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Is it possible to put a portable HDD INSIDE Mac Mini?

A

antwonw

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 14, 2011
5
0
So I am looking at upgrading my HDD inside my Mac Mini (2006).

Is it possible to get a portable HDD like a WD Elements 1TB (http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...PPEY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329348989&sr=8-1), dismantle it and put it inside my Mac Mini as the HDD?

I'm not partial to that HDD; just curious if any 2.5" portable external drive would work inside the Mac Mini.

Internal drives alone are really expensive right now because of the flooding. Simple cost-effectiveness analysis on internal verses external portable shows that external drives are cheaper per GB than internal ones.

Does anybody know if this would work? Or have any ideas?

Thanks!
 
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antwonw said:
So I am looking at upgrading my HDD inside my Mac Mini (2006).

Is it possible to get a portable HDD like a WD Elements 1TB (http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...PPEY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329348989&sr=8-1), dismantle it and put it inside my Mac Mini as the HDD?

I'm not partial to that HDD; just curious if any 2.5" portable external drive would work inside the Mac Mini.

Internal drives alone are really expensive right now because of the flooding. Simple cost-effectiveness analysis on internal verses external portable shows that external drives are cheaper per GB than internal ones.

Does anybody know if this would work? Or have any ideas?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Only if you could take out the HD from that enclosure and still has a sata conector.

I have a 320GB passport that i got so i could replace the 120GB in my UB MB but turns out the drive doesn't have a sata port at all, it has the USB port in the board of the HD thus you can only connect it to USB.

And yes any 2.5" drive with a sata port will work, but you won't know for sure unless you take apart the enclosure.
 
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antwonw said:
So I am looking at upgrading my HDD inside my Mac Mini (2006).

Is it possible to get a portable HDD like a WD Elements 1TB (http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digit...PPEY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329348989&sr=8-1), dismantle it and put it inside my Mac Mini as the HDD?

I'm not partial to that HDD; just curious if any 2.5" portable external drive would work inside the Mac Mini.

Internal drives alone are really expensive right now because of the flooding. Simple cost-effectiveness analysis on internal verses external portable shows that external drives are cheaper per GB than internal ones.

Does anybody know if this would work? Or have any ideas?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

yeah but not sure that one works. this one was good



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822149099


this thread shows how to take one apart along with a lot of other stuff.

http://techtalk.parts-express.com/showthread.php?t=213477
 
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Stan Mikulenka said:
Hi ant,
I think that most of these external HD use a 'normal' (=3.5") hard drives, so you couldn't use that in your Mini.
Click to expand...

Read. The OP specifically states "2.5" portable external hard drives." Obviously a 3.5" drive won't work.

Macman45 said:
Getting those drives out of the enclosures is a mighty task indeed if you want to keep the drive in one piece. They deliberately make it really hard to do.
Click to expand...

No it's not. Usually you just have to pry open the plastic housing. The housing will probably not be re-usable but the drive shouldn't be difficult to preserve.
 
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