Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Mini 2nd drive (SSD) install bummer

sean barry

sean barry

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 3, 2012
152
9
Belding, MI
I have another thread about this but it's kind of buried so I started this because I'm desperate. That thread is here for background on my struggles;

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1844762/

I installed a 120 gig SSD in my late 2012 mini. I did command r at startup and it went to the spinning World for an hour and ½ and then showed a screen with a big circle with a diagonal line thru it. All I could do was unplug the mini and plug it in again in about 30 seconds.
Came up with both the HD and SSD showing and working!!! It was OK for several hours.
All was well so I downloaded Yosemite to install in/on the SSD and when it was done downloading
I got the message "SSD not properly ejected" and it is now no where to be found???
I restarted and still not there and it does not show in Disk Utility? I have not moved the mini, so it should not have popped off the connecter?
Any thoughts?
 
Last edited:
It's hard to say. However, I will comment that when I changed my lower bay hard drive last night, when pushing the SSD that little bit extra down before putting on the antenna, it at first tried to unplug the sata connectors. Things weren't quite aligned I guess. Whenever I changed anything after that, I kept double checking the sata connectors.
 
niteflyr said:
I think I would replace the SATA cable next.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I did that kinda. I have an external USB drive I put that in the Mini and the SSD in the USB drive. Both worked? I am opening the Mini again today to check if the SATA connecter popped off?
I will inform of results. If that does not work I think I will go for an external FW enclosure and give up on installing a SSD internally :(
 
OP:

As jbarley recommends above, I, too, suggest you use a USB3 enclosure or a USB3/SATA docking station for the fastest performance.

Connecting via USB3 will give you read/write speeds that are essentially indistinguishable from an internally-installed drive insofar as "the user experience" is concerned.

You might be able to use drive benchmarking software to demonstrate slightly faster speeds, but again, from the user standpoint, there will be no (or next-to-no) difference.
 
Fishrrman said:
Connecting via USB3 will give you read/write speeds that are essentially indistinguishable from an internally-installed drive insofar as "the user experience" is concerned.
Click to expand...

Have you got a reference for this? Previous discussions here have advised that having your system on an internal SATA SSD is much better. Apart from that it seems daft to power up an external drive to run your Mini.

M.
 
marclondon said:
Have you got a reference for this? Previous discussions here have advised that having your system on an internal SATA SSD is much better. Apart from that it seems daft to power up an external drive to run your Mini.

M.
Click to expand...

I don't have hard numbers at my fingertips but I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is true, as long as you are talking about the same SSD drive and the external SSD is in a USB 3.0 housing with a good controller. The SATA interface is a significant limit on SSD performance, which is why PCI-e is a great step forward.
 
newellj said:
I don't have hard numbers at my fingertips but I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is true, as long as you are talking about the same SSD drive and the external SSD is in a USB 3.0 housing with a good controller. The SATA interface is a significant limit on SSD performance, which is why PCI-e is a great step forward.
Click to expand...

Thanks all. Could you recommend a USB 3 drive with a "good controller"?
I reinstalled the SSD internally and it worked long enough to install Yosemite than disappeared a few hours later. So I'll try a USB 3 enclosure.
 
newellj said:
I don't have hard numbers at my fingertips but I wouldn't be surprised at all if this is true, as long as you are talking about the same SSD drive and the external SSD is in a USB 3.0 housing with a good controller. The SATA interface is a significant limit on SSD performance, which is why PCI-e is a great step forward.
Click to expand...

You are correct. The M500 SSD in my Mac Pro runs faster when connected to the Apricorn Velo Duo x2 SATA3 PCIe card than it does when it is attached to a native SATA2 port. The speed increase is measurable and noticeable.

However, the typical user experience really is not that much different in day to day work. The difference between the mini's internal SATA3 port and USB3 would be even less noticeable in my opinion.
 
scottsjack said:
The difference between the mini's internal SATA3 port and USB3 would be even less noticeable in my opinion.
Click to expand...

I'd bet cash that this is right, barring some extreme or unusual application.

The bar is going up, though. We used to be content with 5400rpm HDDs. Then SATA SDDs started to spoil us. Now PCIe SDDs are becoming prevalent. An example that's close to home: my wife has basically stopped using her iPad because her Sony Vaio Pro responds as fast or faster than her iPad and doesn't weigh much more.
 
I have been running a Intel SSD on the external MiniPro USB 3.0 enclosure, I purchased the 39.95 on with the power supply. Although it states no external power supply needed. I feel this puts less stress on the USB ports and the mini's power supply.
 
Stranger than fiction?

Thanks for all the help folks. I purchased a dirt cheep USB 3 enclosure, US$ 2.78? from OWC. Put the SSD in it installed Yosi 10.10.2 And it works fine after 2 weeks. Boots like a champ!
Put my old 200gig HD in the upper slot of the mini (720rpm) and it kiks as well.
Same tools, cables, everything the same? The SSD would NOT work in the mini? WTF? I hope this goes beyond cockpit error as I did this install 4 times?
Thanks again!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back