advertisement


2012 Mac Mini's disk appears to be dead, next steps?

mattski

mattski

pfm Member
Hi,

My Mac Mini's disk appears to have given up. It needed a reformat and time machine restore a couple of days ago after the machine thoughtfully started powering off on boot up.

An alt+s and fsck never fixed it but I managed to format it from an OSX DVD and then restore my backup - all good. But then it gave up yesterday with a kernel panic followed by a v.long time spent spinning its wheels in the white bootup screen. After a power cycle it looks like it's back to where I was before I restored the backup.

So, it's under warranty and I could get the disk replaced but I'm toying with the idea of putting an SSD or a bigger 7200/10000rpm regular disk in it. What do you guys suggest and can you recommend a specific disk?

thanks,
Matt
 
Been looking on eBay recently at 512GB SSD's; these are now as low as £275. I predict by next year all drives will be SSD.
 
I would get it replaced under warranty, when back whip out the drive and pop in an SSD keep the HDD in case you need to send the Mini back again, you could pop the HDD in a caddy and use it for additional storage.

I gave up on HDDs years ago. My 2009 iMac is my only computer with a hard drive and I may pop an SSD in that when a current project is completed. I just don't see why such fast and powerful machines should be slowed down by such a slow device.

WRT higher speed drives: potential for problems there as many esp 10k RPM also operate hotter and in tightly packed spaces the higher speeds can cause problems WRT safe thermal operating temps both for the drive and the machine itself.
 
Agreed, I currently use a 750GB hybrid/SSD drive, would've preferred a 512GB SSD + smaller drive for OS (which the Shuttle XS36V allows) but prices were still @ £500-600 about 6 months ago. Now they're at almost reasonable costs, I'll stick the hybrid drive in a USB caddy case and use it for backups.
 
Me too, use a 750Gb hybrid Seagate Monumentus in my Mini. I'm going to wait for SSD prices to drop further before dipping my toe in.
 
Mattski, none whatsoever.

Macs deal with TRIM and so on without hassle all the SSD MacBook Airs run significantly faster in lower RAM

I had a corsair 256GB SSD in a Win 7 Shuttle PC and it screamed through its tasks, not had the 2009 iMac upgraded to 16GB RAM let alone to SSD yet but will add SSD when my next project is completed. I am probably going to get another 3 years out of this iMac as a result.
 
Spacey, how does the hybrid drive compare for performance to the normal rotational drive? I've used SSDs in other people's kit for a while now and wouldn't recommend anything else for performance but have wondered about the hybrids.
 
fox said:
I would get it replaced under warranty, when back whip out the drive and pop in an SSD keep the HDD in case you need to send the Mini back again, you could pop the HDD in a caddy and use it for additional storage.

I gave up on HDDs years ago. My 2009 iMac is my only computer with a hard drive and I may pop an SSD in that when a current project is completed. I just don't see why such fast and powerful machines should be slowed down by such a slow device.

WRT higher speed drives: potential for problems there as many esp 10k RPM also operate hotter and in tightly packed spaces the higher speeds can cause problems WRT safe thermal operating temps both for the drive and the machine itself.
Click to expand...
Isn't a PITA to reinstall the wireless aerial when replacing the HDDs in unibody Mac Minis? One DIY job I'd be reluctant to attempt.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top