I really need to upgrade storage of my Mac Mini M1

[abhi182]

To the astute among you, I have a technical question.
Despite formatting with GUID - APFS, why does the T7 SSD have this microsoft dos fat32 formatted EFI volume?

View attachment 1711491

APFS partition model leaves a small FAT partition called EFI (EFI = Extensible Firmware Interface)
This partition contains the necessary boot loaders and device drivers that would allow a x64 UEFI BIOS to access the said files to initiate a boot sequence.

In the absence of these files, the UEFI BIOS on a x64 system wouldn't know how to proceed with an unknown file system based drive.

Technically the EFI partition is required only on the boot drive and is in some ways redundant on an external drive - at least until the day you choose to change said drive to a bootable drive.
Also, not sure how the ARM architecture and booting sequence works so this EFI folder may or may not be necessary but I guess would remain this way till Intel Macs are still a thing..

Edit:: While on this thread, would it be possible for you to run an Amorphous diskmark test on the external T7 and post the results here?
The software is free on the Mac App Store

 

[M1_and_beyond]

If you want to attempt to match the speed of the internal drive, I think you're going to need a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and a (speedy) NVMe M.2 Drive, like this guy uses in this video:

(copy-and-pasted from his post, I'm assuming they're affiliate links):

The 2TB Thunderbolt eternal I made: TB3 Enclosure: https://geni.us/zmx6 Drive: https://geni.us/Tucx

This 2TB setup [~1700MB/s write / ~2500MB/s read] is $310 +tax at current prices, about $500 better than Apple's upgrade price.

 

[kirchen]

Hi. Maybe this will help to choose an external drive for your M1 - here’s a speed test result of my freshly formatted Samsung X5 500 GB (APFS file format is crucial if you want to achieve full write speed), attached directly to the Thunderbolt/USB4 port on M1 Mac mini. On the 1 and 2TB version you should be able to get even faster write speeds (around 2300 MB/s).

P.S. Sorry for my English, it's not my first language.

 

[Sovon Halder]

Hi. Maybe this will help to choose an external drive for your M1 - here’s a speed test result of my freshly formatted Samsung X5 500 GB (APFS file format is crucial if you want to achieve full write speed), attached directly to the Thunderbolt/USB4 port on M1 Mac mini. On 1 and 2TB you should be able to get even faster write speeds (around 2300 MB/s).

P.S. Sorry for my English, it's not my first language.

Vos anglais n'est pas mal. Il n'y a pas besoin d'excuses.

This X5 isn't readily available in my country, and it's way pout of my budget.
Thank you for the benchmark though.

 

[theanimala]

Any thoughts on the Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q 2TB vs building your own? Max tech on YouTube gave it a great review, and it supports USB C as well as Thunderbolt which I look as positive in case I need/want to use it with an older system. Basically I just need/want a drive to function as fast as the internal drive since I went cheap and only purchased a 256GB Mac Mini.

 

[Sovon Halder]

I had thought to go for the same if budget wasn't an issue. It's been couple of weeks and I am more than happy with my T7. It definitely serves me well, in the sense what I need the drive for. Super fast internal SSD for everyday tasks and a bulky 1TB storage sitting cold quietly with nearly 800 MB/s write speed whenever I need, available in an instant.

Honestly I think I did the right thing picking a drive of this speed. Anything above this would be a waste in my usage. I barely notice the speed limitation. It takes me less than 15 seconds to move a 10GB file from between my internal & T7. I'm not that busy, I can wait 20 seconds. I wanted something that makes it feel like I've expanded the storage in my desk setup when I sit in front of the computer. And I'm satisfied with what I've got now - storage wise.

 

[rui no onna]

Any thoughts on the Sabrent Rocket XTRM-Q 2TB vs building your own? Max tech on YouTube gave it a great review, and it supports USB C as well as Thunderbolt which I look as positive in case I need/want to use it with an older system. Basically I just need/want a drive to function as fast as the internal drive since I went cheap and only purchased a 256GB Mac Mini.

I do believe that Q at the end stands for QLC NAND, so nope, I personally wouldn't.

Shifting away from 2-bit MLC, one of the first planar TLC NAND SSDs to be released were the Samsung 840 and 840 EVO. Both were prone to steadily losing charge so after a few months, reading old data is much slower. There's even the risk of potential data loss with several months of cold storage. They eventually solved that on future TLC SSDs by moving to 3D TLC/TLC V-NAND. On the 840 EVO, they released a firmware update that actively moves/rewrites data in the background while the SSD is idle. No more slowdowns but it also meant greater SSD wear (admittedly still negligible overall, SSD will last 33 years instead of 100 if based solely on P/E cycle wear ).

I'm perfectly happy to let others beta test long term reliability of QLC NAND. With QLC SSD pricing so very close to TLC SSD pricing, I'd rather stick to TLC.

 

[theanimala]

I do believe that Q at the end stands for QLC NAND, so nope, I personally wouldn't.

Shifting away from 2-bit MLC, one of the first planar TLC NAND SSDs to be released were the Samsung 840 and 840 EVO. Both were prone to steadily losing charge so after a few months, reading old data is much slower. There's even the risk of potential data loss with several months of cold storage. They eventually solved that on future TLC SSDs by moving to 3D TLC/TLC V-NAND. On the 840 EVO, they released a firmware update that actively moves/rewrites data in the background while the SSD is idle. No more slowdowns but it also meant greater SSD wear (admittedly still negligible overall, SSD will last 33 years instead of 100 if based solely on P/E cycle wear ).

I'm perfectly happy to let others beta test long term reliability of QLC NAND. With QLC SSD pricing so very close to TLC SSD pricing, I'd rather stick to TLC.

Thanks for the reply. For $50 more ($399 vs $349) I can get the same drive with TLC. That’s a plus, but the negative is it only supports Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. The QLC model supports TB3 as well as USB-C. I only plan on using this with my M1 Mini but figured the flexibility would be worth it.. debating if I should go for the TLC instead...

 

[rui no onna]

Thanks for the reply. For $50 more ($399 vs $349) I can get the same drive with TLC. That’s a plus, but the negative is it only supports Thunderbolt 3 connectivity. The QLC model supports TB3 as well as USB-C. I only plan on using this with my M1 Mini but figured the flexibility would be worth it.. debating if I should go for the TLC instead...

They'll probably release the enclosure separately sooner or later.

I think there might be TB3 + USB backwards compatible enclosures already available on the market as well (I saw a post here somewhere earlier today).

Do note, similar to other budget SSD manufacturers such as ADATA, Sabrent may change things around to lower costs while keeping the same model number. The drive they're selling right now may have lower performance to the versions that have been reviewed. Just something to be aware of.

Personally, I'd sooner go for a Samsung T7 capped at 900 MB/s or even the T5 at SATA 500 MB/s than TB3+QLC. Chances are there won't even be a noticeable performance difference most of the time when writing small chunks of data. During sustained writes though or when the drive is getting full, QLC can drop to HDD level. SSD manufacturers often brag about burst speeds but few even put the sustained performance figures in their tech specs.

 

[soonwai]

It's been 6 days and already I've got a warning "storage almost full".

My 3TB HDD sounds like a jet engine when powered on, and hangs up Finder when waking up from sleep, it's very annoying. I need a large storage device for casual use that is QUIET and will be connected to the back of the computer at all times. Nothing serious. I'll store random files, 4k movies, music, documents, maybe games etc - my typical use.

What type of storage should I buy? I'm looking at Samsung T7 2TB / 1TB but not sure if that SSD, or any SSD for that matter is an overkill. Also getting the proper ssd and an enclosure for it to get T7 level 1GBps speed seemed a bit complicated.

Please advise.

EDIT:

My ONLY goal is to make it so, that it feels like I have 1 or 2TB of storage, not just meagre 256GB. Replicating the quality/speed of internal storage till my budget permits. Replicating the quality/speed of internal storage as minimally as possible till my budget permits. I am confused between warranty, longevity, bang for buck and speed of various custom configured enclosure+nvme/sata/m.2 ssd.

I bought a 16/256 Mac Mini M1. Would have loved 2TB internal but it was out of my budget. 256GB is obviously not enough so I have an external Acasis FT-B34 Thunderbolt 3 enclosure with a 2TB Adata SX8200 Pro NVME SSD. It's not as fast as the internal but still quite acceptable.

 

[Deccr]

Searching on AliExpress, I’ve found another USB4/Thunderbolt 3 NVMe enclosure.

The specs state Intel JHL7440 (40Gbps thunderbolt 3) & JMicron JMS583 (10Gbps USB3.2) controllers, to allow for thunderbolt and USB compatibility.

I’m not sure if anyone wants to take a punt on it, but looks interesting and I can only imagine more of these type of enclosures will become available soon enough.

AliExpress

 

[rui no onna]

I bought a 16/256 Mac Mini M1. Would have loved 2TB internal but it was out of my budget. 256GB is obviously not enough so I have an external Acasis FT-B34 Thunderbolt 3 enclosure with a 2TB Adata SX8200 Pro NVME SSD. It's not as fast as the internal but still quite acceptable.

Thanks. That's the brand I saw for enclosure but they have a newer model that's compatible with USB-C as well.

M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure

ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure for NVME PCIe B+M M-Key Solid State Drive External Enclosure Aluminum Shell SSD Case Compatible with Thunderbolt 4/3 USB4.0/3.2/3.1/3.0/2.0

www.amazon.com

 

[soonwai]

Thanks. That's the brand I saw for enclosure but they have a newer model that's compatible with USB-C as well.

M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure

ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure for NVME PCIe B+M M-Key Solid State Drive External Enclosure Aluminum Shell SSD Case Compatible with Thunderbolt 4/3 USB4.0/3.2/3.1/3.0/2.0

www.amazon.com

Yeah, I got the cheaper one. I believe mine uses the Intel JHL6340 controller. No USB controllers on this. The newer one that you posted is using the JHL7440 controller. I need another one so this time, I might get the JHL7440 to see if the chipset makes a difference in performance.

 

[Sovon Halder]

Searching on AliExpress, I’ve found another USB4/Thunderbolt 3 NVMe enclosure.

The specs state Intel JHL7440 (40Gbps thunderbolt 3) & JMicron JMS583 (10Gbps USB3.2) controllers, to allow for thunderbolt and USB compatibility.

I’m not sure if anyone wants to take a punt on it, but looks interesting and I can only imagine more of these type of enclosures will become available soon enough.

AliExpress

That is an aggressive looking enclosure.

 

[kirchen]

I bought a 16/256 Mac Mini M1. Would have loved 2TB internal but it was out of my budget. 256GB is obviously not enough so I have an external Acasis FT-B34 Thunderbolt 3 enclosure with a 2TB Adata SX8200 Pro NVME SSD. It's not as fast as the internal but still quite acceptable.

I have the same 16/256 Mac Mini M1 and I had similar reasoning. I decided to save around $80 by buying an external drive instead of upgrading to 500GB from Apple + I have more space (256+500). If you are looking for the fastest solution you can get (see my previous post, speeds are almost the same as internal), then as far as I know X5 is the best way to go. There is something else worth mentioning – I found YT videos showing how to swap stock X5 drive to 2TB version, which I'm planning to do in the future. So with a little effort, you can use it as an enclosure but with higher write speeds than Orico or Sabrent (+if you sell the stock drive after swapping then even pricing is quite similar).

 

[rui no onna]

That is an aggressive looking enclosure.

Still tame compared to some heatsinks you may find for internal NVMe SSDs.

SABRENT 1TB Rocket Nvme PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 Internal SSD Maximum Performance Solid State Drive with Heatsink (Latest Version) (SB-ROCKET-NVMe4-HTSK-1TB).

SABRENT 1TB Rocket Nvme PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 Internal SSD Maximum Performance Solid State Drive with Heatsink (Latest Version) (SB-ROCKET-NVMe4-HTSK-1TB).

www.amazon.com

Helps prevent throttling under sustained heavy loads.

 

[jdb8167]

I think there might be TB3 + USB backwards compatible enclosures already available on the market as well (I saw a post here somewhere earlier today).

OWC has one. Envoy Pro FX

 

[rui no onna]

OWC has one. Envoy Pro FX

As far as I can tell, that's available as external SSD only, not DIY enclosure.

 

[jdb8167]

As far as I can tell, that's available as external SSD only, not DIY enclosure.

You are right. I originally saw a TB3 DIY enclosure and posted it. Then I noticed it wasn’t the device I was thinking of and edited my post without confirming that the Envoy Pro FX came as an empty enclosure like most of OWCs offerings. My bad.

 

[Sovon Halder]

I just installed DriveDx & the SMART reader extension for external drives - Mac Mini m1. When the DriveDx opens, it lists all three drives -internal ssd, t7 ssd & a 1tb 2.5" hdd. But it's needed to disconnect the drives physically and then reconnect and then re-run the drivedx app - so AMART data is loaded. When I do that I'm not able to see the Samsung T7 drive in it anymore even though it's showing in finder. I'm not worried or anything it's just that the HDD and the internal SSD is shown fine along with SMART data. But there is no mention of T7. Is this normal?

Also, there is a G-Sense error that I see in the 2.5" 1TB HDD. Should I be concerned?