SSD upgrade for Mac Mini

If the SSD is used just for OSX, the only thing you will

get is faster booting and faster loading of apps, and that's

it.

If you are constantly openning and closing apps, then it may

be worth it.

There is of course the fact that it is purely electronic, therefore

more rugged, but in a desktop system, that is not really meaningful.

The real advantage of SSD's from a use perspective is if

you work a lot with file/disk intensive applications, especially

video editing. This means data needs to reside on the SSD

to get the benefit.

If you've already got the SSD, you might as well go for it. You can use Time Machine to back up the system and then reload it to the SSD afterwards.

Here is a good tutorial video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSA65MjfRG8http://

sjc47 wrote:

I'm considering an SSD upgrade for my 2011 i5 Mac Mini. My intent would be to run Mountain Lion and all my applications from the SSD drive and keep the 500GB HDD for file storage. My first question is if it is even worth it to upgrade to an SSD - in what areas would I actually see an improvement in performance? I have the Corsair Force GT 120GB SSD. Second question is if anyone can point me to a step by step tutorial on how to upgrade to an SSD and if I would need to do a clean install of Mountain Lion or is there a way to transfer just the OS and Applications from the HDD to the new SSD?

Thank you for your assistance.

I upgraded my 2011 Mac mini to primary SSD and secondary 500GB. Boot time to desktop is now about 12 - 15s. Near instant application launch. No more beach balls in Mail or Safari. Here are a couple of installation videos from YouTube. The first does not remove the entire contents of the mini, and the second approach walks you through removing everything inside the mini. I did the latter, as it provides for securing the SSD with screws to the drive carrier.

1. Simpler install (1080p)
2. Open Heart surgery (1080p)

I purchased the OCW Data Doubler, 2.5 inch hard drive/SSD installation kit for $45 USD. This kit is critical for having the right tools for the job including the correct drive connector. You must be very patient and methodical in either video.

I made certain that the firmware was current on the SSD before it was installed. Many firmware updaters are Windows only, or ISO Linux DVD.

Personally, I would not drag system components back from an external drive. You should perform a clean install on the SSD from a bootable external USB stick. Lion Diskmaker will automate the creation of this tool.

All of my applications reside on the SSD with my home directory. Large, little accessed folders went onto the 500GB. As did my 65GB of VirtualBox guest accounts. If you do not reformat that 500GB drive and leave OS X installed, it will confuse Software update about another Apple ID has purchase authority, when there is only one Apple ID. Spotlight will now try to index both the SSD and the mounted 500GB drive. You may not like that, and it is fixable in System Proferences Spotlight. Timemachine will attempt to back up the 500GB too.

sjc47 wrote:

I have a couple of questions/comments for you please.

First, you weren't kidding about "open heart surgery" to install an additional hard drive! I wouldn't have any problem with that procedure and will do the same when I'm ready to install the SSD.

Second, how do you ensure the firmware is up to date prior to installing the SSD

Third, regarding your comment about a clean install to the SSD, my intent would be to do a clean install of Mountain Lion and the few third party apps I use on the brand new SSD (as well as reformatting the existing HDD). I am unclear about how to perform this clean install of Mountain Lion once the new SSD is installed. Am I transferring Mountain Lion from the existing HDD first (using Lion Diskmaker or Time Machine as macbeep mentioned) and then reformating the HDD or is there some way I can re download Mountain Lion from the app store to do a clean install?

Thank you,

There is a "U" shaped tool in that OWC SSD install kit that is critical for success in the second video. You will need that kit. You will still need the different Torx drivers for success in the first video.

Most storage vendors neglect to provide an OS X firmware updater. So, you will need a Windows PC to install the updater software, and then connect the SSD before the mini installation. I popped the side panel off a Dell tower and directly connected a spare SATA cable. You might have Win7 available through bootcamp. The latter will be the only practical choice for future drive firmware updates, providing they are data non-destructive.

ML downloaded from the App Store is an upgrade solution only. It auto launches and wants to continue. You decline. Then, you run Lion Diskmaker, and it auto-discovers the ML installer, extracts what is needed to build a bootable USB stick, and you are done. That USB stick only offers clean ML installs with an included recovery partition. You would use the option key at boot to choose the USB stick. Then, run Disk Utility from the installer to partition your SSD, before the clean install.

Just note that SuperDuper does not clone the recovery partition.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5220887

Next time try Carbon Copy Cloner as it will also clone the recovery partition

I'm thinking on upgrading as well. I do a lot of 1080P HD video editing. Should I pull the trigger ?

Have you considered setting-up the two drives as a single volume Fusion Drive?

Apparently, once you have installed both disks, if you run a disk repair within Disk Utility (from the recovery partition), OS 10.9 sees the two drives and 'repairs' them, by default, into a single Fusion Drive. This would enable files to automatically spill over from the SSD into the HDD, when full, without compromising performance.

For more information please see: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57584237-263/disk-utility-may-combine-custo m-drive-setups-on-some-macs/

I am contemplating doing the same with my own Mac Mini... but might just wait until the Applecare runs-out!

Incidentally, contrary to what others have mentioned here, it is my understanding that most SSD manufacturers enable firmware updates on Mac provided you copy the downloaded update onto a bootable external medium such as optical disk or flash (SD or USB) and boot from it. I have seen reports that this works with Sandisk, Crucial and Samsung (the ones I am looking at).

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/10476/kw/SSD%20firmware%20update%2 0on%20Mac

http://forum.crucial.com/t5/Solid-State-Drives-SSD-Knowledge/SSD-firmware-update -on-a-Mac/ta-p/111844

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/samsungssd/downloads.html

Also, in the interests of long-term reliability, it would be well worth activating TRIM for your new SSD. OS X only switches it on automatically for Apple-supplied SSDs. There are, however, ways of persuading the system to recognise a non-Apple-branded SSD. You can find out more on these threads: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5181866?answerId=22535463022#22535463022

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1409151&page=4

Hope this helps!

If you keep your user directory on your boot drive, then you will see a lot of benefit from an SSD, and not just when booting and starting apps. Lots of apps store temporary/cache files in the user directory. Particularly web browsers, which can store gigabytes of small cache files in there. So you will notice a significant speedup when browsing the web, as one example. Also, if you fill up your physical memory (RAM), then the OS will use your boot drive for virtual memory, and an SSD will be hugely faster than an HD in this case. It can be the difference between your computer grinding to a near-halt, or just running somewhat slower.

An easy check as to what version of the recovery partition you have installed is to restart while pressing the 'ALT' key.

This will sshow you all bootable systems complete with thier version numbers.

I have this question, save my Mac mini is a late 2009 model, the last model with an optical drive