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Reinstalling OS X Lion on 2011 Mac mini

E

Edge

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 28, 2005
143
35
I have just taken apart a 2.5 i5 Mac mini, removed the 500GB drive and replaced it with an SSD (OCZ Vertex 2.)

I created a bootable OS X Lion USB stick from my Macbook Air, and tried to boot the mini from the USB. It failed, so I am currently using the reinstall via the internet method.

Still almost an hour to go...
 

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I only pulled the motherboard out an inch or so, not sure what's underneath. Could be an empty void, like so many politician's brains.

But the hard drive space apparently could fit a 12.5mm high 1TB HD underneath the SSD (it was a bit tight and I have no cable to attach it to the motherboard, let alone the screws or whatever is needed to keep it in place, and Apple only offer 9.5mm high secondary hard drives.)
 
I'm tempted to get a new Mini, keep last years Mini and sell my CoreDuo Mini (used as Web and iTunes server).

I get the feeling iTunes won't support Leopard much longer (I could update to Snow Leopard - but if I'm doing that I might as well just upgrade to Lion with a new bit of kit)
 
Edge said:
I created a bootable OS X Lion USB stick from my Macbook Air, and tried to boot the mini from the USB. It failed, so I am currently using the reinstall via the internet method.
Click to expand...
So they don't include a USB key with the OS on it. That's a shame. I was hoping that perhaps I could get a 2011 Mini Server and use a 2011 ordinary Mini's USB key to flash the Mini Server to run ordinary Mac OS X. It doesn't sound like that's going to be possible.
 
The USB key I made (by restoring the ESD image) would not boot the mini. It will boot the Macbook Air on which the USB was made, and on which I downloaded Lion from the App Store.

So I can't tell you whether it will work. I'm sure there's a way, but I haven't figured it out.
 
mdgm said:
So they don't include a USB key with the OS on it.
Click to expand...

Correct.

When I reinstalled via the internet, there was a mention of sending my machine's unique identifier to Apple to verify it was eligible.
 
Edge said:
The USB key I made (by restoring the ESD image) would not boot the mini. It will boot the Macbook Air on which the USB was made, and on which I downloaded Lion from the App Store.

So I can't tell you whether it will work. I'm sure there's a way, but I haven't figured it out.
Click to expand...

You'll be able to buy it on a flash drive for $69 next month
 
Edge said:
Correct.

When I reinstalled via the internet, there was a mention of sending my machine's unique identifier to Apple to verify it was eligible.
Click to expand...

Do you still have the factory installed HDD? You could try putting it in an enclosure/USB to SATA converter and clone it using CCC...
 
How was the procedure to change the original HD for the Vertex 2?
Is is the same as 2010 Mac Mini (described in iFixIt)?
 
I am also curious: Are we looking at the same enclosure as the 2010 model? Was the hard drive replacement easy?
 
ZRD said:
Do you still have the factory installed HDD? You could try putting it in an enclosure/USB to SATA converter and clone it using CCC...
Click to expand...
Absolutely could have done that, have no doubt it would work. I was going through the exercise out of curiosity more than anything. (Funny thing is, I had a DP3 install of Lion on the Vertex 2 which booted the Mac mini. I checked the logs after it booted into the Lion finder and it showed some repairs made to the filesystem during the lengthy boot up process.) I erased and reinstalled to see how the process would go.

davidcmc said:
How was the procedure to change the original HD for the Vertex 2? Is it the same as 2010 Mac Mini (described in iFixIt)?
Click to expand...
Essentially, yes. The motherboard has a slightly different layout, obviously, including an empty connector underneath the fan which I speculate may be for a 2nd HD temp sensor. But screw placements and instructions are basically the same.
 
Edge said:
Essentially, yes. The motherboard has a slightly different layout, obviously, including an empty connector underneath the fan which I speculate may be for a 2nd HD temp sensor. But screw placements and instructions are basically the same.
Click to expand...

Ah! That's great!
As long as it is easier than iMac HDD replacement, it's great. :D
 
Edge said:
Essentially, yes. The motherboard has a slightly different layout, obviously, including an empty connector underneath the fan which I speculate may be for a 2nd HD temp sensor. But screw placements and instructions are basically the same.
Click to expand...

How about that annoying paper covering on the HDD? Did they do away with that? Can't tell if its plastic/paper/metal in the iFixit pics
 
ZRD said:
How about that annoying paper covering on the HDD? Did they do away with that? Can't tell if its plastic/paper/metal in the iFixit pics
Click to expand...

It's just paper, but once you take it off, it's not going back on easily since it loses a lot of stickiness. I just left it off the SSD I put in there.
 
ZRD said:
You'll be able to buy it on a flash drive for $69 next month
Click to expand...
The build on the Mini and the Air is different than the retail version, so what you can buy in the store won't boot them, nor will the App Store version of 10.7. Most likely, there will be a newer USB drive at some point which will include 10.7.1 or later, and that will work.
 
I've currently got a SSD in my macbook pro. If I install lion on to that and then take the SSD from the macbook pro and put it in the new mac mini, will it boot up ?

If it doesn't work and I have to do the restore via internet method, does that mean it will wipe the hard drive, and do a fresh lion install?
 
Tommhuy said:
I've currently got a SSD in my macbook pro. If I install lion on to that and then take the SSD from the macbook pro and put it in the new mac mini, will it boot up ?

If it doesn't work and I have to do the restore via internet method, does that mean it will wipe the hard drive, and do a fresh lion install?
Click to expand...

I installed lion on my 2010 mini, I moved the hdd over to the new mini 2011 I just got and it refused to boot, I had to fresh install it and then do a migration from the backed up data in time machine.
 
Tommhuy said:
I've currently got a SSD in my macbook pro. If I install lion on to that and then take the SSD from the macbook pro and put it in the new mac mini, will it boot up ?

If it doesn't work and I have to do the restore via internet method, does that mean it will wipe the hard drive, and do a fresh lion install?
Click to expand...

It will not boot. If it does boot, you'll get some kernel panics.
 
jmcgeejr said:
I installed lion on my 2010 mini, I moved the hdd over to the new mini 2011 I just got and it refused to boot, I had to fresh install it and then do a migration from the backed up data in time machine.
Click to expand...

Intell said:
It will not boot. If it does boot, you'll get some kernel panics.
Click to expand...

I assume it would be the same thing the other way around, putting the new mini's hard drive into the macbook pro. I was planning to buy the mini and doing a straight hard drive swap with the macbook pro.

I guess its only a little more work reinstalling.

Thanks for the help guys!
 
Tommhuy said:
I've currently got a SSD in my macbook pro. If I install lion on to that and then take the SSD from the macbook pro and put it in the new mac mini, will it boot up?
Click to expand...
As others have said, no. But as I mentioned earlier, it may not be as simple as that.

Edge said:
(Funny thing is, I had a DP3 install of Lion on the Vertex 2 which booted the Mac mini. I checked the logs after it booted into the Lion finder and it showed some repairs made to the filesystem during the lengthy boot up process.)
Click to expand...
I didn't mention that the previous install was a Hackintosh install (yes, it booted the mini after Lion made some repairs.) This relates to your next question.

Tommhuy said:
If it doesn't work and I have to do the restore via internet method, does that mean it will wipe the hard drive, and do a fresh lion install?
Click to expand...
I am not sure whether the Lion repair/reinstall process does not check the install first and figure out which files need to be replaced/updated/removed (like the OTA updates for iOS 5 will do.) I erased the hard drive once the Repair partition had downloaded to my new SSD, I'm not sure whether it had already erased it or simply added the invisible 5GB partition to the existing install.
 
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