Can I swap HD to SSD in my Late 2014 Mac Mini?

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Can I swap HD to SSD in my Late 2014 Mac Mini?

I Just purchased a Late 2014 Mac Mini (2.6/8/1TB) and so far loving it. I have a spare Samsung 500GB SSD (Samsung SSD 840 EVO) that I'm not using and I was curious if the drives could be swapped or better yet if the Mac Mini that I have would support 2 drives? I would make the SSD the boot drive and the existing 1TB drive the data drive so-to-speak.

I would need to bring it in somewhere (MicroCenter, Best Buy, etc) to make that happen as I'm not comfortable performing that kind of an upgrade on an Apple product. I realize that the warranty may be void after that and I'm fine with that.

Any words of wisdom? Can it be done? If not with my existing SSD then what are my options?

Thanks a bunch.

--- Val

Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1), iPhone 6s / iPad Air 2 - iOS 9.0.1

Posted on Nov 29, 2015 12:20 PM

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Answer 1

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lllaass

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210,411 points

Nov 29, 2015 2:38 PM in response to vpalhories

Yes you can exchange disks. No, there is room for a second 2 1/2 inch drive in the 2014 Mini

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+Mini+Late+2014+Hard+Drive+Replacement/32815

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Answer 2

vpalhories Author

Level 1

21 points

Nov 29, 2015 2:32 PM in response to lllaass

Thanks for the response. I had seen the link you reference hence the decision to go with a MicroCenter or Best Buy. I did go to MicroCenter after posting this question and they explained that I would need to purchase an adapter. I'm not certain that I understand that since I'm assuming that a drive is a drive (from an outside construction point of view). That is ... if the drive inside the Mac Mini is the same size, shape, etc. as my SSD isn't it just swapping one out for another? I wanted to do my research so I didn't push it any further with the tech. What am I missing?

Also, when you state: " No, there is room for a second 2 1/2 inch drive in the 2014 Mini" I'm assuming that was a Type-O and you meant to say "No, there is NO room ...."

Thanks.

--- Val

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Answer 3

lllaass

Level 10

210,411 points

Nov 29, 2015 2:35 PM in response to vpalhories

Yes, a typo. The 2014 Mini has rom for one 2 1/2 drive and one blade SSD.

I do not understand what adopter they ae talking about.

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Answer 4

Nov 30, 2015 2:54 AM in response to lllaass

lllaass wrote:

Yes, a typo. The 2014 Mini has rom for one 2 1/2 drive and one blade SSD.

I do not understand what adopter they ae talking about.

There is not enough information to be certain what adapter they are referring to, at a guess it would either be an external USB enclosure for an SSD drive, or they may have got really confused and be thinking of a PCIe adapter to fit it in an old classic Mac Pro and this of course does not apply to the Mac mini.

For older Mac mini models i.e. prior to the 2014 model, there was a kit you could buy which let you fit two 2.5" drives so that would have allowed keeping the hard disk and adding an 2.5" SSD drive as well. This does not apply to the 2014 model, the 2014 model has room for only one 2.5" drive, the other slot is now totally different being for an M2 style PCIe SSD drive and no longer for a 2.5" SATA drive.

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Answer 5

vpalhories Author

Level 1

21 points

Nov 30, 2015 10:43 AM in response to John Lockwood

Thanks John,

I think they got confused. Since this isn't a portable computer, I'm probably going to go the route of having an external drive with the SSD being the external boot drive and the existing drive in the Mac Mini as the Data Drive. Have an awesome day.

--- Val

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Answer 6

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Dec 3, 2015 11:14 AM in response to vpalhories

With the 2014 mini you have a choice of USB 3 or Thunderbolt enclosure. I have a 2014 iMac with a standard mechanical hard drive at work and I was really disappointed in its performance. USB 3 is obviously much less expensive but USB 3 has the same flaw as earlier versions - the way the bus shares the pipeline if more than one device is using the bus. I was pleasantly surprised though so a USB 3 enclosure with an SSD is a viable solution even though I expect the Thunderbolt would be superior, especially if you expect to have lots of USB devices plugged in.

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