- Ssd Disk Mac Mini 2010
- Mac Mini 2011 Ssd Upgrade
- Ssd Drive For Mac Mini Mid 2010
- Install Ssd Mac Mini 2010
Hi Internet, In this video I take this 2010 mac mini with a 2.4ghz intel core 2 duo processor with 2gb of ram and a slow 5400rpm hard drive and upgrade it to. Hi, I have installed SSD Samsung EVO 860 250 gb to my Mac mini 2010 (NVidia MCP89 AHCI) and also installed 7200 rpm HDD drive to optibay, and got an issue: SSD works only on SATA I speed (1,5 Gigabit). After some investigation, I swapped them: SSD connected to optibay, and HDD - to hdd interface. Hope, it will help to some body. OWC SSD Data Doubler Kit for 2010 Mac Mini, 500GB 2.5' OWC Mercury Electra 3G Solid State Drive and OWC 5 Piece Toolkit. 3.8 out of 5 stars 15. Get it as soon as Fri, Oct 2. Only 7 left in stock. OWC Data Doubler Optical Bay Hard Drive/SSD Mounting Solution (for Mac Mini 2010) OWC Data Doubler Mac mini 2010 Optical Bay Hard Drive / SSD Mounting Solution Includes everything needed to replace your optical drive with a second hard drive or SSD Supports SATA 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s & 1.5Gb/s Interface 2.5' Drive or SSD.
Your Mac provides several tools to help you identify it. The simplest is About This Mac, available by choosing About This Mac from the Apple menu in the upper-left corner of your screen. The other is the System Information app. Learn how to use these tools to identify your Mac.
If you don't have your Mac or it doesn't start up, use one of these solutions instead:
- Find the serial number printed on the underside of your Mac, near the regulatory markings. It's also on the original packaging, next to a barcode label. You can then enter that serial number on the Check Coverage page to find your model.
- The original packaging might also show an Apple part number, such as MGEM2xx/A ('xx' is a variable that differs by country or region). You can match the Apple part number to one in the list below to find your model.
List of Mac mini models
Mac mini models are organized by the year they were introduced, starting with the most recent. Click the model name for detailed technical specifications.
Mac mini models from 2012 and newer can run the latest version of macOS. For models from before 2010, the latest compatible operating system is noted.
2018
Mac mini (2018)
Model Identifier: Macmini8,1
Part Numbers: MRTR2xx/A, MRTT2xx/A, MXNF2xx/A, MXNG2xx/A
Tech Specs: Mac mini (2018)
2014
Mac mini (Late 2014)
Model Identifier: Macmini7,1
Part Numbers: MGEM2xx/A, MGEN2xx/A, MGEQ2xx/A
Tech Specs: Mac mini (Late 2014)
2012
Ssd Disk Mac Mini 2010
Mac mini (Late 2012)
Model Identifier: Macmini6,1; Macmini6,2
Part Numbers: MD387xx/A; MD388xx/A, MD389xx/A
Tech Specs: Mac mini (Late 2012)
2011
Mac mini (Mid 2011)
Model Identifier: Macmini5,1; Macmini5,2
Part Numbers: MC815xx/A; MC816xx/A, MC936xx/A
Newest compatible operating system: macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
Tech Specs: Mac mini (Mid 2011)
Mac Mini 2011 Ssd Upgrade
2010
Mac mini (Mid 2010)
Model Identifier: Macmini4,1
Part Numbers: MC438xx/A, MC270xx/A
Newest compatible operating system: macOS High Sierra 10.13.6
Tech Specs: Mac mini (Mid 2010)
2009
Mac mini (Late 2009)
Model Identifier: Macmini3,1
Part Numbers: MC238xx/A, MC239xx/A, MC408xx/A
Newest compatible operating system: OS X El Capitan 10.11.6
Tech Specs: Mac mini (Late 2009)
Mac mini (Early 2009)
Model Identifier: Macmini3,1
Part Numbers: MB464xx/A, MB463xx/A
Newest compatible operating system: OS X El Capitan 10.11.6
Tech Specs: Mac mini (Early 2009)
This article was originally written in 2015 but it is still relevant. I have just updated it given that SSD prices have dropped dramatically in the last 3 years. Upgrading the boot drive on my Mac Mini to an SSD drive was by far the biggest speed enhancement I've experienced on any computer! The speed increase is incredible – almost hard to believe. Boot time went from 60 seconds to under 30 seconds, and applications launch instantly – no bouncing dock icon. In terms of bang for dollar, upgrading to an SSD drive is by far the best upgrade you can do.
SDD stands for ‘Solid State Drive.' SSD drives are the same shape and size as a traditional drive. The difference is that an SSD drive uses RAM chips instead of a spinning hard disk to store information. This makes it much, much faster.
SSD drives are now reasonably cheap. I'd suggest you upgrade your entire hard drive to SSD.
1. Order an SSD.
There have been issues in the past with SSD drives and there have been some brands not working with OSX, so make sure you get a good one.
The first place I would recommend is macsales.com. I have one of their OWC Mercury SSD drives in 2 of my laptops. They have a screen where you choose your macintosh computer, and it tells you which SSD drive is compatible. Just click here and you will be asked what mac you have, follow the prompts. (I have signed up to be an affiliate of Macsales so I get a commission if you use these links.) Last check a 1TB drive was under $400. When I first wrote this article a 480G SSD drive was $1579.99!
The second place I would recommend is crucial.com. If you do get a Crucial SSD you can go for the MX or BX series. I've also got a Samsung EVO drive running in a 2012 Macbook pro and it's running fine. Buy a new SSD not a second hand one. They do degrade over time.
2. Temporarily connect the new SSD Drive to your Mac.
For this you will need a cable to connect your SSD drive to your USB port. They are only about $20 and they look like this:
The external drive enclosures for normal hard disks should also work with an SSD.
Plug the SSD into the enclosure, and then into the Mac, and it should appear on the desktop as an ‘Untitled' drive.
3. Format the SSD Drive using disk utility.
After your SDD drive is plugged in you'll need to use Disk Utility to format it – Mac OS Extended (Journaled):
4. Copy everything onto the new boot drive.
Now you need to copy your entire drive onto your SSD drive. You can't do this by hand – there are hidden files that need to be copied, so need to make what is called a ‘Clone.' Apple's built-in Disk Utility won't do this so you will need an app like Carbon Copy Cloner or Super Duper.
Using Carbon Copy Cloner, select your boot drive as the target Disk and then select ‘Backup Everything':
Click ‘Clone' and your boot disk will be created on the SSD disk.
The other option is to use Super Duper. There's a free version that will enable to clone your drive. Select ‘Backup -all files' to make a clone.
Making a clone of you drive can take a long time – hours – so take a break!
5. Reboot from the new SSD boot drive.
Under System Preferences click Startup Drive select the SSD Drive, then restart! (wow – notice how fast it is!)
6. Swap the internal Hard disk for the SSD drive.
Now that it's working it's time to get rid of your old hard drive and physically replace it with the working SSD.
The difficulty of this varies according to what kind of a Macintosh computer you have. I'd check out ifixit.com for the best instructions according to your mac model.
Ssd Drive For Mac Mini Mid 2010
Mac Pro
Difficulty: easy – 30 seconds.
For a mac pro it simply connects into the spare optical bay slot – no adapters needed, a 30 second operation – see how here. I just sat the SSD drive in and added a bit of gaffe tape but there are some great adapters out there eg Angelbird SSD Adapter
Macbook
Difficulty: moderate – 1 hour.
For a Macbook or Macbook Pro can replace the internal optical drive with your old Hard Drive or order a large SSD drive and replace your old hard drive with it. You can find instructions here.
Mac Mini
Difficulty: hard – 1/2 hr. Download pgp for windows 10.
For a new aluminium mac mini you will need to replace one of the internal drives. This involves pulling out the fan and motherboard to get the new SSD drive in. You can get the old hard disk out without pulling out the motherboard but the SSD drives are actually ever so slightly thicker and more uniform in shape so the motherboard needs to come out to manoeuvre the SSD drive in place. There's easy to follow instructions here at mac fixit.
iMac
Difficulty: hard – 1/2 hr.
It's quite complex to pull the iMac apart and you need a vacuum clamp to pull the glass screen off. This is easier than it sounds, but you still need to but the suction caps to do it. It requires some mechanical skill. There are good instructions here and crucial have their own guide here.
So how fast is it? Here's a demo of how quickly applications launch from my new SSD drive…
7. Check if you need to Enable TRIM.
Some Hard Drives do not come with TRIM support and so you need to download this TRIM Enabler app and run it. This will enable OS X built in TRIM support which keeps your SSD drive lean and clean.
The SSD I recommend above (Crucial M4) does not need TRIM support (read this article for more information). You can turn it on anyway no problems. The OWC Mercury SSD drives do not need TRIM enabled either.
STOP PRESS: There are new reports that TRIM enabler does not work with Yosemite. Read this article for more information.
8. Time Machine
If you already have a Time Machine backup, when you change Hard Drives it starts all over again and won't recognise the old Time Machine backup. Read this post for info on how to get around this. Also here is another very good article on this.
I also just found this GREAT article on keeping Time Machine working when you change the Hard Drive.
Install Ssd Mac Mini 2010
If you don't have a Time Machine backup now is a great time to start! You can use your old Internal Drive as a backup drive.
