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Best SSD for Mac Mini 2011?

applemike68 said:
Just received my new 830 SSD and installed it but the computer only reads the USB boot drive it will not find the SSD . What am I doing wrong?
Click to expand...

you probably haven't formatted the ssd yet. go to disc utility and format it to mac os extended (journaled). then your computer will find your shiny new ssd :D

I went to install osx just today after installing my new ssd and the same thing it wouldn't see the ssd and i remembered that it hasn't been formatted yet. so i went back into the disc utility menu formatted it and wallah!

hope that helps.
 
macuser86 said:
you probably haven't formatted the ssd yet. go to disc utility and format it to mac os extended (journaled). then your computer will find your shiny new ssd :D

I went to install osx just today after installing my new ssd and the same thing it wouldn't see the ssd and i remembered that it hasn't been formatted yet. so i went back into the disc utility menu formatted it and wallah!

hope that helps.
Click to expand...

Okay, dumb question how do I format it if the computer can't see it? I'm replacing my old drive

Thanks
 
Reread the first paragraph of his reply to you. He provided the information there.

Note: Disk Utility is in the Utilities Folder in your Applications.
 
cvaldes said:
Reread the first paragraph of his reply to you. He provided the information there.

Note: Disk Utility is in the Utilities Folder in your Applications.
Click to expand...

I bet he is saying he can't see it in disk utility. Not sure how to address that.
 
Usually installing an unformatted drive will result in a pop-up dialog box at boot informing you the drive isn't recognized and provides a button to launch Disk Utility to initialize it. If that didn't happen ... and it isn't seen in Disk Utility, I would suspect either the drive isn't connected properly to data and power ... or that the new drive is defective.

Installing a drive in a Mac Mini is slightly difficult and the cable/connectors are fragile and the connector is difficult to attach securely. Was the SSD a replacement for the original HD or was it added as a second drive to a non-optical mini?



-howard
 
Thanks for all the suggestions, I thought as well that the computer would at least see the SSD so I could format. Hence, my earlier question, but it does not. I've taken apart the computer four times but still it will not find it. But if I re-install the old HD it works like a charm. Now on to my other problem, I think (I know) I was getting a little frustrated and pulled to hard on the fan cable and it stripped the wires out of the connector. Now I'm screwed, no fan...Right now it is sitting on a laptop fan and is working great but is very loud...I guess I will have to take it into Apple for a repair. By the way, I will send the SSD back to Amazon.
 
applemike68 said:
Thanks for all the suggestions, I thought as well that the computer would at least see the SSD so I could format. Hence, my earlier question, but it does not. I've taken apart the computer four times but still it will not find it. But if I re-install the old HD it works like a charm. Now on to my other problem, I think (I know) I was getting a little frustrated and pulled to hard on the fan cable and it stripped the wires out of the connector. Now I'm screwed, no fan...Right now it is sitting on a laptop fan and is working great but is very loud...I guess I will have to take it into Apple for a repair. By the way, I will send the SSD back to Amazon.
Click to expand...

Can you not insert them back in like this member was doing?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1413788/

I had my M4 not show up before when connected externally, left it plugged in, it showed up 10 minutes later, weird.
 
I slightly damaged my fan connector too while trying to carefully remove it. I broke the little plastic "retention" bar across the back of one of the wires allowing it to easily come out of the housing. Fortunately, when I re-attached the fan connector I was able to insert the wire first, then snap the connector into place and the wire was secure. I think a tiny drop of epoxy might actually repair it, but I am going to leave it alone as long as it holds.

I would imagine a replacement fan should be available somewhere for sale as that is a high-failure rate component on most computers?


-howard
 
Supra Mac said:
Can you not insert them back in like this member was doing?

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1413788/

I had my M4 not show up before when connected externally, left it plugged in, it showed up 10 minutes later, weird.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the pictures, not only did i do that but i also broke the plastic piece that connects to the board. I guess you could soder this back on, but I'm not going to try. THis was my first mac tear down, i've done countless pc's with no issues. Oh well, live an learn. THanks for all the comments....
 
I had the same problem with my Samsung 830 SSD. The Mac Mini didn't find it during the new installation, so what i did was the following:

I had an old 2.5" HDD enclosure and place the SDD in there, hooked it up to my macbook air or the Mac Mini with the old hard drive in it and formatted the drive using disk utility. Then i placed it back in the mini and everything went smoothly after that.

It was a bit of a hassle at first, but now my new Base Mini 2011 works like a dream. It is crazy fast with the 830 SSD and 8Gb of memory! Make sure after installation you enable trim with the trim enabler: http://www.groths.org/?page_id=322

Good luck!
 
vandoorn said:
I had the same problem with my Samsung 830 SSD. The Mac Mini didn't find it during the new installation, so what i did was the following:

I had an old 2.5" HDD enclosure and place the SDD in there, hooked it up to my macbook air or the Mac Mini with the old hard drive in it and formatted the drive using disk utility. Then i placed it back in the mini and everything went smoothly after that.

It was a bit of a hassle at first, but now my new Base Mini 2011 works like a dream. It is crazy fast with the 830 SSD and 8Gb of memory! Make sure after installation you enable trim with the trim enabler: http://www.groths.org/?page_id=322

Good luck!
Click to expand...

Excellent, same mini and precisely the same upgrade (sammy 830 256Gb SSD and 8Gb RAM).

I Will probably perform the upgrade tommorrow...

One question: my install is pretty new and is set as i want it to be - so a good clone tool would be..?

Thanks in advance. :)


Regards
Kenni
 
I have no idea how to do that, but since the installation is practically new can't u do it with out the cloning? Then you can start really fresh :)
 
Upgraded today:
Dual harddrive setup (original harddrive and a Samsung 830 series 256Gb SSD) and 8Gb (2x4Gb) memory.

- Formatted my SSD
- Cloned the original disk to the SSD (SSD was in a USB enclosure) with Carbon Copy Cloner
- Took the mini apart and mounted both disks (bought the additional harddrive cable), mounted the 2x4Gb as well
- assembled it and it started on the old harddrive, logged on and selected the SSD as startup disk
- Rebooted and enabled TRIM and rebooted again
- Erased old harddrive and made it ready as secondary drive, primarily for iTunes and backups

The mini is flying now

Regards
Kenni
 
KenniJH said:
Upgraded today:
Dual harddrive setup (original harddrive and a Samsung 830 series 256Gb SSD) and 8Gb (2x4Gb) memory.

- Formatted my SSD
- Cloned the original disk to the SSD (SSD was in a USB enclosure) with Carbon Copy Cloner
- Took the mini apart and mounted both disks (bought the additional harddrive cable), mounted the 2x4Gb as well
- assembled it and it started on the old harddrive, logged on and selected the SSD as startup disk
- Rebooted and enabled TRIM and rebooted again
- Erased old harddrive and made it ready as secondary drive, primarily for iTunes and backups

The mini is flying now

Regards
Kenni
Click to expand...

Great to hear! I must say, I'm loving the Mac Mini with the SSD and 8GB or rams. Best choice so far :)
 
KenniJH said:
Upgraded today:
Dual harddrive setup (original harddrive and a Samsung 830 series 256Gb SSD) and 8Gb (2x4Gb) memory.

- Formatted my SSD
- Cloned the original disk to the SSD (SSD was in a USB enclosure) with Carbon Copy Cloner
- Took the mini apart and mounted both disks (bought the additional harddrive cable), mounted the 2x4Gb as well
- assembled it and it started on the old harddrive, logged on and selected the SSD as startup disk
- Rebooted and enabled TRIM and rebooted again
- Erased old harddrive and made it ready as secondary drive, primarily for iTunes and backups

The mini is flying now

Regards
Kenni
Click to expand...

I did the DYI doubler yesterday I have a 128GB SSD for the OS and programs and a 500GB for all my media. It runs great. I also have 8GB of RAM.
 
Last edited:
I had a mac G3, then I started using PCs but I want to buy a mac mini server until the end of the year.

If I get a mac mini will I have any hardware/drivers controllers issues by replacing the mechanical drive with this SSD ?
Mushkin Chronos Deluxe SSD 240GB 2,5" MKNSSDCR240GB-DX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226226

I'm very happy with it, my 2008 pc laptop, using this Mushkin SSD, it was almost dead and now it can even render mid-complex AfterEffects compositions.

I have an ipad 3 and I'm quite happy with it but I don't know much about the current OSx (drivers) just about IOS as a user.

Thanks! sorry for the newbie questions.
 
nfilg said:
I had a mac G3, then I started using PCs but I want to buy a mac mini server until the end of the year.

If I get a mac mini will I have any hardware/drivers controllers issues by replacing the mechanical drive with this SSD ?
Mushkin Chronos Deluxe SSD 240GB 2,5" MKNSSDCR240GB-DX
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226226

I'm very happy with it, my 2008 pc laptop, using this Mushkin SSD, it was almost dead and now it can even render mid-complex AfterEffects compositions.

I have an ipad 3 and I'm quite happy with it but I don't know much about the current OSx (drivers) just about IOS as a user.

Thanks! sorry for the newbie questions.
Click to expand...

No you don't have a any problems with the drive when you do a clean install. You also won't have any problems if you clone the drive :)
 
vandoorn said:
No you don't have a any problems with the drive when you do a clean install. You also won't have any problems if you clone the drive :)
Click to expand...

Thanks vandoorn!!Good to know is that simple. I will just wait a until the end of september and see if apple releases a ivy bridge mac mini. Then I will get a quad core with hd4000. If all wishful rumors about the mac mini release are correct. Later I will upgrade to the ssd.
 
Sounds good! I didn't wanted to wait. It fulfilled my needs. Of course newer is better, but at a great discount from my work, i didn't want to pass on this one.

Enjoy your new Mac when you have it :)
 
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