Mini 2012 very slow internal spinner

[Wando64]

I have recently upgraded my Mini by installing a 1tb SDD as my main MacOS drive. No problems here.

What was left inside the mini is the original spinner HDD which formed the original Fusion Drive.
I tested the speed of this HDD when it was empty and it reported speeds of 105 read and 105 write (MB/s).
This is slower than a USB3 disk, but still acceptable. However now that I have put data on the disk, it reports speeds of approx 50 to 70 MB/s.
I was not expecting an internal disk to perform just marginally better than a USB2 disk and considerably worse (half speed) thank a USB3 disk.
Is this just the way it is, or could there be anything wrong?

 

[MBAir2010]

these Mini's have a slower processor that could be the cause of what your trying to achieve. does everything work? i had to violently unplug my mini just now because finder would not find and was unlaunchable.

 

[Wando64]

these Mini's have a slower processor that could be the cause of what your trying to achieve. does everything work? i had to violently unplug my mini just now because finder would not find and was unlaunchable.

Everything works well and all external disks and the internal SSD are fast as expected.
The only issue is the abysmal speed of the internal Apple HDD.
By the way, mine is a quad core i7. I wouldn't call it slow.

 

[jackerin]

However now that I have put data on the disk, it reports speeds of approx 50 to 70 MB/s.

Just checked with the Blackmagic speed test, also getting roughly the same results, so I think that is standard for a filled 5400rpm HDD...

 

[MBAir2010]

Everything works well and all external disks and the internal SSD are fast as expected.
The only issue is the abysmal speed of the internal Apple HDD.
By the way, mine is a quad core i7. I wouldn't call it slow.

oh, wow, seems like your are asking for help you really don't need.
enjoy your computing!

 

[ziggy29]

Same thing here. The internal HDDs (2x1 TB) are horribly slow. But since I now boot from external SSD (a Samsung T5), it is rarely an issue; I use the internals for backup and for data storage. I use CCC to copy over the SSD contents to the internal drive, and when I do boot from that internal HDD it takes 5 minutes or more to be ready for use. But to me, since I have the external SSD it's not been worth the hassle of messing with.

 

[nebo1ss]

I have a similar setup to you with a QUAD care I7 2012 mini and a 500 Meg SSD in slot one. My second disk is not a fusion drive but a regular HDD. I rarely use the second disk as I mostly use my Synology NAS for storage.

However. i have never considered the second disk slow. I will be home in about an hour and will run some test on the second disk and report back. You might just have a bad disk with a lot of errors.

 

[Wando64]

Just checked with the Blackmagic speed test, also getting roughly the same results, so I think that is standard for a filled 5400rpm HDD...

Thank you very much for testing this out for me.
I am shocked by the slow speed. I guess the Fusion set-up was doing a great job in hiding it.

 

[MBAir2010]

what is slow? anyways, im getting frustrated because im trying to send files to my macmini from macbook air through airdrop between 2 rooms now the mini need some acceptance after the 4th file transfer. with all the blazing speeds and thin lightweight computer apple makes, if i cannot type or send files like i once did in 2009, what good are these machines? i always hear how apple air drop and files exchange are not adequate, but this is a vital component of basic computing that is being ignored.

 

[bigfatipod]

I have the same mini as you/OP and started getting I/O errors a few months ago. I changed over to two pure SSDs and have been very pleased with the speed. Amazon had a decent sale on SSDs, so I got 2tb.
Would you be willing to ditch the old spinner and go straight up internal ssd?

 

[Wando64]

I have the same mini as you/OP and started getting I/O errors a few months ago. I changed over to two pure SSDs and have been very pleased with the speed. Amazon had a decent sale on SSDs, so I got 2tb.
Would you be willing to ditch the old spinner and go straight up internal ssd?

As I said, I have replace the smaller internal SSD with a 1tb SSD and I am running MacOS from there with very good speeds. However the HDD is in the Upper slot and to change that I would need to gut the mini entirely to get to the slot.
I was expecting the HDD to be slow, but not USB2 slow...

 

[redheeler]

However now that I have put data on the disk, it reports speeds of approx 50 to 70 MB/s.

Those are normal speeds for a 5400 RPM HDD. They are very slow.

 

[nebo1ss]

I had a chance to do some measurements on my 2012 Mac mini Quad core server and got the following results.

Internal secondary disk 88 write and 92 read. I also have an external spinner connected USB 3 so checked that as well and got the following results. 52 write and 60 read. My mac mini is the one that shipped with two internal 1 Tera Byte disks and i replaced one with an SSD. It is likely that my internal is a 7200 drive.

 

[bigfatipod]

As I said, I have replace the smaller internal SSD with a 1tb SSD and I am running MacOS from there with very good speeds. However the HDD is in the Upper slot and to change that I would need to gut the mini entirely to get to the slot.
I was expecting the HDD to be slow, but not USB2 slow...

that does sound pretty bad, so I would recommend pulling our that second drive - if you're comfortable tinkering. the owc videos were very useful. its a bit tougher than getting to that first drive, but at that point its not much more difficult.

 

[ElectronGuru]

The drive sounds fine but run this if you’re worried it failing:

https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx