HT202574: Mac mini (Late 2012 and later), iMac (Late 2012 and later): About Fusion Drive

Learn about Mac mini (Late 2012 and later), iMac (Late 2012 and later): About Fusion Drive
Luisminimac
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Q: Adding an SSD drive to fusion 2014 Mac mini

I Upgraded from a 2011 Mac mini to a 2014 that comes with a 2Tb Fusion drive. I would like tto trespass the SSD drive to the 2014 . Is this possible?

Mac mini (Late 2014), OS X Yosemite (10.10.4)

Posted on Jul 22, 2015 1:06 PM

by lllaass,Solvedanswer
lllaass lllaass
Level 10 (189,248 points)
Desktops
A:

There is no vacant bay.

The above image is one bay. Her is the other bay with the HD

 

mini_unbox_18

 

image from

http://blog.macsales.com/27127-owcs-teardown-of-the-new-2014-mac-mini-with-fusio n-drive

Posted on Jul 22, 2015 2:03 PM

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Luisminimac

Q: Adding an SSD drive to fusion 2014 Mac mini

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  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jul 22, 2015 1:17 PM in response to Luisminimac
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    Jul 22, 2015 1:17 PM in response to Luisminimac

    Yes if you break the Fusion drive on the 2o14 Mini and replace the HD on the 2014 Mini with the SSD from 2011 Mini.

    The 2014 Fusion Mini uses a standard 2 1/2 inch rotating hard drive together with a blade SSD based on the following

    http://blog.macsales.com/27127-owcs-teardown-of-the-new-2014-mac-mini-with-fusio n-drive

  • by Luisminimac,

    Luisminimac Luisminimac Jul 22, 2015 1:36 PM in response to lllaass
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    Jul 22, 2015 1:36 PM in response to lllaass

    My question was about placing the SSD alongside the Fusion as a start up drive. However  the link you provided seems to indicate that the 2011 is very different than the 2014 and that there is no room for a second drive. I could be wrong and perhaps someone else can elaborate on this . My SSD is a 250 Crucial , about double the size of the Fusion SSD start up drive. Besides is still is not clear to me if the Fusion drive is one enclosure with both the SSD and the rotational drive or if they are separate occupying different bays. My Crucial is very fast .

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jul 22, 2015 1:41 PM in response to Luisminimac
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    Jul 22, 2015 1:41 PM in response to Luisminimac

    The 2014 Fusion Mini has room for two drives:

    - A blade SSD, and a

    - Standard 2 1/2 inch drive. That drive can be either a rotting HD or a 2 1/2 SSD.

    You can'y add a third physical drive.

    The fusion drive is made by combining the blade SSD and the rotating HD.

  • by Luisminimac,

    Luisminimac Luisminimac Jul 22, 2015 1:50 PM in response to lllaass
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    Jul 22, 2015 1:50 PM in response to lllaass

    I Am a bit confused my SSD is a 2.5 . What is a bladeSSD?

  • by lllaass,Helpful

    lllaass lllaass Jul 22, 2015 1:53 PM in response to Luisminimac
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    Jul 22, 2015 1:53 PM in response to Luisminimac

    mini_unbox_17

     

    The above is the blade SSD in the 2014 Fusion Mini. It thin, and long like a knife blade

  • by Luisminimac,

    Luisminimac Luisminimac Jul 22, 2015 2:00 PM in response to lllaass
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    Jul 22, 2015 2:00 PM in response to lllaass

    I see . is like a memory chip . Is that the Fusion drive that is under the thin chip board ?

     

    Now if I understand correctly the ssd and the HD form a logical drive or a group equivalent to ONE drive . Why couldn't I install my other 2.5 SSD in the vacant bay?

  • by lllaass,Solvedanswer

    lllaass lllaass Jul 22, 2015 2:03 PM in response to lllaass
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    Jul 22, 2015 2:03 PM in response to lllaass

    There is no vacant bay.

    The above image is one bay. Her is the other bay with the HD

     

    mini_unbox_18

     

    image from

    http://blog.macsales.com/27127-owcs-teardown-of-the-new-2014-mac-mini-with-fusio n-drive

  • by Luisminimac,

    Luisminimac Luisminimac Jul 22, 2015 2:12 PM in response to lllaass
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    Jul 22, 2015 2:12 PM in response to lllaass

    Thanks a lot . If there is no vacant bay then the only way to incorporate the Crucial 250 SSD would be, like you initially said , break the logical group some how , remove the Blade SSD and then incorporate the Crucial SSD . I don't know if this will be feasible or if it will provide any advantage . I am migrating to the new Mini and will see how fast it will perform in its original configuration.

     

    Thanks a lot for all your answers.

  • by lllaass,Helpful

    lllaass lllaass Jul 22, 2015 2:16 PM in response to Luisminimac
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    Jul 22, 2015 2:16 PM in response to Luisminimac

    No. Your Crucial SSD is of the 2 1/2 inch form factor, You can only remove the rotating HD from the 2014 Mini and replace it with your Crucial SSD.

    The blade SSD is a lot faster that the a 2 1/2 inch SATA III SSD

  • by Luisminimac,

    Luisminimac Luisminimac Jul 22, 2015 3:08 PM in response to lllaass
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    Jul 22, 2015 3:08 PM in response to lllaass

    Thanks a lot . Now I have a clear understanding of my options and they are not really worth the trouble. If I remove the Rotating HD and install my Crucial in its place I will end up with just about 500 Gig of SSD  instead of the original 2 Terabites . Of course the 2 Tb can go outside but the question will be whether the Crucial as a start up SSD would be faster than the original configuration. I will keep p all this in mind for when I have some benchmarks .

     

    Thanks again. Luis

  • by lllaass,

    lllaass lllaass Jul 22, 2015 3:26 PM in response to Luisminimac
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    Jul 22, 2015 3:26 PM in response to Luisminimac

    The 2 TB Fusion drive should be faster since the blade SSD is faster than your Crucial.

     

    Typically the SSD part of a fusion drive is 120 GB so if yo have a lot of different large files that are accessed the crucial may be faster if the the Fusion drive has to access the 2 TB drive.

    The 2 1/2 HDs are typically 5400 RPM which is slower than the 7200 RPM of desktop 3 1/2 inch drives. Thus 7200 RPM drive read and write faster than 5400 RPM drives.

  • by Luisminimac,

    Luisminimac Luisminimac Jul 22, 2015 4:21 PM in response to lllaass
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    Jul 22, 2015 4:21 PM in response to lllaass

    Thanks again.