i am going to upgrade my mac mini solo to T7200 processor and the 60 gb HD to 128 gb SSD. I already have 2 gb of memory installed. I need guidance to change the operating system from the current O/S Tiger to O/S Lion. I am already having O/S Lion (NOT MOUNTAIN LION) on a DVD. I CANNOT USE TARGET Mode as I do not have access to another Mac. Kindly guide me.
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Upgrading o/s from Tiger to Lion on Mac Mini Solo
- Thread starter Abdulhaq
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This. You need to be able to install in target mode because the OS will recognize that your Mini is a 1,1 (even if you flash it to 2,1) and won't let you install it. Further after completion of the install you have to delete a plist file that isn't possible to access without a second Mac (you might be able to get around it with terminal but you still will be blocked by the first problem anyway). I had to use my 2011 MacBook Pro to install lion on the mini. Frankly, you are better off with snow leopard anyway. Lion wasn't all that great especially on those low powered minis. I ended up reverting one to snow leopard and the performance was improved especially if you are going to rock with only 2gb of RAM.
The OP is going to upgrade the original CPU with a Core 2 Duo. That'll have plenty of power for Lion.
As mentioned above the install process isn't straightforward. The process here will work: http://www.123macmini.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=203186𱦲
Note that if you aren't starting with 10.7.5, be careful about running the update to get to 10.7.5 as it'll replace the PlatformSupport file and the computer won't boot. You should probably get into the habit of not installing any major updates through Software Update but instead doing them manually and then checking to be sure the PlatformSupport.plist file isn't replaced after the update installs but BEFORE you restart the computer.
This requires a second Mac with Target Disk Mode. The OP does not have this. A MacMini2,1 runs Lion rather poorly. It is the slowest Mac that runs Lion along with the Macbook and white iMac. None of which perform well when running Lion. Likely due to the low ram limit of 2-3.3GB and the Intell GMA950 GPU.
I assume you haven't used a Mac Mini 1,1 (upgraded to a Core2duo since you can't run Lion on a Core Solo or Core Duo) running Lion have you? It's not a pleasant experience. Yes it does work, but you really are better off on Snow Leopard. Frankly there isn't much that Lion offered that Snow Leopard doesn't. Better iCloud integration is about it, but you can't use Messages and I think it's pretty well agreed upon that Lion is sort of the Vista of the Mac OS's at this point (okay maybe not THAT bad). While I appreciate the upgradability is fun/awesome, the GPU really is the bottleneck of the 1,1 and 2,1 generation....
The lack of the 2nd Mac is the limiting factor, yes- I missed that part of the original question. I have one of these, and with a faster disk, it's entirely usable. I also agree that if the OP has no need for iCloud, it's not worth the hassle of getting Lion on it.
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Actually, I have. It works acceptably, though it'll never seem fast regardless of OS.