Products used in this guideIf this is your first time upgrading a Hard Drive or SSD, please read our SSD. Here we'll walk you through breathing new life into your old Mac for not a lot of money. It remains Apple's last properly upgradeable Mac Mini, and even in 2020 can be a pretty handy little computer with the right bits inside. You might ask the seller for a partial refund, which you can put towards a new disk.The 2012 Mac Mini held a special place in many hearts thanks to how easy it was to upgrade. 1 Tb Hard Drive Mini 2012 Install MacOS On Assuming thats a 2012 Mini, Id be looking to replace any 8-year-old mechanical drives with SSDs anyway, or at least a brand new external hard drive for additional storage.New storage: Kingston 480GB SSD ($56 at Amazon)New 12.7mm IDE PATA Slot-in 8X DVD-R Double-layer DVD-RW Burner SuperDrive Optical Drive Replacement for Apple iBook G4 PowerBook G5 iMac iMac 20' A1145 24' A1225 Mac Mini A1176. Support for up to two displays at 2560 by 1600 pixels, both at millions of colors. 4GB (two 2GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 memory Configurable to 8GB or 16GB. Intel HD Graphics 4000 Memory. Configurable to a 256GB solid-state drive or 1TB Fusion Drive. 2.3GHz 1TB (5400-rpm) hard drive 2.
Replacement Hard Drive Mini 2012 Mac For NotThere is a free PCIe port on the motherboard.However, starting in 2012, Apple standardized on the 8-pin reversible Lightning. To add a second drive you must add a PCIe cable. There is no room in the model for two SATA drives as in previous models. You can replace your SATA drive with a faster 2.5 inch SATA SSD. ![]() Slide a business card or something similar beneath the existing hard drive and prize it up slightly. Pull away the black shroud and set it aside.Carefully pull the fan away from the logic board. Move the shroud to one side carefully, making sure you don't snap the cable.Remove the two screws on the fan and the single screw on the black shroud. The base should simply pull away, but may need prying with a plastic tool or even a credit card.Remove the screws on the wireless shroud. Data transfer speeds will be at least four times faster, and that will make a huge difference in the day-to-day running of your Mac Mini.Place your thumbs in the circular divots and twist the base anti-clockwise. Set aside a couple of hours, and you'll be able to bring your old Mac back to life.Better than using your fingers, this pry tool kit is worth having in your tool kit for those hard to remove and tiny parts.One of the best upgrades to make is to swap out the old mechanical hard drive for an SSD. ![]() Follow steps 1-17 from the section above to remove the existing drive and prepare your new SSD boot drive. You could reuse the existing hard drive, but since it's over six years old, it makes much better sense to use a fresh one.You can use either a hard drive or an SSD, or as we have here, a Seagate Firecuda hybrid drive, not unlike the Fusion Drive Apple uses in some of its machines. How to add a second storage driveNot everyone will want to do this, but it is possible to install a second drive in the 2012 Mac Mini to maximize its storage potential. You'll be surprised at how clean the inside of a computer this old is, but it never hurts to clear it out while you're inside. Line the markings on the base up with the corresponding markings on the Mac Mini.One additional thing to do throughout this process is to use some canned air to blast out any dust. Pull the power supply away and slide it out of the back of the case. Slide out the retaining clip from the power supply.Turn the power socket 90-degrees anti-clockwise. Pull the logic board out of the rear of the case.Remove the two Torx T6 screws that hold the drive bracket and power supply in place. Disconnect the power supply cable from the logic board. Remove the final screw from the logic board with a Torx T6 screwdriver.Insert the logic board removal tool into the holes pictured.Gently pull the logic board away from the case. Re-attach both by screwing the T6 screws back into the case. Slide the power supply back into the case until it locks into the place. Place the hard drive bracket back into the case and line up the fixing holes. Ensuring the ribbon cable is facing upwards, screw the new drive into the bracketwith the screws from your installation kit. ![]() If not, you'll need to go back in and troubleshoot your installation one stick at a time. If it shows the amount of RAM you installed, all is well. Push down gently until they lock into place.To verify all is well, boot up the Mac Mini and check out the About This Mac information. Line up the new RAM sticks and push gently into the slots. Pry apart the metal brackets around the current RAM sticks. Still, if you're looking for a really expensive way to get into Mac computing, or want a solid secondary machine, you can do a lot worse than picking up a used 2012 Mac Mini and upgrading it.Where do you find one, though? That depends where you live, but the usual places like eBay and Craigslist are a great place to start. Ultimate performance will always be better on newer models. Pair it with a good monitorA new Mac is an expensive thing there's no denying that. If this is the case, the system won't post, so it's easy to spot. Classic games for macOur top equipment picksYou can pick and choose which of the upgrades you want to do, but here's a handy list of all our picks for the bits that went into our Mac Mini upgrade, along with the tools and accessories you need to install them.
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