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Upgrading Mac Mini -- Questions

yellowhelicopter said:
95C or F? If it's 95C I do think it's the exact reason why it's so slow and not reliable.
Click to expand...

If it was 95 Celsius on top of the unit it would be impossible to touch and the Mac itself would not last long.

3 things to check:

1. Is the fusion drive over 90% full? If it's that full the Mac might not have enough working space and will slow down.
2. Check Activity Monitor's Memory tab to see if you're using a lot of Swap memory - that will have an impact on your drive.
3. I don't know a lot about fusion drives but can they be defragged? Does the First Aid option on Disk Utility help? You could also load the Blackmagic Disk Speed test from the Mac App Store to test the performance of the Fusion Drive.
4. Could the hard drive actually be going faulty? I have had a couple of hard drives go faulty on me but rather than exhibiting the usual click of death and failing altogether one of them simply had extremely poor performance on primary OS and became extremely hot on the outside case too (of the hard drive, not the PC). In the end disk diagnosis suggested that something was up and I RMA'd the disk. If the hard drive is ridiculously hot to touch I'd replace it. Easier said than done in a 2014 Mac mini I'm afraid.

If you can replace the internal hard drive then putting in a SATA SSD would give it a massive quality of life boost.

And if the T7 gives your Mini a new lease of life that's also got to be seen as a sign of a failing hard drive.
 
1. Connect the t7 to the Mac
2. Open Disk Utility
3. Go to the view menu and choose "show all devices" (if this choice is there).
If the choice IS NOT there, don't worry about it, go to step 4
4. ERASE the t7 drive:
a. If you're using Mojave or Catalina, choose APFS with GUID partition format
b. If you're using High Sierra or earlier, choose Mac OS extended with journaling enabled, GUID partition format
5. Once the drive is erased, quit disk utility and open CarbonCopyCloner
IMPORTANT: If you're using Catalina 10.15.5, you need the very latest version of CCC, downloadable from their webpage, to ensure the clone is bootable.
6. Just "clone everything" from the internal drive to the external t7.
7. When CCC is done, quit it and open startup disk preference pane
8. Click the lock, enter your password. Now click on the icon for the t7 and click "restart".
9. Do you get a good boot? Go to "about this Mac" to be sure you're booted from the t7. If you are, you're done.
 
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If I do this, won't I end up with a copy of my hard drive on the T7? Should I delete the stuff off the hard drive after?
Am I better off only putting certain apps onto the external drive? The operating system, Adobe and other large apps? And leaving other stuff on the hard drive?
 
If all your files won't fit on the SSD, Carbon Copy will allow you to choose only the files that you want to clone. But if everything fits, I would move it all to the SSD. You can do whatever you like with the internal disk afterwards, everything will just remain as-is unless you change something there. You could use it as a backup if you like by cloning from the SSD to the internal disk.

If it turns out that the internal drive is starting to fail, then obviously it would be a bad idea to continue using it. I setup a 2012 Mini for my daughter's family with an external SSD, erased the internal drive and then set it up for time machiine backups of the SSD. However, evidently the internal drive was dying and started to throw off errors a few months later, which caused some big problems. To make a long story short, we just gave up on that Mini and I bought them a MacBook Air to replace it.

A bad internal disk could potentially be a pain, since it will always mount automatically whenever you boot the Mini and any errors could affect other things. Also, if the wireless mouse/keyboard is related to your problems, switching to an external SSD isn't likely to help. If you continue having problems, you should really check that out by trying hardwired peripherals. Maybe you could borrow one from a friend or family member if you don't have one? A PC mouse/keyboard should also work.
 
Everything is so fricking hard.
I erased the T7 and reformatted to APFS with GUID. I used CCC to clone my hard drive onto the T7. Selected the T7 as the startup. But when I tried to restart the computer, it started to install the Samsung Portable SSD software onto the T7. The install gets to the "updating preboot volume" and seems to freeze. I did a force quite and tried to delete every "Samsung portable" file on my hard drive and the T7. I ejected the T7. But when I plugged it back in, the installer began to run again.

According to Samsung's manual, by reformatting the T7, I should have deleted the software.
 
Ok, I got this to work. I copied my internal drive onto the T7 and set the T7 as the start up disc. I still have my internal drive.
Does that mean that the computer is only using the T7 and the apps on the T7? For example, if I open Adobe, it's going to open the version on the T7, not the internal drive?

The positive is that it seems to have fixed my jittery mouse problem.
However, I can't say that I notice anything else running much faster. The start up time still seems slow -- at least not as fast as I expect given what I've read about booting up from an SSD. Similarly, switching between user accounts still has a bit of a lag. Not terrible, about 5 seconds or so. But it used to be instantaneous.

I'll see how the other apps work.

Thanks again for all the help.
 
Download BlackMagic Speed Test from the App Store (it's free).
Run it on the t7.
Post the results here.
 
Hrothgar said:
Ok, I got this to work. I copied my internal drive onto the T7 and set the T7 as the start up disc. I still have my internal drive.
Does that mean that the computer is only using the T7 and the apps on the T7? For example, if I open Adobe, it's going to open the version on the T7, not the internal drive?

The positive is that it seems to have fixed my jittery mouse problem.
However, I can't say that I notice anything else running much faster. The start up time still seems slow
Click to expand...

If the apps are on the T7, then yes it will launch on the T7. Also make sure the Adobe app uses the T7 as its cache drive as it may currently be setup to cache on your Fusion drive.

Set up content caching on Mac

On your Mac, turn content caching on or off, set the cache size, share cached content with iOS or iPadOS devices, or delete cached content.
support.apple.com

Are you running on Catalina? Catalina does make your older hardware run a bit slower, plus the boot up is slower as well since it is built with security in mind. It needs to verify the external copy of the OS before it allows execution. If you have it inside your Mac Mini and on the Mini's SATA bus, then it can boot faster.
 
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You should see speeds similar to this with your t7. I have two 500gb T3's, a 1TB T3 and a 4TB Oyen SSD and they all clock just about the same on the Mini.

samsung1tb.jpg



FWIW, this is what I get from the 128gb internal Apple SSD that I split from the fusion drive in my 2014 Mini, it is considerably faster.

mini2014-128ssd.png
 
I spoke too soon about my jittery mouse problems being fixed.

Here is a screen shot of the Blackmagic speed test. Something odd.

DiskSpeedTest.png
 
Boyd01 said:
Those numbers look about right. I know you don't want to hear it again, but you really should try using a hardwired keyboard/mouse.... ;)
Click to expand...

Nooo!!! I have so many cords!!!!
(And I've never used a corded keyboard or mouse with this machine. I don't see why I should need to start. There has to be a problem.)
 
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Hrothgar said:
Nooo!!! I have so many cords!!!!
(And I've never used a corded keyboard or mouse with this machine. I don't see why I should need to start. There has to be a problem.)
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, Apple has pointed out that some USB 3 devices can generate RF interference around 2.4 GHz, which is the frequency used for Bluetooth (2.4 to 2.485 GHz) and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. At its worst, this can disrupt Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections between a Mac and other devices.

And that is what you are experiencing with your setup. Your T7 is interfering with your bluetooth setup. Happened to my Air as well with my external Adata SSD and had to do screen share with my Mini to use my Mini's wireless Apple keyboard and mouse via Thunderbolt or using my Thunderbolt hub to gain USB ports and use my Adata external USB 3 SSD from there and then no problem with Bluetooth. A wired keyboard/mouse is a much cheaper solution.
 
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Does your Logitech mouse/keyboard use a dongle? Also, does your monitor have USB inputs? I have my Logitech K260 wireless mouse/keyboard running from my monitor instead of the mini and I have no issues.
 
Boyd01 said:
Based on an earlier post by the OP, he is using something like this, which I think is proprietary and not Bluetooth

www.logitech.com

Logitech Unifying Receiver for Connecting Multiple Devices

www.logitech.com www.logitech.com
Click to expand...

Looks like Logitech Unifying uses 2.4GHz wireless. I still think it would be wise to at least try to move the receiver further away from the mini to see if that helps with the interference. Not too hard and the OP has nothing to lose.
 
Well, you know how a new Logitech keyboard/mouse package comes with a long usb cord that has a USB-A male on one and and a USB-A female on the other and you don't know what it does because nothing in the packaging or the user manual mentions it?

Yeah. My bad. :rolleyes:
 
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