2011 Mac Mini upgrade help

I'm about to take the leap and upgrade my stock 500gb HD with a 128 SSD, I'm debating between a Crucial, Intel or Corsair. Once I buy either of them, what is the best way for me to start up my Mac? I have never done this before but I would like more speed from the mini.

Also, can i clean out the stock HD and install it as a secondary internal drive?

I have a 2011 Mac Mini 2.5GHz Dual i5 with

Thanks for the help!!

frankramos0023 said:

Once I buy either of them, what is the best way for me to start up my Mac?

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What do you mean by "start up my Mac"? At what point of the process are we talking?

frankramos0023 said:

Also, can i clean out the stock HD and install it as a secondary internal drive?

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This is possible...but you would need a special bracket/adapter...and you would need to remove the optical drive.

- Nick

You can add the SSD in the mini with the existing HD. I think for it to be the boot drive (one with the OS) it may need to be where the existing HD is. Here is a link to a writeup on iFixit where they sell a dual HD installation kit about how to do this. Mac Mini Dual Hard Drive Kit - iFixit I've always just installed the OS from a Time Machine backup. If you want though you can go through the process of clean install of Lion by using the Recovery feature that is built into the original mini HD. Here's a link for that OS X Lion: About Lion Recovery Also you can just make your own Lion Recovery disk assistant and boot from it after installing the new SSD. Here's the link. Lion Recovery Disk Assistant Have a look at all those pages and it should give you a good idea of how to do this.

pigoo3 (Nick) - I meant how can restart it to get it working again. Re - Installing the programs on the ssd.

Lbatson21 - I got the kit, or a kit like the one on ifixit. Okay, can I do this:

- install the new ssd on the original HD slot
- move the original slot to the 2nd one
- restart the mac
- install the OS on the ssd
- and clean out my old HD??

Here's a good thread from someone who has done this. Confirmed: Adding a 2nd Hard Drive to Non-Server Minis - MacRumors Forums

I got it, I should be good with this info. Thanks for the help guys!! Best buy didn't have the ssdi wanted do I'm going to go ahead and order it for next week.