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SSD HDD upgrade Mac Mini Late 2012

Hello


I recently purchased a Mac Mini i5 2012 Late edition i wanted to know if can i go add a SSD as my primary drive and keep the default apple drive as a secondry storage , If yes do the apple service do this or i have to do it on my own , I dont want to void my warranty and fusion drive is too costly . So ya i know this is possible but will the apple service do this ?


Regards

Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 11, 2013 5:08 AM

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Posted on Nov 11, 2013 5:20 AM

Adding the drive will void your warranty. An Apple store may be able to do it or an Apple Authorized Service Provider. To find one see:

https://locate.apple.com/#

7 replies

Nov 11, 2013 5:41 AM in response to iamgaurav

Your best bet is to find an Apple Authorized provider. Apple Stores tend not to perform upgrades, merely warranty repairs. Swapping out the drive of a mini, to my mind, is not as bad as swapping out the drive of an iMac, but it comes close. And if you intend to put the hard drive in the second bay that makes the task extra involved. It is an upgrade that I'd perform but I'm an experienced tech. I wouldn't recommend it to a newbie.


Illaass is right, technically this would void your warranty but practically speaking, so long as the upgrade didn't cause any damage Apple tends to overlook upgrades. But if the tech noticed the upgrade and thought there was a chance you caused damage that would be all that's necessary to refuse warranty repairs. I've seen it work both ways.

Nov 11, 2013 6:11 AM in response to iamgaurav

If you have no luck at the Apple store or finding a local Apple Authorized Service Provider, you might consider using an SSD in a USB 3 external case. I had to configure and validate several labs of minis this summer and found the 5400 rpm drives excruciatingly slow so I built my own SSD external and was pleasantly surprised by the speed increase. It felt nearly as fast as my MBA.

Nov 11, 2013 7:45 AM in response to iamgaurav

You can swap out the original drive for SSD. Keep the original and if any warranty work is required put back the original drive. As long as you do not damage anything in the swap there would be no issue. I have had warranty work done before after I swapped out a drive and Apple did not have any issue even though it was not the original drive (as long as the warranty was not on the drive itself).

Nov 12, 2013 2:41 AM in response to iamgaurav

Another option, though a bit pricier, is to get a Seagate

Thunderbolt adapter (Moel Number STAE128). and a

Thunderbolt cable. You will get better performance and

than USB3. Although it is designed to plug in their drives,

the connector is a standard SATA connector and an SSD

will plug right in.


Personally, I had used this initially to load OSX and test

the SSD drive before finally installing it in my Mini. The

performance was nearly equal in both cases.


Also, this approach could avoid any possible USB3/Bluetooth

interference issues that can happen in some cases.

SSD HDD upgrade Mac Mini Late 2012

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