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cconti

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2014
17
0
I have a late 2008 (3,1) Mac Mini with High Sierra that I have just upgraded with dosdude1 script. I had stopped using it years ago because it stopped doing the only job I could find for it, which was to broadcast my music and video collection with Plex.
Ples stopped supporting the OS and I could no longer upgrade the Mac Mini to a newer MacOS.

Enter dosdude1. I want to cast a bronze statue of the guy to put in my front yard. It turned my very attractive Apple doorstop into a once-again useful computer. I am thrilled.

However, I am having a couple of issues I'd like to resolve. Let's start with the Mac Mini initial and current specs

Specs taken before the update to MacOs High Sierra:
Code:
Mac mini (Early 2009 late 2008)
Processor: 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Model Number:    A1283
Mac Mini: 3,1
RAM: 3GB DDR3

MacOS Specs after High Sierra Update:
Code:
MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6 (17G66)
New HD is a Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB Media

Issue #1 - RAM:
I did a few searches and I found a company that sells a 16GB kit for the mac Mini 3,1. I was very skeptical of it and in fact I found other articles that say my Mac Mini can only mount a max of 4GB but it may work with 8GB "unofficially".
Well, the memory count may be "unofficial" but my money isn't, so before I go buy a couple of sticks of DDR3 RAM can someone confirm just how much RAM my little beast can handle? It had 3GB onboard (because it's DDR3 and that was a big deal at the time) I know I can at least install 4GB but I doubt that would be helpful. 8GB would be helpful. 16GB would turn the Mac Mini into a serious computer but despite the vendors selling the kit, I doubt it works. Make me a liar.

Issue #2 - HD partition, unable to increase partition size:
When I decided to upgrade the Mac Mini OS I first cloned the hard Drive first onto a regular "spinning" HD of the same size I had lying around, then I made another clone this time onto a 250GB Samsung SSD 850 EVO.
I figured this way I'd be able to cover any hard Drive based failure I could encounter.
Original HD failure? Check. Mac not working under SSD? Check. I have 2 hard drives with the original El Capitan MacOs and now I have an SSD with High Sierra, but at any time I can go back and boot up with the old MacOs.

I used this contraption that I had purchased thinking it was a 2 bay external hard drive enclosure:
c54cac2c-e3c0-42c2-a410-29f568577160_1.e1cc7a1455faff7db433ba65c3651361.jpeg


Instead of a two bay HD enclosure, it turned out to be a disk cloner, which came in really handy with the Mac Mini job.
The Wavlink reads only the "Source" Hard drive. In that respect it does work like an enclosure.
The second slot is to be able to clone HD in a stand alone fashion. In fact, they stress the need to unplug the USB from the computer for any cloning job.
Bay 2 (or the "target") remains invisible when the encolsure is p0lugged in. Too bad because it would be nice to have a dual HD enclosure like that.
In any case, that beside the issue I am having.
This is how the Clone works for those that are curious:
1) Place the original HD in slot one,
2) place another HD (equal size or larger) in slot 2
3) press button once until it starts blinking
4) let go and press button again.
5) Presto: cloned Hard drive (well, not so "presto" it took 25 minutes to copy a 120GB partition. The lights show 25%, 50% etc. until it's at 100%)

Everything worked quite well, except for the following: I was unable to resize the partition from the original 120GB to the full 250GB that's on the SSD.

I tried with the original El Capitan OS (and boy, did the SSD make a difference there. Already it felt like a new computer) but when I tried to increase the partition size it did try, but eventually it gave a very vague error.

So I decided to go ahead and install High Sierra anyway. I thought I did a "clean" installation and I did set it to utilize the entire drive, but at the end of it, it formatted the partition using UDIF (the only way it would install High Sierra regular mac partition formatting would throw an error 1% into the installation process) but it formatted the SSD with a 120GB partition and left the rest as "free space".

I tried every way I could think of to increase the size of the partition from 120GB to 250GB (or 245GB just in case that was the problem).
No luck.

I should note that it is not like what I am trying to do is impossible. I am following procedure and it should increase the partition size to 250GB. But one of two things happen:

1) I get an error. It is always some variation of the error below:
Code:
Operation failed…
Running operation 1 of 1: Remove “--”…
An internal error has occurred and the disk for one of the specified operations could not be found. This may be a temporary issue, try again.

2) no error, no glory. It proceeds without an error and even gives me some sort of "Success" green icon, but when I open the partitions again, nothing has changed. The partition is 120GB as it was before and there is no further step to take (like, for instance, a "restart to apply" or something to that effect.

I have tried this while logged into the OS but I also tried it starting with the repair disk. No matter what, I am unable to increase the partition size.
I also have a 500GB SSD. and I was thinking of making a clone of the current OS and install that SSD. If I did that, creating a "documents" partition that shows as a separate HD would not be unhelpful, but I am determined to make this partition issue work for me, if I have to boot in Linux to make it happen.

What could I use to bypass MacOS completely and find a way to clone and change the partition size of a UDIF formatted SSD? I know nothing about this kind of HD formatting and am not looking forward to becoming an expert on it. All I want is to enlarge a partition, not model interplanetary collisions. It shouldn't be this hard.

Thank you.
 

AdamJohnG

macrumors regular
Mar 30, 2019
119
34
Malaga, Spain
I have never had one of those Mac Minis, but I have always found that one of the best sources of information is everymac.com, and they say:

By default, 1 GB is installed as a single module (MB463LL/A) and 2 GB is installed as two 1 GB modules (MB464LL/A). Officially, this model is capable of supporting 4 GB of RAM, but as first reported by MacminiColo, this model unofficially can use 8 GB of RAM after applying EFI Firmware Update 1.2.

That is 1066 MHz PC3-8500 DDR3 SO-DIMM. If you have 3GB you must have a 1 GB in one slot and a 2 GB in the other slot. If you can source 2 x 4GB compatible module, and you do have EFI 1.2 you should get to 8GB which would be a great change.

Here in Spain Amazon offers:


If you buy from Amazon, you can try them and if they don't work, just return for a full refund.

For more info on your Mac mini have a read at:


Good luck


Adam
 

sfphoto

macrumors 6502
Jun 10, 2010
453
28
I would suggest that El Capitan might be the better option for an OS.

"with El Capitan OS the SSD make a difference ... felt like a new computer"
 

cconti

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2014
17
0
I have never had one of those Mac Minis, but I have always found that one of the best sources of information is everymac.com, and they say:

By default, 1 GB is installed as a single module (MB463LL/A) and 2 GB is installed as two 1 GB modules (MB464LL/A). Officially, this model is capable of supporting 4 GB of RAM, but as first reported by MacminiColo, this model unofficially can use 8 GB of RAM after applying EFI Firmware Update 1.2.

That is 1066 MHz PC3-8500 DDR3 SO-DIMM. If you have 3GB you must have a 1 GB in one slot and a 2 GB in the other slot. If you can source 2 x 4GB compatible module, and you do have EFI 1.2 you should get to 8GB which would be a great change.

Here in Spain Amazon offers:


If you buy from Amazon, you can try them and if they don't work, just return for a full refund.

For more info on your Mac mini have a read at:


Good luck


Adam

Thank you for the links. I had some but not others (I didn't know about the firmware).
I'll look into that.
 

cconti

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2014
17
0
I would suggest that El Capitan might be the better option for an OS.

"with El Capitan OS the SSD make a difference ... felt like a new computer"
I was going to install El Capitan but since I had the ability to just clone the drive and try again, I went directly to High Sierra and I have to say that it is working just fine from the point of view of speed and responsiveness.

If I can get more RAM into it, it should work just fine for my purposes. Even as is, I can run Chrome, Opera and Vivaldi while I have other apps in the background and only after opening many tabs I start feeling a bit of a slow down. It is an old machine after all, but it is actually faster than my wife's old laptop, a i5 based laptop with SSD and 16GB of ram.

I am frankly very surprised how zippy it is. I was definitely expecting something a lot slower than this.

My only real issue, is the SSD formatting. Half the drive cannot be extended or used in any way, so I may start from scratch on that one. Maybe buy a new SSD now that I know the trick is worth it. My SSDs are a bit old.
 

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
If all you want is a Plex server you might be better with a Linux install and run Plex on that. No GUI = less overhead
 

cconti

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2014
17
0
If all you want is a Plex server you might be better with a Linux install and run Plex on that. No GUI = less overhead
Yes, Plex was my original use for the Mac Mini, but that was before I realized that even as it is now, with 3GB of RAM, it is a fully functioning computer with performance similar to a cheap i5 laptop (I know because my wife's old laptop is actually slower and it has an i5 and 8GB of RAM).

So my new plan is to use the Mac mini for plex but also I'd like to use GarageBand for Songwriting. I often sketch songs in my IOS garageband, then I recreate them in Studio One 4 in Windows. Well, with the Mac working, I can do a lot more than that and I can do it a lot more easily.

For non-musicians, all these $700 DAWs to make music on are always such a pain to configure that by the time one is ready to record, an hour has passed and the song no longer sounds fresh.
I wasn't even hoping the Mac Mini could run Garageband, but it does, so that has changed my plans.
My only remaining issue is how to regain the "Free Space" in the partition I have. I think I will start a new post just for that issue because I really would like to have the mac mini work off the 500GB SSD I have, but if I clone the current disk I am going to get stuck with a 120GB partition like I did on the 250GB disk I have in there at the moment.

I have to find a way to solve that first and then I can move on to configuring the Mac Mini as both a Plex server and as a Garageband sketchbook.

But yes, if I only wanted to run Plex, I'd do away with the OS. Who would have tought this Mac Mini would work so well under High Sierra?
 

DeltaMac

macrumors G5
Jul 30, 2003
13,767
4,591
Delaware
Can you verify which Mac mini you have? You said "late 2008" 3,1 , which does not exist as a released model.
Late 2007 mini was sold new until 2009. when the Early 2009 mini was released. THAT Late 2007 is actually a 2,1 with a max RAM of 3GB. Perhaps that's why you don't have more, because that is all she will take.
If it truly is a 3,1 then you can upgrade to 8GB, if you want.

Method to get the full use of the SSD, is to start over. I would boot to an older installer, such as Yosemite, just for the purpose of a full erase of the drive (the device, not just the partition on the device). You would do that by choosing the device for the erase, the Samsung line, not the partition, and erase the device. That will revert to the full drive for the new partition. THAT should do the trick so you can use the full drive for your restore.
 

glenthompson

macrumors demi-god
Apr 27, 2011
2,983
844
Virginia
That Cloner might be the issue. It may only make a clone exactly the same size as the original. I would use something known to be reliable like CCC or SuperDuper.
 

cconti

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2014
17
0
That Cloner might be the issue. It may only make a clone exactly the same size as the original. I would use something known to be reliable like CCC or SuperDuper.
You may be right, but I have used that cloner before on Windows Disks an it worked like a charm. Not just that, I had absolutely no issues moving a 250GB SSD boot disk with Windows 10 on it onto a blank 500GB SSD.
Naturally, it created a 250GB partition with Windows 10 boot, but it took me literally 20 seconds to open the disk in the windows equivalent of Disk Utilities and increase the partition from 250GB to 500GB.

That's what I am trying to do here.

Also, I started a new thread here: New Thread just about Disk Partitions with screenshots

Maybe the screenshots will help.

I have a 500GB SSD that I am trying to repair (for some reason it wasn't mounting on either the Mac or my PC, but now at least I can see it) and I would like to move my current MacOs to the 500GB drive if possible, so I can recycle the 250GB for another project and I'd have more space on the mac.

Thank you for the reply though. You never know where the solution may be coming from. From my most recent research, looks like I am going to have to crack Terminal Open and do it in there, but I don't want to wipe out everything I have done so far, so I am going to clone what I have first (which means take the Mac Mini apart again).
 

cconti

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 8, 2014
17
0
I have never had one of those Mac Minis, but I have always found that one of the best sources of information is everymac.com, and they say:

By default, 1 GB is installed as a single module (MB463LL/A) and 2 GB is installed as two 1 GB modules (MB464LL/A). Officially, this model is capable of supporting 4 GB of RAM, but as first reported by MacminiColo, this model unofficially can use 8 GB of RAM after applying EFI Firmware Update 1.2.

I downloaded the EFI Firmware update 1.2, but I haven't found a place where I could check if my Mac Mini is already updated to EFI 1.2 or not. Every post or site I found goes round and round but nobody is actually showing a side by side comparison or a "before and After" screenshot.

What I did find was this:

How to check your Firmware version
  1. Open System Information.
  2. Select the Hardware section to view the Model Identifier, Boot ROM version, and SMC version numbers.
yosemite-system-information-hardware-overview.png

If the firmware version you see in System Information is newer than what's listed for your Mac, you don't need to apply the updates listed for that model.

So I checked my own Mac Mini and I got this:
Model Identifier: Macmini3,1
Boot ROM Version: MM31.0081.B06
SMC Version (system): 1.35f0

Then there is a download for the Firmware update, but for the life of me I can't tell if my Mac Mini's Firmware is patched or not.
Aside of the "Model Identifier" the other numbers make no sense to me. It looks like I may need to Firmware patch, but I am just not sure.

Can anyone take a look and let me know?

I am still up to my neck with the Disk Formatting issue, but I'd like to get this taken care of so I can order the RAM and put this behind me. 8GB sounds really good considering the machine is flying (relatively speaking) with 3GB.

Thank you.

P.S. I did find this post below at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3914065 from
fvergaray

I had the same issue. after buying the ram and installing it it would not be recognized. I have 10.11.6 and I use my mini as a media center. Very time I booted with the new ram it would give me the double tone (bad ram). I even tried an external drive with 10.6 and the firmware would still not install.

I used pacifist. Crossed my fingers, shut the computer down via the menu. Rebooted without holding the power button down, just pressed it and the firmware showed up as MM31.0081.B06.

I installed the ram (same dual tone). I then removed the (PRAM) battery, replaced it and tried booting it again. Success! This time it booted fine and all 8G ram show up.

844176040


(The image is at https://discussions.apple.com/content/attachment/844176040 in case it's not showing here)

Looks like his Hardware Overview is identical to mine (save for the RAM) and he had to put in a new battery to make it work.
Maybe I answered my own question, but I am doing 65 things at once and I could just be hallucinating.

Thank you again
 

AdamJohnG

macrumors regular
Mar 30, 2019
119
34
Malaga, Spain
Looks like you have a good chance of that working then and 8GB will make a significant difference, to add from the change from HDD to SSD.

Order from Amazon and if it doesn't work, just return?


Adam
 
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