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

New Mac Mini - Can the hard drive be upgraded?

Yes. I will document the upgrade of mine when everything comes in (late next week).

Remove base.

Remove cowling.

Remove fan.

Unplug from drive and power supply.

Pull logic board to expose hard disk.

Remove old hard disk. Mount new hard disk. Follow all previous directions in reverse order.

You should only need a T6 and T8 Torx driver.
 
Sure, I'd do it on my own too. But the margins of error and tolerance for special solutions are far different in those two cases. :)
 
Alright... Just replaced the default HD drive on my entry-model. Started up... and I'm posting this from my new 2010 Mac mini with an Intel X25 SSD as boot volume. :)

- I could not get the HD out without (partially) removing the logic board. At least I didn't feel comfortable about it, as there isn't much clearance between drive and board... though there might be a wriggling trick I have missed.
- There are two thermal sensors (external) on the HD. One is located on the SATA cable/connector, the other is glued to the other side of the drive. I just removed the SATA cable and the second thermal sensor and attached them to the "new" drive.
- Everything seems to work well so far. The mini is virtually silent from a meter afar. I cannot confirm any issues with internal / drive-specific temperature readings so far.

I really took my time for the whole process - as usually, when doing things like this for the first time. Disconnecting half a dozen cables from the logic board might be the "scary" part. Otherwise it looks harder than it actually is... (though again: one should be comfortable and take their time with these tiny cable connectors)
 
AppliedMicro said:
Alright... Just replaced the default HD drive on my entry-model. Started up... and I'm posting this from my new 2010 Mac mini with an Intel X25 SSD as boot volume. :)

- I could not get the HD out without (partially) removing the logic board. At least I didn't feel comfortable about it, as there isn't much clearance between drive and board... though there might be a wriggling trick I have missed.
- There are two thermal sensors (external) on the HD. One is located on the SATA cable/connector, the other is glued to the other side of the drive. I just removed the SATA cable and the second thermal sensor and attached them to the "new" drive.
- Everything seems to work well so far. The mini is virtually silent from a meter afar. I cannot confirm any issues with internal / drive-specific temperature readings so far.

I really took my time for the whole process - as usually, when doing things like this for the first time. Disconnecting half a dozen cables from the logic board might be the "scary" part. Otherwise it looks harder than it actually is... (though again: one should be comfortable and take their time with these tiny cable connectors)
Click to expand...

Sounds like you should be able to install any drive then with no issues! Awesome! Thanks for the update. :)
 
steve96815 said:
There appears to be an additional hurdle with the temperature sensor. According to French site MacBidouille, Apple now uses the the harddrive's RS 232 interface to get temperature readings. Western Digital, Seagate and Hitachi all use slightly different connectors that are not compatible. So if your Mini ships with a Hitachi drive, it come with the Hitachi compatible cable. You can still put in a drive by another manufacturer, but won't be able to connect the cable to get temperature readings. As a result, it appears the the fan spins at max power all the time!
Click to expand...
Wrong assumption, I say.
The Mac mini's drive connects only via a plain SATA connector, there isn't a "proprietary" interface connected.

Also, I don't think the signal goes via the SATA connector, as stated there:

http://www.hardmac.com/news/2010/06/19/the-new-mac-mini-also-has-specific-sensors-on-the-hard-drive

Apple uses two external sensors. One of them is just physically attached to the drive's connector. Look at these new pictures which should clear up confusion:

http://forum.hardmac.com/index.php?showtopic=8338
 
AppliedMicro said:
Wrong assumption, I say.
The Mac mini's drive connects only via a plain SATA connector, there isn't a "proprietary" interface connected.

Also, I don't think the signal goes via the SATA connector, as stated there:

http://www.hardmac.com/news/2010/06/19/the-new-mac-mini-also-has-specific-sensors-on-the-hard-drive

Apple uses two external sensors. One of them is just physically attached to the drive's connector. Look at these new pictures which should clear up confusion:

http://forum.hardmac.com/index.php?showtopic=8338
Click to expand...

That is not the same setup as in the new iMacs. Any drive should work fine in the new Mini by the looks of it.
 
AppliedMicro said:
Wrong assumption, I say.
The Mac mini's drive connects only via a plain SATA connector, there isn't a "proprietary" interface connected.

Also, I don't think the signal goes via the SATA connector, as stated there:

http://www.hardmac.com/news/2010/06/19/the-new-mac-mini-also-has-specific-sensors-on-the-hard-drive

Apple uses two external sensors. One of them is just physically attached to the drive's connector. Look at these new pictures which should clear up confusion:

http://forum.hardmac.com/index.php?showtopic=8338
Click to expand...

Agreed. It appears the first reports were indeed wrong. It appears the external probe can simply be removed and attached to another drive and we are not dealing with the same situation as with the iMacs. I'd say that is good news. Still haven't done my upgrade, so cannot confirm any of this first hand.
 
I just want to let you all know that I completed the install of the new 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Segate Momentus Hard Drive.

I was going to post a whole photo set and tutorial, but I don't want people messing up their machines when a tech really needs to be doing this sort of thing.

I will say that the worst part was dealing with the Hard Drive Thermal Wrap and Hard Drive Sensors.

I'm just glad it's all over and the install is going smoothly as you can see here...

DSC_0528.jpg
 
ATHmathieu said:
I just want to let you all know that I completed the install of the new 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Segate Momentus Hard Drive.
Click to expand...

Good Job! that was the route I originally wanted to go with the Regular Mini, but when I heard the Momentus XT only had 4gb of acutal SSD I was a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong it's a fabulous drive for the money without sacrificing storage space.

Anywho I went the Server Route and am running Raid0 on the 2 stock 7200rpm drives. Haven't done a benchmark yet, but they do seem peppy, well not as quick as my i7 on X25-M G2 of course.;)

Props on being one of the first to swap drives.
 
i7QuadCoreMania said:
Good Job! that was the route I originally wanted to go with the Regular Mini, but when I heard the Momentus XT only had 4gb of acutal SSD I was a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong it's a fabulous drive for the money without sacrificing storage space.

Anywho I went the Server Route and am running Raid0 on the 2 stock 7200rpm drives. Haven't done a benchmark yet, but they do seem peppy, well not as quick as my i7 on X25-M G2 of course.;)

Props on being one of the first to swap drives.
Click to expand...

Thanks...I'm on the Mini now and it definitely feels snappier! I'm so glad I did this upgrade!
 
ATHmathieu said:
I just want to let you all know that I completed the install of the new 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Segate Momentus Hard Drive.

I was going to post a whole photo set and tutorial, but I don't want people messing up their machines when a tech really needs to be doing this sort of thing.

I will say that the worst part was dealing with the Hard Drive Thermal Wrap and Hard Drive Sensors.

I'm just glad it's all over and the install is going smoothly as you can see here...

DSC_0528.jpg
Click to expand...

Congratulations, Good to know that it worked well for you!!!

-iGrant
 
I just replaced my stock 320gb with Seagate 500gb Momentus XT, I haven't get a chance to test it out yet, too busy to play with my early arrived iPhone 4 lol. The whole progress took me an hour, coz I want to do it really carefully without damaging any cable or wire. It's pretty easy after all, just need a bit patient at first due to the lack experience like everything else. I didn't have to move/touch the logic board at all, just need to grow some balls to use a bit force to pull the HD out, I did scratch that piece of black plastic cover attach on the HD while pulling the stock HD out, but putting it back is a hell lot easier than pulling it out. And I noticed one of my sensor was not even attach at the right place at first, thank god I opened this and got it fixed. I would say it's a bit harder than the old one, but just a bit like 10%, not much a different. So it's totally doable without moving the logic board.
IMG_0002.jpg

IMG_0001.jpg

IMG_0004.jpg

IMG_0003.jpg

IMG_0008.jpg

IMG_0007.jpg
 
Thanks for the huge pics! I should be putting my Momentus XT into my mini (along with 4GB) tomorrow. Looks pretty simple. Just need to yank a bit to get the hard drive out. :)
 
With mine I noticed that the glue Apple used was REALLY CHEAP to hold those two sensors on. One of them was already half OFF the HDD! Seriously Apple this glue won't last long. It's more like a tacky substance than a glue. I used electrical tape to secure it back on tightly so it won't come off the new drive.

I too did not have to remove the logic board during th upgrade, but I had to use a little bit of force to get it out and the black thermal wrap got scratched a little in the process.
 
Hey hitteam - mind running a benchmark today, then again next week, and again the following week? This way we can all see if that drive made a difference, and got faster with time as it learned what your most accessed files are and copied them onto the SSD part. Would be interesting to see.
 
I will run some test as soon as my 4GB x1 ram stick arrive, 2GB ram is totally not enough for user like me, i like to open all sorts of program and leave it active without closing it, and open like 10-20 web pages at the same time. I noticed the Mac mini start responding slower and whiling viewing youtube video is kinda choppy too. Anyway I will be soon using 4GB + 1GB to run some test.
 
hitteam said:
I noticed the Mac mini start responding slower and whiling viewing youtube video is kinda choppy too. Anyway I will be soon using 4GB + 1GB to run some test.
Click to expand...

Doubt it's ram related, I had some choppiness running 1080P video content off it, till I realized it was running 100mb ethernet, figured something was up, tried to manually force it to 1gb and failed. Replaced the ethernet Cable and voila, came up at 1gb. There is still some weird glitchiness at the beginning (probably VLC player related) but the chopiness is gone.;)

currently have 4gb on my server seems enough for now got 8gb on my i7 but seems overkill, lol:p
 
Well, after i restarted the Mac mini, and only keep a few program running at the background, it seems running fine with youtube HD content right now. I'm spoil with 4GB Ram on all my PC, iMac, Macbook Pro all the time even mine old Mac mini 2.66 GHz(late 2009) model have 4GB Ram, and so used to open a bunch of app and leave it running. And I'm always on wireless too.
 
Anyone seen a step by step guide to the wires/ temp sensors to remove from the hard drive? The ifixit teardown was a good general guide but didn't focus on replacing the hard drive, they skipped ahead to removing the logic board.
 
Just upgraded the hard drive in my 2010 mini to the Momentus XT. Not exactly fun.

In terms of sensor cabling, there's one sensor built into the SATA connector, so that's easy, and the other one is just glued (and I use that term lightly) to the outside of the hard drive. I just electrical-taped it back to the XT. No issues.

In terms of installation guide, I HIGHLY recommend removing the fan completely, in the sense that don't just unscrew it and leave it there. Actually pull the connector off the board. DO NOT yank it. Use a small flat-headed screw-driver to push out the left right clip, and pull the cable straight up toward you. These new connectors do not slide in and out like they used to.

Then remove the little plastic cover, the antenna cover, and remove the hard drive sensor cable from the motherboard the same way you removed the fan cable. Then just, with a bit of force, pull the hard drive out. It WILL come out - and after you've done it once it's pretty easy to do it again and again.

However, this is clearly not for the meek. I was sweating by the time I was done.

Just installing OS X now... :)
 
WilliamG said:
Just upgraded the hard drive in my 2010 mini to the Momentus XT. Not exactly fun.

In terms of sensor cabling, there's one sensor built into the SATA connector, so that's easy, and the other one is just glued (and I use that term lightly) to the outside of the hard drive. I just electrical-taped it back to the XT. No issues.

In terms of installation guide, I HIGHLY recommend removing the fan completely, in the sense that don't just unscrew it and leave it there. Actually pull the connector off the board. DO NOT yank it. Use a small flat-headed screw-driver to push out the left right clip, and pull the cable straight up toward you. These new connectors do not slide in and out like they used to.

Then remove the little plastic cover, the antenna cover, and remove the hard drive sensor cable from the motherboard the same way you removed the fan cable. Then just, with a bit of force, pull the hard drive out. It WILL come out - and after you've done it once it's pretty easy to do it again and again.

However, this is clearly not for the meek. I was sweating by the time I was done.

Just installing OS X now... :)
Click to expand...


How ya liking the Momentus XT? I'll be doing the same install in a few weeks :)
 
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