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davekro

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 31, 2011
171
53
No. Calif.
I thought I read a while back one of the beauties of the Mac Mini (late 2012) was that it has room for two drives and you can add an SSD to a mini that shipped with just an HDD. I 'thought' sure I read the software then prompted you to set up as a defacto fusion drive. But reading around today, it seems like you are just left with the OS showing two separate drives.

What is the scoop here? I am looking into buying a modified or non modified late 2012 Mini. I want to understand what is possible and what to look for. Are there some highly recommended 512 (or 256) SSD drives known to work well with the Mini?

Especially because I am looking at already SSD modded used 2012 Mini's, any particular questions to ask the seller about performance or problems with this hard drive addition?

Thank you,
Dave
 
OP:

It's my understanding that when the 2012 Mini came out, if you installed an SSD into a Mini that already had a HDD in it, and then booted to the recovery partition, Disk Utility would automatically attempt to "fuse" the two drives (because it "sensed" the presence of both SSD and HDD and assumed they were intended to be a fusion drive).

You can go either way here:
1. Keep the SSD and HDD as "separate" drives (with 2 icons on the desktop)
or
2. Fuse them and have a fusion drive with 1 desktop icon.

IMPORTANT:
I suggest you backup the contents of the existing HDD BEFORE you install the SSD. If Disk Utility "fuses" it with the newly-installed SSD, I believe you lose all data that was already on it.
 
Fishrrman,
Thanks for the info.
The guy I am looking to buy the used 2012 from says: "I installed the 512 Pro 840 SSD in the upper bay and the 1TB HDD in the lower. It's currently a Fusion drive configuration. I never actually used this set up. I just made sure the OS was on the OS was on the SSD. I primarily used my SSD to run my DAWs and saved my files to an external drive. My system ran at pretty cool temperatures. I've owned it for a little over a year & selling to start building a PC. I have not currently used it as a fusion drive. I basically ran the start up menu and reset the drives and hit agree to Fusion drive option. I started the Mac and made sure both drives were present in the Disk Utility. I opened a Pro Tools session with no issue. Then I turned it off, did as factory reset and have not touched it for a month."

I have a little hesitancy wondering if it has not been used because some issue arose from the new set up. Are these worries most likely unfounded? Is it pretty cut an dried doing the SSD addition? Or are there particular known issues to look for that may be present. Am I taking my Craig's List due diligence too far? Besides this 'he's not used as fusion' fear of mine, it looks like a good deal.

2012, 2.6 i7, 16 GB Ram, 512 SSD + 1TB HDD, SuperDrive, WL KB & mouse asking $1000.
* 'IR connector broke' Am I correct that IR has no use but for remote control)
Any thoughts appreciated. :)
Dave
 
Last edited:
Basically I'm asking if anything looks potentially fishy about this C' List offering. He said he got a $900 offer to buy it tonight, so I texted back that I would give the $1000 asking price if I can see it boot up.

Broken IR connector has no ill effects on the Mini, right? Can I use a $20 USB IR sensor if I simply want to use my apple remote?
Thank, Dave
 
Basically I'm asking if anything looks potentially fishy about this C' List offering. He said he got a $900 offer to buy it tonight, so I texted back that I would give the $1000 asking price if I can see it boot up.

Broken IR connector has no ill effects on the Mini, right? Can I use a $20 USB IR sensor if I simply want to use my apple remote?
Thank, Dave

I'm assuming the guy broke the connector when he was upgrading the unit to include a SSD. I did the same the my mini, but found a replacement part online for like $20 and installed it myself. While I don't know if you can for sure use a USB IR sensor, I don't see why you couldn't.

But to replace the IR connector for the mini is very inexpensive. :)
 
OP:

It's my understanding that when the 2012 Mini came out, if you installed an SSD into a Mini that already had a HDD in it, and then booted to the recovery partition, Disk Utility would automatically attempt to "fuse" the two drives (because it "sensed" the presence of both SSD and HDD and assumed they were intended to be a fusion drive).

You can go either way here:
1. Keep the SSD and HDD as "separate" drives (with 2 icons on the desktop)
or
2. Fuse them and have a fusion drive with 1 desktop icon.

IMPORTANT:
I suggest you backup the contents of the existing HDD BEFORE you install the SSD. If Disk Utility "fuses" it with the newly-installed SSD, I believe you lose all data that was already on it.

Re: the bolded text. When I installed the SSD in my Mini then started the clean install (Mavericks USB drive rather than the recovery partition or Internet Recovery), it prompted me to create a Fusion Drive or install to just one drive or the other.
 
Re: the bolded text. When I installed the SSD in my Mini then started the clean install (Mavericks USB drive rather than the recovery partition or Internet Recovery), it prompted me to create a Fusion Drive or install to just one drive or the other.
What's the easiest way to get files and data off of my old system running mountain lion? I always Carbon Copy clone my system to an external hard drive before any updates. Given that, what's the easiest way to migrate my data to the new machine?
 
Re: the bolded text. When I installed the SSD in my Mini then started the clean install (Mavericks USB drive rather than the recovery partition or Internet Recovery), it prompted me to create a Fusion Drive or install to just one drive or the other.
I'm assuming the guy broke the connector when he was upgrading the unit to include a SSD. I did the same the my mini, but found a replacement part online for like $20 and installed it myself. While I don't know if you can for sure use a USB IR sensor, I don't see why you couldn't.

But to replace the IR connector for the mini is very inexpensive. :)
Inexpensive IF he broke the connector that's part of the IR harness. If he broke the connector that's on the PC board, I hear a new board for $300 is in order. So if it's not the board connector, I'll try the new IR device installed. Otherwise it USB or skip it. I texted and asked him
 
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