New Mini 2014, Can I Use SSD From 2011 Mini

[Roonlou]

HI All,

I have just purchased a new mac mini (2014 model 2.6 Ghz 8GB Ram 1TB HDD), after my old 2011 mini has packed up. I had previously upgraded my 2011 mini with an EVO 840 SSD for better performance. Can I put this drive into a USB 3 caddy that I have and boot directly from USB so as all my programs, system preferences etc are all exactly as they were before?

Thanks in advance for your help

Rich

 

[keysofanxiety]

HI All,

I have just purchased a new mac mini (2014 model 2.6 Ghz 8GB Ram 1TB HDD), after my old 2011 mini has packed up. I had previously upgraded my 2011 mini with an EVO 840 SSD for better performance. Can I put this drive into a USB 3 caddy that I have and boot directly from USB so as all my programs, system preferences etc are all exactly as they were before?

Thanks in advance for your help

Rich

Yep, you can put it straight in and it'll be exactly as you left it, though I'd recommend fitting it into the internal SATA for best performance, rather than running over USB. Did the same thing with my 2011>2012 MBP and it worked flawlessly. Thank goodness for standardised hardware signatures on OS X! My Windows partition, on the other hand, was a little more hiccupy ...

 

[SpinalTap]

Yes.

 

[Roonlou]

Awesome, thanks for your help guys

 

[Fishrrman]

OP asks:
"Can I put this drive into a USB 3 caddy that I have and boot directly from USB so as all my programs, system preferences etc are all exactly as they were before?"

YES about the "caddy part". It will work fine.

HOWEVER -- whether you can boot from the existing OS on the drive, depends on WHICH OS you have installed.
The OS must be capable of booting the 2014 Mini.

Otherwise, you'll have to install a fresh copy of the OS onto the drive that -is- capable of booting a 2014 Mini.

Which version of the OS is currently on the SSD?

BTW -- try the drive in the caddy before you open up the Mini. If the caddy is USB3 with UASP support, you'll see boot/run speeds that are just about equivalent to what you'll see after installing the drive internally.
In other words, it may be less trouble to just use the caddy...

 

[Roonlou]

Hi, the OS on the SSD is El Capitan, so seeing as it is the latest iteration of OSX I presume a 2014 mini should boot from this.

My plan was to keep the SSD in the caddy so I wouldn't have to open the new mini to internally install. I only use the other USB ports for time machine and the odd USB flash drive so no high demand in the USB bus. I would presume this would be much faster read / write speeds than the 5400 oem drive?

Thanks again

 

[Celerondon]

I would presume this would be much faster read / write speeds than the 5400 oem drive?

You presume correctly! You should enjoy much faster performance both ways.