Adding Second Hard Drive to Mac Mini

[xlii]

Same problem here. Everything went great except the antenna grate. I spent more time trying to get it back in place then it took to do the complete dissasembly reassembly. The key is not to force it. The top edges of the grate have to fit in the grooved edge of the housing. I used a paper clip and bent one end into a small hook which helped to align it up. I'm not sure what I did but it finally popped into place and the screws magically aligned. Elation!

I have a set of dental picks that I use for circuit board repair. They came in handy (like you) on the antenna grate, and when I removed the IR board cable.
In the directions they show removing the IR board cable by putting the plastic sponger under the wires but there was no way that sponger that OWC gave us was going to fit under those wires... thus I broke out the dental picks. The paper clip would also work there in a pinch.

 

[baldjj54]

Mac Mini 2012 wont start up and beeps at me!

Just got finished installing a new SSD and new 7200rpm HD to replace the stock Apple HD on my Mac Mini 2012 (2.6 quad core i7). I used the OWC installation kit and followed the video every step of the way. There were a few troublesome spots during my installation but nothing that should raise too much concern. The biggest hickup was getting the power supply wires to fit back during reassembly.

When I try to power up, the white light goes on, but the mac won't start up. Every 5 seconds or so a medium length beep sounds off. Holding the power button does nothing. The only way to stop the beeping is to unplug the power supply.

Did I royally screw up my installation some how? Or perhaps damage something? I am still in the return time frame, but I would rather not resort to that. Any help would be much appreciated!

I am very scared

 

[Rob.G]

Just got finished installing a new SSD and new 7200rpm HD to replace the stock Apple HD on my Mac Mini 2012 (2.6 quad core i7). I used the OWC installation kit and followed the video every step of the way. There were a few troublesome spots during my installation but nothing that should raise too much concern. The biggest hickup was getting the power supply wires to fit back during reassembly.

When I try to power up, the white light goes on, but the mac won't start up. Every 5 seconds or so a medium length beep sounds off. Holding the power button does nothing. The only way to stop the beeping is to unplug the power supply.

Did I royally screw up my installation some how? Or perhaps damage something? I am still in the return time frame, but I would rather not resort to that. Any help would be much appreciated!

I am very scared

The fact that it's beeping is a good sign; it means it's not dead.

Pull your memory out and reseat it, then try again. That may be all it is; I don't remember. If not, pull it apart again and put it back together, being VERY sure to get all the connections together good.

Rob

 

[baldjj54]

The fact that it's beeping is a good sign; it means it's not dead.

Pull your memory out and reseat it, then try again. That may be all it is; I don't remember. If not, pull it apart again and put it back together, being VERY sure to get all the connections together good.

Rob

I already tried reseating the ram but the problem still persisted. I am going to try dissembling and resembling tomorrow. Too stressed out right now. Thank you for the advice though Rob! I will update as soon as i get to it.

 

[Rob.G]

I already tried reseating the ram but the problem still persisted. I am going to try dissembling and resembling tomorrow. Too stressed out right now. Thank you for the advice though Rob! I will update as soon as i get to it.

Good luck!

I'm trying to remember what the single long beep means. It's been years since I built my own PCs. It might have something to do with video, but the mini doesn't have a separate video card. The connections in there are fairly simple.. the airport thing, the two SATA connections, the power supply... one more I think but I can't remember what it was.

Still, yeah, pull it out again... then put it back again and just be super careful. Pay close attention when you disassemble in case you spot something you might have missed before. I had OWC's video up on my iPad while I did it, and went entirely by that. I would watch, pause, etc. I'd rewind when I wanted to see something again.

If you get it back together and still have the problem, pull the memory again. Put one DIMM back in and see what happens. I've found it's easy to not get the memory seated in all the way even when you THINK it's in right. So pay close attention to that too.

Rob

 

[baldjj54]

If you get it back together and still have the problem, pull the memory again. Put one DIMM back in and see what happens. I've found it's easy to not get the memory seated in all the way even when you THINK it's in right. So pay close attention to that too.

Rob

Great News, Im just a newb!! Turns out it was the memory, I didn't even have to take it apart again. The easiest part of the installation and I managed to mess it up haha.

It took 4 times of reseating the ram before i got it to fit. For some reason I had to use an uncomfortable amount of force to get the top DIMM back in... And its also very easy to "THINK" you did it right lol.

But everything is back in place and its running beautifully! Thanks again for the help! If you hadn't mentioned the ram again I probably would have over looked it and tore into the mini for no reason.

- A Happy Mini Owner

 

[beyond]

Great News, Im just a newb!! Turns out it was the memory, I didn't even have to take it apart again. The easiest part of the installation and I managed to mess it up haha.

It took 4 times of reseating the ram before i got it to fit. For some reason I had to use an uncomfortable amount of force to get the top DIMM back in... And its also very easy to "THINK" you did it right lol.

But everything is back in place and its running beautifully! Thanks again for the help! If you hadn't mentioned the ram again I probably would have over looked it and tore into the mini for no reason.

- A Happy Mini Owner

Lol

 

[sc25893]

I'm still awaiting my kit from OWC, will be 8 working days tomorrow so hoping it will arrive soon.

Will get the SSD in readiness, although after reading a lot of these threads, I'm pretty worried about it even though I'm very careful when doing jobs like this.

This one was recommended earlier in this thread:

http://www.ebuyer.com/408854-ocz-120gb-agility-3-ssd-agt3-25sat3-120g-20

Not really sure which ones would be better than others?! This is a good price though and I don't think I need a 256GB one, I don't use a tonne of software, biggest things I use are MS office and Adobe fireworks/photoshop. The rest is textwrangler/codekit/filezilla/mamp.

After sending my 2012 mac mini back for a refund, I'm on the 2011 i5 2.5GHz dual core, 6630 graphics. Hoping this will give it a little kick on the speed front!

Well done to all the others that have managed to get the SSD in without a hitch!

Sam.

**EDIT** went for the OCZ 128GB Vertex 4 Sata III-6Gb/s 2.5 Inch Internal SSD in the end, was a fairly good price and I read in a few places that it performs better than the agility 3. Hoping I wont screw it up putting it in the machine.

There's one on ebay right now where they have unfortunately done exactly that!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Apple-Mac...mputing_Apple_Desktops_CV&hash=item2c6a771939

Grab it though if you know how to fix it (and can also cope with blank/snowy screens on the intel graphics)

 

[saha-med]

Hi guys,

was wondering if its able to add a second hard drive (SSD) to the cheapest mac mini 2012 (2.5GHz Mac mini)?

Because i see there is not option to add a turbodrive to it.


Thanks in advance

 

[Rob.G]

Hi guys,

was wondering if its able to add a second hard drive (SSD) to the cheapest mac mini 2012 (2.5GHz Mac mini)?

Because i see there is not option to add a turbodrive to it.


Thanks in advance

Yes, just get the OWC kit.

Rob

 

[Yebubbleman]

Ah sorry didn't see that, it's been a long day

I guess the easiest thing to do is buy this kit to save messing about!

Will be ordering the memory from Crucial because that seems to be what allot of people go for, they also have an easy Memory Selector on their site.

While I'm here, would I put the SSD in the place of the old one or in the empty space? (to make it the boot/master drive) and how do I get the OS on it?

Can you tell I have only recently switched from Winblows haha

1. Crucial RAM has always worked well for me. I've used it in five out of the seven Macs that I've owned and used (the other two shipped from Apple with the RAM maxed out, so there was no point in buying Crucial RAM for those machines). It works great, and if it doesn't, you can invoke their warranty to RMA a bad stick of RAM and get one that isn't bad.

2. The Master/Slave concept in PCs is long antequated. Though even here, it doesn't matter which SATA connection you hook which drive to. Once you tell the firmware via the Startup Disk preferences pane in System Preferences which OS to boot, it assumes that you're going to boot from that OS until you either boot holding down the option key on your keyboard, or until you next change your preference in said System Preferences pane. I had a 2010 Mac mini Server model which also has two drives and I set them up on a software RAID 0 to make OS X see them as one volume, in which case, the firmware just saw one bootable volume. But even so, the Apple EFI firmware is much more flexible than some of the older BIOS firmwares of old. Then again, so is the BIOS firmware on newer PC motherboards.

 

[saha-med]

Yes, just get the OWC kit.

Rob

Awesome

Leads me to figure out why apple didnt allow a turbodrive upgrade....

in imac its understood as the cheapest imac only has 1 hdd connection or something like that.
But in a mac mini fully capable of 2 drive, hmm...

 

[sc25893]

It only took 8 days to get to the UK for me! Also didn't have to pay any fees

Lucky you! Only taken about 10 working days but mine is at the post office and I need to pay £13.33!! This includes an £8 royal mail 'handling' charge.

So all in all, about £50 for a poxy little toolkit. I've got my vertex 4 ready to install, just gotta go and collect my tools, and pay, again.

Gonna be heartbroken if this doesn't go smoothly.

Sam.

 

[That-Guy]

Lucky you! Only taken about 10 working days but mine is at the post office and I need to pay £13.33!! This includes an £8 royal mail 'handling' charge.

So all in all, about £50 for a poxy little toolkit. I've got my vertex 4 ready to install, just gotta go and collect my tools, and pay, again.

Gonna be heartbroken if this doesn't go smoothly.

Sam.

How come you have to pay? I never had to pay anything?

Very strange!

 

[sc25893]

How come you have to pay? I never had to pay anything?

Lol, because Royal Mail is a bunch of arse!

Maybe customs only check a few, I got unlucky.

Sam.

 

[Deathwish86]

You can also order from macupgrade.com. It's within the EU so you don't have ro pay addtional taxea. That's what I did, not really sure if it's cheaper than OWC but I did received the package in 3-4 days.

 

[sc25893]

You can also order from macupgrade.com. It's within the EU so you don't have ro pay addtional taxea. That's what I did, not really sure if it's cheaper than OWC but I did received the package in 3-4 days.

I'll bear that in mind should I need another one (!!).



Sam.

 

[sc25893]

Have a look at THIS POST I put together for setting the drive up. You just run the Internet Restore and Install Mountain Lion on SSD and Wipe original drive to use as storage.

Ok, so the SSD is in, took about the last hour or so, very carefully. Nothing snapped, all went back together ok, no problems, just a very bright light on it so I could constantly look around and get good views of what I was doing, plus some patience. I can easily see how bits have ended up snapping off for some people.

Seems having to take it out to send in for a repair would be a bit of a pain though! Hoping for no breakdowns.

Anyway, I'm still using my HDD right now so I need to reformat both drives, install lion on SSD, then move home folder to use HDD as storage.

See you on the other side!

Sam.

 

[That-Guy]

Ok, so the SSD is in, took about the last hour or so, very carefully. Nothing snapped, all went back together ok, no problems, just a very bright light on it so I could constantly look around and get good views of what I was doing, plus some patience. I can easily see how bits have ended up snapping off for some people.

Seems having to take it out to send in for a repair would be a bit of a pain though! Hoping for no breakdowns.

Anyway, I'm still using my HDD right now so I need to reformat both drives, install lion on SSD, then move home folder to use HDD as storage.

See you on the other side!

Sam.

Great Stuff

Let us know how you get on!

 

[Rob.G]

Ok, so the SSD is in, took about the last hour or so, very carefully. Nothing snapped, all went back together ok, no problems, just a very bright light on it so I could constantly look around and get good views of what I was doing, plus some patience. I can easily see how bits have ended up snapping off for some people.

Seems having to take it out to send in for a repair would be a bit of a pain though! Hoping for no breakdowns.

Anyway, I'm still using my HDD right now so I need to reformat both drives, install lion on SSD, then move home folder to use HDD as storage.

See you on the other side!

Sam.

Unless you WANT a fresh install, get Carbon Copy Cloner and clone it. Fully-functional 30-day trial. That's what I used; was very quick and much simpler than a total reinstall.

Rob

 

[sc25893]

I wanted a fresh install but thanks for the info.

I installed on SSD, all going well. Followed the guide to move my home folder onto the HDD. Right clicked in admin > changed home folder.

Restarted, all seemed ok, deleted folder 'Sam' at Users/Sam (now that I'm using volumes/SSD-VERTEX/Users/Sam - or something like that).

Restarted, now locked out. You are unable to log in to the user account 'Sam' at this time.

So, nearly a success. Not sure why this has happened. Do I need to make the user home folder a different name on the HDD?

I'm using the correct password but not letting me in. Any ideas?

Sam.

 

[That-Guy]

I wanted a fresh install but thanks for the info.

I installed on SSD, all going well. Followed the guide to move my home folder onto the HDD. Right clicked in admin > changed home folder.

Restarted, all seemed ok, deleted folder 'Sam' at Users/Sam (now that I'm using volumes/SSD-VERTEX/Users/Sam - or something like that).

Restarted, now locked out. You are unable to log in to the user account 'Sam' at this time.

So, nearly a success. Not sure why this has happened. Do I need to make the user home folder a different name on the HDD?

I'm using the correct password but not letting me in. Any ideas?

Sam.

Sounds like you didn't point to the exact same location that you moved your home folder too.

Not being able to log in means it cannot find the home folder.

This is what I have in my advanced options:

/Volumes/Data/myusername

Then the home folder is on the root of my second hard drive.

 

[sc25893]

Do you think maybe me using:

volumes/SSD-VERTEX/Users/Sam

was the problem?? I have a folder Users in the root and then my home folder inside that.

But not being able to find the home folder sounds like it's looking for Users/Sam, i.e. the folder I deleted. It shouldn't be looking for that one anyway.

I don't mind re-installing and giving it another shot. Got no data on the drives anyway.

Sam.

 

[That-Guy]

Do you think maybe me using:

volumes/SSD-VERTEX/Users/Sam

was the problem?? I have a folder Users in the root and then my home folder inside that.

But not being able to find the home folder sounds like it's looking for Users/Sam, i.e. the folder I deleted. It shouldn't be looking for that one anyway.

I don't mind re-installing and giving it another shot. Got no data on the drives anyway.

Sam.

Is Sam your full account name? and not your display name?

 

[sc25893]

Is Sam your full account name? and not your display name?

Yeah, full account name.

Display and account are both Sam (capitalized).

I'm the only user but I thought having my home folder as a subfolder of a users folder wouldn't be a problem seeing as you'd need to do that if there were multiple users.

volumes/ssd/Users/Sam should work just fine in theory for a home folder.

Sam.

**EDIT** I'm trying again, this time I will create a second account with the home folder on the HDD. Then logout of the 1st account and access the 2nd one. Fingers crossed.