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won't work because the SSD is blank it doesn't have the hidden Lion recovery partition.
Did you even bother to read the link I gave?

Apple said:
Internet Recovery.
Help is everywhere.



If your Mac problem is a little less common — your hard drive has failed or you’ve installed a hard drive without OS X, for example — Internet Recovery takes over automatically. It downloads and starts Lion Recovery directly from Apple servers over a broadband Internet connection. And your Mac has access to the same Lion Recovery features online. Internet Recovery is built into every newly-released Mac starting with the Mac mini and MacBook Air.
 
So long as SSD has enough space to run Lion it should work fine. You should get a drive that is known to work well with Macs.

I believe it's that simple. Take a look at http://www.apple.com/macosx/recovery/

I read this I am getting a 2.5 mini this week Since I have a virgin clone just in case. I am going to test this out see how well it works. My internet does 15 mb down load 2 mb up load max. It would be a good experiment to see how fast and how good it works.
 
I read this I am getting a 2.5 mini this week Since I have a virgin clone just in case. I am going to test this out see how well it works. My internet does 15 mb down load 2 mb up load max. It would be a good experiment to see how fast and how good it works.

Took about 36 minutes from start to usable desktop for me on mine 25/20 package.
 
Thank u 4 this awesome thread! :)

Will save pics, and do SSD upgrade by myself! I was planning to go to service center, but now i see that this is no so hard as i thought.

:)
 
The server will need logic board to be slide the 1/2 inch. There is no slack in the drives. since I did the non server This is a guess but I am 95 percent sure!!!!



what makes the non server easy is you don't need to slide the logic board out in order to pull the drive out the empty space under it gives you wiggle room!

I was able to fit two drives into the non-server Mini physically without an issue, didn't have to move the logic board at all on installation or removal.

Of course, the second drive wasn't connected with a cable or anything, so that may change things.
 
I read this I am getting a 2.5 mini this week Since I have a virgin clone just in case. I am going to test this out see how well it works. My internet does 15 mb down load 2 mb up load max. It would be a good experiment to see how fast and how good it works.

Looking forward on your instruction of the 2.5 model with the video card.
Planning to replace the HD with OWC 60GB SSD.
I suppose the new SSD needs to be formatted in a specific format before instal and "recovery" ?
 
Looking forward on your instruction of the 2.5 model with the video card.
Planning to replace the HD with OWC 60GB SSD.
I suppose the new SSD needs to be formatted in a specific format before instal and "recovery" ?

the first install I used apple utility from a second apple machine(mac pro) to do a standard mac osx format onto the ssd. this install coming up I will demo the apple way and install via the net. to the ssd I put it in.
 
Please let us know. My set arrives tomorrow, if the sticks don't work I may just refuse delivery and go with the 2.5Ghz version w/4GB memory.

Good news to those interested in the Corsair 8GB set on Amazon:

I tried each stick one at a time. First sticked booted and passed memory tests. Second stick wouldn't boot. So I just have a bad stick. I'm going to RMA and (hopefully) get good sticks.
 
Good news to those interested in the Corsair 8GB set on Amazon:

I tried each stick one at a time. First sticked booted and passed memory tests. Second stick wouldn't boot. So I just have a bad stick. I'm going to RMA and (hopefully) get good sticks.

Sorry to be such a buzzkill, but I wouldn't be so positive if I were you, because if the RAM was to be faulty I think you would experience freezes and other bugs but it's unlikely that your mini would refuse to boot. Maybe there is a compatibility problem with the corsair RAM when 2 sticks, at the same time, are involved. My crucial 8gig kit should arrive tomorrow, worst case scenario on wednesday. I'll keep you posted.
 
Got my Crucial 8 gig set. Loaded up and worked fine. Initial AHT fine. Running extensive test now to be sure.
 
Sorry to be such a buzzkill, but I wouldn't be so positive if I were you, because if the RAM was to be faulty I think you would experience freezes and other bugs but it's unlikely that your mini would refuse to boot. Maybe there is a compatibility problem with the corsair RAM when 2 sticks, at the same time, are involved. My crucial 8gig kit should arrive tomorrow, worst case scenario on wednesday. I'll keep you posted.

The two sticks are identical. I tried one stick (so only 1x4GB) and Mac OS X booted. I tried the other stick, by itself, identical specifications, and it did not boot. One is good, one is bad.

While this does not guarantee that two good sticks are compatible, it does mean, in my case, that I have one good stick and one faulty stick.
 
Got my Crucial 8 gig set. Loaded up and worked fine. Initial AHT fine. Running extensive test now to be sure.

Same here! Just got my Crucial 8gb kit and so far so good : 97 tabs on Chrome, 21 tabs on Firefox, 11 på Safari, Mail, Photoshop, Skype, Itunes, 15 PDFs, Spotify, Word, Excel, Pages, VMware + others apps... everything runs flawlessly!!
 
The two sticks are identical. I tried one stick (so only 1x4GB) and Mac OS X booted. I tried the other stick, by itself, identical specifications, and it did not boot. One is good, one is bad.

While this does not guarantee that two good sticks are compatible, it does mean, in my case, that I have one good stick and one faulty stick.

ok ok, sorry. I didn't know you tried all that!
 
Same here! Just got my Crucial 8gb kit and so far so good : 97 tabs on Chrome, 21 tabs on Firefox, 11 på Safari, Mail, Photoshop, Skype, Itunes, 15 PDFs, Spotify, Word, Excel, Pages, VMware + others apps... everything runs flawlessly!!

Just wanna know which Mini you finally bought.

I'm a Web/graphic designer and I been torturing myself since the annoncement of the new mini to know which one I should buy for home working and other stuff as photoshop with sometimes heavy files/layers, After Effects barely...

At the end I was thinking of taking a big 27" iMac i5 on the Refurb store but the price is waaayy heavier ^^

Thanx in advance.
 
Phillip,

I did the raid 0 install just like you said, (2) 256 OCZ Vertex 3's =)

You are right thought, Lion currently has a bug regarding RAIDs.

I installed them just find and rebooted and got to the apple screen which just turned to a circle with a slash through it.

So currently running fine on 1 SSD OCZ, but sure wish I could raid these badboys!

Thanks for the tutorial, every thing you said worked perfect. I love SuperDuper!
 
Phillip,

I did the raid 0 install just like you said, (2) 256 OCZ Vertex 3's =)

You are right thought, Lion currently has a bug regarding RAIDs.

I installed them just find and rebooted and got to the apple screen which just turned to a circle with a slash through it.

So currently running fine on 1 SSD OCZ, but sure wish I could raid these badboys!

Thanks for the tutorial, every thing you said worked perfect. I love SuperDuper!

back those bad boys up. they are very fast but can crash. I just got a second 2.3 I have a 2.5 and a 2.7 coming. going to sell a few of them and keep 1 or 2 of them. I also ordered 5 16gb usb sticks from amazon. I think I will use them as restore sticks. I hope they will work. Kingston makes them.


http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Hi-s...38SA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311720764&sr=8-1


as for superduper it works better for me then Carbon Copy Cleaner CCC.
 
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Just wanna know which Mini you finally bought.

I'm a Web/graphic designer and I been torturing myself since the annoncement of the new mini to know which one I should buy for home working and other stuff as photoshop with sometimes heavy files/layers, After Effects barely...

At the end I was thinking of taking a big 27" iMac i5 on the Refurb store but the price is waaayy heavier ^^

Thanx in advance.

Well, it took me a while to figure out which one I would purchase. After a long analysis of my needs and by taking into account that my budget was quite limited (parisian students know what I'm talking about!!!), I finally chose the entry-level mac mini on which I've just upgraded the RAM to its maximum and switched the HDD for an SSD. I wanted to yield to the temptation to get the quad-core-powered mini but I had to be somewhat reasonable! I ain't a graphic designer, therefore my work with Photoshop is limited to simple tasks with a maximum of 40 tiny layers and basic effects, plus I don't do any video editing anymore so the GPU power offered by the HD3000 is enough for me. Not too long ago, some ppl were arguing over the fact that the Radeon 6630M GPU would bring much better performance for GPU-powered softwares. It might be worth spending an extra two-hundred then... or not!
 
@teebeau Ok ok thanks for your advices, I'm might go for the quad-core even though the HD 3000 make me inconfortable for the future...
 
Philip,

Once again I must say you're a clever fella.

Obviously with this you have swapped the OEM 500Gb HDD with a Samsung 256Gb SSD.

I note you're getting a 2.5 and 2.7... are you looking to add a 256Gb SSD along with the HDD on any of the other installs?

If installing the SSD as well as the HDD, does the mini have the connector cable and thermal wrap inside, or would this need to be sourced?


I would like to add an SSD, use that to run Lion, and then use the 500gb (or eventually a 1tb) HDD for putting my movies on, which will in turn be sat below my TV acting as a Media Centre... (far too powerful I know)

I assume I would need to firstly removed the HDD and re-format it... add the SSD and use the Lion Internet Recovery... does this recovery let you choose which disc to install on does anyone know? (if not, would have to add SSD first, recover, then add the HDD after).

Hope all that makes sense?!

Regards

Jim
 
Philip,

Once again I must say you're a clever fella.

Obviously with this you have swapped the OEM 500Gb HDD with a Samsung 256Gb SSD.

I note you're getting a 2.5 and 2.7... are you looking to add a 256Gb SSD along with the HDD on any of the other installs? no as of now no cables

If installing the SSD as well as the HDD, does the mini have the connector cable and thermal wrap inside, or would this need to be sourced?


{no a problem have to wait}

I would like to add an SSD, use that to run Lion, and then use the 500gb (or eventually a 1tb) HDD for putting my movies on, which will in turn be sat below my TV acting as a Media Centre... (far too powerful I know)

I assume I would need to firstly removed the HDD and re-format it... add the SSD and use the Lion Internet Recovery... does this recovery let you choose which disc to install on does anyone know? (if not, would have to add SSD first, recover, then add the HDD after).

(Just pull the internal hdd out and clone it to the ssd. put both drives back in and boot.

even though both drives are the same and can boot the mini will pick one when the system fires up you can then decide what or how you want to set the drives up. as long as the drives have a different name like mac hd and mac ssd having two osx that are the same is not a problem. if one crashes the other can still boot.)

Hope all that makes sense?!

Regards

Jim
look for answers above.. adding hdds or ssds will be wait and see who will sell the cables.
 
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Yes they are.

Proof (in French). Check the "vitesse de la liaison" [= link speed] line.

Très bien. How does this drive perform (or others with 6Gb) in the mini? I used the Disk Speed Test on the stock drive, which has a 3 Gb negotiated link (Toshiba controller), and it reported 180 MB/s write and 200 MB/s read. Pondering doing my own upgrade...
 
look for answers above.. adding hdds or ssds will be wait and see who will sell the cables.

Actually the hard drive flex cable from the server 2010 works just fine in the new Mac Mini 2011 for adding a second hard drive. The part is a bit pricey, but can be found here:

http://www.macpartsonline.com/922-9560-bottom-hard-drive-flex-cable-mini-server-mid-2010-a1347.html

I think eventually iFix and maybe even OWC will come out with a hard drive flex cable that will be cheaper. This part above is an actual apple OEM replacement part from what I understand.

There is a thread on this forum that confirms this works; I can't personally confirm it, but I have ordered the cable and should be able to confirm it late next week when mine arrives. Already installed a OWC Mercury Extreme 240gb SSD. OWC has already tested all there SSD drives and confirm them to be compatible, you can find that info on there web site.
 
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