So fortunate to have received a belated birthday gift today from Robert - a 960GB Micron M500 2.5 SSD from his stash of used drives! He included an enclosure as well. Here’s what I am wondering:

- From what I understand, this Micron M500 2.5 SSD IS compatible with my late 2012 mini and I can use it to replace the bad drive in my mini BUT I have a Fusion Drive (1TB spinner HDD + 128GB SSD) so can I swap out the 1TB spinner HDD for this MIcron SSD while keeping the 128GB SSD part of the Fusion Drive in the mini?

- When I watched OWC's hard drive replacement video for the mini, they were only replacing one drive - meaning the mini they were using didn't have a Fusion Drive- so do I need to find a video that shows how to swap out the spinner drive while keeping the 128GB SSD part of the Fusion Drive or is it all the same procedure or is there an extra step to keep the 128GB SSD in the mini when replacing the main drive?

If I keep the 128GB SSD in my mini and swap out the spinner with the 960GB MIcron SSD will they still work together as a Fusion Drive? Or should I remove the 128GB SSD all together?

EDIT: From what I’m told, the Fusion Drive in my late 2012 mini is ONE module - so when i swap the drives I’ll be removing the spinner HDD + 128GB SSD. So there shouldn’t be an extra step correct?

Thanks in advance!!!!

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Master Tinkerer Jerry®

My Amazon WISH List updated Dec 2024

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2024 03:34PM by Jerry®.

Just ditch the 128 GB drive and replace it.

There isn't much reason to complicate things with trying to make a Fusion drive, a solution that was just cheap BS on Apple's part, IMHO.

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My life goes smoothly and in regular intervals

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ka jowct
Just ditch the 128 GB drive and replace it.

There isn't much reason to complicate things with trying to make a Fusion drive, a solution that was just cheap BS on Apple's part, IMHO.

From what I understand the Fusion Drive is ONE module - so replacing the Fusion Drive with a single 960GB SSD the “Fusion” part will be gone and I’ll just have the one main drive…….i think?

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Master Tinkerer Jerry®

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Fusion is a combination of SSD and HD.

Just replace both with a single LARGER SSD.

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gadje
Fusion is a combination of SSD and HD.

Just replace both with a single LARGER SSD.

Crap…the Fusion Drive is 1TB spinner + 128GB SSD and I only have this 960GB SSD…..am I doomed?

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Master Tinkerer Jerry®

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how much pron do you need to keep around?

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gadje
how much pron do you need to keep around?

A lot. LOL jk. But seriously, will I be ok with the 960GB SSD replacement? I remember before my mini’s drive died I had close to 1TB of crap on it….like maybe 800GB?

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Master Tinkerer Jerry®

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Jerry®
.am I doomed?

not unless you had the previous (I assume at this point, dead) drive overstuffed.

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"one door closes and another window opens"
Vlad the Impailer.

Quote
Fritz

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Jerry®
.am I doomed?

not unless you had the previous (I assume at this point, dead) drive overstuffed.

It was pretty full - if I remember correctly I had about 700-800GB of stuff on it.

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Master Tinkerer Jerry®

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Do you have a plan on how to copy the data? do you own CCC or Super Duper?

if it was 800, you still have 20% overhead left.
once youre back to normal, consider a cloud b.u. of some kind.
iCloud, iDrive, Backblaze and other flavors..

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"one door closes and another window opens"
Vlad the Impailer.

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gadje
Do you have a plan on how to copy the data? do you own CCC or Super Duper?

The SSD I received from Robert has already been formatted. My plan was to install this new SSD to replace the bad Fusion Drive, boot from a macOS installer thumb drive, install the OS on the new internal SSD and then restore my data from my Time Machine backup.

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Master Tinkerer Jerry®

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Quote
Fritz
if it was 800, you still have 20% overhead left.
once youre back to normal, consider a cloud b.u. of some kind.
iCloud, iDrive, Backblaze and other flavors..

I have 2tb iCloud storage space and about 1TB of space on my iDrive account.

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Master Tinkerer Jerry®

My Amazon WISH List updated Dec 2024

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both of the above sound good.

one thing about iD and iC may be the same, dunno.
It never Trashes anything unless you do it from the restore tab.
If you eliminate it from the b.u. tab, that will stop the b.u.
In addition, the schedule tab has a sub-tab: Archive Cleanup, which you have to turn on. It's pretty self-explanatory.

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"one door closes and another window opens"
Vlad the Impailer.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/24/2024 04:19PM by Fritz.

Somehow, I am afraid that you will screw this up... Good Luck and Godspeed

oh .... man ......

he's funning you Jerry.

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"one door closes and another window opens"
Vlad the Impailer.

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gadje
Somehow, I am afraid that you will screw this up... Good Luck and Godspeed

thanks for the vote of confidence. LOL! I'll be good. I just like to ask as many questions before I do a project like this.

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Master Tinkerer Jerry®

My Amazon WISH List updated Dec 2024

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Quote
Fritz
both of the above sound good.

one thing about iD and iC may be the same, dunno.
It never Trashes anything unless you do it from the restore tab.
If you eliminate it from the b.u. tab, that will stop the b.u.
In addition, the schedule tab has a sub-tab: Archive Cleanup, which you have to turn on. It's pretty self-explanatory.

Actually my iDrive account has 10TB. I'm using it to backup my Windows laptop and then I'll use it for my mini too when i get it working.

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Master Tinkerer Jerry®

My Amazon WISH List updated Dec 2024

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plenty. my server drives are b.u'd on iD as well as 3 Macs and an Android pho. 10T as well. With about that much physical, iD is just halfway.

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"one door closes and another window opens"
Vlad the Impailer.

Quote
Jerry®

Quote
gadje
Somehow, I am afraid that you will screw this up... Good Luck and Godspeed

thanks for the vote of confidence. LOL! I'll be good. I just like to ask as many questions before I do a project like this.

How did it go? What took you so long?

Throw out the really old programs before you copy the data to the hard drive. I bet you’ll find some old PowerPC programs that haven’t worked on your Mini for many years

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Forrest
Throw out the really old programs before you copy the data to the hard drive. I bet you’ll find some old PowerPC programs that haven’t worked on your Mini for many years

hmm... how would i do that from my Time Machine backup????????????

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Master Tinkerer Jerry®

My Amazon WISH List updated Dec 2024

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Oh, I was assuming your old hard drive was still working. If not,
you'll need to prune your old programs from your new hard drive after restoring from your TM backup.

“ Don’t think meat - just throw”

Take he bottom plate off.

Remove the RAM

Undo the fans screws, pop the fan connector off the logic board and remove the fan.

Remove the screws holding the antenna plate and push it out of the way. (You don’t have to disconnect the antenna connector)

Remove the screw holding the plastic piece on the left hand side of the mini and set it aside.

The SATA connector is on the left hand side right where that shroud was. Pop it off the logic board.

That’s it. Put the things you removed back and close it up.

Put that new SSD in the enclosure it came with, plug it into the USB port and fire up the mini. Hold down the Option key with one of your thumb drive installers attached and go to town.

That all. Stop thinking about it and do it.

Good luck. We’re all counting on you.

Quote
PeterW
“ Don’t think meat - just throw”

Take he bottom plate off.

Remove the RAM

Undo the fans screws, pop the fan connector off the logic board and remove the fan.

Remove the screws holding the antenna plate and push it out of the way. (You don’t have to disconnect the antenna connector)

Remove the screw holding the plastic piece on the left hand side of the mini and set it aside.

The SATA connector is on the left hand side right where that shroud was. Pop it off the logic board.

That’s it. Put the things you removed back and close it up.

Put that new SSD in the enclosure it came with, plug it into the USB port and fire up the mini. Hold down the Option key with one of your thumb drive installers attached and go to town.

That all. Stop thinking about it and do it.

Good luck. We’re all counting on you.

I’ve got it open and have the antenna removed - but still connected. Why would I want to just unplug the internal drive instead of swapping it out with the new SSD? Wouldn't the mini be faster if I swapped out the drives instead of using the new SSD in the enclosure plug-in in via USB 3?

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Master Tinkerer Jerry®

My Amazon WISH List updated Dec 2024

Help me MacResource users, you're my only hope!

Jerry,

You're overthinking this. Installed internally, the SSD can reach 500-600 MB/s. In theory. Externally connected via USB 3, the SSD will be slower because of a bit more overhead. However, you're not talking numbers that you'll notice. For your purposes, it won't matter.

It's less question of which will give you better performance and more of versatility and future usability. If you install the SSD internally, you'll save some desktop space. However, when the mini dies or it's time to replace it, you'll be getting rid of a perfectly good SSD with it unnecessarily. That's a shame. If it was my mini and it's a 1TB SSD, I'd be pulling the drive out and dropping it into a box before I got rid of it.

If the SSD is in a case and you're using it as an external boot drive, you get rid of the Mini and keep the drive for use with another machine.

I wouldn't say that if it was a 128GB or even a 256GB SSD. Not really worth saving them due to their low capacity and the fact that they are cheap. A 1TB SSD - even a 2.5" SATA model - is high capacity and can serve many purposes with a newer machine as an external device.

Robert