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Mac Mini second hard drive

H

haoqfu

Cancelled
Original poster
Aug 29, 2006
241
0
Guys,
I'm buying a new mac mini next month (hopefully get updated at wwdc) to replace my mba. I'm going to add an intel ssd into the mini.

Just having a question here, can i put the ssd in the second drive slot (instead of swapping the original hdd into the second and install ssd at the primary slot)? I want to use the ssd as the primary drive to boot the os.
 
haoqfu said:
Guys,
I'm buying a new mac mini next month (hopefully get updated at wwdc) to replace my mba. I'm going to add an intel ssd into the mini.

Just having a question here, can i put the ssd in the second drive slot (instead of swapping the original hdd into the second and install ssd at the primary slot)? I want to use the ssd as the primary drive to boot the os.
Click to expand...

You can put it into whatever slot you want and choose whichever disk as the start up one.
 
haoqfu said:
thanks. really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

No worries. The easiest thing to do would be to add the SSD (you'll need some extra cables if you're getting a Mini with one HDD - there are plenty of explanations and videos around), then boot up as normal from the HDD.

Use an app like Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your current HDD to the SSD. Change the SSD to be the start up drive in preferences. Reboot. Viola.
 
theSeb said:
Use an app like Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your current HDD to the SSD. Change the SSD to be the start up drive in preferences. Reboot. Viola.
Click to expand...
Does CCC automatically clone the recovery partition of the boot HDD? I was unsure about that when I cloned my HDD recently.
 
Bunyak said:
Does CCC automatically clone the recovery partition of the boot HDD? I was unsure about that when I cloned my HDD recently.
Click to expand...

I don't remember if it clones it automatically. I know there is definitely a setting in there to clone the recovery partition in the current version, but I can't tell you whether it's on by default or not.

I actually didn't do it on my mini server when I swapped the HDD to a SSD. It's no big loss since I use the HDD that I took out as the clone for SSD and do a clone on a regular basis. I reckon a full clone is much better than a recovery partition, but if you're worried, then you can google for a way to get your recovery partition back,
 
What about the mini with video card

is there space for second HDD in the Mac mini with a video card or is the space take up by the card?
 
PodPacker said:
is there space for second HDD in the Mac mini with a video card or is the space take up by the card?
Click to expand...

All of the 2011 Mac mini line up are able to be configured with dual hard drives. The AMD 6630M GPU in the mid-range Mac mini is on the logic board.
 
Make sure both drives are 9.5mm thick.

Also be careful when removing the fan plug. It is prone to come of the logic board.

Sure you can boot from either on either port. There is not primary port. And if you notice in the Mac System info, the HD which is on the bottom which many people refer to as the secondary or bottom drive is actually the top drive. The "Upper Bay" is the drive in the "non standard" slot, while the "Lower Bay" is the HD in the standard position just under the WiFi and stainless steel mesh.

Silverjam
 
Install the new SSD into either of the drive bays, although you need to make sure you aren't replacing the current startup disk!
Use CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper (see my videos for a guide - link in sig) to clone the startup disk to the SSD.
Enter System Preferences and change the startup disk across to the SSD.
Reboot.
Once rebooted off of the SSD, simply reformat your HDD.
 
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