Hello, I have a late 2012 Mac Mini and I just purchased a brand new SSD drive for it.
i know how to remove and install the old one, but I’m curious what process is recommended for setting it up. I can get a cloning program and a cable to plug it into my MacBook to clone it, but is it easier to just put it in the Mac mini and install the OS by holding ctl r at boot?
Mac mini, macOS 10.15
You can successfully do it a few different ways.
You can also erase and format the SSD, then clone from the old HDD in or out of the Mac Mini, but macOS is fickle and so don't be surprised if you end up having to start over using one of the steps above. Sometimes CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper will work and sometimes they won't, cloning with Disk Utility Restore almost never works. Also beware, that you can not clone the macOS on MacBook's drive to the Mac Mini because the macOS builds are different.
You can successfully do it a few different ways.
You can also erase and format the SSD, then clone from the old HDD in or out of the Mac Mini, but macOS is fickle and so don't be surprised if you end up having to start over using one of the steps above. Sometimes CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper will work and sometimes they won't, cloning with Disk Utility Restore almost never works. Also beware, that you can not clone the macOS on MacBook's drive to the Mac Mini because the macOS builds are different.
You're very welcome.
Except now I'm a little curious, if you've completed the upgrade and how the Mac Mini feels?
FWIW I have 4 Mac Mini's with SSDs, a 2010, a 2011, 2 2012's and they all are great little machines. I've considered replacing the older ones with 2018/2020 Mac Mini's, but it's hard to justify that when they all run better than they did new.
Haha, I actually managed to do it right the first time. Installing the actual drive was way easier than I had imagined. Then I just did the internet recovery method to install OS X, which was weird because it’s so old. Haha. But I got the newest os on there and it’s running like a dream. Way faster than I could have imagined. And I thought I needed to go from 8 to 16mb of ram. Really glad the guy at the store was honest with me
Awesome! Yeah’ I’ve been enjoying SSD speed for some time. Heck’’ even our 2010 will blow right past a newer 21.5” iMac.
Keep an eye on the RAM usage. 16GB would help if you like to run a lot App’s and/or that MS crap.
Thank you very much.
Installing SSD in 2012 Mac Mini
