I have a 2012 mac mini. The 128GB SSD that talks to the HD went south on me two weeks ago. I replaced that 128GB SSD with a 1TB SSD, and migrated my files from the 1TB platter HD to that new SSD. However, I cannot access my 1TB HD in my Mac Mini.

Question

I have a 2012 mac mini. The 128GB SSD that talks to the HD went south on me two weeks ago. I replaced that 128GB SSD with a 1TB SSD, and migrated my files from the 1TB platter HD to that new SSD. However, I cannot access my 1TB HD in my Mac Mini.

I have a 2012 mac mini. The 128GB SSD that talks to the HD went south on me two weeks ago. I replaced that 128GB SSD with a 1TB SSD, and migrated my files from the 1TB platter HD to that new SSD. However, I cannot access my 1TB HD in my Mac Mini unless I place that faulty 128GB SSD into a 3.0 USB external sled, which is not ideal because the reliability of the 128GB SSD is very questionable.

I'm assuming the architecture of this 2012 mac mini was designed to have the 128GB SSD work exclusively in tandem with the 1TB HD and once the 128GB SSD was removed, then access to the 1TB HD was closed.

Any ideas?

My 2012 mac mini is a 2.6GHz processor, with 16GB of ram memory. My MacOS is 10.13.3 and works really well with the new Samsung 1TB SSD installed in the lower slot.

Mac mini, macOS High Sierra (10.13.2)

Posted on Feb 19, 2018 9:27 PM

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Answer 1

den.thed

Level 9

77,578 points

Feb 20, 2018 8:38 AM in response to MinotaurEvans

The 128GB and the 1T were parts of what is called a Fusion Drive. Because the Fusion Drive is now broken, you can no longer access the 1T drive in the same way.

It sounds like you have safely migrated the data from the 1T to the SSD..?

If so, then you will need to Erase and Format the 1T drive using mac OS Recovery in order to make it a single accessible drive again.

If you were wanting to make the 1T SSD and the 1T HD into a Fusion Drive..? (personally I would not)

You will need to backup all of your Data to a Time Machine Drive and reformat both the 1T SSD and 1T HDD into a Fusion Drive, then Install macOS and Restore from your Time Machine backup.

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