Is My Mac Good?

Three things noted:

• No backups. Backups are the only way to mark data as being valuable.

• Storage capacity that will require ongoing and manual management.

• Add-on security apps.

General comments:

I haven’t seen longevity for the recent Apple flash storage, though running near capacity can most definitely wear the flash storage more quickly.

HDDs do tend to fail differently than flash, and different grades of HDDs can fail differently than different grades of flash. Or put differently, comparisons are not easy. Running flash near its storage capacity is, however, bad. (One thing that can help with wear leveling is applying the Apple updates as they arrive, as those shuffle the sectors.)

I wouldn’t pick a Mac for heavy gaming. That tends to be a Windows PC thing, or maybe a SteamOS thing.

Call of Duty for Mac as shown on Steam lists only Intel processors, and requires 15 GB. Apple silicon support is not listed.

The report says "No Time Machine backup - Time Machine backup not found."

It's OK if you back up your Mac using Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper! instead of Time Machine. But you should back up your Mac, and preferably should have at least two backups, one of which is not stored with the Mac (where a thief, or a fire, could take it out at the same time the Mac was lost).

Mac looks Ok but remove Norton anti-virus. It will only cause issues. Mac does not need this type of software. Also your Mac will fill up quickly with a small drive so just install only what you need. or offload large files to an external drive.

I'd uninstall Norton because 3rd party anti-virus cause nothing but trouble. macOS built-in anti-virus is all you need.

250 GB drive is quite small so take care to have at least 30 GB free (check that via Disk Utility). Put large files and libraries to external APFS-formatted volumes and remember to backup also then to other external disks.

weeklycod wrote:

I don't know what to use for back up

Use the built-in Time Machine. Purchase an external storage SSD drive twice the size of your internal storage. Then set up Time Machine. By default Time Machine will backup any changes every hour.

Back up your Mac with Time Machine - Apple Support

MrHoffman wrote:

Call of Duty for Mac as shown on Steam lists only Intel processors, and requires 15 GB. Apple silicon support is not listed.

Which is especially significant given that Rosetta 2 will be going away in macOS 28. Most Intel-only games are likely to "drop dead" then.

Using Intel-based apps on a Mac with Apple silicon - Apple Support

"Rosetta is currently available for any Mac with Apple silicon, and it will remain available through the forthcoming macOS 27 — the next major macOS release. Starting with computers using macOS 28, Rosetta functionality will be available only for certain older, unmaintained games that rely on Intel-based frameworks."

weeklycod wrote:

256 is not a "too small drive " I believe , yes indeed it is smallest but it is capable of dev stuff.

Wether the machine is used  for building projects with Xcode or just for general usage 

Unless the user ( @weeklycod ) is fastidious on what they install, how it is used and for what purposes it is used 

With a drive capacity of 256 GB Capacity

They are bound to eventually run into the " How do I Reduce System/Volume/Data " issue 

Which is an all to common issue that could occur 

Below are just a few of some many these of these types issues

A -  System data taking too much in MacOS Sono… - Apple Community

B - Time Machine Local Snapshot won't delete - Apple Community

C - Over 60% storage blocked by System Data - Apple Community

D - Running out of storage - system data is huge after upgrade to macOS Tahoe 26.2

E - System Data at 114 GB AFTER deleting othe… - Apple Community

 What the user make of all this ?

That is really up to them to decide

tbirdvet wrote:

Mac looks Ok but remove Norton anti-virus. It will only cause issues. Mac does not need this type of software. Also your Mac will fill up quickly with a small drive so just install only what you need. or offload large files to an external drive.

on removing Norton!

The OWC Mercury Elite Pro is a reasonably priced External Hard Disk that you can use for a Time Machine (or CCC or SuperDuper! ) backup drive.

You can find them at Macsales.com

Also, uninstall the Norton apps ASAP as they will cause problems!

USB "pen, thumb and flash" drives are not so reliable so don't use them for serious work or backups. Get a proper SSD or HDD instead.

BTW OWC Envoy Pro Mini looks like a flash drive but it is SLC SSD. I have one and it works great.

https://www.owc.com/solutions/envoy-pro-mini-usb-c-usb-a

https://www.howtogeek.com/444787/multi-layer-ssds-what-are-slc-mlc-tlc-qlc-and-mlc/

weeklycod wrote:

hey owl for the proof for https://www.imagineonline.store/products/mac-mini-m4-mu9d3hn-a?srsltid=AfmBOoraH1NElB2UgrovIOX_qtD_m54DZdo3OzWbhnM_fSxcYKqiBhbG

So what method is the user going to use with a tiny 256 GB SSD Drive Capacity for that they appear they want to use the 256 GB Capacity Drive for

From what I have read from a well respected Developer

Any drive that is less than about 1 TB to 2 TB Drive Capacity, is going be heavily challenged for useable Free Space

It has been my personal experience

A person is best served by planning for the further in regards to Unified RAM and Drive Capacities

With Apple Silicon computers

Both the Unified RAM and the SSD Can not be upgraded - full stop

Both are soldered to the Logic Board

It is my considered opinion that  Apple should have never made Mac Mini with the punny 256 GB Capacity Drive 

This type of drive capacity in 2026 would be equivalent to the 128 SSD available in the past.

Great for internet browsing, emails, messages and light word processing , spread sheet  etc

But Multimedia file retention or application development " 2026-04-18 Xcode (26.4.1) - App Store "

Not so much 

However and in defence of Apple, they did make available  a customized purchase available

Mac mini (2024) - Tech Specs

The Write Speed seems a little below expectations 

Performance:

  System Load: 28.78 (1 min ago) 14.11 (5 min ago) 5.75 (15 min ago)

  Nominal I/O usage: 0.25 MB/s

  File system: 7.76 seconds

  Write speed: 2009 MB/s

  Read speed: 2711 MB/s

From another M4 Mac Mini also with Tahoe 26.5

Performance:

    System Load: 1.70 (1 min ago) 1.43 (5 min ago) 1.42 (15 min ago)

    Nominal I/O usage: 0.06 MB/s

    File system: 5.73 seconds

    Write speed: 3453 MB/s

    Read speed: 2753 MB/s

yes but usb sticks have typically an even shorter lifespan

and a limited number of writes before they die because usb sticks do not support TRIM Trim (computing) - Wikipedia

which is the saviour of SSD discs to make them live longer.

Owl-53 wrote:

It is my considered opinion that  Apple should have never made Mac Mini with the punny 256 GB Capacity Drive 

Apple no longer sells new Mac minis with 256 GB SSDs. The minimum SSD capacity is now 512 GB – and the starting price has gone up from $599 USD to $799 USD. The minimum SSD size for new Mac notebooks now ranges from 512 GB to 2 TB depending on the model and main processing chip.

Apple still does sell new iMacs and MacBook Neos that have 256 GB SSDs.