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Second drive in a Mini

"I do have a question though about going this route, I would like all my applications on the SSD including the OS. Can I just assign the external drive as the boot drive? Will this cause any problems?"

Set up an external SSD boot drive in the right enclosure, and it will run BETTER THAN what you have now, and it will yield performance that will be all-but-indistinguishable from an internally-installed drive.

Put the hesitation aside and try it.
You'll like it….
 
Fishrrman said:
"I do have a question though about going this route, I would like all my applications on the SSD including the OS. Can I just assign the external drive as the boot drive? Will this cause any problems?"

Set up an external SSD boot drive in the right enclosure, and it will run BETTER THAN what you have now, and it will yield performance that will be all-but-indistinguishable from an internally-installed drive.

Put the hesitation aside and try it.
You'll like it….
Click to expand...

Thank you for this. I think that will be the route I take at least for now. I haven't actually moved anything over to the mini yet, so I can only compare it to my core2 duo Imac, so it has to be faster than that.
 
vandrv said:
I do have a question though about going this route, I would like all my applications on the SSD including the OS. Can I just assign the external drive as the boot drive? Will this cause any problems?
Click to expand...
Yes you can, and no, it should not cause you any problems. While I decided to go the internal route, I purchased a Seagate GoFlex Desk 3.5" Thunderbolt Adapter (STAE122) which I used to clone my internal hard drive. Before doing the actual swap, I used it as the primary boot drive (with cloned SSD) for over a week without issue. In combination with the SSD, it was super fast.

I was planning on returning it after I cloned the drive but liked it so much that I decided to keep it so I could do a regular backup of the internal SSD boot drive (using Carbon Copy) to the original hard drive that it replaced. It comes with two thunderbolt connections allowing me to daisy chain from the MacMini to the Seagate Thunderbolt adapter to my Thunderbolt display. I chose thunderbolt because my 2011 MacMini does not have any USB 3 connectors. For my setup it works really nice. I can easily use it as an external boot drive. You can do the same with an external USB 3 drive, providing your MacMini has a USB 3 connector, but not sure if it would be as fast.

Internal SSD or external SSD (via USB 3 or thunderbolt) should give you a nice performance boast over your current internal hard drive.

Cheers,

Scott Halliday
 
Data Doubler Success

I just installed a second HDD in my 2011 Mac Mini yesterday afternoon. I used the OWC data doubler kit and a 1 TB WD Blue HDD. The OWC kit comes with very good and highly detailed instructions (including lots of pictures) about how to disassemble and reassemble the machine. I reviewed the OWC instructional video a few times, read through the instruction manual and took it really slow when performing the upgrade.

Everything went pretty smooth and it only took me a little more than an hour to complete the job. It would have gone more quickly but I ran into two grommets that had been damaged/misaligned at the factory and I had to mess around with them a little to get everything aligned and secured correctly during reassembly. Here's the link to the OWC kit and instructional video:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other+World+Computing/DIYIMM11D2/
 
I too was pretty nervous about opening up my new 2012 Mini to add the second drive. The installation turned out be be rather straight-forward when using the OWC kit and following their instructions / videos. Take your time, be patient, and carefully categorize the parts as you remove them. Indeed, the hardest part for me was monkeying the antennae grate back into place...It is a very snug fit!
 
Options options options

Like many others, I'm gonna upgrade my 2011 (base model) mac mini with two new drives, a 128Gb SSD and a 750Gb 7200rpm hard disk. As this is my first Mac I'll need to install Windows also until I'm comfortable I don't need it anymore!. The two main options I'm considering are:

1) Install both OSX and Windows (using boot camp) on the SSD, format the 750 Gb Hard Disk as Mac journaled for data storage (moving Mac Home to this disk), and using a Windows program to be enable it to read the Mac formatted drive for access to data.

2) Create a fusion drive as described earlier in this blog.

There are other options also.....

This will be a general desktop computer where I will primarily be doing e-mail, browsing, record keeping, Photoshop photo editing, some video ripping / conversion and occassionally wathcing video's.

Any advice on which method may work best would be greatly appreciated!
 
I bought my mini almost new and the previous owner had installed already a 120GB Intel SSD; my config sees it as a 620GB fusion drive. How can I tell if the IR was messed-up? Is there an easy way to test it?
 
"I bought my mini almost new and the previous owner had installed already a 120GB Intel SSD; my config sees it as a 620GB fusion drive. How can I tell if the IR was messed-up? Is there an easy way to test it?"

I'll _guess_ that the Mini you bought already had a 500gb HDD inside, and that the previous owner had installed a 120gb SSD as well.

This combination would result in the 620gb fusion drive you "see"….
 
Last edited:
Fishrrman said:
"I bought my mini almost new and the previous owner had installed already a 120GB Intel SSD; my config sees it as a 620GB fusion drive. How can I tell if the IR was messed-up? Is there an easy way to test it?"

I'll _guess" that the Mini you bought already had a 500gb HDD inside, and that the previous owner had installed a 120gb SSD as well.

This combination would result in the 620gb fusion drive you "see"….
Click to expand...

My doubt is on testing the IR, not the fusion drive
 
Just a quick update here. I decided to give the external SSD drive a try, rather than messing with the internal install. I purchased an external USB3 enclosure and installed the SSD there. I don't have any way of really comparing it to an internal installation, but it is quite a bit faster than the Imac it replaced and is certainly good enough for what I am using the computer for.
 
Does anyone know what the speed difference is between using the external 3.0 versus internal is? I have been trying this using a Mediasonic 3.0 enclosure and Sandisk Extreme SSD, but it was very buggy and locked up often.
 
fskywalker said:
I bought my mini almost new and the previous owner had installed already a 120GB Intel SSD; my config sees it as a 620GB fusion drive. How can I tell if the IR was messed-up? Is there an easy way to test it?
Click to expand...

I used my Apple TV remote to test the IR connection (play a song or movie in iTunes; hit "play" and "pause" and see if the song plays or pauses). It was the one and only time I used the IR function, so it probably would not have been huge problem if I broke it during the drive install. However, if the Mini is primarily a HTPC then I would likely want to have a functioning IR port.

If the IR connector is broken, I suppose you could use the Apple Remote app from your iPhone (or other iPod) to accomplish the same?
 
vandrv said:
Just a quick update here. I decided to give the external SSD drive a try, rather than messing with the internal install. I purchased an external USB3 enclosure and installed the SSD there. I don't have any way of really comparing it to an internal installation, but it is quite a bit faster than the Imac it replaced and is certainly good enough for what I am using the computer for.
Click to expand...

There are certainly plenty of options. I've modded these so many times I've lost count. They are really fun to play with as OS X is so forgiving.

For instance, I just bought a cheap quad Mini on Ebay. I have a clone from an Air on a USB 3 drive. Thing was, all I had was an ipad ( no display). No problem, the clone had Splashtop and Air Display on it, But I had to go into the Mini and discontent the hard drive in there so when it booted it would search out the USB 3 SSD, otherwise it would boot to the internal drive automatically (a lot easier than an install)

Works perfect ;)

Point is: The USB 3 SSD works really well. You don't even need to stress out with major surgery. But I will do it one day when i'm bored as it's fun (when your not rushed -It gets my adrenaline going :D )

whatever :rolleyes:
 
mac jones said:
But I had to go into the Mini and discontent the hard drive in there so when it booted it would search out the USB 3 SSD, otherwise it would boot to the internal drive automatically (a lot easier than an install)
Click to expand...

I'm sure there's a way to boot from the external drive first time without disconnecting the internal; HDD? I'm sure I read theres a key sequence you can press on startup to select the boot drive?
 
vandrv said:
I just assign the external drive as the boot drive? Will this cause any problems?
Click to expand...
Yes
No (unless you unplug it while running, but even that probably only means a reboot)
Don't make a fusion drive from an internal and external though.
 
cheerup347 said:
I'm sure there's a way to boot from the external drive first time without disconnecting the internal; HDD? I'm sure I read theres a key sequence you can press on startup to select the boot drive?
Click to expand...

Yes maybe. But disconnecting the drive isn't that bad. You need to remove the fan and the fan guard that's all. This is actually rather simple. Just remember to pull 'up' on the fan connector. (it's very difficult to damage the fan connector if you are aware of how it connects)
 
Folks. It's a fairly easy upgrade. Just take your time. The owc guide is good. Don't be afraid. I've done three of them.
 
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