The problem was the SSD was thinner than the original hard drive, so when I tried to reassemble, the hard drive sat too low for the screws to reach it. Here's how I got around the problem. I loosely attached the antenna plate to the hard drive, leaving plenty of wiggle room between the plate and the drive. I also left the two stand off screws on the logic board off to give me more wiggle room there. With the SSD attached to the antenna plate, I carefully connected and stowed the Bluetooth cable. Using the antenna plate as a handle, I was able to guide the SSD into the hard drive mount.

1. Remove Hard Drive Mac Mini
2. Change Hard Drive Mac Mini

If the screw holes don't line up with those on the hard drive, make sure that the two pins that are in the back of the hard drive are properly seated in the holes at the back of the case, above the housing for the second hard drive. Step 1 — Hard Drive Place your thumbs in the depressions cut into the bottom cover. Rotate the bottom cover counter-clockwise until the white dot painted on the bottom cover is aligned with the ring inscribed on the outer case.

My intention on the outset of purchase was to upgrade to an SSD, but I was shocked at how slow the stock drive made the Mac run, with countless slowdowns and lockups. Overall, a great guide. Replacing the HDD was more difficult than i expected as the holes are hard to line up on the back surface. Turning the computer bottom side down helped.

Remove Hard Drive Mac Mini

With both the antenna plate and the fan still attached, it was hard to hold the mini vertically to let the new drive drop in. I just unplugged the fan and set it aside instead, held the Mini vertical and then wiggled in the new drive. It lined up pretty easily and I was able to reattach the connector and then plug the fan back in and proceed to reassembly. The antenna plate slid back in the same way it came out and I applied minimal pressure to get the last screw hole to align and it snapped into place perfectly. What versions of ipad and mac air do i need for a photo booth.

I decided that there was a greater risk of breaking something by not removing the logic board than by removing it. The old hard drive comes out easily enough, but the new one would just not quite go in for me. Lining the screws on the outside of the new hard drive with the rubber grommets is so much easier with the logic board out. I used masking tape with pencil marks on the case and on the drive in order to line up the screws and the grommets with the case right side up.

Change Hard Drive Mac Mini

This model is capable of running macOS High Sierra (10.13), and it supports HEVC (High-Efficiency Video Coding), but it does not support hardware accelerated HEVC. This model is compatible with the current macOS Mojave (10.14), as well.

Photo Credit: Apple, Inc. Update firefox flash player. (Non-Server Mid-2010 - Left, Mid-2011 & Late 2012 - Right) Identification Help If you're not sure which Aluminum Mac mini model you have, the optical drive equipped 'Mid-2010' models should be easy to differentiate, but the models without optical drives are more of a challenge. All Aluminum Mac mini models can be precisely identified by the in software or externally by, and more details about specific identifiers are provided in EveryMac.com's extensive section. To locate the model identifier in software, select 'About This Mac' under the Apple Menu on your computer and click the 'More Info.' If the Mac mini is running OS X 10.7 'Lion' or later, you will need to click the 'System Report' button after clicking 'More Info.'

Even when I got OS X installed on the SSD, rebooting would show the “no smoking” symbol and I could not get back into OS X. I finally solved it by switching the 2 drives position, and voila it works amazingly. I also created a bootable OS X El Capitan installed to skip the Internet Recovery load time (which was always trying to force me into a Fusion Drive). I hope this helps someone! I have a 2012 Mini (Macmini6,2) that came with Apple’s Fusion drive and I’d like to upgrade it. I am thinking of the Mercury Electra 6G SSD 1.0TB and WD Blue WD10JPVX.