CaptH

Q: Mac Mini Drive Replacement Option(s)

Hi:

 

I've got a customer with a Mid 2010 Mac Mini and he was having problems with it. I ran Scannerz on it to analyze it because I suspected either the logic board or the drive, and it's the drive. He has a 1TB 2.5" in it, and I suggested that we pull the optical from it and create a Fusion drive for him. He said "No" because he uses the optical too much and doesn't want to deal with any external peripherals except his backup drive. I suggested SSDs but for the types of storage needs he has they're too expensive. Finally I came across this Western Digital hybrid that has a 120GB SSD coupled with a 1TB hard drive:

 

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1190#Tab3

 

Anyone out there use one of these things yet? Are they reliable? How do they compare with an SSD standalone (that question is more for my own curiosity)? With a 120GB SSD on it I would think it would behave for the most part almost like an SSD most of the time. Another option is one of the newer Hitachi 1TB 7200RPM drives since they're supposed to be a lot faster than the older style drives, and it would certainly be a lot cheaper, but in spite of their speed increases compared to older drives, they still don't come close to an SSD.

 

All opinions are welcome,

 

Thanks.

OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)

Posted on Sep 4, 2015 1:08 AM

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Q: Mac Mini Drive Replacement Option(s)

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  • by dwb,

    dwb dwb Sep 4, 2015 8:42 AM in response to CaptH
    Level 7 (24,152 points)
    Notebooks
    Sep 4, 2015 8:42 AM in response to CaptH

    After reading the FAQ it seems that this drive is nothing more than an SSD and an HHD in one enclosure. What confuses me is that it comes with the HHD ‘locked’ until the user installs WD software to unlock it. At that point I’d run away because I don’t trust WD software or support.

  • by HuntsMan75,

    HuntsMan75 HuntsMan75 Sep 4, 2015 10:33 AM in response to CaptH
    Level 1 (14 points)
    Sep 4, 2015 10:33 AM in response to CaptH

    It's interesting looking, but I'd agree with dwb. WD were the guys that had drivers for their external drives that wiped the drives clean once Mavericks came out (ouch!!) because of some bug. They worked around it and fixed it, but reliance on third party software can be tricky.

  • by den.thed,

    den.thed den.thed Sep 4, 2015 6:13 PM in response to CaptH
    Level 7 (27,550 points)
    Sep 4, 2015 6:13 PM in response to CaptH

    I have several Mac Mini's (2010, 2012) and I can highly recommend the Hitachi Travelstar 7200rpm drives. They will give you a pretty good boost over the stock 5400rpm drive, if that is all your budget can support.

     

    However for just a little more, you can have a really fast setup by installing a small SSD (120GB or 240GB) into the lower bay where the stock HDD is and move your stock HDD to the upper bay using OWCs Data Doubler Kit.

     

    http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DDMM10CL0GBO/

     

    Additionally, after having really good luck with PNY camera cards and flash drives, I decided to go with their 240GB SSD's in my Mac Mini's. What the heck' 1) there pricing is pretty good, and 2) they're made in the good old USA.

     

    http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?id=pcat17071&nrp=15&cp=1&sp=-bestsell ingsort%20skuidsaas&seeAll=&_dyncharset=…

     

    I'm totally sold on the dual SSD/HDD setup, because now my Mac Mini's start up in 7 to 8 seconds (with OS X and App's) on the SSD's and I never gets a spinning wheel when accessing my huge (iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie) Libraries stored on the HDD's.

  • by MrJavaDeveloper,

    MrJavaDeveloper MrJavaDeveloper Sep 5, 2015 1:58 AM in response to CaptH
    Level 1 (64 points)
    Sep 5, 2015 1:58 AM in response to CaptH

    That type of drive can apparently be set up as a Fusion drive, but like some of the others have posted, it's reliant on WD's drivers. Drivers have a sneaky habit of being problematic when OS versions change.

  • by woodmeister50,

    woodmeister50 woodmeister50 Sep 5, 2015 3:22 AM in response to CaptH
    Level 5 (5,510 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 5, 2015 3:22 AM in response to CaptH

    I agree with others here about WD drivers/apps, but I would also avoid

    any other manufacturers that supply/require drivers and "helper apps".

     

    den.ted pointed out the data doubler at OWC, but in addition, they have some

    7200 RPM HDDs on sale as well (HGST).

  • by ZV137,

    ZV137 ZV137 Sep 5, 2015 6:31 PM in response to CaptH
    Level 1 (54 points)
    Sep 5, 2015 6:31 PM in response to CaptH

    I'd second the Hitachi 7200RPM drive, just make sure that you get one of the new types with AF format - the throughput is a lot faster.

     

    Apparently the WD can actually be configured as a Fusion drive if interested, but like the others I'd be wary of the fact it needs drivers and needs to be "unlocked" (I don't even really get that requirement).

  • by WZZZ,

    WZZZ WZZZ Sep 5, 2015 7:23 PM in response to den.thed
    Level 6 (13,112 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 5, 2015 7:23 PM in response to den.thed

    den.thed wrote: I have several Mac Mini's (2010, 2012) and I can highly recommend the Hitachi Travelstar 7200rpm drives.

    Are those Travelstars the "green" power saving type? If so, they will rather quickly accumulate load cycles, like park the heads every ten or so seconds, and easily reach their maximum before you realize it. I bought one for my Mini 2010, and it was up to over 2,000 load cycles after only a few days. Fortunately found hdapm, which put a stop to that nonsense. Might save a bit of battery power in a laptop, but a horrible idea for a desktop drive.

     

    http://mckinlay.net.nz/hdapm/

     

    http://mckinlay.net.nz/hdapm/usage.html

    Should work fine in 10.10.

     

    I'm hearing good things about this Seagate Hybrid

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822178340

  • by den.thed,

    den.thed den.thed Sep 5, 2015 8:11 PM in response to WZZZ
    Level 7 (27,550 points)
    Sep 5, 2015 8:11 PM in response to WZZZ

    WZZZ wrote:

     

    Are those Travelstars the "green" power saving type? If so, they will rather quickly accumulate load cycles, like park the heads every ten or so seconds, and easily reach their maximum before you realize it.

     

     

    Not sure what your problem is or was, but I have two 7K500's and a 7K750 that have been in service nearly everyday for over three years now.

     

    WZZZ also  wrote:

     

    Might save a bit of battery power in a laptop, but a horrible idea for a desktop drive.

     

     

    Not true, they make great inexpensive replacement options for any system that has a 5400rpm HD.

  • by WZZZ,

    WZZZ WZZZ Sep 5, 2015 8:38 PM in response to den.thed
    Level 6 (13,112 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 5, 2015 8:38 PM in response to den.thed

    If you don't have it already, get smartmontools, which can be installed from homebrew (http://brew.sh/), then just type in “brew install smartmontools,” which will install it. Look at the drive attributes by typing into Terminal "smartctl -s on -a diskname" (e.g. disk0s3--get disk name from diskutil list). Not sure about the current version of SmartReporter (trial), but the older ones will show you the attributes also.

     

    The load cycle count on my 5 1/2 year old iMac WD drive is around 9,000. The load cycle count on the Travelstar after only six days was up to over 2,000. The max for the Travelstar I installed was 600,000, which may sound like a lot, but at that rate I would easily have reached that in a year or two. If your Travelstar is "green," in Hitachi speak, "power saving mode," I would imagine that you are close to or over whatever the max is for yours by now.

  • by WZZZ,

    WZZZ WZZZ Sep 5, 2015 9:24 PM in response to WZZZ
    Level 6 (13,112 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 5, 2015 9:24 PM in response to WZZZ

    Just to be clear, although I'm sure you must know this: "attributes" are S.M.A.R.T attributes.

  • by den.thed,

    den.thed den.thed Sep 5, 2015 9:36 PM in response to WZZZ
    Level 7 (27,550 points)
    Sep 5, 2015 9:36 PM in response to WZZZ

    Sorry but, I'll have to pass on whole homebrew deal because I don't do any terminal or third party hacking.

     

    Besides:

    1. those drives only cycle down when I sleep or shutdown the Mini's and

    2. having multiple backups, I could really care less about their cycle count.

  • by ZV137,

    ZV137 ZV137 Sep 6, 2015 2:21 AM in response to WZZZ
    Level 1 (54 points)
    Sep 6, 2015 2:21 AM in response to WZZZ

    Sorry to butt in, but I think he's referring to the newer AF formatted Hitachi's with a much higher areal density and usually at least a 32MB buffer. Those drives are low cost and FAAAAAST as far as spinners are concerned. Excellent drives. I've got three of them and wouldn't hesitate to buy more, especially for a Fusion setup.

     

    My experience with "green" drives is that they're fine for a backup drive, but if you want them for a boot drive, forget it. I've got one of those WD "green" drives and it's about as fast as a turtle. They aren't designed to be performance drives, they're designed to save energy (at the expense of speed). They fall asleep and park heads at too often and, at least on the WDs, the variable spin rate is no asset.

     

    WD now owns Hitachi, but Hitachi is still almost functioning as a standalone company.

     

    I like some of the stuff WD and Hitachi are doing, especially coupling SSDs with drives. It seems some traditional HD manufacturers are almost assuming all they're good for any more is as backup units, but client with "big data" are still sticking to hard drives, not SSDs.

     

    Just opinions…be nice!

  • by Lexiepex,

    Lexiepex Lexiepex Sep 6, 2015 3:07 AM in response to CaptH
    Level 6 (10,477 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 6, 2015 3:07 AM in response to CaptH

    Three remarks:

    1. Do not install Fusion Drive if ever possible. Arguments for this in a lot of threads here.

    2. WD drives, especially the Black, are very good drives. I use several in Windows PCs that supervise a large technical installation.

    3. In macs do not use the WD software when it is new. Horrible experiences everywhere. After a few years I would try and use it perhaps. Drives that need special drivers and/or special software should be banned from Macs.

    4.  In a mac all non Apple drives better be formatted first before thinking about putting OS or software on it. This is not psossible with this Black combi drive as far as I gather from the supplier, because you need the special software that is on it.

    5. The Acronis proposal for a clone works well in a Windows environment (physical bit per bit on the disk), I would never dare using it in OSX.

    My thoughts: keep away from it in a mac environment.

    Lex

    PS: a 7200RPM disk with a 8GB buffer would do great here I suppose.

  • by ThomasB2010,

    ThomasB2010 ThomasB2010 Sep 7, 2015 11:30 AM in response to CaptH
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Sep 7, 2015 11:30 AM in response to CaptH

    I've been using a Fusion Drive since Mountain Lion. I've had no problems with it. My only advise is to treat it like a striped RAID unit and keep good backups. If one part fails or there are problems for some reason there's no easy or straight forward way to tell which file was on which disk at which time.

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