Adding Second Hard Drive to Mac Mini

[That-Guy]

Hey Peeps,

Just about to order the new Mac Mini, going to get the Base Model but buy 16gb of RAM to upgrade it.

I also want to add a 128gb SSD Drive to it as a Boot Drive then add the original 500gb Drive as a second Hard Drive for Apps and Data.

I have found this kit here to allow this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMM11D2/

Anyone have any experience with this kit? and should it work with the new Mac Mini?

Are there any other kits like this that can be used? I am based in the UK so would love to order from a UK site if possible.

All ideas, suggestions and tips for adding a second drive to the Mac Mini would be great

[milkmandan]

The kit works with the new mac mini 2012.
As stated on the site, it says "for Mac mini 2011-2012 Models".

iFixit also has a kit, but it is more expensive :\
http://www.ifixit.com/Apple-Parts/Ma...-Kit/IF171-005

you could buy the Torx bitset on your own at a local hardware shop, but you'll have to find the other parts separately.

[That-Guy]

Originally Posted by milkmandan

The kit works with the new mac mini 2012.
As stated on the site, it says "for Mac mini 2011-2012 Models".

iFixit also has a kit, but it is more expensive :\
http://www.ifixit.com/Apple-Parts/Ma...-Kit/IF171-005

you could buy the Torx bitset on your own at a local hardware shop, but you'll have to find the other parts separately.

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

[milkmandan]

Originally Posted by That-Guy

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

The mac mini can hold 2x 2.5" drives. You can put the SSD in which ever space you want. You dont need to specify boot/master/slave anymore. Since the introduction of SATA, i believe that kinda setup was thrown out the window.

As for putting the OS on it, you can:
1. Internet Recovery
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/20/...nk-hard-drive/

2. USB Installation
http://gigaom.com/apple/quick-tip-cr...mountain-lion/

[That-Guy]

Originally Posted by milkmandan

The mac mini can hold 2x 2.5" drives. You can put the SSD in which ever space you want. You dont need to specify boot/master/slave anymore. Since the introduction of SATA, i believe that kinda setup was thrown out the window.

As for putting the OS on it, you can:
1. Internet Recovery
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/20/...nk-hard-drive/

2. USB Installation
http://gigaom.com/apple/quick-tip-cr...mountain-lion/

Thank you for your help

Going to have a read up before ordering parts in the next few days!

[milkmandan]

Originally Posted by That-Guy

Thank you for your help

Going to have a read up before ordering parts in the next few days!

No problem have fun!

[jcovaltine]

Originally Posted by milkmandan

The mac mini can hold 2x 2.5" drives. You can put the SSD in which ever space you want. You dont need to specify boot/master/slave anymore. Since the introduction of SATA, i believe that kinda setup was thrown out the window.

As for putting the OS on it, you can:
1. Internet Recovery
http://www.macrumors.com/2011/07/20/...nk-hard-drive/

2. USB Installation
http://gigaom.com/apple/quick-tip-cr...mountain-lion/

I have a 2012 mac mini and I purchased the OWC SSD which should be arriving within the next couple of days. I was just going to clone my current internal hard drive. Then once it was cloned to the SSD format the old one and use it for storage. Is cloning to the SSD not recommended? Am I better off doing a clean install?

[That-Guy]

Originally Posted by MetzoPaino

Let us know how it goes.

Will do

Will post a few pictures and screen shots when everything is done.

Just really want to Data Doubler the turn up now but due to demand the item won't ship till at least tomorrow then needs to make it to the UK

I'm so impatient

Originally Posted by jcovaltine

I have a 2012 mac mini and I purchased the OWC SSD which should be arriving within the next couple of days. I was just going to clone my current internal hard drive. Then once it was cloned to the SSD format the old one and use it for storage. Is cloning to the SSD not recommended? Am I better off doing a clean install?

With a major hardware change like that I would do a fresh install myself it always caused less problems for me in the past.

But if you want to clone your drive then Carbon Copy Cloner should work fine and its free

[RaceTripper]

Originally Posted by jcovaltine

I have a 2012 mac mini and I purchased the OWC SSD which should be arriving within the next couple of days. I was just going to clone my current internal hard drive. Then once it was cloned to the SSD format the old one and use it for storage. Is cloning to the SSD not recommended? Am I better off doing a clean install?

If you just clone and then reformat your original drive you'll be left without a recovery partition.

I installed a SSD as a second drive. I booted into the recovery partition of the original drive, and from there I did a clean install of ML onto the SSD. That created a recovery partition for it. Then I deleted the partitions of the original drive and reformatted.

[Yebubbleman]

Originally Posted by That-Guy

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

1. Crucial RAM has always worked well for me. I've used it in five out of the seven Macs that I've owned and used (the other two shipped from Apple with the RAM maxed out, so there was no point in buying Crucial RAM for those machines). It works great, and if it doesn't, you can invoke their warranty to RMA a bad stick of RAM and get one that isn't bad.

2. The Master/Slave concept in PCs is long antequated. Though even here, it doesn't matter which SATA connection you hook which drive to. Once you tell the firmware via the Startup Disk preferences pane in System Preferences which OS to boot, it assumes that you're going to boot from that OS until you either boot holding down the option key on your keyboard, or until you next change your preference in said System Preferences pane. I had a 2010 Mac mini Server model which also has two drives and I set them up on a software RAID 0 to make OS X see them as one volume, in which case, the firmware just saw one bootable volume. But even so, the Apple EFI firmware is much more flexible than some of the older BIOS firmwares of old. Then again, so is the BIOS firmware on newer PC motherboards.

[donlab]

Originally Posted by That-Guy

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

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

[Graeme0]

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

[sc25893]

Originally Posted by Graeme0

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

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.

[Cave Man]

Originally Posted by That-Guy

I also want to add a 128gb SSD Drive to it as a Boot Drive then add the original 500gb Drive as a second Hard Drive for Apps and Data.

I have found this kit here to allow this:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMM11D2/

Anyone have any experience with this kit? and should it work with the new Mac Mini?

Mine arrives tomorrow and it will be seating a 240 GB 6 Gb/s SSD to go with the 2012 Mini's 1 TB HD. The kit seems to come with all the tools necessary, too, so just follow the OWC video for installation and - most importantly - take your time. The SATA and IR connectors are prone to snapping off if you're not careful. You can probably live without the IR connector, but snap the SATA connectors and you have a dead Mini.

[MetzoPaino]

Originally Posted by Cave Man

Mine arrives tomorrow and it will be seating a 256 GB 6 Gb/s SSD to go with the 2012 Mini's 1 TB HD. The kit seems to come with all the tools necessary, too, so just follow the OWC video for installation and - most importantly - take your time. The SATA and IR connectors are prone to snapping off if you're not careful. You can probably live without the IR connector, but snap the SATA connectors and you have a dead Mini.

This is why I'm nervous of doing this myself.

In the UK so can't send it to OWC.

[That-Guy]

Originally Posted by MetzoPaino

This is why I'm nervous of doing this myself.

In the UK so can't send it to OWC.

I'm in the UK too but as said above its simple enough just watch the video a few times and take your time. The instructions that come with the kit are apparently very good too

Ordered my kit tonight with a estimated delivery time of 8-12 days.

[RaceTripper]

I got my Mac Mini today and used the OWC data doubler to install a SSD as a second drive. It was a PITA and rather not very pleasant to do, but I got it done in about 1/2 hour or so. In retrospect I could have gone without keeping the 1 TB drive in there and just doing the simpler drive replacement.

In the end, if you are careful, patient and somewhat handy it's not that big of a deal to do. But if you don't go slowly and follow instructions you can do damage.

[Cave Man]

Originally Posted by RaceTripper

I got my Mac Mini today and used the OWC data doubler to install a SSD as a second drive. It was a PITA and rather not very pleasant to do, but I got it done in about 1/2 hour or so. In retrospect I could have gone without keeping the 1 TB drive in there and just doing the simpler drive replacement.

In the end, if you are careful, patient and somewhat handy it's not that big of a deal to do. But if you don't go slowly and follow instructions you can do damage.

Can you verify that the OWC Data Doubler came with all the tools necessary (torx, hex drivers)??

[MetzoPaino]

Originally Posted by That-Guy

I'm in the UK too but as said above its simple enough just watch the video a few times and take your time. The instructions that come with the kit are apparently very good too

Ordered my kit tonight with a estimated delivery time of 8-12 days.

Let us know how it goes.

[Adlerhorst]

Been thinking about doing this myself as well, but not having done something like this before I had a question before I took the plunge. Would an external SSD via USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt (does such a thing exist yet) be much slower than an internal SSD? If there is an obvious answer to this please bear with me for knowing bugger (i'm also in the UK ) all about how computers actually work.

[milkmandan]

Originally Posted by Cave Man

Mine arrives tomorrow and it will be seating a 256 GB 6 Gb/s SSD to go with the 2012 Mini's 1 TB HD. The kit seems to come with all the tools necessary, too, so just follow the OWC video for installation and - most importantly - take your time. The SATA and IR connectors are prone to snapping off if you're not careful. You can probably live without the IR connector, but snap the SATA connectors and you have a dead Mini.

iirc the OWC data doubler has a spudger. It should help in preventing breaking anything. slowly and carefully

[Uncle Meat]

Originally Posted by milkmandan

iirc the OWC data doubler has a spudger. It should help in preventing breaking anything. slowly and carefully

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.

[milkmandan]

Originally Posted by Uncle Meat

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymGnXdwvabg&t=01m50s
Did you try it that way? it pops upward.
sorry for your loss. :\

Plenty of people have had no problems with that, it is usually the IR connector that is more fragile, not sure why your fan connector was being so fritzy and why the whole thing popped off. Those things are soldered on :\

[propower]

I am truly sorry for the person that damaged a connector attempting this!!

Originally Posted by sc25893

2) Does installing an SSD invalidate apple care as they only suggest changing RAM?

YES!

External SSD on USB3 is 90% the speed of internal and costs the price of the SSD + $40 for the case. No warranty issues. Hooked up just as fast as you can plug the connector in. Is it really worth modding the mini??

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1483374

[kdoug]

Originally Posted by Uncle Meat

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.

I know it's a little late but you're not suppose to use the spudger tool to remove the fan wire. Everything I've read and seen is that you pull the wire straight up to remove it. The spudger tool is for the IR and hard drive connector.