Owc ministack the external drive with a mac mini footprint. How to make a bootable macos installer on an external drive. Eject a stuck disk from your mac dvd super drive when a disc wont eject from your mac, try the. This video also applies to the following mac minis. While its still possible to create an exact copy a clone of any drive connected directly to your mac, changes to disk utility have created extra steps when you use disk utilitys restore function. It connects to your macbook pro with retina display, macbook air, imac, or mac mini with a single usb typea cable thats built. Internal hard drive not showing up apple community. A network drive, also known as a nas network attached storage drive, is a storage device that connects to a home or office. You can also view your free disk space from your mac s disk utility app. Disk utility in macos high sierra or later can erase most disks and volumes for mac using either the newer apfs apple file system format or the older mac os extended format, and it automatically chooses a compatible format for you. How to check a macs free hard drive space macworld. You should see your old drive and your new drive listed as bootable drives. With apples superdrive youll be able to seamlessly connect to your mac mini to play or burn cds and dvds without having to install additional.
Most optical discs are a standard 12cm in diameter, are round, and besides some potential manufacturing incompatibilities. It connects to your macbook pro with retina display, macbook air, imac, or mac mini with a single usb typea cable thats built into the superdrive. How to give your 2012 or 2014 mac mini a performance boost by replacing the hard drive with an ssd. If your mac has a fusion drive and you see a flashing question mark or alert, see the troubleshooting section of the apple support article about. Hdd i ran black magic disk speed test on the oem apple hard drive while it was in the mini. Mac mini manual disk eject remove any items sitting on top of your mac mini. I performed open heart surgery on my mac mini, and it was. If you think youll need an external drive mostly for bluray discs, most of them will also play dvds and cds but are not readablewritable. Get a free addition to setapp the ultimate mac user book. That said, no matter what your needs are, weve saved you the trouble of looking around and grouped together some of the best cd drives to compliment your new mac mini. Just as theres still a need for home printers, there are still cases where you need a good ole optical drive for your mac mini. The mac mini stylized with a lowercase mini is a desktop computer made by apple inc. Theres no need to buy a new computer, simply swap out the old drive for a new one.
This video shows the process of how to replace the hard drive in a mac mini mid 2011 5,1. If your mac has a cd dvd drive built in, theres a very good chance that it can be. While it is possible to replace the hard drive on any mac not listed above, how difficult it is varies wildly with the model. Looking to add storage, or for a smart way to back up your mac. Storage starts at 128gb for the base quadcore model or 256gb on. You can also view your free disk space from your macs disk utility app. Youll never have to worry about lost cables with the apple usb superdrive. Swap your imac, mac mini or macbook cddvd drive for a.
Its perfect when you want to watch a dvd movie, install software, create backup discs, and more. Toshiba hdtb420xk3aa canvio basics 2tb portable external hard. The t2 security chip consolidates several controllers into. If youre checking your startup disk or startup volume, restart your. Find the best external dvd drives for macs based on what customers said. Heres what you need to know, along with our toprated applefriendly drives.
It varied but it was pretty slow, itd stay at 11 mbs write, then jump up to 40 or so, then drop back. Optical drives went the way of the dodo bird a few years ago on mac computers due to most software, movies, and music all moving online, but. In the sidebar, select a disk or volume, then click the first aid button. How to upgrade your mac mini with an ssd 2019 updated. A hard disk analysis tool like disk inventory x will scan your macs hard disk and display which folders and files are using up the most space. Whether on your desktop or doing duty in the server room, ministack delivers highspeed performance that stacks perfectly with your mac mini. The best external hard drives for mac in 2020 pcmag. My mac mini does not have a drive for these, this works and solves the. Apple did away with hard disk storage this year, and all mac mini models now standardize on pciebased solidstate drives.
If you do not see the new drive, you will need to rerun the cloning process. These instructions and a little common sense can also be used to replace the lower hard drive in the server version of the mac mini. Has your mac mini hard drive filled to capacity or burnt out. How to upgrade the hard disc drive in your mac mini. With simplicity, this external drive has stateoftheart technology. Apple claims that its usb superdrive has everything you need in an optical drive.
The repair experts at ifixit have completed their teardown of the new mac mini. In order to upgrade the hard drive, of the mac mini, i am going to remove the lid of the machine and then remove the internal frame holding various. It can be difficult to get the hard drive seated correctly such that the antenna plate fits in place correctly. You see, it was slow and hampered by its components, and in. Whether youre at the office or on the road, you can play and burn both cds and dvds with the apple usb superdrive. Solved mysterious slow drive speed on mac mini tricky. Luckily that was the drive that had failed in my case. Repair a storage device in disk utility on mac apple support. However, that doesnt mean that you cant get a cd or dvd drive to use with your mac. Upgrade your mac mini to up to 8x more capacity and 92x faster speeds than with the apple factory drive.
Theres no need to buy a new computer, simply swap out the old drive for a new. In the disk utility app on your mac, choose view show all devices. This guide has been found to be exceptionally cool by the ifixit staff. If your mac mini 2014 shipped from apple with a fusion drive, then your mac mini has both the sata and the pcie connector.
It helps to verify and repair a range of issues related to startup hd and external drive problems. How to upgradereplace the main drive in a 2012 mac mini. The issue i am seeing that i cant boot so i decided to go to recovery mode. Seagate portable 2tb external hard drive portable hdd usb 3.
Last weekend, i performed an invasive and meticulous operation on one of my more valuable gadgets. How to upgrade aluminum mac mini hard drives or ssds. Find the best external cd drives for mac based on what customers said. Mac mini mid 2010 hard drive replacement ifixit repair guide. Apple still sells the superdrive, which is its combined dvd and cd drive that you can plug into the usb port. Mac mini features the apple t2 security chip secondgeneration custom mac silicon designed by apple to make mac mini even more secure. Open spotlight by clicking the magnifying glass in the upperright corner of the screen, then type disk utility in the. You can connect this superdrive with your macbook pro with retina display, macbook air, imac, or mac mini with a single usb type a cable, which is built into this superdrive. If your mac doesnt work, you can do this using a second mac and an external hard drive caddy. If youve recently upgraded to a new imac or macbook pro, youre probably going to need an optical drive if you want to continue importing your movies and music to itunes, or just access the content on your discs. In theory, just about any hard drive or ssd that meets the minimum requirements should work in the mac mini. Linux os apple macrioddas external cd drive, usb 3. If the screw holes dont line up with those on the hard drive, make sure that the two pins that are in the. It is one of four desktop computers in the current macintosh lineup, serving as an alternative to the allinone imac, and.
I ordered the minimum configuration macmini expect the processor, but i had to cancel the order after i knew that i couldnt upgrade the. Its easy to reformat your hard drive using disk utility in macos or os x. How to use mini or other nonstandard optical discs on your mac. How to install os x on new hard drive on a late 2012 mac mini. Upgrading mac mini late 2012 hard disk drive to 512gb. If you are able to fix the hard drive or ssd in your mac or an external drive using disk utility. You can connect this superdrive with your macbook pro with retina display, macbook air, imac, or mac mini with a single usb type a cable. How to give your 2012 or 2014 mac mini a performance boost. Upgrade or replace the hard drive in a mac mini cnet. How to install macos or os x on a new hard drive for your mac. Mac mini late 2014 hard drive replacement ifixit repair. My mac mini does not have a drive for these, this works and solves the problem, and. Internal superdrive duallayer for apple mac mini owc. Use this guide to replace the hard drive in your harddriveonly or fusion drive mac mini late 2014.