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Mini: Replace Hard Disk w/ SSD (Solid State Drive)

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Owen Densmore

Mini: Replace Hard Disk w/ SSD (Solid State Drive)

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My 2010 Mini was getting pretty slow, and the problem was clearly the hard drive and swapping. I also have an Air with SSD which is really, really snappy .. especially for being the first generation.

So SSD it was. The video I followed was OWC (Other World Computing):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XrlN0tAeY2U

I also followed the advice to pre-install a bootable copy of my existing disk onto the SSD via SuperDuper.

http://blog.danielna.com/2012/12/09/upgrade-macbook-pro-with-superduper.html

One additional upgrade: because there are multiple screw head types in this exercise, I bought the OWC screwdriver kit so I'd have the Torx 6 & 8 as well as a really odd Hex driver from the current iFixIt kit floating around.

The SSD is a Samsung from Amazon .. 256 GB. That seem small by today's standard, but with the "cloud" and a local NAS (Network Attached Storage) with RAID (redundant storage), I felt I could manage the somewhat reduced size (the hard drive being replaced wast 500GB).

No major problems other than finding the Mini had an unconnected heat sensor (decided it was for the disk so just taped it on), and the video having a few errors in terms of size screws.

Man has it been worth it! The old Mini has a new life .. and I can wait on a replacement for another couple of years. Seriously, SSD replacement is a great way to improve your computer. And with the good video and the toolset we've got, I'd say most of us could perform the procedure. No where near is difficult as changing an iPhone cracked screen.

-- Owen

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Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Steve Smith

Re: Mini: Replace Hard Disk w/ SSD (Solid State Drive)

Owen -

Good to hear...

I *almost* gave over to putting an SSD into the (used) 15" MacBook Pro I just bought to replace my (worn to a frazzle) 13" MPB. I talked myself out of it because I *also* wanted to increase the amount of onboard HDD space from my exisTing ~350GB and the priciness of a ~512G SSD was too shocking.

I have 2TB in my NAS and don't use *any* cloud (except Flickr and Blog and conventional Website), but I depend too much on having *everything* at my fingertips whether in the office or in the field and the field is often literally "in the field" despite now having iPhone/Cell tethering.

I don't fully understand the OSX (previously 10.6, now 10.8) memory and I/O management strategies as I would expect generous memory to go a long way and for hybrid HD/SSD technology to give 90% of the results at a fraction of the cost.

Do you, or others here have any experience with the Hybrid HD/SSD technology, in particular in the context of Mountain Lion?

- Steve

My 2010 Mini was getting pretty slow, and the problem was clearly the hard drive and swapping. I also have an Air with SSD which is really, really snappy .. especially for being the first generation.

So SSD it was. The video I followed was OWC (Other World Computing):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XrlN0tAeY2U

I also followed the advice to pre-install a bootable copy of my existing disk onto the SSD via SuperDuper.

http://blog.danielna.com/2012/12/09/upgrade-macbook-pro-with-superduper.html

One additional upgrade: because there are multiple screw head types in this exercise, I bought the OWC screwdriver kit so I'd have the Torx 6 & 8 as well as a really odd Hex driver from the current iFixIt kit floating around.

The SSD is a Samsung from Amazon .. 256 GB. That seem small by today's standard, but with the "cloud" and a local NAS (Network Attached Storage) with RAID (redundant storage), I felt I could manage the somewhat reduced size (the hard drive being replaced wast 500GB).

No major problems other than finding the Mini had an unconnected heat sensor (decided it was for the disk so just taped it on), and the video having a few errors in terms of size screws.

Man has it been worth it! The old Mini has a new life .. and I can wait on a replacement for another couple of years. Seriously, SSD replacement is a great way to improve your computer. And with the good video and the toolset we've got, I'd say most of us could perform the procedure. No where near is difficult as changing an iPhone cracked screen.

-- Owen
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Owen Densmore

Re: Mini: Replace Hard Disk w/ SSD (Solid State Drive)

Administrator

On Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 7:53 PM, Steve Smith <[hidden email]> wrote:

Owen -

Good to hear...

I *almost* gave over to putting an SSD into the (used) 15" MacBook Pro I just bought to replace my (worn to a frazzle) 13" MPB. I talked myself out of it because I *also* wanted to increase the amount of onboard HDD space from my exisTing ~350GB and the priciness of a ~512G SSD was too shocking.

Agreed, the sweet spot is 256GB today at least, $174. The gorilla in the room for me is iTunes, at around 90GB. I'll push that to the NAS.

I have 2TB in my NAS and don't use *any* cloud (except Flickr and Blog and conventional Website), but I depend too much on having *everything* at my fingertips whether in the office or in the field and the field is often literally "in the field" despite now having iPhone/Cell tethering.

I don't fully understand the OSX (previously 10.6, now 10.8) memory and I/O management strategies as I would expect generous memory to go a long way and for hybrid HD/SSD technology to give 90% of the results at a fraction of the cost.

Apple has always had poor swapping, have no reason why. But after experiencing Lion on both the Mini and the Air, it was clear that was the problem.

Even with 8GB RAM on the Mini, the system was always sluggish. No longer!

Do you, or others here have any experience with the Hybrid HD/SSD technology, in particular in the context of Mountain Lion?

I've not upgraded to ML, sticking with Lion until the Mavericks release. Apple is in a bit of chaos in terms of new OSs, mainly due to the Back to the Mac strategy, which basically is sound. But keeping phones, tablets, and computers aligned is non-trivial.

None the less, I'm going to "upgrade" a 5-year old laptop to SSD just to see how it works. Its mainly used for music/news while exercising so I can take a risk.

-- Owen

Joshua Thorp

Re: Mini: Replace Hard Disk w/ SSD (Solid State Drive)

In reply to this post by Steve Smith

Just wanted to +1 the SSD as a restorative for old laptops. Put one in my 5? year old macbook pro. Really makes a difference! I also took the failed dvd drive out. Haven't had the urge, but they do sell hard drive kits that fit in that space. Might be a compromise for those who want to take everything with them…

--joshua

On Jul 3, 2013, at 7:53 PM, Steve Smith <[hidden email]> wrote:

Owen -

Good to hear...

I *almost* gave over to putting an SSD into the (used) 15" MacBook Pro I just bought to replace my (worn to a frazzle) 13" MPB. I talked myself out of it because I *also* wanted to increase the amount of onboard HDD space from my exisTing ~350GB and the priciness of a ~512G SSD was too shocking.

I have 2TB in my NAS and don't use *any* cloud (except Flickr and Blog and conventional Website), but I depend too much on having *everything* at my fingertips whether in the office or in the field and the field is often literally "in the field" despite now having iPhone/Cell tethering.

I don't fully understand the OSX (previously 10.6, now 10.8) memory and I/O management strategies as I would expect generous memory to go a long way and for hybrid HD/SSD technology to give 90% of the results at a fraction of the cost.

Do you, or others here have any experience with the Hybrid HD/SSD technology, in particular in the context of Mountain Lion?

- Steve
My 2010 Mini was getting pretty slow, and the problem was clearly the hard drive and swapping. I also have an Air with SSD which is really, really snappy .. especially for being the first generation.

So SSD it was. The video I followed was OWC (Other World Computing):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XrlN0tAeY2U

I also followed the advice to pre-install a bootable copy of my existing disk onto the SSD via SuperDuper.

http://blog.danielna.com/2012/12/09/upgrade-macbook-pro-with-superduper.html

One additional upgrade: because there are multiple screw head types in this exercise, I bought the OWC screwdriver kit so I'd have the Torx 6 & 8 as well as a really odd Hex driver from the current iFixIt kit floating around.

The SSD is a Samsung from Amazon .. 256 GB. That seem small by today's standard, but with the "cloud" and a local NAS (Network Attached Storage) with RAID (redundant storage), I felt I could manage the somewhat reduced size (the hard drive being replaced wast 500GB).

No major problems other than finding the Mini had an unconnected heat sensor (decided it was for the disk so just taped it on), and the video having a few errors in terms of size screws.

Man has it been worth it! The old Mini has a new life .. and I can wait on a replacement for another couple of years. Seriously, SSD replacement is a great way to improve your computer. And with the good video and the toolset we've got, I'd say most of us could perform the procedure. No where near is difficult as changing an iPhone cracked screen.

-- Owen
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Owen Densmore

Re: Mini: Replace Hard Disk w/ SSD (Solid State Drive)

Administrator

I'm finding my older macs provide superb "server" services in my house: basically older devices that are always-on and provide local web, ssh, storage, music and other services through the firewall. Generally use ssh keys for pub key crypto, thus turn off all logins from the internet.

Amazing how robust these critters are. Legacy is now back to a good word in computing as it is in culture and life.

Nice to hear the SSD works in older MBPs. I'll definitely do it.

-- Owen

On Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 8:29 PM, Joshua Thorp <[hidden email]> wrote:

Just wanted to +1 the SSD as a restorative for old laptops. Put one in my 5? year old macbook pro. Really makes a difference! I also took the failed dvd drive out. Haven't had the urge, but they do sell hard drive kits that fit in that space. Might be a compromise for those who want to take everything with them…

--joshua
On Jul 3, 2013, at 7:53 PM, Steve Smith <[hidden email]> wrote:
Owen -

Good to hear...

I *almost* gave over to putting an SSD into the (used) 15" MacBook Pro I just bought to replace my (worn to a frazzle) 13" MPB. I talked myself out of it because I *also* wanted to increase the amount of onboard HDD space from my exisTing ~350GB and the priciness of a ~512G SSD was too shocking.

I have 2TB in my NAS and don't use *any* cloud (except Flickr and Blog and conventional Website), but I depend too much on having *everything* at my fingertips whether in the office or in the field and the field is often literally "in the field" despite now having iPhone/Cell tethering.

I don't fully understand the OSX (previously 10.6, now 10.8) memory and I/O management strategies as I would expect generous memory to go a long way and for hybrid HD/SSD technology to give 90% of the results at a fraction of the cost.

Do you, or others here have any experience with the Hybrid HD/SSD technology, in particular in the context of Mountain Lion?

- Steve
My 2010 Mini was getting pretty slow, and the problem was clearly the hard drive and swapping. I also have an Air with SSD which is really, really snappy .. especially for being the first generation.

So SSD it was. The video I followed was OWC (Other World Computing):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XrlN0tAeY2U

I also followed the advice to pre-install a bootable copy of my existing disk onto the SSD via SuperDuper.

http://blog.danielna.com/2012/12/09/upgrade-macbook-pro-with-superduper.html

One additional upgrade: because there are multiple screw head types in this exercise, I bought the OWC screwdriver kit so I'd have the Torx 6 & 8 as well as a really odd Hex driver from the current iFixIt kit floating around.

The SSD is a Samsung from Amazon .. 256 GB. That seem small by today's standard, but with the "cloud" and a local NAS (Network Attached Storage) with RAID (redundant storage), I felt I could manage the somewhat reduced size (the hard drive being replaced wast 500GB).

No major problems other than finding the Mini had an unconnected heat sensor (decided it was for the disk so just taped it on), and the video having a few errors in terms of size screws.

Man has it been worth it! The old Mini has a new life .. and I can wait on a replacement for another couple of years. Seriously, SSD replacement is a great way to improve your computer. And with the good video and the toolset we've got, I'd say most of us could perform the procedure. No where near is difficult as changing an iPhone cracked screen.

-- Owen
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

Steve Smith

Re: Mini: Replace Hard Disk w/ SSD (Solid State Drive)

Owen -

I'm finding my older macs provide superb "server" services in my house: basically older devices that are always-on and provide local web, ssh, storage, music and other services through the firewall. Generally use ssh keys for pub key crypto, thus turn off all logins from the internet.

Amazing how robust these critters are. Legacy is now back to a good word in computing as it is in culture and life.

Showing my FanBoi side, I can attest that when I occasionally spin up my Circa 2004 12" G4 Laptop it is still quite useful (though not with anything newer than a 2008 OS on it) for some limited tasks. I am considering making it the image and control workhorse for our Multiplex Hologram recorder.

It is this very "legacy" capability that had me buying a used 2010 vintage laptop instead of a new one when my existing 2011 one failed (too many drops, water/wine/coffee spills, tear-down/rebuilds).

As Josh pointed out, there are systems for replacing the DVD/combo drive with a HD (or SSD) and plenty of people seem to drop in a 128G or 256G SSD in their primary location and move their existing HD into the location where the DVD/CD was. I still have enough use for CD/DVD to be willing to move to an external (I have one from when the CD/DVD went out on my first MBPro). Soon such media will be as obsolete as floppies! I think it has been 10 years since I tried to read a floppy OR a Jazz or other removeable media from the 90's!

- Steve

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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Owen Densmore

Re: Mini: Replace Hard Disk w/ SSD (Solid State Drive)

Administrator

On Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 9:53 PM, Steve Smith <[hidden email]> wrote:

<snip>
As Josh pointed out, there are systems for replacing the DVD/combo drive with a HD (or SSD) and plenty of people seem to drop in a 128G or 256G SSD in their primary location and move their existing HD into the location where the DVD/CD was. I still have enough use for CD/DVD to be willing to move to an external (I have one from when the CD/DVD went out on my first MBPro). Soon such media will be as obsolete as floppies! I think it has been 10 years since I tried to read a floppy OR a Jazz or other removeable media from the 90's!

The last use of my optical drive was completing moving *all* our music to digital (well, except for the vinyl!). Roughly 90GB of music, it turned out. It now lives happily on iTunes Match and Google Play both, should be safe enough. I have the optical (in the mini) such a workout it started to fail! I moved to using the ancient 2006 MBPro, got a "repair disk" for the mini's optical, spun it up and it worked like a charm.

I think you were referring to something like that when you mentioned a hybrid ssd/hard disk strategy. Move the music (and other large collections .. photos for example) to a HD but have apps and system on ssd. Sounds good.

-- Owen

Steve Smith

Re: Mini: Replace Hard Disk w/ SSD (Solid State Drive)

Owen -

The last use of my optical drive was completing moving *all* our music to digital (well, except for the vinyl!). Roughly 90GB of music, it turned out. It now lives happily on iTunes Match and Google Play both, should be safe enough. I have the optical (in the mini) such a workout it started to fail! I moved to using the ancient 2006 MBPro, got a "repair disk" for the mini's optical, spun it up and it worked like a charm.

My daughter's partner, a die-hard music lover and musician gave up owning music about 3 years ago and now subscribes to one or more of the services that licenses music and streams it over the internet or downloads it to his iPod for exercise times... I would never have thought he would give up "physical posession" of his recordings!

I think you were referring to something like that when you mentioned a hybrid ssd/hard disk strategy. Move the music (and other large collections .. photos for example) to a HD but have apps and system on ssd. Sounds good.

Actually I was talking about the HD's that have small SSDs built into them. I think you can look at them like large solid state caches. I'm sure the utility and performance depends on the predictability of your disk access/usage.

- Steve

============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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