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Apple Mac Mini 1TB Upgrade — Not Easy But Possible

Posted by timothy on from the check-out-that-hot-centerfold dept.

designperfection9 writes "The new Mac mini is all well and good, but anybody hoping for gobfuls of extra capacity will come away disappointed. Apple's entry-level mini gets 120GB of storage, and it costs $175 to take that up the official 320GB maximum. Happily iFixit decided to step in and take matters into their own hands, with a nine-page pictorial guide to fitting your Mac mini with 1TB of storage." They're also offering a kit to accomplish the same end for $250 — that seems high to me now that 1TB external drives can be had for quite a bit less, and require no putty-knife action to install.

9 of 95 comments (clear)

  1. I hate when submitters do this... by wolrahnaes · · Score: 5, Informative

    The summary says the actual content is on iFixit, but the link goes to some useless blog which then links to iFixit.

    Link directly to the content, include a via link if you want to reference where you got the link from.

    For the record, the proper article URL where the actual content is follows:
    http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Mac-mini-A1283-Terabyte-Drive/660/1

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    1. Re:I hate when submitters do this... by pushing-robot · · Score: 3, Funny

      I hate when submitters do this...the link goes to some useless blog which then links to iFixit.

      They do it in remembrance of Roland, you insensitive clod!

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  2. Re:Hard Disk out, hard disk in by wolrahnaes · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Mac Mini takes notebook hard drives. They only go up to 500GB right now. Getting 1TB requires removing the optical drive, which now with this generation is SATA so it's actually compatible with decent-sized hard drives.

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    I used to get high on life, but I developed a tolerance. Now I need something stronger.
  3. Firewire and USB by truthsearch · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Or just plug in an external drive. I use an external firewire drive and it performs extremely well. Use a mobile drive and you won't need an extra power source, either. I don't see the need to upgrade the internal drive.

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    1. Re:Firewire and USB by Phroggy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Or just plug in an external drive. I use an external firewire drive and it performs extremely well. Use a mobile drive and you won't need an extra power source, either. I don't see the need to upgrade the internal drive.

      In fact, you can get something like these, so your external drive fits precisely underneath the Mac mini. I don't know if any of these support FireWire 800 yet, but obviously new versions will (the new revision of Mac mini has a FireWire 800 [IEEE1394b] port; previous models had FireWire 400 [IEEE1394a]). An external enclosure can use a faster, cheaper, and larger capacity 3.5" drive, so there's pretty much no downside, unless that extra inch and a half of vertical space is really that important to you.

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  4. putty-knife action by Phu5ion · · Score: 3, Funny

    Anything worth doing, is worth doing with a little putty-knife action.

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  5. Re:Why am I not surprised? by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Insightful

    *Sigh* The MacMini was/is not meant to be upgraded. If you want an upgradeable machine, don't buy a MacMini. Complaining that take it takes an excessive amount of work to upgrade it is like complaining that it takes a massive amount of work to make a MiniCooper pull a boat.

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  6. Mini Form-Factor Drives by Eravau · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm not sure what the point is when you can keep the same desktop footprint with one of the many stackable external drives that have been manufactured with a Mini form factor. There's a list of links on a post here.

  7. Re:Step 19: Solder each pair of wires [snip] by vitaflo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Invited off my lawn is anyone who considers soldering 2 wires together 'ridiculous'.

    It's ridiculous when you consider it's unnecessary. A wire butt connector and a crimp tool is a much faster and easier solution than soldering. You also don't have to worry about a solder joint breaking when you stuff it back into the thing.