Bricked iMac Pro requires a 2nd Mac to restore

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, hey_yo_ said:

That I do not know as Apple. As far as I'm concerned, if the drive failed while it's encrypted, that data is gone forever and even this recovery method of using another Mac will not work. 

True but the article is also about failed OS upgrades which can cause this new recovery process to be required. Having not actually used or configured an iMac Pro I can only assume it must be different to past Mac devices or the Apple help article about the new process wouldn't be required.

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

True but the article is also about failed OS upgrades which can cause this new recovery process to be required. Having not actually used or configured an iMac Pro I can only assume it must be different to past Mac devices or the Apple help article about the new process wouldn't be required.

Dang it. I once rebooted my PC when Windows 10 once took a long time updating. It's still working fine but it rebooted to recovery mode and I just picked "Start Windows".

[Bananasplit_00]

Honestly, who is this hurting? If you bought an I mac you probably already own a macbook or older I mac you could do this with... Seems pretty apple to me to have to own more than one of their devices in case one bricks but bricking I  the first place is pretty rare afaik

[79wjd]

26 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Willing to bet you can just take your Mac in to a computer serving agent

Or literally any Apple store.

[leadeater]

8 minutes ago, VegetableStu said:

 

somehow this popped up in my head, LOL

 

"Could you reset my Mac please? Also make sure it's dairy and gluten free thanks."

[mrchow19910319]

s u c k  i t  s t e v e ! 

[Sauron]

4 hours ago, sazrocks said:

This actually makes sense to me. It keeps (or deters) compromised <things> from being loaded onto a mac in such a predicament. Also anyone with an iMac pro will probably have some way of getting access to another mac.

Can someone clarify why requiring an other mac is better for security? Can't a criminal have a mac too?

[Sauron]

2 hours ago, leadeater said:

Reset as in un-brick it as per the topic.  Not having actually read the details on this and the issue being related to security I'm assuming you can't just reinstall the OS, dunno. Either way if it was my device the first thing I would do is boot to a USB HDD Mac installer and see if I can backup my files (if not using Time Machine) and then blast it with a new OS.

I would assume the security chip would prevent that, otherwise what is the point?

[Sauron]

3 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

1080 instead of a Vega Pro 56:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

CPU: Intel - Xeon E5-2687W V4 3.0GHz 12-Core Processor  ($2083.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master - Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($29.89 @ SuperBiiz) 
Motherboard: ASRock - X99 Extreme3 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($186.98 @ Newegg) 
Memory: Kingston - ValueRAM 32GB (4 x 8GB) Registered DDR4-2400 Memory  ($400.99 @ SuperBiiz) 
Storage: Samsung - 960 Pro 1TB M.2-2280 Solid State Drive  ($617.99 @ Newegg Marketplace) 
Video Card: Gigabyte - GeForce GTX 1080 8GB WINDFORCE OC 8G Video Card  ($519.99 @ Newegg) 
Case: Phanteks - Enthoo Pro M ATX Mid Tower Case  ($79.99 @ Amazon) 
Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G2 750W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply  ($104.99 @ B&H) 
Other: Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920, Widescreen Video Calling and Recording, 1080p Camera, Desktop or Laptop Webcam  ($45.99 @ Amazon) 
Other: 5k LG Monitor ($1075.99)
Total: $5146.79
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2017-12-18 02:25 EST-0500

doesn't this have 50% more cores than the base model imac pro? Seems like a bargain to me (in comparison). Of course it's not an aio but I think most workstation users aren't really starved of space under their desk.

[xtroria]

I don't even know why the hell people need to argue about the price of the new iMac pro for 5 pages. 

 

If the professionals work in the mac environment, perhaps they use final cut pro and they're due to have an upgrade from the old mac pro. I doubt they'll think so much in the first place about cost. For professionals, their hardware is their mean to earn money. If they don't have a cheaper alternative that also doesn't present a cons to them, they'll get it even though it's expensive.

 

Probably people who tend to mock apple are generally people who's never really used apple products before, because they're stupid reliable and I can see after using iPhone for a year why it's a really popular brand for both general consumer and professional.

 

Lastly, you also gotta think about the overall engineering marvel of this iMac. You cramp in all those specs into a compact shape that's probably gonna draw out over 500W of power + preventing the screen from getting over-heated from the parts and you expect this thing to be something meant to use day in and out, sometimes days of rendering over usage period of maybe 3-4 years. If there's one thing a lot of people don't appreciate more is apple's engineers ability to create an extremely solid and most of the time, faultless hardware

[mrchow19910319]

just to balance out all the blind hatred that is going on at this forum... 

[mrchow19910319]

90% of the reason people post all these apple go fuck yourself post is because they know there are a lot of people who are just like them. so they can get other people echoing their point of view.

 

if you really hate apple, go to r/apple convert everyone from macOS user to windows user. 

 

That, is true accomplishment. Think apple is anti consumer? Sue them. 

[79wjd]

1 hour ago, Sauron said:

doesn't this have 50% more cores than the base model imac pro? Seems like a bargain to me (in comparison). Of course it's not an aio but I think most workstation users aren't really starved of space under their desk.

Yeah, I didn't pay attention to that, I was just using the cheaper of the 2687 and 2667 as @leadeater recommended, and the 2687 turned out cheaper. But going with a Xeon 16xxv5 8 core @ 3ghz~ it came to around $4400, which is still pretty respectable for a prebuilt and considering that it's using a 1080 instead of a Vega Pro.

 

I mean, an AIO isn't the best choice for a high end system in general just due to upgradability, but some people do still prefer the form enough to warrant its inherent tradeoffs.

[leadeater]

8 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

just to balance out all the blind hatred that is going on at this forum... 

Generally I see more entry level content creators use Mac OS over Windows for a couple of reasons: 'Content creator reputation', hardware usability, included software. Once you start going in to higher end production/recording things start to balance out much more but there is still that perception bias towards Mac, the higher end can easily get in to the territory of requiring to use Windows due to hardware configuration requirements.

 

Realistically since Windows 7 both platforms have had equal footing on the technical side so there was actually no reason for a bias towards Mac other than pure historical legacy. Had a friend who did studio recording on Windows using Pro Tools with some reasonably high end equipment, now he does live sound work and international tours. If you're good you make do with what you have and what your means can allow, hardware and OS should not be limiting your final product (generally).

 

Having had to manage large labs of Macs for video editing and recording on a managed computer network I will say it's one of the worst experiences you can possibly have as both a user and as an IT engineer, Mac is just so terrible at this. If you want your sanity leave a Mac device in a single user personal setup if possible. Windows labs on the other hand running the same software doing the same tasks is set and forget affair.

[captain_to_fire]

8 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Having had to manage large labs of Macs for video editing and recording on a managed computer network I will say it's one of the worst experiences you can possibly have as both a user and as an IT engineer, Mac is just so terrible at this

I’m guessing it’s the SMB server support of Macs which exists since Mac OS X Panther but not as good as Windows. I think some companies allow BYOD but not Macs because of its awful SMB share support. 

 

Macs support Microsoft Exchange servers out of the box though since OS X Snow Leopard. Microsoft only added built in Exchange support with Windows 8. 

 

30 minutes ago, mrchow19910319 said:

90% of the reason people post all these apple go fuck yourself post is because they know there are a lot of people who are just like them. so they can get other people echoing their point of view.

 

if you really hate apple, go to r/apple convert everyone from macOS user to windows user. 

 

That, is true accomplishment. Think apple is anti consumer? Sue them. 

I’m probably alone in this but in my opinion, PCMR has become this radicalized, technological “safe space” and anything to do with Apple (and gaming consoles) are their “trigger warnings.”

[mrchow19910319]

3 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

I’m guessing it’s the SMB server support of Macs which exists since Mac OS X Panther but not as good as Windows. I think some companies allow BYOD but not Macs because of its awful SMB share support. 

 

Macs support Microsoft Exchange servers out of the box though since OS X Snow Leopard. Microsoft only added built in Exchange support with Windows 8. 

 

I’m probably alone in this but in my opinion, PCMR has become this radicalized, technological “safe space” and anything to do with Apple (and gaming consoles) are their “trigger warnings.”

the only thing that is making this forum less awesome. 

[leadeater]

10 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

I’m guessing it’s the SMB server support of Macs which exists since Mac OS X Panther but not as good as Windows. I think some companies allow BYOD but not Macs because of its awful SMB share support. 

 

Macs support Microsoft Exchange servers out of the box though since OS X Snow Leopard. Microsoft only added built in Exchange support with Windows 8.

Not really, the biggest issues were around Mac OS not working properly for network home drives. This actually had more to do with how badly applications are written for Mac OS in that regard. Almost every software developer for Mac OS assumes that it's a single user setup and there are no managed settings or preferences and the home directory and library is not on a network share.

 

It was always a constant battle between application updates or OS updates breaking something, file permissions getting screwed up due to unknown reasons or bad applications. In the end you realistically have to give up on the idea of giving your users an equal network user experience to Windows and settle for local homes and mapped home drives and user education to not save anything on the desktop or document directories.

 

SMB has gotten a lot better, mostly because Apple has committed to making that it's primary protocol now. Think it was very acceptable in 10.7 from memory, proper performance and support for DFS paths.

 

Edit:

The issues I have with Mac OS is primarily around managing 300-1000 on a managed network where users are not trusted so we have to enforce restrictions and also ensure a good user experience for thousands of users as these are shared devices.

[Sauron]

7 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

I’m probably alone in this but in my opinion, PCMR has become this radicalized, technological “safe space” and anything to do with Apple (and gaming consoles) are their “trigger warnings.”

PCMR started out as nothing more than a joke, but the internet is full of people ready to cling to any sense of superiority they can get to make up for their insecurities.

 

Aside from that though, there are plenty of fair reasons to dislike apple and many of their products.

[sazrocks]

3 hours ago, Sauron said:

Can someone clarify why requiring an other mac is better for security? Can't a criminal have a mac too?

Not so much another Mac, as it is special software  made by Apple running on that Mac. If the iMac pro with the corrupted bootloader accepted any thing it was given through a usb stick, it would probably be trivial (or much easier at least) to load a compromised os onto the computer, complete with keyloggers and whatever other nasty things an attacker would want to add.

[leadeater]

11 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

I’m probably alone in this but in my opinion, PCMR has become this radicalized, technological “safe space” and anything to do with Apple (and gaming consoles) are their “trigger warnings.”

You're not alone, every time I see that (I refuse to write it) it makes me cringe. The whole ideological standpoint of some kind of 'master race' is pretty offensive if you think about it. It started as a joke and should have staid as a joke, it needs to be left in the pages of history now.

[79wjd]

5 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Aside from that though, there are plenty of fair reasons to dislike apple and many of their products.

No question, but let's be honest, most people are just bandwagoning.

[Zodiark1593]

Tbh, to companies buying products such as the iMac Pro, I've doubts that having a second Mac on hand is an insurmountable barrier. Heck, a "cheap" used Macbook can probably do the job too.

 

For an individual user, this might be more problematic, though if they're making money from what they're doing with the iMac Pro, then business expense write-offs ftw...

[DeScruff]

Well that sounds... Annoying, but I could totally have pictured it being worse, it could have required another of the same machine (or newer).

As Zodiark1593 said, probably not a big deal for a company unless whatever caused one to brick somehow knocked the whole fleet.
- But that would be a big deal no matter what.

This is mostly an issue to the work at home professional, who might not have a second Mac. - Which might not be terribly uncommon, I knew a couple of people who would sell their older iMacs to help pay for the newer one (iMacs that are 1 or 2 generations old apparently maintain a good portion of their value. Or at least they did last time I talked to my old classmates)
You'd just have to hope a friend has a macbook or something and will let you borrow it, or an apple store is nearby enough...
Personally: I'd be screwed.

[TheCherryKing]

11 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Any Thunderbolt 3 Mac would work.....

 

Also say that the iMac Pro is overpriced again? Try parting out an exactly equal machine using the same level of Workstation Hardware. 

You're right many people called Apple Workstations overpriced. So many Youtubers have built Hackintoshes and have bragged about what a good deal they got. They used a Core i7 processor and a gaming graphics card. It's very unfair to compare gaming hardware and workstation hardware. 

[Matu20]

Reminds me of needed an older CPU to update the BIOS in order for the newer one to work.