Mac Mini SSD went south, replaced 500GB with 1TB, will it work?

Has macOS 10.13+ ever been installed on this Mac? If not, then you will need to install the original Apple SSD and install/upgrade to macOS 10.13+ first before you can even use an NVMe SSD.

You can also create a macOS 10.13+ USB installer using the instructions in this Apple article:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201372

If you are going to be installing macOS to an NVMe SSD, then you need to install macOS 10.13+. The fact is using an NVMe SSD requires macOS 10.13+. Your original Apple SSD was a SATA based PCIe SSD which could work with macOS 10.10 and 10.11. Your new SSD is an NVMe SSD which uses technology that did not exist or at least Apple did not plan for when your Mini was made. So if booting into Internet Recovery Mode using Command + Option + R does not boot to a macOS 10.13+ installer, then you will need to use the options I presented to you here by using the original Apple SSD and/or a bootable macOS 10.13+ USB installer.

As for the adapter I have no clue about them except for what I've read from other users on these Apple forums. I don't know what brand of adapter you have pictured as there is no name on the side shown. People tend to have compatibility issues with many of the adapters with the exception of the Sintech adapters which seem to be the most reliable and compatible. If you continue to have issues with the new PNY SSD using your current SSD adapter, then I suggest you get a Sintech adapter.

What is the exact model of your Mini? And what is the make & model of the SSD? Is the SSD a 2.5" SATA SSD or a PCIe SSD?

What version of macOS are you using?

Not to be insulting, but are you sure you have a 1TB SSD? Did you purchase a good brand of SSD from a respectable vendor? There are a lot of vendors out there that sell counterfeit SSDs.

You may also have received a bad SSD.

Run the following command from the Terminal and post the results so we have more details on the partition & file systems on the drive:

diskutil  list  internal

Also check the SSD details in the Apple System Profiler under the "Storage" item and post the information from the right pane. To access the System Profiler Option-click the Apple menu and select the first item.

Just because a vendor is selling through Amazon does not mean the vendor is good or reliable. At least half the products sold on Amazon are nothing but pure junk and knock offs of legit products, plus some products are just out right counterfeits. You must be extremely careful of the products you are buying on Amazon or from any other website and do not trust the user reviews as many of them are fake reviews.

I've also never heard of DataRAM before so I have no clue about what that SSD is like.

I can tell you from personal experience that it is very difficult to find a good SSD these days. Most of the SSD vendors are playing tricks and hiding the details technical specifications and many even go as far as changing the hardware specifications without showing a change in the model number so reading a review two years ago may not apply to the SSD being sold today. Plus many of the current SSDs are just low end budget economy models that many times can end up being extremely slow (sometimes as slow as a hard drive). This even goes for some of the more reputable and respectable brands.

As for the PNY SSD I assume you have a Mac Mini (late 2014) model since that is the only Mini with a PCIe SSD option. What SSD Adapter are you using? From reading these forums it appears the Sintech adapter is the preferred brand as people using other brands tend to have issues with their M.2 SSDs.

Keep in mind your Mini must already have had macOS 10.13+ installed before using an NVMe SSD plus you can only install macOS 10.13+ to the NVMe SSD since only macOS 10.13+ has the necessary NVMe driver required to use an NVMe SSD.

designwithenergy wrote:

One problem with your instructions...

The ENTIRE reason I am doing this is because I had a complete FAILURE of my original SSD for my MAC MINI.

Had that not happened, I would not even have started this question.

Buying a 500MB original Mac Mini SSD just to have it in place with 10.13 + OSX -- only to enable me to use a 1TB SSD (M2) makes no sense to do, not to mention VERY costly in the short run.

This is starting to be really FRUSTRATING.

I certainly understand and completely agree. The issue is even worse because you cannot even install macOS 10.13+ to an external drive in order to update the system firmware because the firmware updater requires a working properly erased internal drive for the system firmware update. Keep in mind Apple does the bare minimum work and never considers any circumstances or configurations outside of the default configuration of Apple products from the factory. Any deviation from the factory default can sometimes cause macOS to fail.

I'm glad you were able to find a proper macOS installer to solve your issue.

If the SSD was correctly formatted it should work. There is no size limit.