Q: Mac mini - Swapping Hard Drives
I have two Mac minis - both 2012.
Mac mini #1 is i7 2.6GHz Quad Core - My primary desktop computer
Mac mini #2 is i3 2.3GHz Dual Core - Used as HTPC / Media Server
#1 has (2) 1TB Internal Drives, of which I use much less than half (I also have external drives)
#2 has (1) 512MB Internal Drive, which is pretty much full
I'm considering moving (1) of the 1TB drives from #1 to #2 and moving all the data to it (mostly ALAC iTunes music and some iMovie video), this would solve the space issue there. While they're opened up I'm also considering adding an SSD as the startup disk to #1, it would improve boot times, run some programs a little faster, and a 256MB or 512MB drive would be inexpensive, I'd gain a little more space for data too. (to be honest, the Mac mini is jealous of the SSD in my MacBook)
I've increased the RAM in #2, replaced a volume switch on an iPhone 3GS, and replaced a screen on an iPad 2, so I'm not afraid of detail work - but only the RAM was easy. I've also watched the videos on replacing an HD for this model on iFixIt. What's unclear is how much harder it is to get to the first disk than the second. If I just move the one drive I shouldn't have to dig into the 1st bay.
So, my questions:
1) How can I tell on the system report which drive is in which bay, by that I mean which is on top, and which is on the bottom? Or can I assume that the startup disk is always on top? (harder to get to)
2) Is the drive in the top bay significantly harder to replace?
3) I'd also entertain suggestions for a reliable SSD, but this is not the gist of my question.
Thanks for your help ...
Mac mini, OS X El Capitan (10.11.5), 2012 i7 16GB
Posted on Jun 6, 2016 3:57 PM
The individial internal drive location is not indicated in the System Information panel, but is from the Terminal. Let's pick on your single-drive Mac mini. The default drive specifier is most likely /dev/disk0, and OS X is installed on /dev/disk0s2. Only type the blue text. On a machine with two internal drives, the other drive is likely /dev/disk1.
# Identify the mounted drives.
$ df -H
# The following will return the drive name, and its Upper or Lower location.
# In this example, OS X is installed on /dev/disk0s2.
$ diskutil info /dev/disk0 | awk '/Media Name|Upper|Lower/ {print}'
Posted on Jun 7, 2016 8:19 AM
