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Can I upgrade the SSD drive in my new mac mini?

Can I upgrade the SSD drive in my new mac mini?


Posted on Aug 11, 2019 10:10 AM

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Posted on Aug 11, 2019 10:47 AM

Unfortunately not. The T2 chip and security architecture mean that the SSD storage is soldered onto the logic board and cannot be user services or replaced.


Therefore it is important to consider how and for how long you plan to use your Mac mini. Yes you can expand the storage with external drives, but they will not be as fast for read/write as the internal SSD due to the bottleneck of Thunderbolt 3 / Ethernet / USB C / USB 3.0.


I personally went with 1TB of storage as it is definitely enough to hold macOS, a reasonably sized Bootcamp partition, all the apps I currently/plan to use, and my Photo library. Look at all the things you currently use and their sizes, and double/treble it to give yourself room to expand in the years to come.

8 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 11, 2019 10:47 AM in response to tifixityogi

Unfortunately not. The T2 chip and security architecture mean that the SSD storage is soldered onto the logic board and cannot be user services or replaced.


Therefore it is important to consider how and for how long you plan to use your Mac mini. Yes you can expand the storage with external drives, but they will not be as fast for read/write as the internal SSD due to the bottleneck of Thunderbolt 3 / Ethernet / USB C / USB 3.0.


I personally went with 1TB of storage as it is definitely enough to hold macOS, a reasonably sized Bootcamp partition, all the apps I currently/plan to use, and my Photo library. Look at all the things you currently use and their sizes, and double/treble it to give yourself room to expand in the years to come.

Aug 19, 2019 6:40 AM in response to tifixityogi

Using a Thunderbolt external, you will experience drive speeds similar to that of your internal drive. I've set up my mini with the internal drive containing my System and applications. All my media files on an external SSD. I have a second SSD which is a clone of the internal drive - this is my emergency drive. I notice no difference in speed between the internal and external. As noted, you'll need to boot into recovery mode to allow booting from the external drive.

Can I upgrade the SSD drive in my new mac mini?

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