You do not need to apply much downward pressure while turning. Well show you everything you need to know about the. Mac mini late 2014 hard drive replacement ifixit repair guide. The repair experts at ifixit have completed their teardown of the new mac mini. So, i have bought the same model of mac mini, but unfortunately with lower disks capacity 250 and 750 gb. Innovative disk partition manager to optimize overall performance of your hard drives and operating.
With the hard drive in place, its now time to place the cd drive back into the mac mini. How to clone your mac so you can use it as a backup you can create a bootable copy of your hard drive by cloning it. Insert the new hard drive back into the housing until it snaps into place. Apple might choose to offer what many people call the mythical midsized tower mac a small, upgradable mac that can be opened as easily as the cheese grater mac pro of yore. Unfortunately, if youve got a newer model, youre probably out of luck. Attach the enclosure or cableconnected ssd to the mac mini, via usb. Mar 04, 2014 learn how to upgrade or replace the hard drive in mac mini models from 2005 to 2009. Using disk utility to repair hard drives and disk permissions. If your mac mini only has a hard drive, skip the steps about the pcie ssd and its connector.
Solved mysterious slow drive speed on mac mini tricky. To locate the model identifier in software, select about this mac. For a new aluminium mac mini you will need to replace one of the internal drives. If you want to make use of your macs thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. How to instructions and videos to upgrade the storage, hard drive, hard. This allows you to mount the hard drive externally, but boot the mac from it. While drive cloning is also an option, performing a fresh os install and migrating. I have just purchased another mac mini server late 2012, this time a 2. This process would consist of cloning the original drive while still inside the computer to a separate external hard drive, then installing the new drive and cloning the external hard drive to that new drive. In theory, just about any hard drive or ssd that meets the minimum requirements should work in the mac mini. Mar 04, 2014 upgrade or replace the hard drive in a mac mini. This video also applies to the following mac minis. How to upgrade and install a new hard drive or ssd in your pc. Rotate the bottom cover counterclockwise until the white dot painted on the bottom cover is aligned with the ring inscribed on the outer case.
Although every effort is made to provide the most accurate and. Replacing mac mini hard drive with ssd, a apple community. Mac mini owner reportsguides on core 2 duo cpu upgrade chip swaps for 2006 to 2008 mac minis. Parts computer 2012 mac mini quad core nonserver 8gb ram 1tb hdd originally from apple i usually keep a drobo connected as well as a.
How to upgrade your mac mini with an ssd 2019 updated. The hard drives in the new 2018 mac mini are pcie which means they are very fast, but also expensive. Buy products related to mac mini solid state drive products and see what customers say about mac mini solid state drive products on free delivery possible on eligible purchases. Your current drive if its still functional can be backed up using a program. Clone each computers drive to the appropriate volume on the external drive. How to free up storage space on your mac apple support. Just before the swap, put the new drive in the case and use superduper or carbon copy cloner to make an exact copy of your mac minis original drive onto the new drive.
Unlike previous models, you cannot upgrade the internal hard drive. A mac can boot from an external drive, for example, if you put your old hard drive into an external enclosure, you can boot from it, and run that hard drive and it would be. How to share an external hard drive between mac and windows. Store application, others can be updated by choosing apple software update. To perform recovery tasks on older versions of macos, such as os x 10. Not everyone will want to do this, but it is possible to install a second drive in the 2012 mac mini to. Theres no need to buy a new computer, simply swap out. With that computer, you could easily swap hard drives, add pci cards, and even add a second optical drive. Replacing mac mini hard drive with ssd, and new ml install i have a mid2011 mac mini, and it has been running very sluggish, even when there are multiple free gb of ram and the processor is only at 10 to 20% of capacity. A hard drive upgrade is one of the easiest ways to improve your pc, whether youre looking for more storage or the speed boost an ssd provides. Nov 09, 2018 the repair experts at ifixit have completed their teardown of the new mac mini. There are software alternatives to this cable, but consider this a small.
Place your thumbs in the depressions cut into the bottom cover. Also seinfeld gets new imac, macworld keyboard and mouse guides, mac mini server a great value, 2 tb external drive from samsung, and more. Unscrew knob on the hatch on the back of the computer unit. How to move your content to a new mac apple support. Personally i think if you have anything going to your swap files it is an indication that you dont have enough ram. Oct 07, 2019 how to free up storage space on your mac save space by storing your content in icloud or using builtin tools to find and remove large or unneeded files. While the 2010 mac mini limits you to firewire 800 or usb 2.
Take out 4 screws, 2 on the top and the other 2 under the guard. It also has tools to compare macs sidebyside, lookup macs by serial number and other identifiers, a mac specs app for ios, android, and kindle fire, and much more. Mac mini late 2012 hard drive replacement ifixit repair guide. For a macbook or macbook pro can replace the internal optical drive with your old hard drive or order a large ssd drive and replace your old hard drive with it. In those cases using an external hard drive as an intermediate is recommended.
Why apples update to the mac mini could be a big deal. Oct 12, 2019 succeed, either with time machine or other software. Place your thumbs in the circular divots and twist the. Aug 10, 2015 one extra benefit of choosing the optical drive for an ssd swap. Recovery mode is possible thanks to the installation of a hidden recovery partition on your mac s hard drive and allows the user to perform the aforementioned tasks without needing a macos dvd or usb installer. Want to upgrade the ram, graphics card, processor, storage ssd or hard drive or even use an optical drive in a mac to add an ssd. Sata iii adapter cable, connect it to your imac and. So that your mac mini is not scratched, place it on some kitchen paper or a towel. We also have many of these videos available via itunes so you can watch with an ipod, iphone, or ipad while you work on your mac. How to give your 2012 or 2014 mac mini a performance boost by replacing the hard drive with an ssd. How to upgrade aluminum mac mini hard drives or ssds. How to give your 2012 or 2014 mac mini a performance boost by.
When storage space is needed, only the files you recently opened are kept on your mac, so that you can easily work offline. Otherwise if you dont want to do the drive swap, then use any external hard drive that you can erase, then partition it into two volumes one for computer a and one for computer b. Upgrade or replace the hard drive in a mac mini cnet. The 2012 model remains to this day apples last, properly upgradeable mac mini. I performed open heart surgery on my mac mini, and it was. Instead of moving the swap file to usb flash drive which will only slow your system down, i would suggest you increase the amount of. If youve never done it before, weve got you covered. Use this guide to completely replace your mini s hard drive. Nows the right time to swap your old imacs hard drive for a.
Its easier to replace the optical drive, but if you still use dvds or cds on occasion, swapping the hard drive is. If the new mac starts with the old hard drive, then you can safely swap it. Upgrading the boot drive on my mac mini to an ssd drive was by far the biggest speed enhancement ive experienced on any computer. Use the four screws to secure the drive in place and reattach the ribbon cable. I recently did a hdd drive swap as in a few minutes ago and its still slow. Taking apart the new late 2014 mac mini to replace the hard drive. How to upgrade the 2012 mac mini for use in 2020 imore. Feb 29, 2020 one of the best upgrades to make is to swap out the old mechanical hard drive for an ssd.
How to clone mac drive to ssd for free in about 5 minutes. Laptop models you may want to format and do the cloning process with the new hard drive inside of an enclosure before opening up your computer. I plugged in the new 320gb 7200rpm drive fired up the software, and hoped for the best after selecting some key options including setting the new hard drive as the startup disk. Owcs detailed stepbystep installation videos guide you through upgrading your mac, ipod, and iphone. Other people want to keep the optical drive and swap the hard drive for an ssd. Mac mini all models imac all models imac pro all models mac pro all models this means that the mac models you cant upgrade the hard drive in are.
Mac mini late 2014 hard drive replacement ifixit repair. There is no room in the model for two sata drives as in previous models. Also includes a couple 2006 imac cpu upgrade reports. How to transfer data from your old drive to a new drive owc. Use disk utility to clone a macs drive disk utilitys restore function lets you create a bootable clone.
The computer shows no sign of life, and my time capsule, unfortunately, is also dead. However, it always is best to buy from a trusted company with mac knowledge for the most troublefree experience. This guide has been found to be exceptionally cool by the ifixit staff. Update your old macbook, mac mini, or mac pro hard. Apr 15, 2020 if you want to make use of your mac s thunderbolt port, then this is the best external hard drive for macs. One of the best upgrades to make is to swap out the old mechanical hard drive for an ssd. At the back of the hard drive you will find two screws as anchorage. Lifewire get the latest tech news delivered every day. How to clone your mac so you can use it as a backup imore. Nov 30, 2019 disk utility is free and included with every copy of the mac os. But if youre going to swap the hard drive for an ssd, youll probably want a. These days, your most important choice is between a traditional.
One thing that is easy to do, is to use the hard drive in target disk mode before you swap the hard drive. If you buy a new external hard drive, you may notice that working between mac and pc is an often difficult but it doesnt need to be. Mac mini late 2012 hard drive replacement ifixit repair. Remove the logic board removal tool, push down the clips at the far right and left above the.
Depending on the size of your drive bay, you may need to use a spacer to make your ssd fit properly. The speed increase is incredible almost hard to believe. Choosing a drive that fits your budgets and does what you need is the first step. Cloning allows you to make an exact copy of current hard drive to the new the ssd. Use this guide to replace the hard drive in your harddriveonly or fusion drive mac mini late 2014. This is how to clone a mac drive to ssd for free using the mac software disk utilities and changing the startup disk. Cloning your data to a new hard drive in mac osx by jon.
But thanks to the usbc interface on the new mac mini, an external ssd drive is now a good option. Replace the mounting pins on the side of the new drive, attach the connector and stick the plastic cover. Cloning your data to a new hard drive in mac osx by jon gunnison there are plenty of ways to clone your older hard drive to your new hard drive. We have found the optimal free space for an ssd to work with virtual and swap files is 20%. Optimized storage in macos sierra and later can save space by storing your content in icloud and making it available on demand. Migration assistant copies all of your files to your new mac so that you dont have to copy your files manually if your files are currently on a windows pc, follow the pc migration steps instead if your new mac is using os x mountain lion v10. Nov 21, 2018 mac mini hard drive or ssd purchase options. Some drive bays have a height of 7 mm, while others have a height of 9. While it is possible to replace the hard drive on any mac not listed above, how difficult it is varies wildly with the model. Data transfer speeds will be at least four times faster, and that will make a huge difference in the daytoday running of your mac mini. Theres no need to buy a new computer, simply swap out the old drive for a new one. Disk utility has always been able to create clones, although the app refers to the process as restore, as in restoring data from a source drive to a target drive.
Jan 12, 2008 ok i have macbook, and i was thinking of buying a larger hard drive for it, how would i copy everything all my programs and os if possible over to the new one, can i backup with time machine then reinstall osx leopard on to the new hd, then reload using time machine. Over time the hard drive in your computer will eventually fill up. Generic 2nd hard drive hdd ssd caddy for apple mac mini a47 swap 0j188f bt20n bt10n bt30n. Mar 20, 2018 a hard drive upgrade is one of the easiest ways to improve your pc, whether youre looking for more storage or the speed boost an ssd provides. Apr 10, 2018 if your mac is more than a few years old, you can almost certainly upgrade the hard drive. The mac pro is designed to have its hard drive replaced.
I have a 2012 mac mini, its been slow since i got it second hand. Use this guide to completely replace your minis hard drive. Once connected, open up disk utility located in the utilities folder within the applications folder. Generic 2nd hard drive hdd ssd caddy for apple mac mini. Then, take the three springs you removed earlier and place them back onto their corresponding antenna posts, followed by the antennas themselves. Mac backup software, hardware, and guides for your mac. Install carbon copy cloner if you have not done so already, then launch the application. Nov, 2011 this video shows the process of how to replace the hard drive in a mac mini mid 2011 5,1. In other words, i couldnt find anything wrong with the mac minis hard drive, ram, os, or anything else. I have mac mini server with one 500gb hdd with system and another 1 tb ssd with data. Swap your imac, mac mini or macbook cddvd drive for. Best external hard drives for macs in 2020 techradar. Select the external drive in the lefthand column, right click, and select erase.
Apr 24, 2020 use migration assistant to copy all of your documents, apps, user accounts, and settings to a new mac from another computer. How to give your 2012 or 2014 mac mini a performance boost. Adding an ssd to the new 2018 mac mini macintosh how to. Has your mac mini hard drive filled to capacity or burnt out. Works on all storage devices including internal and external hard drives, sd cards and usb drives. How to upgradereplace the main drive in a 2012 mac mini. Now it was time to swap out the hard drives inside the mac mini. Last weekend, i performed an invasive and meticulous operation on one of my more valuable gadgets. How to speed up your mac with a solid state ssd drive. Migration assistant copies all of your files to your new mac so that you dont have to copy your files manually. The hard drive has startup files that assume the presence of certain hardware. Store all files from these two locations in icloud drive. And while the various cloning apps have a lot more features, if you dont have access to thirdparty apps, using disk utility will create a perfectly usable clone, although it may require a few more steps and lacks some nice features, such as automation and scheduling. It will work with just about any storage device that you can mount to your mac, including disk images, hard drives, ssds, and usb flash drives.