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Adding a second Hard Drive (SSD) to Mac Mini

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Jayfire124

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Tomorrow I am picking up my brand new 2012 mac mini with a 240 GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD fitted alongside the internal 1TB Hard Drive. I am also having the 16GB RAM installed. This is all being fitted by the Apple Reseller where I live. It is not being set up as a fusion drive but two separate internal drives. I currently own a 2008 Imac 24 which has all of my Applications on and my photo library stored in Lightroom and iphoto.

I need some advice on whether to use migration assistant between the two to migrate my user settings and applications only or whether I should start from fresh. I have messed up some previous iphoto libraries before and am worried that if I do the wrong thing I will lose it again and this time also lose my Lightroom library.

Once I get it home shall I set it up as a fusion drive (with some guidance and help from any of you) or leave it as two separate drives.

Any guidance greatly appreciated.
 
Jayfire124 said:
Jayfire124 wrote:

Tomorrow I am picking up my brand new 2012 mac mini with a 240 GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD fitted alongside the internal 1TB Hard Drive. I am also having the 16GB RAM installed. This is all being fitted by the Apple Reseller where I live. It is not being set up as a fusion drive but two separate internal drives. I currently own a 2008 Imac 24 which has all of my Applications on and my photo library stored in Lightroom and iphoto.
I need some advice on whether to use migration assistant between the two to migrate my user settings and applications only or whether I should start from fresh. I have messed up some previous iphoto libraries before and am worried that if I do the wrong thing I will lose it again and this time also lose my Lightroom library.
Once I get it home shall I set it up as a fusion drive (with some guidance and help from any of you) or leave it as two separate drives.
Any guidance greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Interested to see how this pans out for you. When I was considering adding an SSD as a 2nd drive to a Mini last year (before the Fusion Drive became available), I was convinced not to do it, as several people suggested that the fan on the Mini would not be able to handle the extra heat generated by the extra drive.

(In the end, I bought a 21.5" iMac, i7, 1TB HD + 240GB SSD.)

Good luck; I hope someone answers your questions for you.
 
Jayfire124 said:
Jayfire124 wrote:

I need some advice on whether to use migration assistant between the two to migrate my user settings and applications only or whether I should start from fresh. I have messed up some previous iphoto libraries before and am worried that if I do the wrong thing I will lose it again and this time also lose my Lightroom library.
Click to expand...
I'm not familiar with Migration Assistant, but I don't think that it would erase the files on your old Mac. As for the new Mac, newer versions of iPhoto and Lightroom might indeed want to upgrade their respective libraries.

If this concerns you, you might want to back up the files on the iMac – say, to an external HD, or to a folder on the Mini (by putting one of the Macs into Target Disk Mode). Then you could treat those as 'read-only'; to be used only for making new working copies if something happens to the working copies that Migration Assistant / iPhoto / Lightroom create.
 
Jayfire124 said:
Jayfire124 wrote:

Tomorrow I am picking up my brand new 2012 mac mini with a 240 GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD fitted alongside the internal 1TB Hard Drive. I am also having the 16GB RAM installed. This is all being fitted by the Apple Reseller where I live. It is not being set up as a fusion drive but two separate internal drives. I currently own a 2008 Imac 24 which has all of my Applications on and my photo library stored in Lightroom and iphoto.
I need some advice on whether to use migration assistant between the two to migrate my user settings and applications only or whether I should start from fresh.
Click to expand...
Use Migration Assistant. That's exactly what it's designed to do. It's actually called Setup Assistant at that point but they both do the same thing. Be sure to do the migration when first setting up the computer, not afterwards.
Jayfire124 said:
I have messed up some previous iphoto libraries before and am worried that if I do the wrong thing I will lose it again and this time also lose my Lightroom library.
Click to expand...
Migration won't affect the old Mac, but if it did, you would simply restore from a backup. You do have backups, right?
Jayfire124 said:
Once I get it home shall I set it up as a fusion drive (with some guidance and help from any of you) or leave it as two separate drives.
Click to expand...
Fusion. Do that first, then install OS X and then migrate during the initial setup process. Or better yet, have the reseller configure it with Fusion, so all you have to do is set it up.
 
Last edited:
gaussian blur said:
gaussian blur wrote:
gaussian blur said:
Fusion. Do that first, then install OS X and then migrate during the initial setup process. Or better yet, have the reseller configure it with Fusion, so all you have to do is set it up.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. I don't think that the reseller will commit to doing that, they all make out that this is all very new stuff and I think were even apprehensive on doing the SSD upgrade. I am not very technical when it comes to all of this and have not yet seen a layperson (non techie like me) walk through of making a fusion drive. I am rather nervous as just shelled out £1000. Any good tips or links to a good explanation from start to finnish ???
 
Jayfire124 said:
Jayfire124 wrote:
Jayfire124 said:
Jayfire124 said:
Fusion. Do that first, then install OS X and then migrate during the initial setup process. Or better yet, have the reseller configure it with Fusion, so all you have to do is set it up.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Thanks for that. I don't think that the reseller will commit to doing that, they all make out that this is all very new stuff and I think were even apprehensive on doing the SSD upgrade. I am not very technical when it comes to all of this and have not yet seen a layperson (non techie like me) walk through of making a fusion drive. I am rather nervous as just shelled out £1000. Any good tips or links to a good explanation from start to finnish ???
Click to expand...
Creating your own Fusion Drive from OWC, where you bought your SSD. It's not the simplest procedure, which is why I suggested having someone else do it.
 
I am thinking of adding a second drive -- SSD to mid-2011 Mac Mini. I will place the OS and apps on the SSD and use the included hard drive for data -- photos, music, etc.

Has anyone tried this before? I am impressed at the speed of my MacBook Air with the SSD. the processor is fast enough. i think the bottleneck is the hard drive.

Thanks
 
whazzup said:
whazzup wrote:

I am thinking of adding a second drive -- SSD to mid-2011 Mac Mini. I will place the OS and apps on the SSD and use the included hard drive for data -- photos, music, etc.

Has anyone tried this before?
Click to expand...
Other World Computing has a video on how to do it, but they also say that this is a "challenging install that requires advanced skills" and that they assume no responsibility for damage should you try it.

Other World Computing - Data Doubler Kit for Mac Mini 2011, 2012 Models

They also offer installation service (for their own upgrades), so I guess this is something where you need to judge for yourself whether to do your own installation or pay more for a shop to do one.
 
Andrew Mitchell said:
Andrew Mitchell wrote:
Andrew Mitchell said:
Jayfire124 wrote:

Tomorrow I am picking up my brand new 2012 mac mini with a 240 GB OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD fitted alongside the internal 1TB Hard Drive. I am also having the 16GB RAM installed. This is all being fitted by the Apple Reseller where I live. It is not being set up as a fusion drive but two separate internal drives. I currently own a 2008 Imac 24 which has all of my Applications on and my photo library stored in Lightroom and iphoto.
I need some advice on whether to use migration assistant between the two to migrate my user settings and applications only or whether I should start from fresh. I have messed up some previous iphoto libraries before and am worried that if I do the wrong thing I will lose it again and this time also lose my Lightroom library.
Once I get it home shall I set it up as a fusion drive (with some guidance and help from any of you) or leave it as two separate drives.
Any guidance greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Interested to see how this pans out for you. When I was considering adding an SSD as a 2nd drive to a Mini last year (before the Fusion Drive became available), I was convinced not to do it, as several people suggested that the fan on the Mini would not be able to handle the extra heat generated by the extra drive.

(In the end, I bought a 21.5" iMac, i7, 1TB HD + 240GB SSD.)

Good luck; I hope someone answers your questions for you.
Click to expand...
 
whazzup said:
whazzup wrote:

I am thinking of adding a second drive -- SSD to mid-2011 Mac Mini. I will place the OS and apps on the SSD and use the included hard drive for data -- photos, music, etc.

Has anyone tried this before? I am impressed at the speed of my MacBook Air with the SSD. the processor is fast enough. i think the bottleneck is the hard drive.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Yes, this is a common Mac mini upgrade. Go to OWC (http://www.macsales.com) for more information and look for videos on YouTube and do a web search on the topic. Plenty of information on how to do it. If you are relatively competent with working on small parts the Mac mini is by far the easiest Mac to open up and completely disassemble. I can disassemble mine in less than five minutes.
 
Tom_N said:
Tom_N wrote:
Tom_N said:
whazzup wrote:

I am thinking of adding a second drive -- SSD to mid-2011 Mac Mini. I will place the OS and apps on the SSD and use the included hard drive for data -- photos, music, etc.

Has anyone tried this before?
Click to expand...
Other World Computing has a video on how to do it, but they also say that this is a "challenging install that requires advanced skills" and that they assume no responsibility for damage should you try it.

Other World Computing - Data Doubler Kit for Mac Mini 2011, 2012 Models

They also offer installation service (for their own upgrades), so I guess this is something where you need to judge for yourself whether to do your own installation or pay more for a shop to do one.
Click to expand...
It's a reasonable disclaimer but if you are reasonably competent at working with small parts the Mac mini is very easy to disassemble and upgrade. I can disassemble mine in less than five minutes. The Mac mini is by far the easiest Mac to disassemble. Everything fits very tight but it is extremely well engineered for ease of assembly and disassembly. The only thing a novice needs to be truly careful about is disconnecting the very tiny heat sensor cable connectors. I recommend a heavy tooth pic while using a magnifying glass and you'll be fine.

On the software side one can run into issues with certain SSDs. SSDs are still at a point where they can be a headache at something as simple as being recognized by your computer.

Mac minis running SSDs run beautifully and ridiculously fast. It is a highly recommended upgrade.
 
I appreciate the responses. However, my question is more about the speed increase than the technical aspects. I've watched the video 10-20 times and feel I can probably do it. The question is should I do it -- will I see a significant speed bump. My lowly MacBook Air flies through everything, and the mini has a faster processor. So I think the issue is the SSD is much faster.

Maybe the memory and/or video card is better on the MBA. But it's frustrating that the mini is so slow.
 
Last edited:
whazzup said:
whazzup wrote:

I appreciate the responses. However, my question is more about the speed increase than the technical aspects. I've watched the video 10-20 times and feel I can probably do it. The question is should I do it -- will I see a significant speed bump. My lowly MacBook Air flies through everything, and the mini has a faster processor. So I think the issue is the SSD is much faster.

Maybe the memory and/or video card is better on the MBA. But it's frustrating that the mini is so slow.
Click to expand...
All Mac minis have at least the same video card performance than the MBAs (comparing 2011 to 2011 models and so on), simply because they [minis & Airs] have the same video cards (with some 2011 and earlier Mac minis even having a better video card). They also have the same memory performance (and minis can mostly take more RAM).

The only area where the Airs have better components is storage, ie, SSDs vs. HDDs. SSDs really make a big difference in perceived speed. Once you've used a computer with an SSD every non-SSD (or non-large RAID) will feel slow.
 
whazzup said:
whazzup wrote:

I appreciate the responses. However, my question is more about the speed increase than the technical aspects. I've watched the video 10-20 times and feel I can probably do it. The question is should I do it -- will I see a significant speed bump. My lowly MacBook Air flies through everything, and the mini has a faster processor. So I think the issue is the SSD is much faster.

Maybe the memory and/or video card is better on the MBA. But it's frustrating that the mini is so slow.
Click to expand...
Yes, you will see a dramatic difference in speed. It will without question definitely be worth it for your 2011 mini.
 
noirdesir said:
noirdesir wrote:
noirdesir said:
whazzup wrote:

I appreciate the responses. However, my question is more about the speed increase than the technical aspects. I've watched the video 10-20 times and feel I can probably do it. The question is should I do it -- will I see a significant speed bump. My lowly MacBook Air flies through everything, and the mini has a faster processor. So I think the issue is the SSD is much faster.

Maybe the memory and/or video card is better on the MBA. But it's frustrating that the mini is so slow.
Click to expand...
All Mac minis have at least the same video card performance than the MBAs (comparing 2011 to 2011 models and so on), simply because they [minis & Airs] have the same video cards (with some 2011 and earlier Mac minis even having a better video card). They also have the same memory performance (and minis can mostly take more RAM).

The only area where the Airs have better components is storage, ie, SSDs vs. HDDs. SSDs really make a big difference in perceived speed.
Click to expand...
No, they make a big difference in *actual* speed.

noirdesir said:
Once you've used a computer with an SSD every non-SSD (or non-large RAID) will feel slow.
Click to expand...
Yep.
 
Member said:
Basalite wrote:
Member said:
noirdesir wrote:
Member said:
whazzup wrote:

I appreciate the responses. However, my question is more about the speed increase than the technical aspects. I've watched the video 10-20 times and feel I can probably do it. The question is should I do it -- will I see a significant speed bump. My lowly MacBook Air flies through everything, and the mini has a faster processor. So I think the issue is the SSD is much faster.

Maybe the memory and/or video card is better on the MBA. But it's frustrating that the mini is so slow.
Click to expand...
All Mac minis have at least the same video card performance than the MBAs (comparing 2011 to 2011 models and so on), simply because they [minis & Airs] have the same video cards (with some 2011 and earlier Mac minis even having a better video card). They also have the same memory performance (and minis can mostly take more RAM).

The only area where the Airs have better components is storage, ie, SSDs vs. HDDs. SSDs really make a big difference in perceived speed.
Click to expand...
No, they make a big difference in *actual* speed.
Click to expand...
I didn't say they don't. I just wanted to point out that the perceived speed increase will be larger than what people with would expect from just comparing numbers.
 
noirdesir said:
noirdesir wrote:
noirdesir said:
Basalite wrote:
noirdesir said:
noirdesir wrote:
noirdesir said:
whazzup wrote:

I appreciate the responses. However, my question is more about the speed increase than the technical aspects. I've watched the video 10-20 times and feel I can probably do it. The question is should I do it -- will I see a significant speed bump. My lowly MacBook Air flies through everything, and the mini has a faster processor. So I think the issue is the SSD is much faster.

Maybe the memory and/or video card is better on the MBA. But it's frustrating that the mini is so slow.
Click to expand...
All Mac minis have at least the same video card performance than the MBAs (comparing 2011 to 2011 models and so on), simply because they [minis & Airs] have the same video cards (with some 2011 and earlier Mac minis even having a better video card). They also have the same memory performance (and minis can mostly take more RAM).

The only area where the Airs have better components is storage, ie, SSDs vs. HDDs. SSDs really make a big difference in perceived speed.
Click to expand...
No, they make a big difference in *actual* speed.
Click to expand...
I didn't say they don't.
Click to expand...
You said "perceived." I simply corrected that incorrect statement.
noirdesir said:
I just wanted to point out that the perceived speed increase will be larger than what people with would expect from just comparing numbers.
Click to expand...
You said "SSDs really make a big difference in perceived speed." Perception is a sensation and that has nothing to do with what an SSD actually does. Your original statement would only serve to confuse the computer novice.
 
Member said:
Basalite wrote:
Member said:
noirdesir wrote:
Member said:
Basalite wrote:
Member said:
noirdesir wrote:

The only area where the Airs have better components is storage, ie, SSDs vs. HDDs. SSDs really make a big difference in perceived speed.
Click to expand...
No, they make a big difference in *actual* speed.
Click to expand...
I didn't say they don't.
Click to expand...
You said "perceived." I simply corrected that incorrect statement.
Click to expand...
Member said:
Perception is a sensation and that has nothing to do with what an SSD actually does.
Click to expand...
Let a person use a computer with a 2.5" HDD and then let her or him use a computer with a SSD. Most people having gone through this excercise will agree with the statement: 'The computer with the SSD feels much faster', ie, they perceived the computer with the SSD as being much faster.
 
noirdesir said:
noirdesir wrote:
noirdesir said:
Basalite wrote:
noirdesir said:
noirdesir wrote:
noirdesir said:
Basalite wrote:
noirdesir said:
noirdesir wrote:

The only area where the Airs have better components is storage, ie, SSDs vs. HDDs. SSDs really make a big difference in perceived speed.
Click to expand...
No, they make a big difference in *actual* speed.
Click to expand...
I didn't say they don't.
Click to expand...
You said "perceived." I simply corrected that incorrect statement.

Perception is a sensation and that has nothing to do with what an SSD actually does.
Click to expand...
Let a person use a computer with a 2.5" HDD and then let her or him use a computer with a SSD. Most people having gone through this excercise will agree with the statement: 'The computer with the SSD feels much faster', ie, they perceived the computer with the SSD as being much faster.
Click to expand...
Perception is often based on things that don't really exist. The statement should read the computer with the SSD *is* much faster. Talking about what one perceives in this context is worthless and only serves to confuse the novice.
 
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