(I had already backed up the contents of my server’s hard drive to an external disk, which I used as the boot drive when performing these commands.)
#MAC MINI SERVER UPGRADE HOW TO#
I booted up the system, formatted the SSD, and then followed Albert Filice’s instructions on how to make a Fusion Drive out of two disks using a couple of Terminal commands.
#MAC MINI SERVER UPGRADE MAC#
When I was all done, I had a Mac mini with a 500GB spinning disc and a 240GB SSD inside. I managed to break the cable that connects the Mac mini’s infrared sensor to the logic board, but fortunately I have never, ever used that sensor, so it’s no big loss. It took a couple of hours of work, and along the way I made a few missteps that slowed me down-the wrong screw here, improperly reading the instructions about where to tuck some power cables there. I used iFixit’s instructions, and they were good, but the bottom line is that I had to remove every single part from the Mac mini in order to get to the space for the second hard drive. The iFixit kit supplies the hard drive cable, grommets, and mounting screws required to add the flash drive alongside the existing drive. The mid-2011 Mac mini had a high-end configuration with both an SSD and a hard drive, so there’s room for both inside the device. I ordered a $114 240GB SSD from Other World Computing and bought iFixit’s $20 Mac mini Dual Drive Kit. Originally my plan was to just remove the existing drive and replace it with an SSD, but after successfully transforming my daughter’s old 2009 iMac with a Fusion Drive, I decided to take that approach with the Mac mini. The little 5400-rpm spinning disc inside the Mac mini was making it painful to use for just about anything-every act, from launching apps to opening Finder windows, was torture. I’ve said it endlessly, but just to recap: spinning hard drives are really slow. For most of the holiday break, the coffee table in our living room was taken over by a couple of 1000-piece puzzles, and since I gave her a 2,000-piece puzzle for Christmas, I expect we’ll be seeing another living-room takeover soon.īut yesterday, with the puzzle cleared away, it was time for me to do my puzzle-namely, disassemble the mid-2011 Mac mini I use as a server, add a speedy flash drive, and reassemble it. If this isn't possible, I'm willing to purchase another used late 2012 Mini as a host for the drives & RAM, just don't want to spend more money than I have to to recover the machine.My wife likes puzzles.
#MAC MINI SERVER UPGRADE PLUS#
I also have a Win10 VM on Parallels that I'd really like to be able to use again.įor some reason the 2011 servers are about half the price of a used 2012 mini and since I really only need the logic board I don't see why I should pay more than necessary for an older machine, plus with the 2011 mini, I get a faster processor, and an extra monitor. I have multiple backups on the drives, both Carbon Copy Cloner & Time Machine, so I should be able to get to a bootable state.
![mac mini server upgrade mac mini server upgrade](https://futurestore.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/1_0000000827010-360x288.jpg)
My plan is to find a used 2011 Mac Mini server and use it as a host for the two drives (1tb Crucial boot, 1tb Seagate SSHD backup) I have in my dead 2012 plus the 16gb of RAM I have in it.
![mac mini server upgrade mac mini server upgrade](https://cdn11.bigcommerce.com/s-0da1f/images/stencil/1280x1280/products/2503/13523/XMmST3-rearwithoutlid-featureslabels__23104.1641925354__90906.1647452107.png)
EDIT: I just read through the specs again, and it appears the memory may be a problem, the 2012 is 1600 MHz minimum, and the 2011 is 1333 MHz, I'll need to look into that further. I've also compared the two on EveryMac and it appears possible, except for the OS difference.
![mac mini server upgrade mac mini server upgrade](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/macminiserver_overview.jpg)
Is this possible?ĭrawing on this SO question. TL DR: My late 2012 Mac mini died (corrupt EFI) upgrading from Mojave to Catalina, I want to use a mid 2011 Mac mini with the hard drives and RAM out of my dead mini.