Is there any difference installing DYI SSD in the server model over the standard 2012 model (both quad core)? I know the server model has 2 HDD's.
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Installing SSD in 2012 Server model
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Yeah, saw that. So conceivably, I may not need the dual drive kit? I already have the torx screw drivers. I assume the rubber grommets will be on the server model bay. And it appears it doesn't matter which bay the SSD will go in, correct? Just want the boot drive and main apps to be on the SSD.
Use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy the boot drive to your SSD. Then boot the mini from the external SSD and fiddle around a little bit to make sure that it works as expected.
Finally use OWC's excellent instructions to install the SSD in the lower bay. That way you only have to move the main board out a couple of milimeters, if at all.
Leaving the OEM HDD in the upper bay as a data drive means you only have to remove nine or ten screws, unplug two or three tiny, tiny little connectors plus transfer three parts from the OEM boot drive in the lower bay to your SSD.
Been there, done that five times now. Like murder (they say) it gets easier with each one. Fortunately I haven't committed my first murder yet!
Thanks. I already have everything backed up on my existing Mini (2011 dual core with SSD that I installed) via Carbon Copy Cloner. So, I don't think I'll need to externally format the new SSD, correct? I've read many of the posts on this subject but it's great to have updated advice.
I actually ordered two minis and will be canceling one. Sunday I ordered a 2012 quad via Amazon with standard 1TB HDD (followed by Crucial 16GB ram, M550 256 SSD, and dual drive kit). Then, Monday night a 2012 refurbed server goes up on Apple's refurb site for $40 less than my Amazon purchase (which hasn't shipped yet). I started thinking (after reading/viewing online) that maybe installing the SSD on the server model will be a little easier and I can send the dual drive kit to save more $.
I'll need to cancel one of them soon so would appreciate some help with these questions:
1. Will I need the dual drive kit I ordered (if I keep the server model)?
2. Does it matter which bay (lower or upper) my new SSD goes in? (And just to confirm..."lower" meaning the one on the bottom when the mini is turned upside down). After all, can't you manually determine which drive the mini will boot from and work from?
3. What are the "three parts from the OEM boot drive"? (the SATA and two heat sensors I saw on one video)?
Thanks.
I actually ordered two minis and will be canceling one. Sunday I ordered a 2012 quad via Amazon with standard 1TB HDD (followed by Crucial 16GB ram, M550 256 SSD, and dual drive kit). Then, Monday night a 2012 refurbed server goes up on Apple's refurb site for $40 less than my Amazon purchase (which hasn't shipped yet). I started thinking (after reading/viewing online) that maybe installing the SSD on the server model will be a little easier and I can send the dual drive kit to save more $.
I'll need to cancel one of them soon so would appreciate some help with these questions:
1. Will I need the dual drive kit I ordered (if I keep the server model)?
2. Does it matter which bay (lower or upper) my new SSD goes in? (And just to confirm..."lower" meaning the one on the bottom when the mini is turned upside down). After all, can't you manually determine which drive the mini will boot from and work from?
3. What are the "three parts from the OEM boot drive"? (the SATA and two heat sensors I saw on one video)?
Thanks.
No.
No.
Yes.
I'd guess you saw a video on older mini's (2010 and earlier). Apparently those had temp sensors. The 2011 and 2012 definitely don't have. Can't vouch for the server models, though, but would expect them to be similar to the "normal" variants in that regard.
Thanks. I installed an SSD in my current mini last year using an online tutorial (can't recall which one). All went well.
Just needed to know if and how different it would be with the server model. Sounds like it may be a bit easier than with a single HDD. I had never really considered this model but it was a pretty good deal. I don't really need 2 HDD's (already have an external 1TB). I guess I'll look into getting an external closure or maybe sell the extra one.
well i don't know for a single drive mac mini, but on the server, i had to remove everything out of the case to change both HDDs
not complicated at all, just time consuming
but the result is stunning
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1815391/
not complicated at all, just time consuming
but the result is stunning
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1815391/
well i don't know for a single drive mac mini, but on the server, i had to remove everything out of the case to change both HDDs
not complicated at all, just time consuming
but the result is stunning
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1815391/
That's right. Everything has to come apart in order to replace the upper bay drive. One one hand I wish I had been wise enough to buy both of my minis as servers just to have the upper drive, cable and attaching hardware EOM.
On the other hand one of mine has SSDs in both bays now so I would have had to take it apart anyway. I wouldn't have done that if it had been a server.
Similar problem
I'm searching the forum and came across this thread that look similar to my problem...
I've just recently bought a Mac mini server 2012, secondhand. The seller have erased the 2 HDD that came with the Mac and told me to connect to AppStore and download the OSX.
Since I have a SSD from my MacBook Pro I've installed this in the top bay in my mini and tried to start it but with no result - nothing comes up on the screen! The Mac mini turns off after some time...
I'm assuming that the top bay HDD had the OS but not sure of this...
I cannot use any boot keyboard keys to alter the boot sequence since nothing is showing on the screen.
Is there a boot order from the previous configuration that I cannot change before booting from a bootable drive?
Is installing the SSD in lower bay a good way to go?
Really grateful for any info on this problem
Thanks
Andrew
I'm searching the forum and came across this thread that look similar to my problem...
I've just recently bought a Mac mini server 2012, secondhand. The seller have erased the 2 HDD that came with the Mac and told me to connect to AppStore and download the OSX.
Since I have a SSD from my MacBook Pro I've installed this in the top bay in my mini and tried to start it but with no result - nothing comes up on the screen! The Mac mini turns off after some time...
I'm assuming that the top bay HDD had the OS but not sure of this...
I cannot use any boot keyboard keys to alter the boot sequence since nothing is showing on the screen.
Is there a boot order from the previous configuration that I cannot change before booting from a bootable drive?
Is installing the SSD in lower bay a good way to go?
Really grateful for any info on this problem
Thanks
Andrew
I'm not an expert but did install an SSD on my 2011 Mini. Another poster (see above) said that it shouldn't matter which bay you install the SSD on. You'll be able to choose which drive to boot from every time you turn it on. Also, I would think you have to wipe the SSD from your MBP (after cloning it of course) before putting it in.
In my experience it does not matter where the boot drive is. It only matters what drive you have selected as a boot drive.
My mini 2.6 has Yosemite installed on an SSD in the lower bay. I installed another SSD in the upper bay and performed an Internet Recovery of Mavericks on it (using an external HDD's recover partition.)
Yosemite would not boot after starting the mini with the Option key. After I booted to the internal Mavericks and selected the Yosemite drive it worked fine. It was just confused with two OS X installs.
Also my mini 2.3 was both Mavericks and Windows 8.1. I was always able to select the boot in one of the two OS's (Mac Preferences or Windows Boot Camp) and the machine would correctly boot to the chosen drive. Right now that mini is Windows only and boots from the upper bay OEM HDD. An OEM HDD in the lower bay is just for data and backup.
My mini 2.6 has Yosemite installed on an SSD in the lower bay. I installed another SSD in the upper bay and performed an Internet Recovery of Mavericks on it (using an external HDD's recover partition.)
Yosemite would not boot after starting the mini with the Option key. After I booted to the internal Mavericks and selected the Yosemite drive it worked fine. It was just confused with two OS X installs.
Also my mini 2.3 was both Mavericks and Windows 8.1. I was always able to select the boot in one of the two OS's (Mac Preferences or Windows Boot Camp) and the machine would correctly boot to the chosen drive. Right now that mini is Windows only and boots from the upper bay OEM HDD. An OEM HDD in the lower bay is just for data and backup.
Did you reset the PRAM? This should reset any settings regarding the boot drive.
Do you hear a chime after the mini is turned on? This should happen in any case, unless something is severely wrong inside the machine.
Are you sure that you installed everything properly after replacing the drive? Could it be that you forgot to to re-connect a cable or did re-connect it improperly? It is unusual that the screen stays black on a working machine and the Mac turns itself off (after which period of time, btw. ? ). You should at least see a blinking "boot drive not found" symbol on a grey screen.
Did you try the keyboard combination Apple + R to start recovery via Internet (Mac has to be connected to network)?
Carl, trying pressing "Option" during startup to choose the boot drive. If that doesn't work you may have to think about creating an OSX boot USB flash drive. You can boot from that and re-install OSX to the appropriate drive. After it boots you can specify which drive to boot from in the Systems Preferences (so it doesn't search everytime).
http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372
Great help!
Many Thanks
I tried the options key but nothing happened, at startup I did get a "forbidden" sign on the screen, so I tried the Opt-Ctrl-P-R combo and did get my SSD and WiFi options on the screen. Choosing the SSD resulted in the "forbidden" sign again so something seems wrong with my SSD although it came right out of my MacBookPro where it worked fine!
Last attempt was the ctrl-R and this worked! Downloaded a "startup OS" from
and could see my SSD the extra HDD and some partition used by the startup OS.
This option also indicated that my SSD was not healthy (nor was the HDD) but I didn't want to recover it as is said it would wipe the data. After trying the Ctrl-R options a few time to see if things got better I lost the SSD from my list of devices.
Also tried to having my backup (external USB drive) mounted but could then not see the SSD nor the HDD so didn't know how to recover with the backup drive...
I'll try and mount the SSD back in the MacBook and see if starts up there
I'll let you know how I get along...
If you have any more ideas I should try I'm very grateful for your insights!
Great help from you guys - thanks again!
cheers,
Btw - why and how to "I wipe the SSD from my MBP"?
I installed the original HDD in the MBP and it started fine.
Many Thanks
I tried the options key but nothing happened, at startup I did get a "forbidden" sign on the screen, so I tried the Opt-Ctrl-P-R combo and did get my SSD and WiFi options on the screen. Choosing the SSD resulted in the "forbidden" sign again so something seems wrong with my SSD although it came right out of my MacBookPro where it worked fine!
Last attempt was the ctrl-R and this worked! Downloaded a "startup OS" from
and could see my SSD the extra HDD and some partition used by the startup OS.This option also indicated that my SSD was not healthy (nor was the HDD) but I didn't want to recover it as is said it would wipe the data. After trying the Ctrl-R options a few time to see if things got better I lost the SSD from my list of devices.
Also tried to having my backup (external USB drive) mounted but could then not see the SSD nor the HDD so didn't know how to recover with the backup drive...
I'll try and mount the SSD back in the MacBook and see if starts up there
I'll let you know how I get along...
If you have any more ideas I should try I'm very grateful for your insights!
Great help from you guys - thanks again!
cheers,
Btw - why and how to "I wipe the SSD from my MBP"?
I installed the original HDD in the MBP and it started fine.