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Upgrading OS X On 2009 Mac Mini

S

Sammy's

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 13, 2018
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Just swapped out the hard drive on my 2009 Mac Mini for an SSD. The optical drive no longer works but I was able to make a bootable flash drive from a disk of Snow Leopard v.10.6.3 that I had. The computer is up and running but I'm at a loss on how to update the OS from here. Before I swapped out the HD it was running El Capitan (which I believe is the last OS X that the computer will run).

Any help would be appreciated - thanks in advance!
 
Sammy's said:
Just swapped out the hard drive on my 2009 Mac Mini for an SSD. The optical drive no longer works but I was able to make a bootable flash drive from a disk of Snow Leopard v.10.6.3 that I had. The computer is up and running but I'm at a loss on how to update the OS from here. Before I swapped out the HD it was running El Capitan (which I believe is the last OS X that the computer will run).

Any help would be appreciated - thanks in advance!
Click to expand...


Can you clone the HDD you removed onto the SSD?
 
mr.steevo said:
Can you clone the HDD you removed onto the SSD?
Click to expand...

Not sure how to do that - I will have to look into it. Any advice?

I just searched purchases on the App store and it showed Mavericks and Yosemite (but no El Capitan) - there is a download option for both and I'm in the process of downloading Mavericks. Hopefully this will be successful and I will be able to jump to Yosemite from there. Any ideas on getting to El Capitan?
 
Sammy's said:
Not sure how to do that - I will have to look into it. Any advice?

I just searched purchases on the App store and it showed Mavericks and Yosemite (but no El Capitan) - there is a download option for both and I'm in the process of downloading Mavericks. Hopefully this will be successful and I will be able to jump to Yosemite from there. Any ideas on getting to El Capitan?
Click to expand...
See the "How to upgrade to OS X El Capitan" support link:
https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT206886
See section "4 Download OS X El Capitan" and click on the " Get El Capitan" link to be sent to App Store where you can download the full El Capitan installer.
 
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Can you put the drive you removed in a USB3 enclosure, boot externally from that, then clone that drive back on to your new internal one?
 
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I have just finished updating my brother's 2009 Mini. In installed a Patriot Blaze 120GB, replacing the original Hitachi 120GB spinner. I was able to update to El Cap - decided not to use dosdude's patcher (to a later release) as there is a risk of wifi not working. Works great. I had an issue with SATA negotiated link speed=1.5 Gbps (1/2 the capability of this mini's 3 Gbps). A known problem, which still worked better than the HDD. But, After resetting SMC and PRAm/nvram, it now appears to be at 3 Gbps.
 
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mr.steevo said:
Can you clone the HDD you removed onto the SSD?
Click to expand...

perform a complete TM backup of the old boot drive (use an external or secondary drive for the backup)

swap the boot drive

during first boot hit command + R

select "restore from TM backup" from the menu

select your latest backup and follow instructions

after installation everything should be right where you left it
 
Sammy's said:
That did the trick - Thanks!
Click to expand...
Hi, this link doesn't work with my computer. I have a Macbook 2014 running Yosemite. And nothing happens when I click Learn more. Does anyone know why I can't download the version from the above link on my computer. fyi, I have enough memory and storage. Should I download El CApitan 10.11.1 first? I can't find El Capitan 10.11. Please help, I'm stuck and scared I'll do something wrong and lose everything.
 
armelleforkids said:
Hi, this link doesn't work with my computer. I have a Macbook 2014 running Yosemite. And nothing happens when I click Learn more. Does anyone know why I can't download the version from the above link on my computer. fyi, I have enough memory and storage. Should I download El CApitan 10.11.1 first? I can't find El Capitan 10.11. Please help, I'm stuck and scared I'll do something wrong and lose everything.
Click to expand...

Step 4 - Click Get El Capitan. Did you try that?
 
I have the same model and I went tot the App Store and it wouldn’t let me update to 10.11.
So I did a bunch of searches to see if I could download it from elsewhere. I have my thumb drive created and I think this is where I got it from https://www.downloadelcapitan.com/download.html
When you get that then you need to make the thumb drive.
 
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