Mini Upgrade

[cherry_bomb]

carbon copy cloner

Mac Backup Software | Carbon Copy Cloner | Bombich Software

Obvously the Mac version.

This si an example screwdriver set, and the compresed air cleaner to get rid of dust.

View attachment 30002

You can buy kits from OWC, and instructions from them, and Fixit. Replace the heatsink compound while you have the mini apart. It WILL need it.

take care.

Robert

Thank you! Is the heat sink compound part of the kit it something I'll need to buy separately?


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[pigoo3]

Would it be better for the performance of the mini to install 2 SSDs? Or one SSD and one HD?

The main reasons I mentioned installing two drives in your Mini was a combination of cost & storage capacity.

Some users in the past have found the cost of larger SSD's (1TB SSD for example) to be too much...compared to the same capacity HD. But prices for larger SSD's continue to decrease all the time...and maybe this isn't the " cost hurdle" it once was.

- If the cost & capacity of let's say a 500gig to 1TB SSD (or larger) works for you...then all you need to do is install one drive.
- If you feel you need more internal storage...and want to keep costs lower...then install one SSD & one HD (but remember the HD will be slower...this is usually ok if this drive is mostly used to hold files, music, etc.).
- If you feel you need more internal storage...and cost is no issue...then install two SSD's.



- Nick

 

[cherry_bomb]

Okay, just checked my mini, I had Onyx run over night and the computer has restarted. What should I be looking at to see what progress was made? Last night under maintenance I selected run tasks, made no modifications.!


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[cherry_bomb]

Thank you, Nick! I appreciate you letting me pick your brain. LOL

 

[pigoo3]

Okay, just checked my mini, I had Onyx run over night and the computer has restarted. What should I be looking at to see what progress was made?

What you're looking for is to see if the computer feels any faster.

Remember...we're trying to figure out if there's any way for us to improve the speed of your Mac-Mini. We talked about maybe it's a:

- failing HD
- needs some maintenance (Onyx)
- maybe a combination of these two
- maybe needs a new drive to replace the possibly failing HD that's in there currently.

If your Mac-Mini is doing at least some things faster (things that were slower before running Onyx)...maybe Onyx helped a little. If nothing seems faster...then maybe the Onyx maintenance didn't help...or help much. Also remember that a hard drive that's too full will also slow things down.

HTH,

- Nick

 

[cherry_bomb]

What you're looking for is to see if the computer feels any faster.

Remember...we're trying to figure out if there's any way for us to improve the speed of your Mac-Mini. We talked about maybe it's a:

- failing HD
- needs some maintenance (Onyx)
- maybe a combination of these two
- maybe needs a new drive to replace the possibly failing HD that's in there currently.

If your Mac-Mini is doing at least some things faster (things that were slower before running Onyx)...maybe Onyx helped a little. If nothing seems faster...then maybe the Onyx maintenance didn't help...or help much. Also remember that a hard drive that's too full will also slow things down.

HTH,

- Nick

Sorry, what I meant was is there a report I can review to see what Onyx did? Or the only way I can see if it helped is if it's faster? Thank you.


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[pigoo3]

Sorry, what I meant was is there a report I can review to see what Onyx did?

Not that I'm aware of (I could be wrong). Onyx is not really like one of those "over-hyped" & "over-advertised" (and often not beneficial to install) cleaner apps....that before they begin they tell you how much can be "cleaned"...and when they finish they give you a report on how much & how many items were cleaned/removed...and how much storage space was recovered.

Onyx is a good solid app (and free)...that we've recommended for years & years. If you look at the list of tasks it performs...it pretty much tells you what it will do/did each time it's run.

Or the only way I can see if it helped is if it's faster?

Sometimes members that use Onyx fell like their computer is faster after running Onyx (especially if no maintenance has been done on a computer in a long time). I kind of thought that if your Mac-Mini hasn't had any maintenance done on it in a while (or ever) that Onyx might help.

Running Onyx was one thing for us to try...to see if it would help...and before spending money on something. If your Mac-Mini still seems slow...then either the HD is too full...or it may be failing...and then we're back to the solution that maybe a new drive is needed.

No matter what the slowness issue is due to. If an SSD is installed & is the boot drive...things will feel much faster!

- Nick

 

[cherry_bomb]

Not that I'm aware of (I could be wrong). Onyx is not really like one of those "over-hyped" & "over-advertised" (and often not beneficial to install) cleaner apps....that before they begin they tell you how much can be "cleaned"...and when they finish they give you a report on how much & how many items were cleaned/removed...and how much storage space was recovered.

Onyx is a good solid app (and free)...that we've recommended for years & years. If you look at the list of tasks it performs...it pretty much tells you what it will do/did each time it's run.



Sometimes members that use Onyx fell like their computer is faster after running Onyx (especially if no maintenance has been done on a computer in a long time). I kind of thought that if your Mac-Mini hasn't had any maintenance done on it in a while (or ever) that Onyx might help.

Running Onyx was one thing for us to try...to see if it would help...and before spending money on something. If your Mac-Mini still seems slow...then either the HD is too full...or it may be failing...and then we're back to the solution that maybe a new drive is needed.

No matter what the slowness issue is due to. If an SSD is installed & is the boot drive...things will feel much faster!

- Nick

It seemed to be running a little bit faster! I've been trying to back up to my time capsule today and when I left the house it was still working on preparing the backup and it had been preparing for a few hours. Fingers crossed it's done when I get home!


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[cherry_bomb]

So just got home, my time capsule back up has been running since 11:15 am PST and it's not 4:51 pm and it's only completed 28.53 GB of 378.60 GB. It doesn't show the time remaining. Wondering how long I should let it run? It's been ages since I've done a back up so I don't recall how long it takes.


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[cherry_bomb]

So I am trying to decide on an SSD drive. What is the biggest difference between say a Crucial MX500 or Samsung 860 Evo SSD vs the OWC Electra 6G or Mercury Extreme, besides the price? Is it because it includes the kit or is it just a superior product? I'm happy to save money, but also would like to make a sound investment.

 

[ferrarr]

Have you done a "power cycle" through your home network, where you unplug all your network components, then connect one thing at a time to set up your home network?

 

[rachalmers]

Thank you! Is the heat sink compound part of the kit it something I'll need to buy separately?


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The heat sink compound is separate. Cheap as chips on Amazon etc.


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[cherry_bomb]

Have you done a "power cycle" through your home network, where you unplug all your network components, then connect one thing at a time to set up your home network?

I have, yes. The only thing that is running slow is the mini, although it is little faster than it was.




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[cherry_bomb]

Hmm....so when I left for work this morning my mini was backing up to the time capsule. However, when I checked it this evening it shows the last back up was done in 2017. I guess I should try another power cycle?

 

[cherry_bomb]

The heat sink compound is separate. Cheap as chips on Amazon etc.


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Something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0795DP124/?tag=macforums0e4-20

 

[pm-r]

Hmm....so when I left for work this morning my mini was backing up to the time capsule. However, when I checked it this evening it shows the last back up was done in 2017. I guess I should try another power cycle?

Something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0795DP124/?tag=macforums0e4-20

Excuse me for saying, but from what I've read on this thread and maybe I missed something, but it sounds like throwing a whole bunch of darts at the problem and then see if any hit the target for a possible fix without even trying some.

Now it's into thermal paste for a fix and past 56 posts??? Not exactly what I would call normal.


- Patrick
======

 

[cherry_bomb]

Excuse me for saying, but from what I've read on this thread and maybe I missed something, but it sounds like throwing a whole bunch of darts at the problem and then see if any hit the target for a possible fix without even trying some.

Now it's into thermal paste for a fix and past 56 posts??? Not exactly what I would call normal.


- Patrick
======

You don't think replacing my 7 yr old 5700hd with an SDD will make a difference? And did you actually read the posts? Because I did try their suggestions, which led us up to replacing the hard drive. And forgive me for asking, but are you being a jerk or is it just coming across that way via text? It's hard to tell.


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[cherry_bomb]

Not that I'm aware of (I could be wrong). Onyx is not really like one of those "over-hyped" & "over-advertised" (and often not beneficial to install) cleaner apps....that before they begin they tell you how much can be "cleaned"...and when they finish they give you a report on how much & how many items were cleaned/removed...and how much storage space was recovered.

Onyx is a good solid app (and free)...that we've recommended for years & years. If you look at the list of tasks it performs...it pretty much tells you what it will do/did each time it's run.



Sometimes members that use Onyx fell like their computer is faster after running Onyx (especially if no maintenance has been done on a computer in a long time). I kind of thought that if your Mac-Mini hasn't had any maintenance done on it in a while (or ever) that Onyx might help.

Running Onyx was one thing for us to try...to see if it would help...and before spending money on something. If your Mac-Mini still seems slow...then either the HD is too full...or it may be failing...and then we're back to the solution that maybe a new drive is needed.

No matter what the slowness issue is due to. If an SSD is installed & is the boot drive...things will feel much faster!

- Nick

Nick,

Do you have any thoughts of the SD I should buy? Asked a few questions on the previous page re: comparisons. Thank you!


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[pm-r]

You don't think replacing my 7 yr old 5700hd with an SDD will make a difference? And did you actually read the posts? Because I did try their suggestions, which led us up to replacing the hard drive. And forgive me for asking, but are you being a jerk or is it just coming across that way via text? It's hard to tell.

Sorry, I'm not trying to be a jerk, but would definitely agree about replacing your hard drive, and would not install anything less than a 7200-rpm HDD
Or as has been suggested, installing a decent-sized 7200 RPM HDD PLUS maybe an additional SSD. Then use the latter as a boot drive.

Your installed 16GB RAM should be more than enough for the type of work you seem to do, and redoing thermal paste as suggestion should be completely unnecessary on a 7 year old Mac, and certainly not recommended for somebody to do who does not do it regularly.

PS: You can find all the specs for your particular Mac and some of the suggested upgrades and suggested sources here:
Mac mini "Core i7" 2.3 (Late 2012) Specs (Late 2012, MD388LL/A, Macmini6,2, A1347, 2570): EveryMac.com

Many of the suggested sources are also recommended by various members on this site.

I would strongly recommend first thing that you have and use a new external hard drive and use CCC (Carbon Copy Cloner) to clone your existing drive to make a bootable backup.

Once that is done and tested, you could also try just erasing your existing Boot Drive and use the new CCC clone to clone your backup to your freshly erased boot Drive. That alone would probably speed things up drastically.

PPS: The above are not any jerk type comments, but things I know that work from 30+ years working with and supporting Macs.

PPPS: when was the last time you did some Mac maintenance like booting up using Safe Boot Mode and restarting, which alone will throw out a lot of crap and organize other stuff, and may even help speeding things up.


Good luck.


- Patrick
======

 

[pigoo3]

Excuse me for saying, but from what I've read on this thread and maybe I missed something, but it sounds like throwing a whole bunch of darts at the problem and then see if any hit the target for a possible fix without even trying some.

Now it's into thermal paste for a fix and past 56 posts??? Not exactly what I would call normal.

This is called having a nice dialog between the OP and forum members trying to help.

I think for the most part the "darts" that have been throw are:

- Replace the old HD with a new HD.
- Replace the old HD with an SSD.
- Install 1 or 2 storage devices.
- Run Onyx.
- Create more free space.
- Replace thermal compound.

I believe running Onyx has been tried...not sure if creating more free space was tried. The rest of the conversation is deciding what to do (what to replace)...and once that's been done...order the parts & do the install(s)...and do any thermal paste replacing while in there (only open things up once).

A pretty good conversation I think

- Nick