I recently installed a new SSD into my late 2012 Mini. Install was not a problem and getting everything copied over from the old hard drive to the new one also didn't seem to be an issue. I planned on using the old hard drive as a holding ground for a lot of the files that I don't use very often. The problem that I am running into is that the Disk Utility is not allowing me to unmount and erase the old hard drive. Any ideas on how I can get the old hard drive unmounted so that I can erase it and use it the way I planned on?
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Issue with new SSD/Old HD
- Thread starter nate16
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Yes adam9c1 is correct. Disk Utility will not perform certain actions on the Boot Drive. Here is another concern. If you are still booting from your old hard drive then perhaps you have not verified that your SSD boots the Mac properly.
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH20569?locale=en_US
You really must check the SSD before you erase your old hard drive. We all know what happened in that unfortunate doctor's lab the day that he fired up his monster with the "Bad Brain" that Igor brought him.
Yes I am booting from the SSD. See here. The difference is startup time is clear. I can go from turned off to up in running in under 10 seconds. With the old hard drive it was closer to 45 seconds.
Is there anything else to verify other than the computer showing that it is booting from the SSD and that all of my files/applications are showing that they are coming from the SSD and not the old HD?
I would say boot to recovery partition and then via Disk Util wipe.
HOWEVER..
Can you remove the spinning HD (physically) from the system and see if your computer continues to function normally?
Do you have some sort of a backup of your machine?
HOWEVER..
Can you remove the spinning HD (physically) from the system and see if your computer continues to function normally?
Do you have some sort of a backup of your machine?
OP, do this:
Reboot.
Once up-and-running, go to the Apple menu and choose "About this Mac".
Does it verify that you -are- booting from the SSD?
(regardless of what the startup disk pref pane says)
If you are, try this next:
Reboot from the recovery partition on the SSD (hold down the option key at boot and select it from the startup manager).
Open Disk Utility now and try to re-initialize the HDD.
Reboot.
Once up-and-running, go to the Apple menu and choose "About this Mac".
Does it verify that you -are- booting from the SSD?
(regardless of what the startup disk pref pane says)
If you are, try this next:
Reboot from the recovery partition on the SSD (hold down the option key at boot and select it from the startup manager).
Open Disk Utility now and try to re-initialize the HDD.
I finally had a chance to do that today and yes, the computer boots perfectly from just the SSD. I tried opened a dozen or so programs and associated files without issue. InDesign is the only program that is having problems for me so I'm going to do a reinstall of that.
I have backups on backups. I have TimeMachine running on an external, BackBlaze, and an on and off-site NAS.
Yes it shows that I am booting from the SSD.
I went in and wiped the drive from the recovery partition and rebooted. HD is now wiped and everything is running the way it should be. Thank you for the support. I am finally able to do what I want to do.