Mac Mini installing second hard drive SSD

Question

Mac Mini installing second hard drive SSD

Mac Forum question SATA

I want to keep my original hard drive in the Mac Mini PLUS have the SSD for my main drive. Its very cool that there is no particular hardware order. (I didnt know this at first and had completely taken my Mac Mini apart.) When you turn the MINI updside down to get in, then my original hard drive is on the bottom. But closed up and sitting on gthe desk like it should the hard drive is on the top. My issue is I purchased a second SSD SATA cable. When I went to plug in the new SSD CABLE IT WANTED TO PLUG INTO THE EXACT SAME PORT AS THE ORIGINAL ONE. I FOUND OUT THERE ARE 2 CABLES but in discriptions I see people writing this cable is for TOP drive or bottom drive. Is that upside down or closed? Any clarification of which SATA cable I need would greatly be appreciated. Remember when the unit is closed, then the drive is on top. Another way of putting it is all I have to do to install the new drive now is to just slide the new drive in (studs attached).

With the botom it will be on top of existing drive. Close the unit up, turn it over and set it on desk and the new drive is on the bottom. Sorry for being so redundant I just want to be sure. Thanks.

Mac mini, OS X Mavericks (10.9.1), I7 2.3ghz 16 gb ram SSD 240 GB 1TB

Posted on Mar 19, 2014 12:41 PM

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Answer 1

Mar 20, 2014 1:48 PM in response to lllaass

which is why when talking mini's HDD's I like to include this picture when referring to drive bays.

Too bad this picture couldn't be made a sticky for reference, might save a lot of confusion and misinterpretation.

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Answer 2

Mar 19, 2014 2:36 PM in response to guitarbodydotnet

If you go to "About This Mac" > System Report > SATA, it will tell you what Apple considers the bays to be. My stock drive is in the caddy directly underneath the Wi-Fi grate("Lower"), and my SSD is below when installing ("Upper").

Upper HD Flex Cable (076-1413)

Lower HD Flex Cable (076-1412)

OWC has the kits for each install location ($29.00 for standard "Upper" upgrade; a little more for the other) with the appropriate flex cable. Probably the same price for the kit here, as a cable by itself elsewhere. I used it with great success.

Summary:

Upper/Top = directly underneath Wi-Fi grate in caddy

Lower/Bottom = outside of caddy

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMM11D2/

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Answer 3

keg55

Level 6

11,755 points

Mar 19, 2014 1:31 PM in response to guitarbodydotnet

guitarbodydotnet wrote:

I FOUND OUT THERE ARE 2 CABLES but in discriptions I see people writing this cable is for TOP drive or bottom drive. Is that upside down or closed? Any clarification of which SATA cable I need would greatly be appreciated.

There are 2 SATA ports on the main board. Which one is your HDD plugged into? The left or the right?

My Mac Mini 2012 came with the HDD installed in the bottom bay (under the WiFi antenna grate) and plugged into the 1st SATA port on the left. The dual drive kit I purchased from iFixit.com came with a SATA cable that plugs into the 2nd SATA port on the right. The drive occupies the top bay which is underneath the system board and is inserted into a bracket.

So, the TOP bay is the one where the drive has to be inserted into a bracket and the entire Mini parts have to be removed to get to that bracket. The BOTTOM bay is the one underneath the WiFi antenna grate and closest to the round cover that has to be removed to get inside.

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Answer 4

lllaass

Level 10

210,513 points

Mar 19, 2014 2:04 PM in response to guitarbodydotnet

See:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYIMM11D2/

NOTE: A small number of 2012 units were shipped with the drive mounted in the upper drive bay rather than the more typical lower bay shown in this video. If you have a 2012 or later model, you will want to determine the configuration of your Mac mini's drives prior to ordering. To do this, open Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app and click on the grey drive icon at the left-edge of the window. If you see "Lower" after the "Connection ID" at the bottom-left corner of the window, you may proceed using the standard installation instructions. If you see "Upper" then you have a special configuration which will need additional components, and you will need to also refer to the Addendum video.

The lower bay is the one under the wifi antenna

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Answer 5

lllaass

Level 10

210,513 points

Mar 19, 2014 2:46 PM in response to Ron Napier

Ron Napier said

Summary:

Upper/Top = directly underneath Wi-Fi grate in caddy

Lower/Bottom = outside of caddy

That does not agree with what OWC says and what the Mac reports. The lower is right below the antenna grate since that is the bottom of the Mini when the Mini is in its operating position. That is the top when you turn the Mini over to take it apart.

I confirmed that do day when I added an SSD to my 2012 Mini. The Mac said lower and the originally installed HD was under the wifi antenna.

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Answer 6

Mar 19, 2014 5:56 PM in response to keg55

Boy I wouldn't know with out taking it apart again since I didn't see they were designated by the port but rather top drive bottom drive. I agree, my drive that was installed factory would be the top drive. Right under the chassis rather than under the WIFI setup. So the SATA flex cable I need is for the lower/ bottom drive which is under the wifi rig.

I did what I guess most people do, googled SATA CABLE FOR DUAL OR SECOND HARD DRIVE. Found one, bought it's d it would absolutely not plug in to the port (now I remember farthest from the power supply .

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Answer 7

Mar 19, 2014 5:59 PM in response to Ron Napier

That is the opposite of mine. You would think there would be standard , not what ever cable they have an abundance of that day. I know, 30 freeking bucks for a flex cable I'll bet costs them 10 cents! Thanks.

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Answer 8

Mar 19, 2014 6:49 PM in response to Ron Napier

Ok Ron. I just went to ABOUT THIS MAC. I know for certain that my factory drive is NOT. Under the Air Port WiFi but right up against the chassis opposite the circular opening. I know for a fact my physical port is the one closest to the power supply . My Mac says Bay Name is UPPER. So that would mean the "Lower bay is the bay right under the wifi cage or the first accessible hard drive bay. I do not need to remove my logic board to put the second hard drive in. Thanks all for your help!

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Answer 9

Mar 19, 2014 7:45 PM in response to lllaass

Illaass is correct; my summary is wrong. Apple identifies the location of the drive in the MacMini operating position. As I originally typed this, I kept thinking my SSD was installed directly underneath the Wi-Fi grate, but it was not.

My first paragraph was right; my summary = inaccurate.

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Answer 10

Mar 20, 2014 2:07 PM in response to lllaass

A person would have to work really hard to connect "upper = bottom" and conversly "lower = top", myself I don't think it would happen, so I'll repeat what I said "might save a lot of confusion and misinterpretation."

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Answer 11

Apr 23, 2014 3:32 PM in response to keg55

Are you or anyone using the kit from ifixit.com notice the sata port on the right (this is on the late 2012 mac mini) works at only SATA 2 speeds and not SATA 3? I'm not sure if it was the ports on the mac mini or the flex cable from ifixit. When I installed my Intel 530 240gb in the upper drive with the ifixit cable, I got terrible read/write speeds (at sata 2 speeds). I was also able to confirm this while I was using Chameleon trim enabler software listing one port at 6gb (original port where apple drive was connected) and the other at 3gb speeds. This probably is the reason why other SSDs are having problem working on the right port and upper disk bay? I don't know the clear specifications of these sata ports. When I moved the SSD to the lower bay and connected to the original cable and the left side sata port, the speed was better, probably at sata 3 speeds.

If anyone knows the sata specifications on the late 2012 mac mini, could you please confirm if the right side sata port only works at sata 2 speeds. Or is this just my mac mini or I received a defective cable from ifixit?

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Answer 12

lllaass

Level 10

210,513 points

Apr 23, 2014 3:46 PM in response to Apertured

In my 2012 Mini I installed a second drive your OWCs kit and their SSD. I moved the rotating disk to the upper bay and installed the SSD in the lower bay where the rotating HD was installed.

System report shows 6 GB as both the link speed and negotiated link speed for both drives.

I installed the SSD where the rotating HD was since some other users had reported problems with an SSD not booting from the upper bay and I did not want to take the change of that happening and having to take apart the Mini again.

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Answer 13

Apr 23, 2014 10:00 PM in response to lllaass

I have a 2012 Mac mini as well where the default drive was in the upper position. I had ordered a second SSD cable not aware at the time that there were 2 types . Cloned my hard drive to the SSD And ended up installing g it in the upper position waiting for my replacement drive. Worked well. In the meantime I screwed something up and had to recline my SSD. But this time I reinstalled the original HD to the upper location. When my second correct shorter lower bay cable came in I just dropped my SSD into the lower bay not feeling like taking the whole thing apart. Bottom line woth my Mac Mini either HD worked fine in either location. Was also able to boot from my SSD when I had it enclosed in a USB 3 HD enclosure . Worked fine except I guess since I had 2 bootable OSX partitions and 2 BOOTCAMP partitions I was not able to select my USB drive in start up disk rather had to hold alt down. Options

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Answer 14

Jun 11, 2014 9:29 PM in response to woodturner

So is the Upper bay the one closest to the base and the Lower tray the one closest to the top of the Mini? I have a 2010 Mini Server and I plan on replacing the drive in the Upper bay with an SSD ( the drive in the Upper bay is currently unformatted). If the upper tray is the one closest to the bottom of the Mini then it would really be nice to know that before proceeding!

Philip

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Answer 15

Sep 5, 2014 11:51 PM in response to tbirdvet

I installed a second disk (1TB Samsung SSD) using the OWC kit on my MacMini late 2012 that already had a 1Tb HD
Something really strange happened. I cloned the disks but it seems that whatever I did, although officially starting from SSD the system had some system files called from the HDD so in someway it would go on considering that disk the boot disk... but.. more strange... in the Disk Utility the info were swapped.... I had a SAMSUNG 1TB disk with inside the partition calle HDD and viceversa the APPLE 1TB HDD with the partition called SSD !!! Seems that Apple forced lower bay (where their disk is) to be the boot disk... It sort of "has to be the boot disk whatever"...
Whtever I do I can't get to format the HDD... I boot from SSD and put most of apps in there but still HDD is seen as the bootable disk and won't let me delete it. Blackmagic speediest sees name the other way round too... To get 500 mb/s I need to select HDD and not SSD !??!?!
That is a total mess.... I'll try to fix it "software" but it seems I'll have to retake the MacMini apart and physically swap disk or at least minisata to mb cables

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