Whats the biggest Drive for 2012 Mac Mini?

[gpspad]

I run an old 2012 mac mini with a fusion drive as a flex server. The Plex DVR keeps filling it up.

Whats the biggest old fashion spin drive I could install to act as DVR storage?

I guess my other option is installing a 4TB SSD, but not sure the mini could handle it.

Any idea on maximizing storage in an old 2012 mac mini?

 

[MBAir2010]

4TB is correct on the ssd
OWC said 2TB spinning drive, from what i remembered several years ago.
several MFusers have 4TB running successfully, but there was less wiggle room

this morning I inserted an SSD drive on my mini without removing the RAM or fan,
just lifted the silver antenna grid to the side, if this tip helps.

you could stack 2 and run both drives separate, but i dont know if together.

I hoped this info helped!

 

[dazey]

have A 4tb Ssd and a 500Gb Ssd in mine and am changing the 500Gb for another 4tb. Second drive kit was only £10 from eBay!

 

[Neodym]

External 3.5” USB drive with 12+TB …

 

[InuNacho]

you could stack 2 and run both drives separate, but i dont know if together.

Yes you can RAID 0 the drives to have a big single drive. For example 2x 4TB would be one big fast 8TB BUT if either drive fails you lose everything. Regular backups are required.
I do this with several SSDs but wouldn't try it with regular spinning drives.

 

[MBAir2010]

Yes you can RAID 0 the drives to have a big single drive. For example 2x 4TB would be one big fast 8TB BUT if either drive fails you lose everything. Regular backups are required.
I do this with several SSDs but wouldn't try it with regular spinning drives.

thanks for the repsonce- i have been contemplating adding another drive
and Catalina this week but ran into problems partitioning an external drive as a test.

i figured the mac mini would either run both or separate but did now know for sure.
does the mini know there are 2 disks and run that as one or one is used as an external drive?

in 2012 i did purchase a stock i5 mini with a spinning disk that did fine until High Sierra
and i never thought upgrading would be this easy or worth when i sold the mini in 2019.
rewind several weeks ago when i needed to install a drive this procedure was much easier than fixit proclaimed.

i have the extra port connector, tools and 2 drives, but won't risk double running Mojave and Catalina because anytime i installed Catalina i had to erase the drive, even on the external ones.

wow, 8tb, i hope there is never need for more than 2 TB on a my computer or i should leave my sunny habitat!

 

[InuNacho]

thanks for the repsonce- i have been contemplating adding another drive
and Catalina this week but ran into problems partitioning an external drive as a test.

i figured the mac mini would either run both or separate but did now know for sure.
does the mini know there are 2 disks and run that as one or one is used as an external drive?

in 2012 i did purchase a stock i5 mini with a spinning disk that did fine until High Sierra
and i never thought upgrading would be this easy or worth when i sold the mini in 2019.
rewind several weeks ago when i needed to install a drive this procedure was much easier than fixit proclaimed.

i have the extra port connector, tools and 2 drives, but won't risk double running Mojave and Catalina because anytime i installed Catalina i had to erase the drive, even on the external ones.

wow, 8tb, i hope there is never need for more than 2 TB on a my computer or i should leave my sunny habitat!

I have a 2011 Mini but haven't tooled around with it enough to add secondary drives or anything.
I used to have a 2012 cMBP with 2x 1TB drives in a RAID 0 before I retired it. On I believe all SATA only Macs you can make a RAID 0 from nothing but simple 2.5 adapters.

 

[MBAir2010]

I have a 2011 Mini but haven't tooled around with it enough to add secondary drives or anything.
I used to have a 2012 cMBP with 2x 1TB drives in a RAID 0 before I retired it. On I believe all SATA only Macs you can make a RAID 0 from nothing but simple 2.5 adapters.

thanks again!
i need to find out what RAID is exactly, which i might already know.
perhaps sometime being happy with what i have should be good enough!

what happened to the MBP '12?