Thank you for this video! Just to reiterate what has been said in other comments: - DO NOT remove the fan cable - DO NOT remove the wifi antenna cable There is just no reason to risk damaging those connectors when the fan/antenna can simply be moved out of the way while still connected. It's also wasted time. I didn't have a plastic tool for the drive connector, but the plastic shroud has a corner that worked perfectly. The tape trick was perfect! I used the following method for restoring the disk: - Command-R to boot to Internet Recovery (worked with wifi for me - didn't even have to enter the password) - Disk Utility to format SSD - Restore From Time Machine Backup Success! It's my wife's computer. She's very happy with the speed (I also upgraded memory from 4G to 16G). Total cost of memory + SSD = $110. We were just about to spend about $1500 on a 2018 MM. I'm not saying this is equivalent, but it is good enough - for 7% of the cost.
This Mac Mini has had many uses including media center computer, server and video editing. It has now replaced the 2009 iMac my wife was using. It is still a very usable computer at seven years old.
Thanks so much for this video. It was a massive help! Just upgraded to a 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM. Went from unusable to just like new for $200AUD. The Antenna cage is a tricky little bugger not mentioned in the video. It has to be seated from an angle. Put it in loosely and then slide it in on an angle. There is something in the underneath of the case that you can't see that it needs to slot into. Google the problem, there are guides online to help. I think it had to slide in on an angle from the black dot side to the white dot side. It took a few goes but it went in. Before that, I spent about 30 minutes wondering why the screw holes wouldn't line up.
I have struggled for years with insertion of the replacement upper drive; your tip of using tape to get to those mounting holes at the rear is brilliant.
Thank you so much! I just successfully upgraded my mac mini with the SSD. I couldn't have done without you! I struggled with placing the new drive in the mounting holes. Your tape trick saved me! A million thank yous!
Another tip that my help someone: the two front screws that he removes at 3:04 go directly through the wifi tray into the hard drive. This is what holds up that side of the hard drive (the other side being held by pins in the side of the chassis). Just a little more info for people to help them know what they are doing.
It's guys like you that really impress me. Not only brave enough to undertake a finicky rebuild, but also to film it to help others. You might not think it's a big service but you made my life easy and 189,000 others! (according to current views) By the way, I didn't read the comments ahead of time, so I removed the wifi and fan connections but all is good! My Macmini is 10 years old, and still a great workhorse. Not ready to spend thousands on a computer when this works just great! My old start up time was 2 minutes 40 seconds, now it only takes 45 seconds to boot! Very happy! Have a question maybe you or someone else could answer: is there a good recommendation on updating the OS to a more current version? I currently running 10.9.5 and it's not working great on some websites. What is the reeommended way to upgrade the OS, and what would be recommended for this 2012 machine?
This video helped me out to change my HDD to an SSD. I also did not take off the antenna that was attached I just moved it to the side without disconnecting. Process was surprisingly not as difficult as I firs t thought it would be. Visuals do help tremendously.
Thank you very much for the fantastic video! Worked like a charm. Just a small tip, you can avoid the need for the sticky tape trick (which was quite smart) by flipping the mac mini the other way around (the right way around) after you've gotten a bit of the disk/SSD inside, and let gravity do the work.
Looks very easy - Amazing how different the designs are between variations of Mac Minis - I have a 2014 unibody and it's a major project to replace the hard drive and memory and has to be almost completely disassembled.
Word of warning. I just upgraded a fusion drive to a full SSD. There are actually two drives in the bay stacked on top of one another (128 SSD and a 1TB hard disk). I had to remove the mother board to get them both out and even just removing the top one was more difficult than shown in this video. It's my own fault for not realising that a fusion drive is just two drives working together and not one solid unit. This video was still a great help though. New SSD is up and running. Thanks.
My late 2012 Mac Mini also had a 1.12 GB fusion drive. The top one was luckily enough the SSD part of 128GB. So I could remove it without the necessity of removing the mother board. Some force was used and I replaced it with a 1TB EVO 840 SSD. With the help of your video it was actually a peace of cake. BTW one screw of the ventilator a T4 torx was corrupt. I had to use a plain tool to turn it loose. It also took some effort to initialise the 'underneath' Apple HDD of 1TB. I finally used the Command R mode for that. It now functions as a intern 1TB Time Machine back up. Very convenient.
Watched a few vids on this... also read a lot of comments... I don't see any reason to disconnect anything from the motherboard other than the connector for the drive (everyone does it that way for some odd reason). Everything else can just have the screws removed and slid out of the way a bit. Put a piece of tape on the new drive to hold it up to get the nubs into place. I did mine from start to finish in under 10 minutes. There is absolutely no reason to risk damaging things by unplugging from the MB.
Good point. I did another one of these recently and realized I didn't need to remove the antenna cable. I can't update the video but hopefully people will read the comments.
I really want to do this. In fact, I need to as my 2012 Mac Mini is becoming unusable due to lag. I am happy to read NOT to remove cables as putting them back looked like a nightmare. Now how hard is this to do for somebody with big hands? Even when I built my own desktops where I chose larger cases, it was never easy with monster meat gloves.
I'm a typical sized adult male so I have large hands but not extra large. I didn't find this too difficult. There are some small screws and such. You could probably use tweezers to hold them. You can install an SSD in an external exclosure and boot from that. It might be faster than the internal drive. I run one like that for testing but never for daily use.
I got mine back together, no disc visible. Pulled to bits again and the disc connector was unplugged. The disc drive will if allowed to go downwards force the plug out. What stops this is the crescentish piece of plastic (removed at 2:47). So go easy on applying downwards pressure on the drive until that bit of plastic is in place holding the plugs in their sockets.
Thanks for making this video, I almost broke the fan connector on the fan. One have to be extra careful with that detail, to pull upwards as you say in the video, and not pull the cable the way it kinda looks like.
Hi. I need help. I removed all the installations but I am unable to put the wifi back as it isn’t fitting evenly in its place. Also I used the same hard drive but the screws connecting the wifi plate to the SSD aren’t long enough
I followed your instructions, didn’t need to remove the fan or the antenna, but found that the 500 GB HD is in the lower bay. So not able to remove it like you show. So thinking of putting my 2TB SSD card in the upper space but where/how to connect it? Thanks.
You should be able to get a cable on Amazon. Just search for “2012 mac mini hard drive cable”. Make sure to verify that it works with your model. The models should be listed in the Amazon description.
Thanks for video. Screwing back the SSD to the wifi shield was the most challenging i say. I put a piece of plastic underneath the sdd so i could pivot it up on the motherboard in order to screw it to wifi shield. also, i needed to pull the wifi antena up in order to slot it back in place nicely.
Something that a lot of guides missing is getting mid to late 2012 mac mini is like a lottery. Those who are unlucky may have the original hard drive sits on the upper bay which requires complete removal of the motherboard and the bracket to get into it, this might be difficult for some people (if this is the case for you, I suggest looking for a complete disassembly guide). cheers.
I didn't know they had a model with one drive mounted in the upper bay. I think the server variant of the Mac Mini had two hard drives but I could be wrong. I'm guessing the mounting parts (cable, screws, etc...) could be purchased to mount an SSD in the easy to access bay while leaving the original hard drive in place.
@@Rickmakes I think towards the end of the production, they moved the harddrive to the upper bay (complete with rubber kit and 4 screws) My guess is, they decided that it is a safer location for shipping. and yes, I guess you can just leave the original drive there and just plug in the new drive. also I think, if that's the case, we need to order the replacement sata for the lower bay/lower sata. Most of them, including the harddrive addition kit, only sell the sata cable for the upper bay. I don't think you can force origami the sata cable for upper bay to the lower bay, vice versa(right?). (Need to be careful, can't be wrong, either get for the upper bay or lower bay cable)
Anybody else experience difficulty with replacing the two screws on each side of the upper bracket? They just won't go in. Now I can't put the final black panel on...
I'm late to the party here but if you're talking about the Antenna cage, it's a tricky little bugger not mentioned in the video. It has to be seated from an angle. Put it in loosely and then slide it in on an angle. There is something in the underneath of the case that you can't see that it needs to slot into. Google the problem, there are guides online to help. I think it had to slide in on an angle from the black dot side to the white dot side. It took a few goes but it went in. Before that, I spent about 30 minutes wondering why the screw holes wouldn't line up.
Few comments, besides the ant cable, if your having issues sliding the drive back in face the opening towards you and angle the unit downward almost vertical, then drop the drive in and it slides in the holder holes pretty easy. If your having issues putting the screws back in for the HD, then slide a plastic or or other wedge item to push the HD back towards the ant screen..
Noob questions at fine by me. You can get a kit to add a second hard drive. SSDs are relatively cheap now so I don't use spinning hard drives in any of my computers (I do use them in NAS devices). The process to add a second hard drive is also very involved and I didn't feel it was worth the effort for me. If I need extra storage on the computer, I am most inclined to install a second SSD in a USB3.0 external enclosure. That gives decent performance and is easy to do.
SSDs are a lot faster than traditional hard drives. It boots faster. Applications and documents load faster. Installing software and updates are faster. I installed a 1TB drive which was a couple of hundred dollars. I have a link in the description to the drive although they now have a newer version available (the Samsung 860 Evo). I have 1TB drives in a few of my machines. I have also installed quite a few 500GB and smaller drives. Installing an SSD can really give new life to an older computer. This computer is over five years old and the hard drive is still a lot faster than any computer that doesn't contain an SSD.
I am still pre-internal SSD upgrade on my 2012 mini. However, I've been running a USB3 Samsung T3 external for 2 years now. So much faster. Even running encrypted SSD, and it's still 4 or more times faster. The only problem now is reboot has to go through Recovery for some reason or it'll boot from the dreadfully slow internal original HD. This is due to Mojave and APFS and or encryption. Now, once I'm up and rebooted I don't have any issues for weeks. It's just reboots are a bit of a hassle now.
Can you please assist? @richmakes - I am in way to upgrade mac mini late 2012 RAM and i found that my mac-mini is DDR3 PC3 12800S - Shall I make upgrade with the PC3L 12800S ? as per my understanding PC3 has 1.5 v and PC3L has 1.35v - so I believe I can use PC3L in late mac mini 2012? IF YES, Can you assist which combination should I use? [at present its 4GB 1600 MHz DDR3] as I am planning to upgrade to 16GB
I have a question, I could do the exchange myself - I understand the process but regarding the OS?? when you boot up you now have no OS or what? How do I go about that?
If you have a new, blank SSD, you can boot into recovery mode by holding down command-R while starting up the Mac. This can take a while, especially if you have slow internet. From there you can use disk utility to format the drive as APFS. Then you can install a fresh system. If you want your old data, you can run the migration assistant to restore your system using a Time Machine backup (which you would need to make before the upgrade).
RickMakes - You do not need to remove the Wifi cable to upgrade a hard drive in your Mac Mini. I have removed over 200 drives so far and not once have i had to remove the WIFI cable.
The latest official OS for this model is Catalina. There might be ways to install later OSes but performance could degrade. I use a Catalina regularly on a computer connected to a laser engraver. It works well for a 12 year old computer.
Hi - can I take a cloned (from my Mac Mini late 2012 OS 10:13:2) SSD drive and physically replace the HDD on the Mac Mini and then power on and that's it? or do I need to Command R and do something?thx
If I am understanding correctly, that should work. You could try putting the SSD in a USB enclosure (USB 3.0 is best) and try booting from it. Just hold down "option" while booting and select the external drive. If it works, swap them out. As always, make sure you have a good backup plan in case things go bad.
Hi, I have two Late 2012 Mac Minis but only one of them zaps me when I touch it and at the same time touch another grounded metal-cased equipment (e.g. an amplifier). It's not painful at all but I definitely feel it. Is there an issue with the Mini I should worry about? Thanks.
I think you where supposed to lift it up a little bit before you pull it out. what happened was that i pulled it out the (wrong direction )same direction as the wires and then one of the wire got loose. so i just put it back in the connector and secured it in place with tape. how bad is yours? i thinks its hard to solder that, its soo damn tiny. you can get a new fan for the mac mini on ebay for around 2 or 5 dollars
In another movie, which twice as long, there is a special tool to pull fan's connector up, actually. I ripped whole connector from motherboard also pulling in the wrong direction, have to solder it now. Never did this on motherboards before.
It really is not necessary to remove the fan cable. Once the screws have been removed, the fan can be moved plenty far to get the drive out without disconnecting the cable.
It is always a good idea to have a backup. I think it is especially important to have a backup before you swap out a drive in case something goes wrong (like dropping the hard drive, static shock, etc...).
@@Rickmakes Carbon Copy Cloner is a must-have tool for this. Clone your existing bootable drive or make regular backups without the hassle of Time Machine.
I want to transfer my data from my existing mac mini to a 2019 mac mini. My existing mac mini has a video problem and that prevents my old mac mini from booting up. The monitors have a green/light green vertical stripes and the boot up process gets about half way and then stops. The old mac mini then will try to re-boot over and over. My question is, can I transfer the data to the new mac mini without having a monitor connected to the old mac mini? Thanks
You could probably remove the hard drive from the Mac Mini and put it in an enclosure like this: amzn.to/2xSHPqw Then you can plug it into your new Mac Mini to transfer the data.
It's really a shame that Apple has DOWNGRADED the current Mac Mini so upgrades are no longer possible. Now, one is FORCED to check EVERY box when ordering a Mac Mini because upgrades or enhancements are no longer possible. My 2012 Mac mini was originally about $1000, the Mac Mini I just purchased was $3000. I'm an Apple fan, and I own the stock, but I do understand why some people positively hate Apple.
I wouldn't have as big of a problem with it not being upgradable if the RAM and SSD weren't so expensive from Apple. You can get a nice 1TB SSD from Samsung for around $150. 1Tb configured with the computer is a $400 add on. Grr!
my macmini is almost same age hdd is almost empty but its extremely slow a simple web page takes minutes to load could replacing hdd may solve this issue ?
I'm not sure on that one. An SSD can give it a big speed boost for things like opening apps and documents but I'm not sure how dependent hard drive speed is on loading web pages. The browser would have to write a cache to the drive so that would be sped up. If you upgrade the SSD, I would upgrade the RAM at the same time. With the SSD and RAM upgraded my Mac Mini, it loads web pages quickly.
This is 3 years old video. As of today October 2020, which latest SSD can be used to replace old HDD in MacMini late 2012 ? Any experts can guide please ..? Can the stick NVME be used ?
Yes. Install the SSD and then boot while holding down command-r. This will boot you into the recovery console. From there you will need to format the drive and install the system on it. Just note, it can take a while to the recovery console to load because it loads over the internet.
I’ve an fusion drive in my Mac Mini 2012 that consists of an 256 gb ssd (probably on the mainboard?) and a 1 tb slow hdd. Now I would like to replace the hdd with an ssd and also split the fusion drive into 2 drives, while also keeping a clone from the internal(current) 256 gb ssd, which houses osx and apps, on the same internal 256 gb after splitting the fusion drive. Is that possible?
I wish I could help but I unfortunately don't have experience with Fusion drives. I'm guessing you could install an SSD in place of the 1TB drive and install the system on it. I don't know if you can format the Fusion SSD and use it as a standalone drive. You might try searching some forums to see if anyone has done it. No matter what you do, make sure you have any important data backed up. Good luck.
I did this to my Mini same model and everything is find.... Except that for some reason I get an INSTALLATION FAILED anytime I want to install any program AND my Mac won't upgrade... it keeps saying SOME PARTS OF UPGRADE COULDN'T BE INSTALLED, PLEASE RESTART... So I do that and nothing changes... ANY HELP?
That sounds like something may be corrupted on the system. You could try holding down command-R while booting to open the recovery console. From there you can open Disk Utility and run disk first aid. That is where I would start. You may need to reinstall macOS. Either way, make sure you have a good backup plan in place in case you find out your drive is bad.
hi if i want better performance and i only upgrade the RAM to 16 GB but do not upgrade the hard drive, will i still see a noticeable difference in speed?
RAM helps when using a lot of programs concurrently and switching back and forth between them. SSD helps when loading things from the hard drive. Between more RAM and an SSD, I would typically go with SSD. You may not notice a speed increase with a RAM upgrade but you will definitely notice an SSD upgrade.
@@Rickmakes ok thank you. what about within a program already open, say Adobe Acrobat or navigating through a website. a RAM upgrade would not help with those?
Good video but agree with others that removing the fan cable from the board is a very bad idea - the entire connection assembly to the board came off when I pulled on it, and now there is no way to reattach the fan without some precision soldering which i'm not capable of - so I think the Mini is basically trash now.
This was great. I'll be doing the same thing this coming week. I upgraded the memory from 4GB to 16GB when I got the machine new in 2014. (Yes, still a late 2012 model) Computer still does fine for what I need. I know the SSD will be that last fix that can get the machine through several more years of service.
It should work with a 2or 4TB drive so long as the drive isn't too thick. I think you can clone a drive with Carbon Copy Cloner (bombich.com/) although I haven't used the recent versions.
I'm not sure if you mean size or capacity so I'll address both. It takes a 2.5" drive. With traditional drives, there are some that are 12.5mm thick. From what I have read, those may not fit. I think any of the SSDs will fit. Samsung makes some 4TB models that are 7mm thick. That is the largest capacity mainstream SSD that I am aware of. I think Samsung has a 30TB model but I don't think it would fit and it is very expensive.
I did. I am currently running Mojave. I think you can hit command-R during a reboot and pull up the recovery console. From that point you should be able to download and install the OS.
Am I missing something? My hdd looks pretty solidly packed in & isn’t budging??? It looks to be the bottom level to, so maybe I am in the incorrect video? Mine is a dual hdd total 512gb version
RickMakes the plastic film around the drive, with the drive just doesn’t dislodge that easily like in all videos I’ve seen. Even carefully trying to pry around it nothing happens?
Don’t use tape. Let senpai help you: 3M body molding two sided tape. It’s about a 2mm thick but can function as a pad. Stick it to the drive and then to anything else you would like. It cures in about 8 hours and will NEVER fall off. You can pry it off. Go try and get the body molding trim off an old car if you would like to know how well it works lol. (will stick to plastic and metal obviously) :)
NO NEED TO REMOVE THE FAN CABLE NO NEED TO REMOVE THE WIFI ANTENNA CABLE Just set ANTENNA over to the side and FAN on a piece of cardboard to avoid touching any metal parts or chips.
Okay so I swapped the hdd to an ssd. But I am ashamed as an IT guy lmao, I have lost 2 screws and it took me 40 minutes with my phone as lightning😂 Anyways good video! Mac works like it’s new now
Awesome thanks, I was wondering what to do with mine after I recently moved across to a mac pro, now I know i'll be doing this and using it again as web browser on the side so i don't have to use my audio studio machine all the time.
I watched a few videos like this, and they all make lifting HD out look easy. Mine won't lift out at all, it's blocked by the RAM board. Mine's a late 2012 model too. It seems that the faith hand side just hasn't got enough "play" to release it from the lug holes at the back. Looks like I'll be paying one to fit it.
RickMakes must have been UA-cam ad glitch on android. It was showing me toilet seat ad then a few seconds in, it opened up my browser to a Facebook page with popup saying I've been selected as a winner or something.
Those are so annoying. You might want to run one of those adware detectors on your device. Sometimes hidden adware can inject ads into places they shouldn't be.
RickMakes Turns out the hard drive doesn’t just come out I had to take everything out of the Mac mini and unscrew the hard drive. Not that hard but I broke stuff trying to pull the hard drive out while it was secured to the entire base. Oh well if you have a Mac mini late 2012 and the hard drive doesn’t just slip out then read this comment and start taking everything apart.
Thank you for this video!
Just to reiterate what has been said in other comments:
- DO NOT remove the fan cable
- DO NOT remove the wifi antenna cable
There is just no reason to risk damaging those connectors when the fan/antenna can simply be moved out of the way while still connected. It's also wasted time.
I didn't have a plastic tool for the drive connector, but the plastic shroud has a corner that worked perfectly.
The tape trick was perfect!
I used the following method for restoring the disk:
- Command-R to boot to Internet Recovery (worked with wifi for me - didn't even have to enter the password)
- Disk Utility to format SSD
- Restore From Time Machine Backup
Success!
It's my wife's computer. She's very happy with the speed (I also upgraded memory from 4G to 16G). Total cost of memory + SSD = $110. We were just about to spend about $1500 on a 2018 MM. I'm not saying this is equivalent, but it is good enough - for 7% of the cost.
This Mac Mini has had many uses including media center computer, server and video editing. It has now replaced the 2009 iMac my wife was using. It is still a very usable computer at seven years old.
I agree why remove those items.
thanks for the tip!
Which ssd did you get? The 850 or the 860?
to me is better remove components and wires to have more space and freedom to manipulate (o0)!
Thanks so much for this video. It was a massive help! Just upgraded to a 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM. Went from unusable to just like new for $200AUD. The Antenna cage is a tricky little bugger not mentioned in the video. It has to be seated from an angle. Put it in loosely and then slide it in on an angle. There is something in the underneath of the case that you can't see that it needs to slot into. Google the problem, there are guides online to help. I think it had to slide in on an angle from the black dot side to the white dot side. It took a few goes but it went in. Before that, I spent about 30 minutes wondering why the screw holes wouldn't line up.
I have struggled for years with insertion of the replacement upper drive; your tip of using tape to get to those mounting holes at the rear is brilliant.
I love the tape trick. I'm doing a SSD upgrade on a Mac Mini later. Going to give that one a try, for sure.
Thank you so much! I just successfully upgraded my mac mini with the SSD. I couldn't have done without you! I struggled with placing the new drive in the mounting holes. Your tape trick saved me!
A million thank yous!
That's great! Thank you for the comment.
I just bought a 2012 this past week. I'm amazed how well the 2.5 i5 runs. Of course I run Ubuntu, which is a lot more efficient than proprietary OS.
Another tip that my help someone: the two front screws that he removes at 3:04 go directly through the wifi tray into the hard drive. This is what holds up that side of the hard drive (the other side being held by pins in the side of the chassis). Just a little more info for people to help them know what they are doing.
It's guys like you that really impress me. Not only brave enough to undertake a finicky rebuild, but also to film it to help others. You might not think it's a big service but you made my life easy and 189,000 others! (according to current views)
By the way, I didn't read the comments ahead of time, so I removed the wifi and fan connections but all is good!
My Macmini is 10 years old, and still a great workhorse. Not ready to spend thousands on a computer when this works just great! My old start up time was 2 minutes 40 seconds, now it only takes 45 seconds to boot!
Very happy!
Have a question maybe you or someone else could answer:
is there a good recommendation on updating the OS to a more current version? I currently running 10.9.5 and it's not working great on some websites. What is the reeommended way to upgrade the OS, and what would be recommended for this 2012 machine?
That tape-handle trick is just what I needed to get my stubborn SSD into position. Thanks!
This video helped me out to change my HDD to an SSD. I also did not take off the antenna that was attached I just moved it to the side without disconnecting. Process was surprisingly not as difficult as I firs t thought it would be. Visuals do help tremendously.
The tape handle made this so much easier. i seen people use a business card but this helped a lot better !!!
Tape trick was great. I'll follow this to the tee.
Thank you very much for the fantastic video! Worked like a charm.
Just a small tip, you can avoid the need for the sticky tape trick (which was quite smart) by flipping the mac mini the other way around (the right way around) after you've gotten a bit of the disk/SSD inside, and let gravity do the work.
Thanks for the tip!
Looks very easy - Amazing how different the designs are between variations of Mac Minis - I have a 2014 unibody and it's a major project to replace the hard drive and memory and has to be almost completely disassembled.
I think a lot of people prefer the older design.
Word of warning. I just upgraded a fusion drive to a full SSD. There are actually two drives in the bay stacked on top of one another (128 SSD and a 1TB hard disk). I had to remove the mother board to get them both out and even just removing the top one was more difficult than shown in this video. It's my own fault for not realising that a fusion drive is just two drives working together and not one solid unit. This video was still a great help though. New SSD is up and running. Thanks.
babyjuggler Good point! Thanks for your feedback.
My late 2012 Mac Mini also had a 1.12 GB fusion drive. The top one was luckily enough the SSD part of 128GB. So I could remove it without the necessity of removing the mother board. Some force was used and I replaced it with a 1TB EVO 840 SSD. With the help of your video it was actually a peace of cake. BTW one screw of the ventilator a T4 torx was corrupt. I had to use a plain tool to turn it loose. It also took some effort to initialise the 'underneath' Apple HDD of 1TB. I finally used the Command R mode for that. It now functions as a intern 1TB Time Machine back up. Very convenient.
Watched a few vids on this... also read a lot of comments... I don't see any reason to disconnect anything from the motherboard other than the connector for the drive (everyone does it that way for some odd reason). Everything else can just have the screws removed and slid out of the way a bit. Put a piece of tape on the new drive to hold it up to get the nubs into place. I did mine from start to finish in under 10 minutes. There is absolutely no reason to risk damaging things by unplugging from the MB.
Thanks for the advice!
Don't you need to remove the Fan in order to get to the HDD connector?
This is right. I fucked my mac mini over doing it. You can tell the hesitation in the video. It's not designed to be taken apart.
@@TrendOrchestra You need to MOVE the fan, but not REMOVE it. i.e. leave the cable connected and just swing it out of the way.
@@chrissatterlee4287 No. Much more complicated with the fan connected. It's one f'n connector, lol... all you have to do it pop it back on.
Beautiful -- thank you! Followed your video exactly and I've got a happy Mac Mini with a 2TB SSD. You rock!
I used your tutorial to upgrade my HDD to an SSD. The HDD was making grinding noises. So now my mac is super fast! Thanks!
no need to take off the antennae cable. great video....fan cable needs to be lifted up to remove without damage.
Good point. I did another one of these recently and realized I didn't need to remove the antenna cable. I can't update the video but hopefully people will read the comments.
thank you for the vid and thank you for the antenna comment saving time
Nice. i wanna try doo this on my macmini soon. good video and good comment
Fan cable doesn't need to be removed either
Excellent video. Easy, simple to understand instructions. Precise and to the point without a lot of fluff. I don’t like it. I LOVE IT!
Thank you!
I really want to do this. In fact, I need to as my 2012 Mac Mini is becoming unusable due to lag. I am happy to read NOT to remove cables as putting them back looked like a nightmare. Now how hard is this to do for somebody with big hands? Even when I built my own desktops where I chose larger cases, it was never easy with monster meat gloves.
I'm a typical sized adult male so I have large hands but not extra large. I didn't find this too difficult. There are some small screws and such. You could probably use tweezers to hold them. You can install an SSD in an external exclosure and boot from that. It might be faster than the internal drive. I run one like that for testing but never for daily use.
@@Rickmakes Visited a small computer shop who said this was easy for them! About 270 CADfor a 1TB Samsung SSD swap, clone and next day pick up :)
Using tape to make a handle to attach to the new SSD to aid fitting it into place was genius. I struggled with that the most before I saw your video.
ak2010utube ditto on this comment. I was going to say the same thing. Great idea from the presenter!
I got mine back together, no disc visible. Pulled to bits again and the disc connector was unplugged. The disc drive will if allowed to go downwards force the plug out. What stops this is the crescentish piece of plastic (removed at 2:47). So go easy on applying downwards pressure on the drive until that bit of plastic is in place holding the plugs in their sockets.
Thanks for making this video, I almost broke the fan connector on the fan. One have to be extra careful with that detail, to pull upwards as you say in the video, and not pull the cable the way it kinda looks like.
Better to just leave it connected
Hi. I need help. I removed all the installations but I am unable to put the wifi back as it isn’t fitting evenly in its place. Also I used the same hard drive but the screws connecting the wifi plate to the SSD aren’t long enough
I followed your instructions, didn’t need to remove the fan or the antenna, but found that the 500 GB HD is in the lower bay. So not able to remove it like you show. So thinking of putting my 2TB SSD card in the upper space but where/how to connect it? Thanks.
You should be able to get a cable on Amazon. Just search for “2012 mac mini hard drive cable”. Make sure to verify that it works with your model. The models should be listed in the Amazon description.
Can I use this Mac Mini 2012 for app development? 🤔 Is it going to be good, or am I going to waste my money if I buy it? 💸
thanks
Thanks for the video, I love my Mac mini!
The tip about how to guide the HD in was super helpful! thanks.
Thank you for the video! I replaced the hard drive today!
Thanks for video. Screwing back the SSD to the wifi shield was the most challenging i say. I put a piece of plastic underneath the sdd so i could pivot it up on the motherboard in order to screw it to wifi shield. also, i needed to pull the wifi antena up in order to slot it back in place nicely.
Something that a lot of guides missing is getting mid to late 2012 mac mini is like a lottery. Those who are unlucky may have the original hard drive sits on the upper bay which requires complete removal of the motherboard and the bracket to get into it, this might be difficult for some people (if this is the case for you, I suggest looking for a complete disassembly guide). cheers.
I didn't know they had a model with one drive mounted in the upper bay. I think the server variant of the Mac Mini had two hard drives but I could be wrong. I'm guessing the mounting parts (cable, screws, etc...) could be purchased to mount an SSD in the easy to access bay while leaving the original hard drive in place.
@@Rickmakes I think towards the end of the production, they moved the harddrive to the upper bay (complete with rubber kit and 4 screws) My guess is, they decided that it is a safer location for shipping. and yes, I guess you can just leave the original drive there and just plug in the new drive.
also I think, if that's the case, we need to order the replacement sata for the lower bay/lower sata. Most of them, including the harddrive addition kit, only sell the sata cable for the upper bay. I don't think you can force origami the sata cable for upper bay to the lower bay, vice versa(right?). (Need to be careful, can't be wrong, either get for the upper bay or lower bay cable)
Awesome. Doesn't seem to bad as long as you have the right screw bits.
Perfect. Exactly what I needed. It's like a new machine! Thank you SO much, incredibly helpful!
not sure why so many disconnect the wifi... completely unecessary.. BUT.. the tape hack is great.. I do the same thing..
Anybody else experience difficulty with replacing the two screws on each side of the upper bracket? They just won't go in. Now I can't put the final black panel on...
Did you ever figure it out because I can't
Neither can I...
I'm late to the party here but if you're talking about the Antenna cage, it's a tricky little bugger not mentioned in the video. It has to be seated from an angle. Put it in loosely and then slide it in on an angle. There is something in the underneath of the case that you can't see that it needs to slot into. Google the problem, there are guides online to help. I think it had to slide in on an angle from the black dot side to the white dot side. It took a few goes but it went in. Before that, I spent about 30 minutes wondering why the screw holes wouldn't line up.
Few comments, besides the ant cable, if your having issues sliding the drive back in face the opening towards you and angle the unit downward almost vertical, then drop the drive in and it slides in the holder holes pretty easy. If your having issues putting the screws back in for the HD, then slide a plastic or or other wedge item to push the HD back towards the ant screen..
Just curious...why replace the drive and not combine them? Sorry for the noob question...I’m new to upgrading Mac mini stuff... :-)
Noob questions at fine by me. You can get a kit to add a second hard drive. SSDs are relatively cheap now so I don't use spinning hard drives in any of my computers (I do use them in NAS devices). The process to add a second hard drive is also very involved and I didn't feel it was worth the effort for me. If I need extra storage on the computer, I am most inclined to install a second SSD in a USB3.0 external enclosure. That gives decent performance and is easy to do.
May have missed it, but why the change? Faster? Loading programs? Opening programs? How much did it cost? What size? Good video
SSDs are a lot faster than traditional hard drives. It boots faster. Applications and documents load faster. Installing software and updates are faster. I installed a 1TB drive which was a couple of hundred dollars. I have a link in the description to the drive although they now have a newer version available (the Samsung 860 Evo). I have 1TB drives in a few of my machines. I have also installed quite a few 500GB and smaller drives. Installing an SSD can really give new life to an older computer. This computer is over five years old and the hard drive is still a lot faster than any computer that doesn't contain an SSD.
I am still pre-internal SSD upgrade on my 2012 mini. However, I've been running a USB3 Samsung T3 external for 2 years now. So much faster. Even running encrypted SSD, and it's still 4 or more times faster. The only problem now is reboot has to go through Recovery for some reason or it'll boot from the dreadfully slow internal original HD. This is due to Mojave and APFS and or encryption. Now, once I'm up and rebooted I don't have any issues for weeks. It's just reboots are a bit of a hassle now.
Can you please assist? @richmakes - I am in way to upgrade mac mini late 2012 RAM and i found that my mac-mini is DDR3 PC3 12800S - Shall I make upgrade with the PC3L 12800S ? as per my understanding PC3 has 1.5 v and PC3L has 1.35v - so I believe I can use PC3L in late mac mini 2012? IF YES, Can you assist which combination should I use? [at present its 4GB 1600 MHz DDR3] as I am planning to upgrade to 16GB
I have a question, I could do the exchange myself - I understand the process but regarding the OS?? when you boot up you now have no OS or what? How do I go about that?
If you have a new, blank SSD, you can boot into recovery mode by holding down command-R while starting up the Mac. This can take a while, especially if you have slow internet. From there you can use disk utility to format the drive as APFS. Then you can install a fresh system. If you want your old data, you can run the migration assistant to restore your system using a Time Machine backup (which you would need to make before the upgrade).
Thanks for this video.. This is very useful for me..
Thank you!
RickMakes - You do not need to remove the Wifi cable to upgrade a hard drive in your Mac Mini. I have removed over
200 drives so far and not once have i had to remove the WIFI cable.
That's what I was thinking even though I've never done it before. It looks like something that could break easily.
Same goes for the fan cable
Hi
Would it be possible to install Sonoma/Sequioa on a device after I changed the HDD to SSD. I mean is it worth it and would it run fine?
The latest official OS for this model is Catalina. There might be ways to install later OSes but performance could degrade. I use a Catalina regularly on a computer connected to a laser engraver. It works well for a 12 year old computer.
just replaced the old 1TB HDD for a WD Blue 1TB SSD, thanks for your help!
Glad I could help!
Is it the stick ome or drive one
@@deepakpandey7525 drive
Thank you for sharing, love it. I will try it on my late 2014 model
Thanks man! This video helped me so much, cheers!
Hi - can I take a cloned (from my Mac Mini late 2012 OS 10:13:2) SSD drive and physically replace the HDD on the Mac Mini and then power on and that's it? or do I need to Command R and do something?thx
If I am understanding correctly, that should work. You could try putting the SSD in a USB enclosure (USB 3.0 is best) and try booting from it. Just hold down "option" while booting and select the external drive. If it works, swap them out. As always, make sure you have a good backup plan in case things go bad.
Any suggestions on how to get a 1TB HDD out? The old 1tb drives are 9.5 mm. Is there anyway to get these out without sliding back the logic board?
I haven't removed a 1TB drive. The models I have upgraded had 500GB drives. I'm not sure how to get that one out. Sorry.
Hi, I have two Late 2012 Mac Minis but only one of them zaps me when I touch it and at the same time touch another grounded metal-cased equipment (e.g. an amplifier). It's not painful at all but I definitely feel it. Is there an issue with the Mini I should worry about? Thanks.
Not familiar with an issue like that. Do you have low humidity?
Be careful when trying to disconnect the fan power connector. it's very fragile.
I hope I would read your comment before. Have you had to solder it? Is it hard? There are 4 pins there. It's tiny.
I think you where supposed to lift it up a little bit before you pull it out. what happened was that i pulled it out
the (wrong direction )same direction as the wires and then one of the wire got loose. so i just put it back in the connector and secured it in place with tape. how bad is yours? i thinks its hard to solder that, its soo damn tiny. you can get a new fan for the mac mini on ebay for around 2 or 5 dollars
In another movie, which twice as long, there is a special tool to pull fan's connector up, actually.
I ripped whole connector from motherboard also pulling in the wrong direction, have to solder it now. Never did this on motherboards before.
It really is not necessary to remove the fan cable. Once the screws have been removed, the fan can be moved plenty far to get the drive out without disconnecting the cable.
Great video, question I’m running out of space and urge to upgrade so that means I have to backup all my info and then copy to the new hard drive?
It is always a good idea to have a backup. I think it is especially important to have a backup before you swap out a drive in case something goes wrong (like dropping the hard drive, static shock, etc...).
@@Rickmakes Carbon Copy Cloner is a must-have tool for this. Clone your existing bootable drive or make regular backups without the hassle of Time Machine.
If the back is too tight to move then what answer!.
I want to transfer my data from my existing mac mini to a 2019 mac mini. My existing mac mini has a video problem and that prevents my old mac mini from booting up. The monitors have a green/light green vertical stripes and the boot up process gets about half way and then stops. The old mac mini then will try to re-boot over and over. My question is, can I transfer the data to the new mac mini without having a monitor connected to the old mac mini? Thanks
You could probably remove the hard drive from the Mac Mini and put it in an enclosure like this: amzn.to/2xSHPqw Then you can plug it into your new Mac Mini to transfer the data.
It's really a shame that Apple has DOWNGRADED the current Mac Mini so upgrades are no longer possible. Now, one is FORCED to check EVERY box when ordering a Mac Mini because upgrades or enhancements are no longer possible. My 2012 Mac mini was originally about $1000, the Mac Mini I just purchased was $3000. I'm an Apple fan, and I own the stock, but I do understand why some people positively hate Apple.
I wouldn't have as big of a problem with it not being upgradable if the RAM and SSD weren't so expensive from Apple. You can get a nice 1TB SSD from Samsung for around $150. 1Tb configured with the computer is a $400 add on. Grr!
my macmini is almost same age hdd is almost empty but its extremely slow
a simple web page takes minutes to load could replacing hdd may solve this issue ?
I'm not sure on that one. An SSD can give it a big speed boost for things like opening apps and documents but I'm not sure how dependent hard drive speed is on loading web pages. The browser would have to write a cache to the drive so that would be sped up. If you upgrade the SSD, I would upgrade the RAM at the same time. With the SSD and RAM upgraded my Mac Mini, it loads web pages quickly.
This is 3 years old video. As of today October 2020, which latest SSD can be used to replace old HDD in MacMini late 2012 ? Any experts can guide please ..? Can the stick NVME be used ?
This computer doesn't support NVMe. I have a link in the description to some Samsung SSDs. The 860 EVO is a good option.
What do I do if my hard drive completely shot. Can I install the new ssd and have the apple store reboot the program
Yes. Install the SSD and then boot while holding down command-r. This will boot you into the recovery console. From there you will need to format the drive and install the system on it. Just note, it can take a while to the recovery console to load because it loads over the internet.
I’ve an fusion drive in my Mac Mini 2012 that consists of an 256 gb ssd (probably on the mainboard?) and a 1 tb slow hdd. Now I would like to replace the hdd with an ssd and also split the fusion drive into 2 drives, while also keeping a clone from the internal(current) 256 gb ssd, which houses osx and apps, on the same internal 256 gb after splitting the fusion drive. Is that possible?
I wish I could help but I unfortunately don't have experience with Fusion drives. I'm guessing you could install an SSD in place of the 1TB drive and install the system on it. I don't know if you can format the Fusion SSD and use it as a standalone drive. You might try searching some forums to see if anyone has done it. No matter what you do, make sure you have any important data backed up. Good luck.
RickMakes thank you anyways for offering your help! I will try some things out and make sure that I’ll have a backup in place.
I did this to my Mini same model and everything is find.... Except that for some reason I get an INSTALLATION FAILED anytime I want to install any program AND my Mac won't upgrade... it keeps saying SOME PARTS OF UPGRADE COULDN'T BE INSTALLED, PLEASE RESTART... So I do that and nothing changes... ANY HELP?
That sounds like something may be corrupted on the system. You could try holding down command-R while booting to open the recovery console. From there you can open Disk Utility and run disk first aid. That is where I would start. You may need to reinstall macOS. Either way, make sure you have a good backup plan in place in case you find out your drive is bad.
Is it possible to install a NVME M.2 SSd on mac mini of 2012 ?
Unfortunately the 2012 Mac Mini doesn't have an NVMe port.
hi if i want better performance and i only upgrade the RAM to 16 GB but do not upgrade the hard drive, will i still see a noticeable difference in speed?
RAM helps when using a lot of programs concurrently and switching back and forth between them. SSD helps when loading things from the hard drive. Between more RAM and an SSD, I would typically go with SSD. You may not notice a speed increase with a RAM upgrade but you will definitely notice an SSD upgrade.
@@Rickmakes ok thank you. what about within a program already open, say Adobe Acrobat or navigating through a website. a RAM upgrade would not help with those?
Good video but agree with others that removing the fan cable from the board is a very bad idea - the entire connection assembly to the board came off when I pulled on it, and now there is no way to reattach the fan without some precision soldering which i'm not capable of - so I think the Mini is basically trash now.
Thank you for your advice (ciao from Italy)
This was great. I'll be doing the same thing this coming week.
I upgraded the memory from 4GB to 16GB when I got the machine new in 2014. (Yes, still a late 2012 model) Computer still does fine for what I need. I know the SSD will be that last fix that can get the machine through several more years of service.
can this be done with a 2tb or 4tb drive as well? also, is there any other way to clone a drive?
It should work with a 2or 4TB drive so long as the drive isn't too thick. I think you can clone a drive with Carbon Copy Cloner (bombich.com/) although I haven't used the recent versions.
WELL DONE!!! Thanks UBER helpful! I ordered my parts. gonna attempt this myself! THANKS!!!!
Awesome video, thanks.
hello hi ! . I have a new SSD , if I replace it to Mac Mini Mid 2011 , is it better install a new OS or should I clone the current OS System? :)
My preferred method is to install a fresh system and use the migration tool to transfer everything off the old system.
Hey man can you just tell me what ssd i need there are two types one stick and other square drive
2.5" SSD (not the stick). I have a link in the description to one similar to what I used.
How do you deal with the iOS and your data?
Please someone reply to this. Need the answer too..
I have a late 2012, what is the largest hard drive I can have for the mini?
I'm not sure if you mean size or capacity so I'll address both. It takes a 2.5" drive. With traditional drives, there are some that are 12.5mm thick. From what I have read, those may not fit. I think any of the SSDs will fit. Samsung makes some 4TB models that are 7mm thick. That is the largest capacity mainstream SSD that I am aware of. I think Samsung has a 30TB model but I don't think it would fit and it is very expensive.
Did you get the new OS High Sierra on it? and did you get it online?
I did. I am currently running Mojave. I think you can hit command-R during a reboot and pull up the recovery console. From that point you should be able to download and install the OS.
You helped me a lot. Thank you!
I've just changed the HD to SSD but I don't know why the WiFi plate doesn't fit :'v only one side does. :/ Any idea?
Does the hard drive underneith seem flat? The WiFi plate should slip under the curved edge. Were you able to get it to slip under?
Feels like an asmr a little :) good content fr tho
Thanks!
Am I missing something? My hdd looks pretty solidly packed in & isn’t budging??? It looks to be the bottom level to, so maybe I am in the incorrect video? Mine is a dual hdd total 512gb version
This is a 2012 since drive model. I'm not sure how the dual drive models are set up.
RickMakes the plastic film around the drive, with the drive just doesn’t dislodge that easily like in all videos I’ve seen. Even carefully trying to pry around it nothing happens?
Is yours the 512gb model being pulled out?
Thanks brother you video is very useful.
Thank you!
Don’t use tape. Let senpai help you: 3M body molding two sided tape. It’s about a 2mm thick but can function as a pad. Stick it to the drive and then to anything else you would like. It cures in about 8 hours and will NEVER fall off. You can pry it off. Go try and get the body molding trim off an old car if you would like to know how well it works lol. (will stick to plastic and metal obviously) :)
NO NEED TO REMOVE THE FAN CABLE
NO NEED TO REMOVE THE WIFI ANTENNA CABLE
Just set ANTENNA over to the side and FAN on a piece of cardboard to avoid touching any metal parts or chips.
Yep. I pinned a comment with this information.
I don't need remove other components , but to me is better for more space and freedom to manipulate :D
Okay so I swapped the hdd to an ssd. But I am ashamed as an IT guy lmao, I have lost 2 screws and it took me 40 minutes with my phone as lightning😂
Anyways good video! Mac works like it’s new now
You don’t need to take off the fan or the antenna
thank you!!! clutch!!!
will the Mac min load the os ?
You need to load the OS before or after you swap.
Awesome thanks, I was wondering what to do with mine after I recently moved across to a mac pro, now I know i'll be doing this and using it again as web browser on the side so i don't have to use my audio studio machine all the time.
Thanks bro!
Woooo! a 1tb 850 evo. Nice!
Would you sell that apple mini
Nope. I'm not sure I'll ever sell it. It is a good machine.
I watched a few videos like this, and they all make lifting HD out look easy. Mine won't lift out at all, it's blocked by the RAM board. Mine's a late 2012 model too. It seems that the faith hand side just hasn't got enough "play" to release it from the lug holes at the back. Looks like I'll be paying one to fit it.
I've only replaced hard drives on a few of these Mac Minis and haven't had any problems. Sorry you weren't able to get the hard drive out. :(
had the same effing problem. just closed it and called it a day.
No tengo el torx T6 ((
I got a popup ad from the ad in the video on mobile device. Wtf.
I've never had that happen with UA-cam. Grr!! Were you using a web browser, iOS app or Android app?
RickMakes must have been UA-cam ad glitch on android. It was showing me toilet seat ad then a few seconds in, it opened up my browser to a Facebook page with popup saying I've been selected as a winner or something.
Those are so annoying. You might want to run one of those adware detectors on your device. Sometimes hidden adware can inject ads into places they shouldn't be.
So, after installation, Mini wouldn’t recognized SSD. I had to returned the SSD to bestbuy...
I thought the same thing until I realized that I had not formatted the drive before trying to do a Time Machine restore.
Thank you.
tq i thing help with change hard disk super
thanks for not showing how to put the plastic part back it. really helps put.
How about Operating System?
I have a video on that: ua-cam.com/video/ZD5xSZjtFeI/v-deo.html
Is anyone else’s hard drive soldered to the base? My hard drive feels like it is soldered by the two corners opposite of the connector.
It shouldn't be soldered. Do you know what size it is? Someone commented the other day that the 1TB drive is thicker and harder to remove.
RickMakes Turns out the hard drive doesn’t just come out I had to take everything out of the Mac mini and unscrew the hard drive. Not that hard but I broke stuff trying to pull the hard drive out while it was secured to the entire base. Oh well if you have a Mac mini late 2012 and the hard drive doesn’t just slip out then read this comment and start taking everything apart.
thank you
Great video thank you
Has anyone used the Samsung EVO 870?
I just replaced the hard drive in a late 2012 Mac Mini with an EVO 870. Worked great. That Mac Mini is very similar to the Macbook hardware wise.
@@Rickmakes thanks so much for quick reply! I was looking at prices and the 850 is a heap more expensive