Adding Second Hard Drive to Mac Mini

BeatCrazy said:

Does anyplace sell the kit without the $30 cable? I could use a spugder, and new Torx bits. I'm just replacing my HDD, don't need to add a second drive.

I see this one on Amazon, but some of the reviews aren't great.
http://www.amazon.com/Silverhill-Pi...UTF8&colid=6BES1759T2F4&coliid=I14BS2ZMHVPWNW

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Check this out http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/203436...=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053#.UPTzu6HXjBA

For $5 its hard to go wrong. I picked one up at my local brick-and-mortar for a HDD replacement and it has all the stuff for a recent mini

COrocket said:

Check this out http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/203436...=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053#.UPTzu6HXjBA

For $5 its hard to go wrong. I picked one up at my local brick-and-mortar for a HDD replacement and it has all the stuff for a recent mini

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Great, I'll grab one. What did you do about the logic board replacement tool? Looks like something that could be fashioned from a wire coat hanger.

here2rock said:

Just wondering, with two drives are heat and noise problem? I thought your system will run much smoother with just SSD in it. Thoughts?

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I've only had my unfused dual drive setup for a week now but have been amazed at how quiet and cool it runs—possibly due to how the mini is set up (OS and apps on the SSD; all other data and some User folders on the HDD). The fans have yet to blast on even while watching 1080p films. The SSD makes all the difference.

ibizan said:

I've only had my unfused dual drive setup for a week now but have been amazed at how quiet and cool it runs—possibly due to how the mini is set up (OS and apps on the SSD; all other data and some User folders on the HDD). The fans have yet to blast on even while watching 1080p films. The SSD makes all the difference.

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The more and more that I read about it, I am leaning towards this route as well. I haven't decided 100%. Or I might just wait for this 1 TB SSD to be released, but I will probably want to wait for it to be on the market for some time to see how stable it is. So maybe I will just go for a Samsung 840 Pro + 1 TB HDD and leave them unfused. Then eventually upgrade to a 1 TB SSD.

COrocket said:

Check this out http://www.homedepot.com/p/t/203436...=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053#.UPTzu6HXjBA

For $5 its hard to go wrong. I picked one up at my local brick-and-mortar for a HDD replacement and it has all the stuff for a recent mini

Click to expand...

I bought 2 of these (home & work) and they both work perfectly. The bits are a little small and the screw driver seems 'cheap' but for taking apart electronics, it's a no brainer! I took apart my 24" iMac with this tool kit and all of the pieces worked as they should have.

Boogsephine said:

I bought 2 of these (home & work) and they both work perfectly. The bits are a little small and the screw driver seems 'cheap' but for taking apart electronics, it's a no brainer! I took apart my 24" iMac with this tool kit and all of the pieces worked as they should have.

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Any issues with that kit not fitting the screws on the Mini perfectly and starting to strip the screw head? Or was it pretty good?

Late 2012 Mac Mini broken fan connector

Uncle Meat said:

I just tried installing the OWC 2nd drive kit in my new 2012 Mini. Didn't get very far -- broke off the fan connector. After reading reports about people breaking off IR connectors, I was being especially careful. I spent about 10 minutes working the fan connector, from different angles and with two spudgers at once. The thing wouldn't budge but then the whole connector assembly snapped off the main board without warning. I've successfully taken apart many Apple laptops and have been done a lot of hardware work. I would strongly warn against using this kit.

I wrote to OWC and here's what they offered:

OWC Dennis: [5:21:25 PM] I am so sorry to hear that. The fan plug on the MM 2012 is very fragile. You will need to contact an Apple authorized dealer to get the [sic] replaced.

So, now I'm left with a brand new, broken Mac Mini plus the embarrassment of going to an Apple store to pay for a main board replacement. After I pay for all that, I still don't have my new SSD installed. So, I get to send it all off to OWC and pay them $100 to install it?

Honestly people, this Apple policy of making their hardware difficult to service is driving me toward building a hackintosh or just running Linux.

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This exact thing has happened to me just now. Is there any way to reattach the connector to the board? Or is board replacement the only solution?

53x12 said:

Any issues with that kit not fitting the screws on the Mini perfectly and starting to strip the screw head? Or was it pretty good?

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I didn't use it on a Mini but they fit perfectly into my iMac and MacBook Pro with no issues. I had to apply a little more pressure than normal but no issues other than that.

53x12 said:

Any issues with that kit not fitting the screws on the Mini perfectly and starting to strip the screw head? Or was it pretty good?

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The bits fit the screw heads fine. I've never had issues using cheap driver bits for small precision things like computers. The screws on mine came out relatively easy. Just take your time undoing everything, don't overtighten when it goes back together and you should be set.

Boogsephine said:

I didn't use it on a Mini but they fit perfectly into my iMac and MacBook Pro with no issues. I had to apply a little more pressure than normal but no issues other than that.

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COrocket said:

The bits fit the screw heads fine. I've never had issues using cheap driver bits for small precision things like computers. The screws on mine came out relatively easy. Just take your time undoing everything, don't overtighten when it goes back together and you should be set.

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Thanks guys. Seems like a solid purchase that I will have to get once I order a SSD.

ibizan said:

I've only had my unfused dual drive setup for a week now but have been amazed at how quiet and cool it runs—possibly due to how the mini is set up (OS and apps on the SSD; all other data and some User folders on the HDD). The fans have yet to blast on even while watching 1080p films. The SSD makes all the difference.

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That is good to hear.

philipma1957 said:

you will not like what I have to say. but here goes. clone everything to an external. make absolutely sure it boots. once you know it boots . boot with it. call up disk utility and secure erase. erase the internal ssd only leave the hdd alone. use the 0 write over option 7 times after 2 or 3 mins before you even are 1/4 writing 0's on the first pass skip the procedure there is a skip button. at this point the mini will have the internal 1tb and an unformatted ssd.


go to preferences restart the mini from the external booter. now call up disk utility the mini will say your fusion drive is broken do you want to fix it. this will make a fusion drive 1.128tb long all internal drives will show as 1 drive. with a 128gb ssd and a 1tb hdd fusion is the fastest way to go.

Be sure you have good external copies as this kills all internal info!!!


now your internal can clone the external and boot with it.

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Can I substitute/clone to a usb flash drive in your instructions? also osx now resides on my internal ssd and the 1tb internal is empty, do i still only erase the internal ssd?

Wow, just had the worst experience with the OWC Data Doubler Kit. The T6 screw driver they mailed me stripped every screw I tried to use it on. Went out and bought another one at the store and had no problems. Disappointed in the quality of the screw drivers sent. It really messed up some of the screws. Don't know about the iFixIt kit though

I just used the owc data doubler kit a couple days ago to install 2 ssd's in my new mac mini and it worked just fine for me. I was going to get the ifixit kit at first but they wanted something like $40 to ship it to brisbane australia on top of the $50 for the kit itself so ended up going the owc kit for $50 delivered.

The ifixit kit did look much higher quality thats for sure but no way im paying $40 delivery for it.

pnewelljr said:

Wow, just had the worst experience with the OWC Data Doubler Kit. The T6 screw driver they mailed me stripped every screw I tried to use it on. Went out and bought another one at the store and had no problems. Disappointed in the quality of the screw drivers sent. It really messed up some of the screws.

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I had the exact opposite experience with the tools i received from OWC. Hard to imagine this happening with a T6, but the only thing that makes sense is user error.

I have all kinds of hex and Torx screwdrivers and I'm only interested in he actual cable for the second drive. Is this available somewhere?

The only cable i found was on amazon but its $28. You might as well pay the extra $7 and get the owc dual hdd kit.

That-Guy said:

Ah sorry didn't see that, it's been a long day

I guess the easiest thing to do is buy this kit to save messing about!

Will be ordering the memory from Crucial because that seems to be what allot of people go for, they also have an easy Memory Selector on their site.

While I'm here, would I put the SSD in the place of the old one or in the empty space? (to make it the boot/master drive) and how do I get the OS on it?

Can you tell I have only recently switched from Winblows haha

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I installed SSD in spare slot. The chances of SSD failing before the mechanical are slim to none.

Configuration Recommendation...

Hi Guys,

Looking for someone to suggest the best configuration to suit my needs.

Current config:

Mac Mini 5,2 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
4Gb Memory
500Gb HDD

2TB External iOmega Drive (Firewire)
1TB Time Capsule

Use: Mostly web design so Adobe CS5 (Mostly Photoshop and Dreamweaver) plus photography stuff; Lightroom. Plus Plex Media Server, iTunes, etc.

Operating System (OSX 10.8.2), data and photography on internal 500GB drive.
Only 120Gb free.

External 2TB used for media storage.

So what would give me the best performance?

Ok, upgrading memory to 16Gb is a given. (Crucial £76.79).

Looking to purchase the OWC Drive Doubler kit, and wondered what people would recommend would suit me best in terms of drives. Mid range budget.

Thanks in advance, guys.

Graeme

Graeme0 said:

Hi Guys,

Looking for someone to suggest the best configuration to suit my needs.

Current config:

Mac Mini 5,2 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5
4Gb Memory
500Gb HDD

2TB External iOmega Drive (Firewire)
1TB Time Capsule

Use: Mostly web design so Adobe CS5 (Mostly Photoshop and Dreamweaver) plus photography stuff; Lightroom. Plus Plex Media Server, iTunes, etc.

Operating System (OSX 10.8.2), data and photography on internal 500GB drive.
Only 120Gb free.

External 2TB used for media storage.

So what would give me the best performance?

Ok, upgrading memory to 16Gb is a given. (Crucial £76.79).

Looking to purchase the OWC Drive Doubler kit, and wondered what people would recommend would suit me best in terms of drives. Mid range budget.

Thanks in advance, guys.

Graeme

Click to expand...

Hi Graeme,

I sold my mac mini and now use a macbook, however, before I sold it I used the data doubler kit to install this alongside 16GB RAM:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007R1FH3K/

This was a very quick drive for my usage, Fireworks CS5, iTunes, xcode, similar to the stuff you do (I did not use lightroom though).

So my setup was mac mini 2.5GHz, 16GBRAM, 1 x 500GB 5400rpm and 1 x 128GB SSD and it was sweet!! Go for it, but be VERY careful taking the mini apart to install the SSD, a few people have broken bits. It's really fiddly, take your time and don't force anything. If something feels stuck, come at it from a different angle rather than more pressure!

Hope this helps, good luck

Sam.

sc25893 said:

Hi Graeme,

I sold my mac mini and now use a macbook, however, before I sold it I used the data doubler kit to install this alongside 16GB RAM:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007R1FH3K/

This was a very quick drive for my usage, Fireworks CS5, iTunes, xcode, similar to the stuff you do (I did not use lightroom though).

So my setup was mac mini 2.5GHz, 16GBRAM, 1 x 500GB 5400rpm and 1 x 128GB SSD and it was sweet!! Go for it, but be VERY careful taking the mini apart to install the SSD, a few people have broken bits. It's really fiddly, take your time and don't force anything. If something feels stuck, come at it from a different angle rather than more pressure!

Hope this helps, good luck

Sam.

Click to expand...

Hi Sam,

Thanks for the reply and the info.

After you installed the new SSD drive, I assume you reinstalled the OS and Applications on it, and then used the HDD as a 'data' drive after removing the OS?

What was the performance like running the OS and apps from the SSD?

Thanks again,

Graeme

Hi Graeme,

Yes I reinstalled the 10.8.2 Lion on the SSD and moved my home folder to the HDD. Restart and you're good to go. You can find a guide for moving the home folder with a search, on phone now so can't find/paste the link easily!


The overall snappiness was very noticable, apps open a lot quicker. It doesn't affect the actual processing speed of things (the processotlr is still the same) but it's an all round tune up so to speak. Boot up went from about 25secs to about 12secs. Firefox opned almost instantly, same with fireworks cs5, large photos opened a lot faster etc...

Well worth doing but be careful! I can't stress this enough.

Sam.

Second hard drive cable

I have 2012 mac mini (i7 2.3), and I want to add second hard drive to it. I am not sure what cable to order:
Mac Mini Server Bottom Hard Drive Flex Cable - http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Mac-Mini-Server-Bottom-Hard-Drive-Flex-Cable-p-20708.html
or
Mac Mini Top Hard Drive Flex Cable with Sensor - http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Mac-Mini-Top-Hard-Drive-Flex-Cable-with-Sensor-p-22345.html

I would say that the first one is what I need, but in product description for the first cable it says:
"For the 2012 models, this is the standard hard drive cable."
For second cable it says:
"For the 2012 model this is used to add a 2nd drive."
so I am not sure what cable should I order.

Can someone help? Thanks!

So when you add a second hard drive, the cable can't be in the same place as the primary hard drive. Think about it. If the cable was in the same place they wouldn't both fit. That's why there are two.

So depending on what you want to do pick a cable. I would pick the top one for adding a second drive.

Hi Everyone, lokks kine I found the right discussion. I purchased last week (got it yesterday) a slightly used basic Mac Mini (MD387LL/A ; machine was sold to original owner on December 12, 2012), to which was added a second Intel 120GB SSD drive with the use of the OWC kit. It came with 4GB of memory, but I upgrade it to 16GB by installing two 8GB SIMS (Corsair Vengeance RAM DDR3 1600 MHz PC3 12800, model CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10) even before starting it for the first time and sucessfully went through the initial setup and showed the 16GB memory without any issues.

When I checked the hard drive space, I noticed that it reflected a 620GB hard disk instead of the expected 500GB and 120GB hard disks, noticed it said "hard drive + flash storage", as shown below:



I went to the disk utikity option and this is what it shows:







It talks about a logical volume group. Is this the way that it should be configured after adding the second drive?

Furthermore, I did a Mac OX update after installing a few programs and the machine startup is really slow (took several minutes to start), which makes me beleive there is something wrong with the way the HD's were configured by the original owner. Your help will be appreciated.

Francisco