Replacing Mac Mini Hard Drive with SSD, and New ML Install

Here is my opinion and steps I would perform.

1. Back up your system first.
2. Check the iFixit.com site for a guide of how to replace the drive. Review Steps 3 and 4 BEFORE you replace your drive.
3. If you have a USB thumb drive with the ML 10.8.3 installer, skip to step 6.
4. If you don't have a USB thumb drive with the ML 10.8.3 installer, download the OS X Recovery Disk Assistantand use a 1-4GB thumb drive to create a Recovery HD on the thumb drive you can boot from. Skip to step 6.
5. If you have neither of the above, after replacing the drive, restart into Internet Recovery by pressing/holding the Command+Option+R keys. Since you have a mid-2011, Internet Recovery will ONLY allow you to download and install Lion since that's what probably came preinstalled on your system.
6. After you replace your drive and you are booted into the OS X Utilities Menu from one of Steps 3-5, select Disk Utility and format your new drive as Mac OS Extended-Journaled with the GUID partition table.
7. Go back to the OS X Utilities Menu and select Reinstall Mac OS X.
8. After the download and install of OS X you can run through the setup creating your user account (same as you had on you old drive).
9. If you were able to install OS X ML, skip to step 11.
10. If you installed Lion, you will have to login to the App Store and download/install your purchase of ML.
11. Run Software Updates to bring your OS X up to date.
12. Now you can restore any data files and apps that will fit onto the new drive from Time Machine. Enter Time Machine and navigate to your last backup to view the /Applications folders and your user folders (e.g Documents, Downloads, Music, etc.).
13. For your email, you can open Finder then press the Option key to see your user Library folder in the list. Select it to open it then enter Time Machine again and navigate to your last backup so that your user Library folder is opened in Time Machine. Copy your Mail folder to your Desktop so you can copy it back to your current user Library.

I think that's it.

Personally, I would add the SSD and create a Fusion drive with the 500GB HDD. This way you would have the best of both worlds.... storage AND speed. I did exactly that to my mid-2012 and added a 120GB SSD and have a Fusion drive of 611GB. Boot times are within 16 seconds and apps open fast.

Regarding restoring the software from the time machine backup of the old HD, is there any important difference between restoring software from time machine, as opposed to restoring software using the migration assistant?

With the Migration Assistant, I don't think you can pick and choose what you want to move over. For example, you may not want to move ALL your Downloads folder over, but only a few files. MA will migrate the whole folder's content. Since you have your old drive attached externally, go into the Macintosh HD and grab the files you want to copy onto the SSD.

Regarding creating a Fusion drive, I read that is technically only supported by the 2012 Mac minis. You can do it on the older macs, but you have to get into the Terminal and do some under the hood stuff, which is right at the edge of my skill level.

The Terminal commands are very simple to use and well documented. I'm not proficient at Terminal myself and I just made sure I followed what was documented. There are also some videos on YouTube on this.

If you're running 10.8.3 from a FULL installer instead of updating from 10.8.2, the version of Disk Utility needed to automatically create the Fusion drive is there. That version is 13 (444). This is exactly what I did after 10.8.3 was released. My Mac Mini came with Mountain Lion 10.8.1 installed so after 10.8.3 was released I restarted into Internet Recovery (OS X Utilities menu for 10.8.3) and used Disk Utility which showed my SSD and HDD needed to be fixed and it automatically created the Fusion drive. Then I Reinstalled Mac OS X which downloaded and installed 10.8.3 to my Fusion drive. After the install and during setup, I used Setup Assistant and migrated everything over to the Fusion drive.

No need to decide now about using a Fusion drive. Because you would need to purchase the tools (Mac Mini dual drive kit) and pull apart the Mac Mini to install the 2nd drive. All of this might be too complicated.

I just finished switchover from 500GB hard drive to Crucial m4 128GB SSD for my Mac mini (2011). The recovery (Option+R) mode let me install fresh Mountain Lion image from Internet on the SSD once I entered Appstore credendtials. So, I did not have to go through Lion. As the installer was finishing it automatically run Migration assistant (since my Time machine USB backup disk was connected) which allowed transferring the users, apps etc. Initially I was worried but at the end it went very smoothly. The only gotcha I encountered was that the fresh SSD had to be formatted in the Disk Utility so that the Installer can recognize it. The other thing was that when I tried to recover directly from Time machine backup to SSD it ended with weird error message about not being able to write data.

Hi keg55,

I also want to make in fusion drive in my mac mini.

you added a 120GB SSD inside the mac mini. And make both hard drive and ssd inside the mac mini?

or one external?

Thanks

eric fong wrote:

I also want to make in fusion drive in my mac mini.

you added a 120GB SSD inside the mac mini. And make both hard drive and ssd inside the mac mini?

I fused the SSD and HDD inside the Mac Mini into a Fusion Drive. It's automatic with OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.2 or above when you use an external Recovery HD. In Disk Utility within a Recovery HD both drives show up in RED text and a message window appears to IGNORE or FIX. Choosing FIX will automatically create a Fusion drive.

One note: as of OS X Mavericks and the Mavericks Recovery HD whenever you choose IGNORE, the text of the drives turns to BLACK and you can independently manage them. With OS X Mountain Lion, the IGNORE does nothing.

Thanks. I will go to look for the connector

Totally GREAT answer, keg55 ! Helped me immensely!

I'm new to Mac, and have recently aquired an 'old' MacMini mid 2011. A top notch machine for playing music, videos and showing my pictures on the TV and stereo.

BUT, it had a defective HD (thats why I got it), and after I replaced it, I was at a loss as to how to get the OS-X back in there again...

Searched the web, and there your great step by step procedure with internet recovery were! 😀

Now my Mac is running like lightning with a new SSD! I never would have managed this alone.

Thanks again mate!