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Maximum Size HDD for Mid 2011 Mini
- Thread starter Ianziering
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The OS restrictions are far greater than what you can find in 2.5” to put into your system.
There are some 2TB 2.5” HDD but I think they are too thick. You can choose from several 1.92-2TB and possibly larger SSDs however.
There are some 2TB 2.5” HDD but I think they are too thick. You can choose from several 1.92-2TB and possibly larger SSDs however.
The max you can install in a Mac mini 2011 / 2012 is a 7mm SSD and an 15mm HDD or two 9,5mm HDD's. Thats what will fit the space. An 15mm HDD goes to 5TB and max for 9,5mm HDD is 2TB today.
Thanks for this it’s very helpful. So, I can install two of these?
https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/282761613325
No. those are 15mm high. you can only fit one. The original dual drive setups (server model) had 2x 9.5mm high drives
Now according to Hede above you can, fit a 7mm SSD drive in the space remaining after installing a 15mm high drive. My theory as to why he said the 7mm drive has be a SSD and not HDD is that since 15+7mm = 22mm and the original server setup was only 19mm of drives, the second drive has to sit on the first one, without any dead space in between separating them. If both are HDD (spinning, mechanical), then vibration... though small.. would get shared between drives and that could cause havok on the life of the drives. A SSD has no moving parts and shoudn't be affected by minor vibration.
Thanks so much guys this has been a huge help - I’m going to look at SSD to and then at potentially a NAS to connect to the Mini to really increase the storage space.
I use a 2011 Mac Mini as a iTunes server and TimeMachine backup for all the family household computers and laptops. I have a boot SSD and a 1.5TB internal hard disk for the media files. I then have 2 Thunderbay IV thunderbolt hard disk chassis in Raid5 for the backup files. Been running for a couple of years with no problems.
