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Mac Mini 9.1 (2020) Storage

I am having to operate my M1 Mac mini from primarily external HDD's. By the time everything was up and rolling after the changeover, I found that I was 'out of space' alerts on the 250SSD. My problem is that I believed Apple advertising, which has turned out to be a bit disingenuous regarding memory and space. So...what is the absolute minimum number and types of files required on the internal SSD. I am aware that System files and the main Library file are required (Why are there so many Libraries?) Also why can't I delete files from Time Machine ? I'd I am able to do that, how do I do it?


Thanks,

Grace Prof

Mac mini, macOS 11.6

Posted on Dec 27, 2021 7:12 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Dec 27, 2021 10:50 PM

The clean macOS install is about 30-50 GB.


You can store large user files (from Photos.app, Music.app. Final Cut Pro.app etc) on external disks (APFS or Mac OS Extended), if necessary.


Or, get a large bootable external SSD and store everything on it. A little clumsy to turn it on and boot it every time, though.


Whatever you do, have a good backup plan for user data files (either via TimeMachine or apps like Carbon Copy Cloner).

2 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Dec 27, 2021 10:50 PM in response to GraceProf

The clean macOS install is about 30-50 GB.


You can store large user files (from Photos.app, Music.app. Final Cut Pro.app etc) on external disks (APFS or Mac OS Extended), if necessary.


Or, get a large bootable external SSD and store everything on it. A little clumsy to turn it on and boot it every time, though.


Whatever you do, have a good backup plan for user data files (either via TimeMachine or apps like Carbon Copy Cloner).

Mac Mini 9.1 (2020) Storage

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