Mini hard drive upgrade

[caseys]

Hi All,

Looking for advice on hard drive upgrade in my Intel mini.

Not fussed by spin speed, 5.4k/7.2k rpm is fine. Just looking for reliable bulk storage so in the market for a 250/320Gb. Upgrading because I'm lending the unit to someone to migrate off a G5 Mac Pro temporarily and the time machine backup says we've just backed up 198.5Gb... which if my maths is correct, will not fit into the current 80Gb inside the Mini. I have a 2x160Gb IDE Firewire external HD with her G5 backup on, but don't want to attempt to run the mini off that.

Currently looking at :
Hitachi Deskstar P7K500 320GB 7200RPM U133 8MB
http://www.dabs.com/productview.asp...eMode=1&NavigationKey=11154,41610000,40970000

Western Digital 250GB 5400RPM 8MB PATA
http://www.dabs.com/productview.asp...eMode=1&NavigationKey=11154,41610000,40970000

The last time I did a disk upgrade on a home use computer I put a Quantum Fireball disk, so shows how long ago I've done one. At work it's a different story and I'm fitting fibre channel 15k rpm drives all the time Ironically I'm a Storage Management specialist, but never fiddled about with portable equipment.

Cheers

Si

 

[CanadaRAM]

Welcome to MR

First off, for an Intel Mini you will need a SATA 2.5" hard drive The Western Digital linked there is a Parallel ATA

The Hitachi is an IDE 3.5" desktop type drive, so I don't know if you are planning that for the IDE Firewire external or ??

Hint: Fewer incidental details, more direct statement of your requirements would help.

For answers to many common questions, check under the Guides tab at the top of the window

Guides : Mac Hardware : Hard Drives

 

[caseys]

Welcome to MR

First off, for an Intel Mini you will need a SATA 2.5" hard drive The Western Digital linked there is a Parallel ATA

The Hitachi is an IDE 3.5" desktop type drive, so I don't know if you are planning that for the IDE Firewire external or ??

Hint: Fewer incidental details, more direct statement of your requirements would help.

For answers to many common questions, check under the Guides tab at the top of the window

Guides : Mac Hardware : Hard Drives

Hi,

Thanks for your advice. Bit confused, as I did a prior search of the forum and found threads for people upgrading their Mini's hdd and they said they were 2.5' IDE/P-ATA, so hence my search. The guide though as you point out does state S-ATA, thanks for correcting me before I bought an IDE...

Hmm, bit confused as I was using dabs.com and asked for the 2.5' form factor, so not sure why hitachi's 3.5 came up in the search.

No I'm not planning for any external drive, I just want to replace the internal hdd for a larger capacity with good reliability. Any recommendations for drives would be greatfully appreciated.

Thanks,
Si

 

[ale500]

it is almost a year ago that I put a (then) brand new 250 GB Samsung 2.5 SATA hard disk inside my MB (same forma factor and connector as that mini). That was a 5400 rpm drive. Today you can get a 320 GBytes 7200 rpm for some 141 €uro:

http://www.kmelektronik.de/main_site/main.php?action=Product_Detail&ArtNr=19042&Shop=0

Or you can get some 500 GBytes 5400 rpm for a bit more than that at 179 €uro:

http://www.kmelektronik.de/main_site/main.php?action=Product_Detail&ArtNr=19139&Shop=0

Of course at 5400 rpm those 320 GBytes will set you just between 78 and 88 €uro back, depending on brand.

Edit: Any of those are today among the fastest and biggest available (Hitachi has also 400 and 500 GB models, HTS545040KTA300 and HTS545050KTA300 respectively at 154 and 201 €uronen on the same site).

Have fun.

 

[CanadaRAM]

It was the G4 Mini took the IDE drives.

Careful with the new 500 GB 2.5" drives -- some of them are 12mm tall and won't fit (cant remember the brands and models off the top of my head) check to see that the drive is 9.5 mm before ordering.

 

[ale500]

The Samsung drive linked is a 9.5 mm drive, the Hitachi is a 12 mm drive.