Adding Second Hard Drive to Mac Mini

Ok, finally got it working with help from this:

http://www.ransom-note-typography.com/index.php/SSD_and_Your_Home_Directory

I've got another question now though. When I delete a file, I get a little popup confirming the action. When confirming, the file does not go to the trash (it's on another drive to the OS after all).

I can't move any files to trash in other words.

Can this behaviour be changed? Thanks for all the help.

Sam.

Going to home (cmd + H) then cmd+i (get info), I was able to click the little lock on the bottom right and add myself as a user with read & write.

The trash now works.

No idea why this has all been such a faff. Should have been very straight forward.

Anyway, works now, and it's quicker than before

Worth doing? Not so sure! lol

Sam.

That-Guy said:

Glad you got it sorted

Click to expand...

Thanks.

My OCD took a hold of me though today and I wasn't happy about how it was all set up with the messing around.

So, reinstalled, copied home folder to HDD, changed home folder to new one, restarted, logged back in, no problems at all, permissions and everything fine. Now that's more like it!

I think the problem the 1st time round was that the OS was set to automatically login. When I changed the home folder and restarted, it must have tried to automatically login using the wrong home folder, hence being locked out.

Keeping auto log in OFF is the only thing I did differently the 2nd time round and no problems i.e. setting > security & privacy > disable automatic login - CHECKED

Maybe this will help someone else with a similar problem

Sam.

Rob.G said:

Unless you WANT a fresh install, get Carbon Copy Cloner and clone it. Fully-functional 30-day trial. That's what I used; was very quick and much simpler than a total reinstall.

Rob

Click to expand...

Just checking on some of this again so that I understand better. You guys are not running this as a "fusion" drive, right? Is there anything else you need to do for a fresh install so that OS X's Disk Utility doesn't turn the operation into a fusion drive? Or has this problem been eliminated with the latest update?

7enderbender said:

Just checking on some of this again so that I understand better. You guys are not running this as a "fusion" drive, right? Is there anything else you need to do for a fresh install so that OS X's Disk Utility doesn't turn the operation into a fusion drive? Or has this problem been eliminated with the latest update?

Click to expand...

A separate SSD and hard drive aren't a fusion drive. They're treated as two separate drives. I've had no direct experience with Apple's fusion drive, so I don't know if you have the option of using them as separate drives either.

Just boot into recovery mode and tell it which drive to install to and that should do it. Common sense tells me that IF it wants to "fusionize" the setup, it will ask you first. Just a hunch.

Rob

Rob.G said:

A separate SSD and hard drive aren't a fusion drive. They're treated as two separate drives. I've had no direct experience with Apple's fusion drive, so I don't know if you have the option of using them as separate drives either.

Just boot into recovery mode and tell it which drive to install to and that should do it. Common sense tells me that IF it wants to "fusionize" the setup, it will ask you first. Just a hunch.

Rob

Click to expand...

One would think but there had been reports to the contrary in which in recovery mode any SSD + HD combo would be recognized as only one drive and/or the seperate drives greyed out. Glad to hear that this does not seem to be the case necessarily.

I was refering to this here:

http://blog.macsales.com/15619-speci...-2012-mac-mini

No matter which method you use, once you have both an SSD and a platter-based drive installed in your Mac mini, you should not use the Disk Utility in your Recovery Partition on those drives; it will see those drives as a “broken” Fusion array and try to repair it, destroying your data in the process.

^ i read this too late and now i am experiencing the mac fusing the drives together, unfortunately it has been over 2 hours and it is still working, i am not sure if it will stop ever. you ask why i would opt to erase both drives? i have a new mac, and figured i could do an internet install and be done with it.

If anyone has done this before sucessfully how long did it take please


http://macperformanceguide.com/blog/2012/20121103_2-DiskUtility-nasties.html

I tried setting up a Fusion drive unsuccessfully. I was able to get them to be one drive but I was having performance issues. I installed fresh on an SSD and still had some performance issues so I'm not sure what is going on. The SSD isn't that old but I might have made an error somewhere. Currently I just went back to having my old platter drive as the main and the SSD as a secondary drive until I get back home from the holidays and figure everything out. I'll then be able to mess around a bit more with extra external storage.

The kit I purchased was from iFixit and it kinda works

after 5 hours of waiting i starting clicking around and it asked me if i wanted to restart, so i did internet restore only to found out that my hard drive image was "locked and could not be used" i followed these instructions to fix my hard drives

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4091299?start=0&tstart=0

"diskutil list

Find for the disk you want to format disk0, disk1, disk2,...
Disk 0 is usually the one you are booting your os x so dont use that
I closed all mounted virtual volumes
name: partition name
JHFS+: format type

diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ name disk2 "


all in all i installed data doubller kit from owc and installed sdd it wasent a bad experience, and i recommend to anyone who is somewhat confident, just watch the install video a couple times and read @ThatGuy post, and take each step careful

If you need the cable

I found it for $31.95 shipped:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/US-Seller-B...558?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item337ea7ba76

I have a new 2012 Mac Mini and while I did not add a second drive I did replace the rotating drive with an SSD and I store all my files on a 3TB USB3 drive. I followed the guide up to removing the logic board part since replacing the drive does not require completely removing the logic board. I also noticed that there is a piece of plastic covering the WiFi connector, must be a design change in the new model. Also getting the posts on the HD to fit into the grommets when reinstalling the drive is is a PITA. And getting the WiFi antenna grate to line up with the slots took forever, why does everything never go back together as easy as it comes apart? I had to use a screw driver to boost the SSD up a bit so the screws on the grate would catch and secure the drive to the grate. After that reassembly was as simple as going through the guide backwards. Used Internet Recovery to restore the OS, took over 2 hrs but I was patient and let it do its thing. Now I have a 2.3 GHz i7, 16GB of Corsair Vengence RAM, and a 128GB Samsung 830 SSD and my Mini is just as fast if not faster than the 2006 Mac Pro I replaced. About Apple Care I was considering getting it. Now I know they would not support the SSD but if I had an issue could I not replace the stock drive before taking it in for service? I am assuming if they determined an issue with my aftermarket RAM they would still tell me to go suck a nut. So all non-apple parts would need to be ruled out for Apple care to replace anything, I'm assuming.

JimT1701 said:

Now I know they would not support the SSD but if I had an issue could I not replace the stock drive before taking it in for service? I am assuming if they determined an issue with my aftermarket RAM they would still tell me to go suck a nut. So all non-apple parts would need to be ruled out for Apple care to replace anything, I'm assuming.

Click to expand...

That is what I would do. Just keep the stock drive and stock RAM somewhere safe incase you have issues with the mini. Take our SSD and upgraded ram, put old in and bring it in to Apple store. If they figure out a problem/fix it, place SSD and upgraded RAM back in.

Btw, RAM is user replaceable in mini, so not sure why Apple would tell you to "suck a nut" at that point?

JimT1701 said:

About Apple Care I was considering getting it. Now I know they would not support the SSD but if I had an issue could I not replace the stock drive before taking it in for service? I am assuming if they determined an issue with my aftermarket RAM they would still tell me to go suck a nut. So all non-apple parts would need to be ruled out for Apple care to replace anything, I'm assuming.

Click to expand...

I called the Apple Store before ordering my Mini and asked them this question. They put me on hold and asked the guys in back, and the answer was, the SSD wouldn't be covered, but other than that, everything else still would be. No mention of having to "put it back to stock" was made either.

I plan to get AppleCare for mine in the near future, as this thing will become a media server eventually.

Rob

On Apples Website for whats covered in Apple Care it mentions "Apple RAM" This would be the only reason I would suspect they would try and blame any user installed RAM. I have dealt with many support programs they always try to blame the user before they replace anything.

JimT1701 said:

On Apples Website for whats covered in Apple Care it mentions "Apple RAM" This would be the only reason I would suspect they would try and blame any user installed RAM. I have dealt with many support programs they always try to blame the user before they replace anything.

Click to expand...

That's too bad. I can't think of any support program that has given me such grief. Between Apple gear, my home theater and two-channel gear, and my cars (BMW, Subaru) I've never had an issue with warranty claims.

Hey All,

Just got a new Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SSD with the iFixit dual drive kit for the 2012 quad i7.

Installed the drive no problem, it booted back to the HDD's existing install for ML. Initialized the SSD and detected it no problem per the special notes from OWC.

Rebooted and did Command+R to internet recover a clean install into the SSD. After the hour long download and the sudden reboot after the download finishes, it reboots back into the existing HDD install.

Think that it's booting into the wrong drive, I rebooted again while holding option which gave me three selections: Macintosh HD, Recovery-10.8.1, and OS X Installer.

Macintosh HD - goes into the existing installation of ML on the HDD
Recovery-10.8.1 - goes into a plane jain internet recover
OS X Installer - boots back into the existing installation of ML

I was thinking one of these would continue the install, but no luck

Thoughts? Really want the SSD to be my main boot and the HDD be spare HD space.

Some notes: I upgraded to 16GB while I had the mini open, no problem detecting it. Also while I was in the existing ML installation, I ran a Blackmagic Speedtest on the SSD which resulted in a blazing write speeds but "Error reading the test file" while attempting the read test. Not sure if this had anything to do with it...am able to drag files and read off the SSD no problem.

Check the "Startup Disk" setting in System Preferences. Select the SSD.

niteflyr said:

Check the "Startup Disk" setting in System Preferences. Select the SSD.

Click to expand...

Just checked, the only option is Macintosh HD OS X, 10.8.2. I don't see the SSD listed in there

The SSD is however visible from finder and inside is a folder 'OS X Install Data' with a red stop sign, "can't be opened because you don't have the permission to see its contents"

Sounds like IR didn't install. Spotlight search for Mountain Lion install app. If you can't find it you may have to run IR again. Sorry that's the limit of my expertise.

Joony said:

Hey All,

Just got a new Samsung 840 Pro 256 GB SSD with the iFixit dual drive kit for the 2012 quad i7.

Installed the drive no problem, it booted back to the HDD's existing install for ML. Initialized the SSD and detected it no problem per the special notes from OWC.

Rebooted and did Command+R to internet recover a clean install into the SSD. After the hour long download and the sudden reboot after the download finishes, it reboots back into the existing HDD install.

Think that it's booting into the wrong drive, I rebooted again while holding option which gave me three selections: Macintosh HD, Recovery-10.8.1, and OS X Installer.

Macintosh HD - goes into the existing installation of ML on the HDD
Recovery-10.8.1 - goes into a plane jain internet recover
OS X Installer - boots back into the existing installation of ML

I was thinking one of these would continue the install, but no luck

Thoughts? Really want the SSD to be my main boot and the HDD be spare HD space.

Some notes: I upgraded to 16GB while I had the mini open, no problem detecting it. Also while I was in the existing ML installation, I ran a Blackmagic Speedtest on the SSD which resulted in a blazing write speeds but "Error reading the test file" while attempting the read test. Not sure if this had anything to do with it...am able to drag files and read off the SSD no problem.

Click to expand...

I was reading in iFixit that the SSD needs to be where the HDD was inside the Mini or it causes issues (for some at least).

sikkinixx said:

I was reading in iFixit that the SSD needs to be where the HDD was inside the Mini or it causes issues (for some at least).

Click to expand...

Not the case for me. I installed my SSD in the unused location, and it worked fine. After IR, it was automatically switched to the primary boot drive.

Mine wanted to keep booting from the hd after the SSD went in. It wasn't until I wiped the hd that the SSD took over. I was unaware of the option in system prefs at the time. Btw mine is the 840 pro too. Hauls ass!

Btw,I used carbon copy Cloner instead of a fresh reinstall.

Rob