If you SSD'd, what did you do with the original HD?

[CtotheP]

I'm going to buy the base mini and upgrade to an SSD myself. What did you guys do w/ the 5400RPM drive that comes with the Mini? Did you buy an external inclosure and just use it as an external Time Machine?

Just wanted to get some ideas.

Thanks in advance!

[Cave Man]

I left mine inside the Mini.

[Lance-AR]

Put it in a USB3 enclosure from OWC

[bankshot]

I kept mine inside the machine (used OWC's data doubler kit to have both inside). It now has 3 partitions:

• Macintosh HD - original factory installation resized to 48 GB
• Clone - 256 GB partition to be used as a bootable clone of my SSD
• Scratch - remainder of the disk, scratch drive that's excluded from Time Machine

I set it up so the first 2 partitions are not mounted at boot. I moved my Downloads folder to the Scratch drive and then symlinked it back to my home folder.

Didn't need to use it for Time Machine or large data because I have a couple of 3 TB USB3 drives for that stuff.

[Bunyak]

I'm running Windows 7 via Boot Camp on the HDD. The Mini replaces a Windows PC so I still need some Windows apps for now.

[thestickman]

Put my 1TB drive into a USB 3.0 enclosure. I likes it there

[albert1028]

How about try creating a fusion drive if you are feeling risky.

[Defend Tacoma]

Originally Posted by albert1028

How about try creating a fusion drive if you are feeling risky.

This... Waiting to pull the trigger on an SSD till I get a crazy holiday sale deal from newegg. i missed the 128gb Sammy the other day. There'll be more deals!

[google0912]

could someone explain, how adding the ssd to the normal 1TB-HDD works? I know you can open the mac mini, but what then? Is it difficult?

I have a Crucial M4 64GB SSD, can I use it with the Mini?

thx

[borostef]

I put the original drive into an external USB enclosure and use it for data storage and time machine backups.

[bankshot]

Originally Posted by google0912

could someone explain, how adding the ssd to the normal 1TB-HDD works? I know you can open the mac mini, but what then? Is it difficult?

View the video here and decide for yourself if it's something you're willing to do: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMM11D2/

I will note that the process surprised me a little bit, even after having experience with similar procedures on Apple laptops etc. For one, my logic board was in there tight, so getting it out as in the video made me nervous that I would break something before it started moving. But then it came out ok.

Also, the reassembly instructions had the replacement of some screws in the wrong order, and that got me in a pretty bad predicament for a few minutes. If you just reassemble in the opposite order that you took it apart, you'll be fine. Or just remember that the power supply needs to go back in before the hard drive tray screws.

[google0912]

Originally Posted by bankshot

View the video here and decide for yourself if it's something you're willing to do: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMM11D2/

I will note that the process surprised me a little bit, even after having experience with similar procedures on Apple laptops etc. For one, my logic board was in there tight, so getting it out as in the video made me nervous that I would break something before it started moving. But then it came out ok.

Also, the reassembly instructions had the replacement of some screws in the wrong order, and that got me in a pretty bad predicament for a few minutes. If you just reassemble in the opposite order that you took it apart, you'll be fine. Or just remember that the power supply needs to go back in before the hard drive tray screws.

Thanks man!

I stopped watching the video after 4 minutes, my mini would certainly be dead by then lol. Gotta buy the fusion mini...

[the27thvoice]

Got the OWC kit yesterday, today I did the operation. Slight problems with re-twisting the power supply and connecting it to the motherboard, but no big issues and it works awesome.

So my old hard drive is still inside the Mini and is both hosting my files and providing a just-in-case backup drive.

[MM2012]

For those who changed the drive. What's you plan if the mini breaks down. Do you plan to put back the OEM drive and bring back to Apple to fix? If you already put the OEM as you storage, what will you do?

[scottaboshia]

Just installed a Crucial M4 256 GB SSD using the OWC kit. Installation went smoothly although the clip that holds the power plug in place came lose when I was re-assembling. I heard it moving around in there after I was all done and immediately knew what it was so I had to take it all back apart and reassemble it again. It went a lot faster the second time around though!

Getting the OS installed on the new SSD could not have been easier. First I booted into the OS using the old drive, verified the new SSD, rebooted into recovery mode, opened the disk utilities and used the included tools to mirror everything from the HDD to the SSD. It took about 8 minutes to copy. I then set my startup disk to the new SSD and rebooted. No re-downloading OSX, no re-installing, nothing. Didn't think it would be that easy.

As for speeds. I was seeing about 95 MB/s read and write with the old 1 TB 5400 RPM Hard Drive and I'm seeing about 260 MB/s write and 500 MB/s read with the new SSD.

If something goes wrong with this unit I will repair it myself otherwise take out the SSD and bring it in I guess. It really isn't a huge deal. I wish they would sell individual parts though, such as main board assembly, power supply, etc. I've built tons of machines in the past but this is the first mac I've bought aside from my Macbook Air.

[jvpython]

Put the original HDD from my MacBook Pro in a USB 3.0 external enclosure as a data drive.

[That-Guy]

Leave it in the machine as a Data Drive and use the SSD as the Boot Drive.

You will need THIS KIT to add the second hard drive.

This is what I will be doing when the kit turns up