Unable to change original HDD in Mac Mini (dual drive)

[ritchey]

Hi there,

I have Mac Mini Late 2012 Server with dual drives - one SSD (Samsung Evo 850) for system and apps, and the other is the original 1 TB HDD from Apple. Now I wanted to replace the HDD for new WD Red (that is for NAS - I wanted some drive, that is suitable to run 24/7). But when I replaced the Apple HDD for WD HDD, it doesn't show up in Disk Utility nor the Finder. I can hear it running, I can hear the clicking sound, when it disconects at the end (when I Shut Down the Mac). It is working when attached as external drive. The only problem is, that I can't mount it as the second internal drive (the SSD with system is the same). And when I plug the original Apple HDD back, it works again like a charm, so there is no issue with cables etc. Tried it several times. Tried to run Disk Utility from Recovery Mode, but to no avail.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[newtonuk]

Hi there,

I have Mac Mini Late 2012 Server with dual drives - one SSD (Samsung Evo 850) for system and apps, and the other is the original 1 TB HDD from Apple. Now I wanted to replace the HDD for new WD Red (that is for NAS - I wanted some drive, that is suitable to run 24/7). But when I replaced the Apple HDD for WD HDD, it doesn't show up in Disk Utility nor the Finder. I can hear it running, I can hear the clicking sound, when it disconects at the end (when I Shut Down the Mac). It is working when attached as external drive. The only problem is, that I can't mount it as the second internal drive (the SSD with system is the same). And when I plug the original Apple HDD back, it works again like a charm, so there is no issue with cables etc. Tried it several times. Tried to run Disk Utility from Recovery Mode, but to no avail.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Have you tried showing devices rather than volumes in Disk Utility?

 

[iluvmacs99]

I suspect that the new WD drive that is NAS level is a 15mm drive rather than the normal 9.5mm in thickness. If it is a 15mm drive, it will be a tight fit and can cause the ribbon cable to dislodge from the logic board temporarily causing disk I/O issues. The Mac Mini 2011 and 2012 are meant to accommodate only two 9.5mm drives.

 

[ritchey]

Have you tried showing devices rather than volumes in Disk Utility?

Yes, I have tried that. Even then it didn't show up.
[doublepost=1567422124][/doublepost]

I suspect that the new WD drive that is NAS level is a 15mm drive rather than the normal 9.5mm in thickness. If it is a 15mm drive, it will be a tight fit and can cause the ribbon cable to dislodge from the logic board temporarily causing disk I/O issues. The Mac Mini 2011 and 2012 are meant to accommodate only two 9.5mm drives.

The new drive is 9.5 mm. I have tried to connect everything as well inside as outside the case, so I could check, that every connector sits perfectly. So I am sure, there is no problem with cables.

 

[Fishrrman]

Can you connect the drive EXTERNALLY via USB3 ?

 

[ritchey]

Can you connect the drive EXTERNALLY via USB3 ?

Yes, it connects externally without any problems, I can see it in DU and in Finder as well. I can change partitions on it, I can copy files onto and from it. The problem arises just when it is connected as internal drive.

 

[Fishrrman]

Maybe "the solution" (yeah, I know it's a kludge) is just to leave that one as an external USB3 drive, and use it that way.

 

[ritchey]

Maybe "the solution" (yeah, I know it's a kludge) is just to leave that one as an external USB3 drive, and use it that way.

The thing is, that the original Apple HDD started to have some issues (Disk Drill even told me, that it might have HW issues, and I should replace it), so I ordered a new HDD. Fortunately after reformat the original HDD appears OK again (at least Disk Drill tells me so), but I'm affraid, that it is just for the time being and I would like to be on a safe side and replace it with new HDD.

 

[mmomega]

I would try formatting that drive externally and then installing it internally, see what happens.

If that does not work...
Next I would boot with a USB macOS drive or Internet Recovery. Go in to terminal from there.
and run "diskutil list"
if the drive is listed, you can format from terminal with "diskutil erasedisk HFS+ Untitled /dev/disk1"

This states to use diskutility, erase the drive, format HFS+, name the drive Untitled, and /dev/disk# tells which drive to perform this action on.
Typical /dev/disk0 is the boot disk or first drive in order. Which is why I normally do list first to find out which drive I need to work with.

This is also a handy command to know if you ever have troubles formatting any drive on mac.

 

[ipadawan]

Like mmomega said diskUtil is a handy neat command.
You can start with “ diskutil list “ to check if the disk is there.

A side note: Sometimes when you are doing to much different things with Diskutility.app you can get te much or hidden small partitions.