[UPGRADE] Base 2012 Mac Mini SSD and Memory Upgrade

Thanks for that. Am planning on upgrading my Mini but incrementally - 16GB first then SSD drive in a couple of months. Good to hear about your experience.

great post! I plan on doing this...

QUESTION!

if I move the home folders...I still want my apps etc on the SSD will they still install on there yes?

Great contribution, thank you for sharing

That's a great guide you have put together

Question: the cost of the disk doubler and the SSD is not that much cheaper than just getting the Fusion drive from apple BTO. Why not do that instead?

That-Guy said:

Well personally I already had an SSD to put in it.

But a couple of reasons:

1) If you buy the Base Model there is no option on the website to choose Fusion Drive.

2) You may want to upgrade the Hard Drive in a years time when SSDs will be even cheaper.

3) You may want to use the Data Doubler to add two 1tb Standard Drives.

In my opinion the Data Doubler Kit offers more flexibility

Click to expand...

I get the base model argument, but with the Fusion drive, don't you end up in the same place as with the Data Doubler: two drive in the machine, one HDD and one SSD?

That-Guy said:

Internet Restore

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Rather than use Internet Restore, I'd clone the HD to the SSD and then change the boot drive to the SSD. Is there any reason that would not work?

Jeff Charles said:

Rather than use Internet Restore, I'd clone the HD to the SSD and then change the boot drive to the SSD. Is there any reason that would not work?

Click to expand...

No issue and works fine. Same outcome just faster.

Did this on an older mac mini

Upgraded the RAM and HD in a 1.83 GHz Mac Mini recently, using crucial's RAM and HD kit, and it worked just fine. I was lucky that I already had the necessary tools, and man it was a pain to get past the casing and the internal stuff, but it all worked out!

Jeff Charles said:

Rather than use Internet Restore, I'd clone the HD to the SSD and then change the boot drive to the SSD. Is there any reason that would not work?

Click to expand...

I did this, took a total of eight minutes to clone. I hadn't installed anything on my mini before installing my SSD but either way, it didn't make sense to me to do a fresh install when you can just clone bit for bit an install that was just done.

That-Guy said:

What cloning tools did you guys use?

Could add links above for people who want to clone the drive instead

Click to expand...

I use Carbon Copy Cloner and it works well. It's no longer free, but people who donated when it was free, as I did, do not have to pay.

Many people also recommend SuperDuper.

So here is my question for those of you, such as the OP, that have installed an OS x to a drive.

After adding in two drives like this, did you then try to recover from an older Time Machine back up?

I currently have a 2010 iMac running 10.6.8. Thinking of a new mini with either Fusion drive or doing what OP did.

Would then like to recover my TM backup from the older iMac. Can it be done?

Secondary HDD through USB

Very nice guide. Just what I need. I am a newbie to these mac stuff.

I am think of buying a Mac Mini, install a SSD, and use the stock HDD as secondary disk through USB.

If I move the user folder to secondary drive, what would happen if I unplug the usb of the HDD while OSX is still running. What would happen? Will it screw up the whole OSX? Will OSX restore after I re-plugin the HDD?

just set up my new mac mini...

8gb vengeance ram


256gb Samsung SSD

ran into a few surprises...the thing that guards the powersupply the foam kept coming off!

it was a lot harder to put the logic board in then i thought it would be! also i couldn't fit ONE of the screws back into the wifi board...but that's not a biggie...it's secure and i wont go back in there now!

what should i do now to make sure all is running OK with my SSD and RAM and making sure the internal fan is working okay...

a checklist so to speak of what is "normal" now with my mac.

also...


ZERO issues with using the HDMI port....granted with an apple 23" cinema display but it's fine! perfect quality.

Just done stage 1 of my upgrade by putting the 16GB. Brilliant results, the little Mac is flying, at just over £50 this is a bargain upgrade, IMO.

SSD will come after Xmas, probably...

Thought I'd ive my two cents of experience too

I've finally received my iFixit dual drive kit (it got stuck at customs) and installed it yesterday. I find the spudger hard to use, but the screwdriver set with all the bits is really high-quality and extensive. It had all the tools needed and much more.

Anyway, it took me about an hour to finish installing. I've followed the video on this thread because I think it's the most detailed guide (ifixit did not include a guide in the set, you have to go their website to read it). However, I was in doubt when installing the grommets. That part is better explained at ifixit.

Also, this was invaluable https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/14302708/

There were 2 surprises though.
1) the airport connector is covered with a plasticsheet, I had to fold that one up to reach the connector. It was also much harder to attach the antenna again afterwards with that plastic sheet. I'm pretty sure apple can see someone tempered with the system by that plastic sheet...

2) there is a rubber protector around the power supply connector which is not shown any movies. Had to remove that to slide the power supply out.


This was my plan (and it worked out beautifully)

preperations
1) Buy a USB3-enclosure and put the new SSD in there
2) Use Carbon Copy Cleaner to install a recovery partition on the SSD AND clone the current working mountain lion.
3) Test the cloning process by booting into the USB3-SSD first.
4) If everything's correct, boot into the internal drive again and remove the SSD from the USB3-enclosure and put another 2.5"HDD in it, make a Time Machine backup to that 2.5" HDD.

installing
5) install the dual drive kit
6) boot into the now internal SSD
7) do some benchmarking
8) go into recovery mode and then create a fusion drive
9) restore from Time Machine (from that 2.5" USB3-HDD)
10) Enjoy my powerful Mac Mini



My Mac Mini is a 2012 Quad Core 2.3Ghz i7
I've upgraded the ram with a 16GB Corsair Vengeance 1600 kit.
And now it also host the power saving 1TB Apple (Toshiba) 5400 HDD fused with the Crucial M4 256GB SSD.

(I've chosen a Crucial because I couldn't get a recovery partition on the Samsung 830.)


Oh, one more thing. I couldn't get into recovery mode with my wireless logitech keyboard. Had to attach a USB-keyboard and hold CMD+R while booting to get into recovery mode.