Remove OSX From Secondary Drive

[570934]

I have an old Mac Mini mid 2011 which just serves as my media server, movies, photos etc. The original 512gig drive was having issues so I installed a second copy of OSX on a 1TB HDD which I installed when I first bought the Mini so I could boot the machine up to see what the original drive was doing. Dead drive but no problem everything is backed up and I never save anything to the OS drive anyway.

Bought a Crucial MX100 512gig SSD which will help speed her up nicely and installed a fresh copy directly onto the new drive. Now I am stuck as I have two copies of OS X installed and for the life of me I don't know how to remove the installation of OS X on the 1TB drive.

Is it as simple as just deleting the root OS X folders?

 

[jdogg836]

I have an old Mac Mini mid 2011 which just serves as my media server, movies, photos etc. The original 512gig drive was having issues so I installed a second copy of OSX on a 1TB HDD which I installed when I first bought the Mini so I could boot the machine up to see what the original drive was doing. Dead drive but no problem everything is backed up and I never save anything to the OS drive anyway.

Bought a Crucial MX100 512gig SSD which will help speed her up nicely and installed a fresh copy directly onto the new drive. Now I am stuck as I have two copies of OS X installed and for the life of me I don't know how to remove the installation of OS X on the 1TB drive.

Is it as simple as just deleting the root OS X folders?

Use Disk Utility to format the other drive. Back up any data you want to save off that drive first. Also, make sure you're formatting the right one.

 

[simonsi]

Also, make sure you're formatting the right one.

I didn't think DU would allow you to format a volume you have booted from? (although this could be a manufactured, hopefully, false memory, I've never tried it)

 

[jdogg836]

I didn't think DU would allow you to format a volume you have booted from? (although this could be a manufactured, hopefully, false memory, I've never tried it)

True, but I didn't want to assume how many drives the OP has connected.

 

[simonsi]

True, but I didn't want to assume how many drives the OP has connected.

Good point

 

[570934]

I can format the drive but it is full of my videos and family photos. I could as they are backed up but, I thought there would be an easy way of doing it

Any further suggestions?

 

[Fishrrman]

Any further suggestions?

Yes.

Leave the "second copy" of OS X -on- the 1tb HDD, right where it is now.
Even if you have your regular "working copy" of OS X on the SSD.

It's ALWAYS advisable to have a SECOND, fully-bootable copy of the OS close-at-hand.

It will not affect the day-to-day running of the OS on the SSD.
It will just "lie dormant where it is".
Until the point in the future where you may need it.

You could get into an "I can't boot!" moment with the SSD.
If that happens, it's a trivial matter to restart and hold the option key down until all your bootable volumes appear.
Then select the internal HDD, and boot from that.

Suggestion:
Boot from the 1tb HDD, and then partition the drive.
Leave the bootable partition large enough for the OS and some extra room.
Use the second partition for whatever general storage you wish.
This will create one extra icon on your desktop, but give you some "general storage space" withOUT a copy of the OS on it...

My opinion only.
Others will disagree.
Some will disagree vehemently.

 

[570934]

Yes.

Leave the "second copy" of OS X -on- the 1tb HDD, right where it is now.
Even if you have your regular "working copy" of OS X on the SSD.

It's ALWAYS advisable to have a SECOND, fully-bootable copy of the OS close-at-hand.

It will not affect the day-to-day running of the OS on the SSD.
It will just "lie dormant where it is".
Until the point in the future where you may need it.

You could get into an "I can't boot!" moment with the SSD.
If that happens, it's a trivial matter to restart and hold the option key down until all your bootable volumes appear.
Then select the internal HDD, and boot from that.

Suggestion:
Boot from the 1tb HDD, and then partition the drive.
Leave the bootable partition large enough for the OS and some extra room.
Use the second partition for whatever general storage you wish.
This will create one extra icon on your desktop, but give you some "general storage space" withOUT a copy of the OS on it...

My opinion only.
Others will disagree.
Some will disagree vehemently.

That's quite a good idea, I think I'll probably do that.

But, lol, for future reference how the hell can you uninstall OS X

 

[simonsi]

I can format the drive but it is full of my videos and family photos. I could as they are backed up but, I thought there would be an easy way of doing it

Any further suggestions?

Just delete the systems files on the 2nd drive. Formatting is the easy way but that isn't much harder, you won't get everything but you will regain about 98% of the space I would think.

I'd second having an alternate bootable source though, I f you want to tidy that up then create a small extra partition on the media HDD and clone the system files to that with CCC, then remove the systems files from your media drive so that <only> has media on it.

 

[570934]

Just delete the systems files on the 2nd drive. Formatting is the easy way but that isn't much harder, you won't get everything but you will regain about 98% of the space I would think.

I'd second having an alternate bootable source though, I f you want to tidy that up then create a small extra partition on the media HDD and clone the system files to that with CCC, then remove the systems files from your media drive so that <only> has media on it.

That's what I have now done. Having a few gig sitting in the wings with a back up OSX isn't a bad idea. Thanks for the help chaps.