Ironically just yesterday I purchased a new SSD from Other World Computing because my 2012 Fusion drive started doing some strange things. I was going to do the work myself but don't have the time or patience. I'm like a bull in a China shop when it comes to working on smaller things like this and have only gotten worse the older I got. They charge $80 or $90 to do the work for you, that includes sending you a box to put your Mini in to ship to them.
For me that's money well spent. Early on the HD died under AppleCare and even Apple broke a board during the replacement. I think it was the IR board but I can't be sure now all these years later.
Ironically just yesterday I purchased a new SSD from Other World Computing because my 2012 Fusion drive started doing some strange things. I was going to do the work myself but don't have the time or patience. I'm like a bull in a China shop when it comes to working on smaller things like this and have only gotten worse the older I got. They charge $80 or $90 to do the work for you, that includes sending you a box to put your Mini in to ship to them.
For me that's money well spent. Early on the HD died under AppleCare and even Apple broke a board during the replacement. I think it was the IR board but I can't be sure now all these years later.
This is a good point. There are always computer tinkering jobs that are best handled with somebody else being accountable if something goes wrong. Where that line is, depends on the individual.
It should be noted that the 2012 mini has two drive bays. One is accessible by pulling the motherboard out slightly, as shown in the photos. The other is underneath and can only be accessed by removing the motherboard (as is the case with the 2014 model).
If your mini came with only one hard drive, you will need to also buy a cable if you want to add a drive to the lower bay (I believe iFixit sells this cable). If your mini came with two drives (e.g. a server edition) then you clearly don't need a cable for a drive you install in the lower bay.
Totally worth it. I swapped out my HDD with two 512GB SSDs and set them in a RAID 0 set. Result: A single rippin' fast 1TB SSD volume... Note that if your mini only has one HDD, you'll need to find an upgrade kit that includes the ribbon cable for the second SATA connection.
The clone should be OK. But there are some caveats when replacing drives with certain "originally Fusion" machines. I think they were pre-2012 models but it's been a while and I'm not certain. I won't try to describe them here but suggest that you visit the OWC site. Only a few models were affected and there's an easy workaround but you should check first.
The good news is that an SSD in this machine (I have one) is great. In my case, I replaced the Fusion setup (128GB + 1 TB) with 1TB SSD + 1 TB HDD. Originally I set them up as Fusion (needs command-line, but do-able) but then thought better of that and re-cooked the system entirely to have two separate volumes for the two drives. The HDD has a large music library (doesn't need fast access) and the SSD has everything else.
The clone should be OK. But there are some caveats when replacing drives with certain "originally Fusion" machines. I think they were pre-2012 models but it's been a while and I'm not certain. I won't try to describe them here but suggest that you visit the OWC site. Only a few models were affected and there's an easy workaround but you should check first.
The good news is that an SSD in this machine (I have one) is great. In my case, I replaced the Fusion setup (128GB + 1 TB) with 1TB SSD + 1 TB HDD. Originally I set them up as Fusion (needs command-line, but do-able) but then thought better of that and re-cooked the system entirely to have two separate volumes for the two drives. The HDD has a large music library (doesn't need fast access) and the SSD has everything else.
16GB memory helped too
The problem was with Disk Utility in 10.8. As I mentioned, it's been solved.
I have a 2012 Mini for which I've replaced both drives. I've done similar upgrades for several other 2012 Minis for friends/relatives.
It can be done a little more simply than described in the excellent article above in the event that your existing drive is in the "bottom" bay (which is true for most of them). If you have a Fusion setup then you have two drives and you'll need to pull the logic board as described above in order to get to the "deeper" top drive. Sorry
But if you have just one drive and it's "bottom" (i.e. closer to you when you take off the black bottom disk) then you're in luck. Follow the instructions with these few modifications:-
- after you remove the "cheese grater" plate with the WiFi antenna, do NOT remove the connector, as it's a real pain to reconnect. Instead, fasten the plate to the Mini with tape so that there's no strain on the cable or connector. - with care, you can get the existing drive out without removing the logic board - when putting the new SSD into the Mini, stand it vertically on the table, on its front edge. This allows the drive to go down vertically and get into the mounting points, and stay there. This is almost impossible if the Mini is lying on its "back" (i.e. the top) because you're inserting the drive horizontally. On its from, the mounting posts on the drive will easily drop into their spot - the mounting screws on the other side are through the aforementioned antenna plate. So make sure to get that seated nicely (sometimes needs juggling a bit) and screwed at the edge. Only then install the screws into the drive itself (these are the two closer to the black circle-blob, which is the actual antenna). I usually do this with the Mini still on its face (i.e. vertical) otherwise the drive can shift and the mounting posts get out of place.
I did this to my 2014 Mini, and it is night and day faster. In at my work we started "refurbing" machines by swapping spinning disk drives for SSD and adding RAM, and even under windows, an SSD is noticeably faster. Whether you do it yourself or pay some one to do it for you, you will not regret the upgrade.
I did this on our 2014 Mac Mini and also on another 2014 and 2012 for friends. It made a big difference in usability. I’m using the Crucial SSDs. All were bought on Amazon.
Our beloved iMac’s video card died awhile back and I decided a used 2014 mini upgraded to SSD was a better option than attempting the eBay used video card option on the iMac. This experience on the iMac convinced me that I am not going back to an all-in-one Mac as everything is fine on that iMac except for a dead video card that can only be found is “iffy” used.
Personally, I want the new Mac mini next, but think it’s about $200 more expensive than it should be for what you get.
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For me that's money well spent. Early on the HD died under AppleCare and even Apple broke a board during the replacement. I think it was the IR board but I can't be sure now all these years later.
The good news is that an SSD in this machine (I have one) is great. In my case, I replaced the Fusion setup (128GB + 1 TB) with 1TB SSD + 1 TB HDD. Originally I set them up as Fusion (needs command-line, but do-able) but then thought better of that and re-cooked the system entirely to have two separate volumes for the two drives. The HDD has a large music library (doesn't need fast access) and the SSD has everything else.
16GB memory helped too
It can be done a little more simply than described in the excellent article above in the event that your existing drive is in the "bottom" bay (which is true for most of them). If you have a Fusion setup then you have two drives and you'll need to pull the logic board as described above in order to get to the "deeper" top drive. Sorry
But if you have just one drive and it's "bottom" (i.e. closer to you when you take off the black bottom disk) then you're in luck. Follow the instructions with these few modifications:-
- after you remove the "cheese grater" plate with the WiFi antenna, do NOT remove the connector, as it's a real pain to reconnect. Instead, fasten the plate to the Mini with tape so that there's no strain on the cable or connector.
- with care, you can get the existing drive out without removing the logic board
- when putting the new SSD into the Mini, stand it vertically on the table, on its front edge. This allows the drive to go down vertically and get into the mounting points, and stay there. This is almost impossible if the Mini is lying on its "back" (i.e. the top) because you're inserting the drive horizontally. On its from, the mounting posts on the drive will easily drop into their spot
- the mounting screws on the other side are through the aforementioned antenna plate. So make sure to get that seated nicely (sometimes needs juggling a bit) and screwed at the edge. Only then install the screws into the drive itself (these are the two closer to the black circle-blob, which is the actual antenna). I usually do this with the Mini still on its face (i.e. vertical) otherwise the drive can shift and the mounting posts get out of place.
Our beloved iMac’s video card died awhile back and I decided a used 2014 mini upgraded to SSD was a better option than attempting the eBay used video card option on the iMac. This experience on the iMac convinced me that I am not going back to an all-in-one Mac as everything is fine on that iMac except for a dead video card that can only be found is “iffy” used.
Personally, I want the new Mac mini next, but think it’s about $200 more expensive than it should be for what you get.