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second harddrive upgrade kit
- Thread starter No-Me
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You can build out your kit on macpartsonline. It will cost more than iFixit. Simply search under mini and select the 2010 server bottom cable and then go Macbook Pro and select the hard drive screws with grommets. The iFixit motherboard removal tool is in stock which is the last piece. You can skip that by using two screw drivers.
And bought a WD 1TB disk,.. will put that in together with a 128GB SSD, can't wait
I installed my new OWC 120gb SSD into my i5 Mini last night. The kit wasn't exactly cheap and I wasn't sure if it would be worth it since I consider myself a pretty handy person. However, given how easy the install was as a result of everything in the kit (I didn't own any of the torn bits, etc) as well as the detailed instructions, I was more than happy with what I paid for the kit. Everything went together without a problem. Booted up, installed Lion from the online recovery and was rockin' and rollin' in 2.5 hours. That 2.5 hours also included installing all my software again. I installed the stock 500gb drive back into its original position as per the suggestion in the iFixit instructions and just dragged and dropped all of my apps, downloads, music, etc over to the new drive and it's like nothing ever happened.
So for now I'll be using the stock 500gb drive for movie/music storage so I can stream to my ATV2 if I want. I'm already thinking about a 1TB drive as a secondary storage drive, but I'll wait just a little longer. I wonder if there will ever be a 2TB anytime in the near future. That would be sweet.
Anyway, bottom line is I'm very thrilled with the outcome. iFixit's kit was worth the $$ in my opinion and comes with a tools you can always use again if you need to get into any Apple computer and the logic board removal tool for the Mini if you ever need to easily remove that again. One last thing, after tearing the Mini apart once I have lost all nerves about having to do it again.
Happy camper. Oh, and now the thing screams. Reboots in about 20 seconds and that's even re-opening any apps I had open prior to reboot.
So, someone help me with this please. I've ordered a owc ssd and the kit from ifixit. I want to use the ssd as my boot drive while using the stock drive for everything else. I feel comfortable installing the drive in the mini, I just don't really know what to do from there. I basically want the speed of the ssd to open apps and boot the machine while using the other drive for everything else. Can someone Tell me what I need to do, or point me in the right direction?
Thanks in advance.
Thanks in advance.
Depends if you want to clone your drive first so that when you pop in the SSD it'll just be good to go from the first power on. I chose not to go that route. I did as follows:
1. Follow iFixit install instructions.
2. Turned on the Mini using Command+R for online recovery
3. Opened up the Disk Utility option and initialized my new SSD as a single OSX Parition. Exit Disk Utility, but don't quit the install.
4. Start the online recovery process. It will ask you which drive you want to install the recovery to. Choose your new SSD.
5. Let it download and install.
6. Once the install is done, it should boot into OSX. Go into "System Preferences" and choose "Startup Disk". Make sure the SSD is the new boot drive.
7. Configure OSX how you like and drag any files from your old drive (docs, apps, music, etc) to the new one. I chose to move things over then erase the stock drive and then move my music/movies back over to it so I could use the drive as media storage.
1. Follow iFixit install instructions.
2. Turned on the Mini using Command+R for online recovery
3. Opened up the Disk Utility option and initialized my new SSD as a single OSX Parition. Exit Disk Utility, but don't quit the install.
4. Start the online recovery process. It will ask you which drive you want to install the recovery to. Choose your new SSD.
5. Let it download and install.
6. Once the install is done, it should boot into OSX. Go into "System Preferences" and choose "Startup Disk". Make sure the SSD is the new boot drive.
7. Configure OSX how you like and drag any files from your old drive (docs, apps, music, etc) to the new one. I chose to move things over then erase the stock drive and then move my music/movies back over to it so I could use the drive as media storage.
Thanks for the reply-
That sounds easy enough. So if I want my desktop to look as it does now with all of my customizations and preferences I need to clone it to the ssd? Sorry
for the probably dumb question. I only bought a 60Gb ssd with the idea of just using it for the speed. I'm new to a two hard drive set up.
Sorry if I'm not making sense.
When you moved the music, apps, etc, did you move any preference/plist files as well? I'd hate to move things over and not have all of my app preferences and/or itunes ratings/play counts.
Nope. Just started from scratch. I personally never use ratings or play counts. Took about 2 minutes to change my preferences how I like them.
Yes, as I understand it, that's the case. You'd have to be sure that your source for cloning (stock hard drive) is using less space than your new drive's capacity otherwise it obviously won't clone right. If I'm wrong, somebody tell me. I've never cloned a hard drive before.
In my case, I was using about 160gb of my stock hard drive and my new SSD is 120. So I was operating under the assumption that cloning my original drive might be more hassle than it was worth. Hence I went the other route and it really didn't take me long as all to get my system back to where it was before. Then again, perhaps I don't tweak every last little preference possible as other might so this process was not difficult or time consuming for me.
I hope that helps.
It does, thanks.
I think I'm making it harder than what it really is. I don't have a lot of customizations especially nothing I couldn't just re-do in a matter of minutes.
So basically I just need to copy all the applications and what ever files of my home folder that I want to the ssd?
Pretty much. Once you're booted into the fresh Lion install on your SSD (i.e. via online recovery for example), it should see your stock drive as a secondary drive. Just open up Finder and drag your apps over from your old hard drive's Applications folder into the Applications folder on the SSD. Follow the same process for anything else you want to be running off your SSD. I chose to also put my documents, downloads, photos, and games on the SSD.
It's pretty simple and painless for people like us who have relatively "simple" systems to replicate.
Thanks man, you've been a big help. Now I just need to wait for the drive to get here so I can get started.
No worries. Glad I could help out. My advice would be to just take your time and not rush the install. It doesn't take long and isn't THAT difficult, but nobody wants to break a connector, strip a screw, forget to put something back in the right place because they were anxious. I just made sure to be slow and deliberate. The "hard" part is just getting the new drive in and putting everything back together. The OS related stuff should be cake
damn! the fedex guy couldn't find the doorbell, so instead that he called me he returned it to the warehouse.. new try tomorrow and the 1TB and 2x 4GB ram have to wait until tomorrow
LOL, couldn't find the doorbell? That's a new one. Haha
Providing you are using less space than what the SSD holds you can easily use a program like SuperDuper (all the features you need are free) to clone the drive onto the SSD.
The following should work:
1. Install SuperDuper and put SSD in external enclosure (e.g. USB enclosure)
2. Log out of Mac OS X.
3. Log back in holding down shift key (this will ensure minimum stuff is open, so clone has greatest chance of success).
4. Start SuperDuper
5. Clone HDD to SSD.
6. Insert SSD
7. Assuming you left the stock hard drive in the Mac Mini, hold down option key on boot and boot from SSD. If not sure which HDD, if you can select the recovery partition boot into that, perhaps check out disk utility, close that, exit the recovery partition and then select the boot HDD when prompted.
The following should work:
1. Install SuperDuper and put SSD in external enclosure (e.g. USB enclosure)
2. Log out of Mac OS X.
3. Log back in holding down shift key (this will ensure minimum stuff is open, so clone has greatest chance of success).
4. Start SuperDuper
5. Clone HDD to SSD.
6. Insert SSD
7. Assuming you left the stock hard drive in the Mac Mini, hold down option key on boot and boot from SSD. If not sure which HDD, if you can select the recovery partition boot into that, perhaps check out disk utility, close that, exit the recovery partition and then select the boot HDD when prompted.
Have you guys had any problem doing your initial boot with a wireless keyboard and mouse. I've heard that you need a USB keyboard and mouse do to a glitch in lion. If this is the case, I'll have to go to work any get one.
So last friday I did the surgery, went quite smooth.
Now I have a 128GB SSD in the main bay and as second drive I have a Western Digital 1TB.
I didn't install anything on the disks before putting them in the mini.
I've put the default 500GB in a USB case and attached that to the mini, booted from that to the recovery-drive and did a fresh install on the SSD.
Now I have a 128GB SSD in the main bay and as second drive I have a Western Digital 1TB.
I didn't install anything on the disks before putting them in the mini.
I've put the default 500GB in a USB case and attached that to the mini, booted from that to the recovery-drive and did a fresh install on the SSD.
I have had no luck finding the parts. Could you please post the links? Appreciate it. For some reason I cannot find it on either website.
thanks