processor 2.3GHz dual core Intel Core i5 

Memory 2.3GHz 8GB of 2133MHz DDR4 memory, Storage 1TB (5400-rpm) hard drive, Graphics Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640

Unit 3 Specs 

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2015), Display 21.5-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology,

Processor 1.6GHz dual core Intel Core i5, Memory 8GB of 1867MHz LPDDR3, Storage 1.6GHz 1TB (5400-rpm) hard drive, Graphics 1.6GHz Intel HD Graphics 6000

Thank you in advance for your time concerning this matter.

marvin

3093bryant said:

Re-imaging iMacs:

I cloned an image from unit 1 (specs seen below) via Time-Machine and re-imaged unit 2 (specs seen below) using the clone from unit 1. The system on unit 2 runs, but seems to be 

a bit sluggish. My actions were actually a practice run to re-image 30 Late model 2015 iMacs (specs seen below). Can anyone help me/direct me on how to do this in a proper manner? It seems that for the image to work correctly, it must come from an identical unit meaning a unit that has the same specs. Also, is Time Machine okay to use (it's pretty simple)? 

I have seen tutorials that use Disk Utility or other software. 

Unit 1 Specs

iMac (21.5-inch, 2018), Display - Retina 4K display, Processor - 3.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7, Memory - 32GB, Storage - 1TB SSD, Graphics - Radeon Pro 560 with 4GB of VRAM​

Unit 2 Specs

iMac (21.5-inch, 2017), Display 21.5-inch, Processor 2.3GHz dual core Intel Core i5 

Memory 2.3GHz 8GB of 2133MHz DDR4 memory, Storage 1TB (5400-rpm) hard drive, Graphics Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640

Unit 3 Specs 

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2015), Display 21.5-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology,

Processor 1.6GHz dual core Intel Core i5, Memory 8GB of 1867MHz LPDDR3, Storage 1.6GHz 1TB (5400-rpm) hard drive, Graphics 1.6GHz Intel HD Graphics 6000

Thank you in advance for your time concerning this matter.

It's ok to image the system between different spec machines. The sluggishness is most likely down to unit 2 having a 5400rpm HDD instead of an SSD. The SSD in the newest iMac is around 50x faster than the HDD. The best utility for cloning is Carbon Copy Cloner ( https://bombich.com ) but you can use Time Machine. Restoring 30 machines would be better done over the network, with Time Machine you should be able to do this using a Time Machine compatible network drive ( https://www.apple.com/airport-time-capsule/ ). Sometimes it's quicker to do it individually if the network is slow but using multiple external drives will help the process.