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Hi dear community, After receiving wonderful help from kind expert Dan and trying out my luck on my old macbook unibody 2008, I have decided to reach further and buy myself a used 2012 mac mini, which I would get tomorrow. Question 1: about material : do I need the Logic Board Removal Tool to just swap the 500 Go HDD to the new 500 Go SDD ? I know I need the spudger so I will get one. Question 2: ‘‘Do I have to mind how big the SSD model I will choose is? I saw that the OWC model used in a couple of old videos showing the procedure is quite bulky and seems unpractical. Question 3: my future mac mini has been erased and reset at the apple store by the genius to its original OS (I guess Lion?) Do I really need to copy that old OS to the new SSD, update the system to Mojave then add my data (process 1) ? Or is it possible to simply use the Time Machine drive that I am using on my 2013 macbook air to get Mojave + all my current data onto the new SDD in one go (process 2) ? Or is it silly to ponder ? Sorry if it is. Thanks a million for the person who will answer me. Long live the right to repair!
Hi Laura! I do recommend getting the puller it makes removal easier Mac mini Logic Board Removal Tool. You might just look at getting the Mac mini Unibody SSD Upgrade Kit which gives you all the needed tools. Here’s the guide you’ll need to follow Mac mini Late 2012 Hard Drive Replacement As far as the size of the SSD, I just did a mini with two 4 TB SSD drives! So the capacity of the drive can be quite large if you need deeper storage. As far as how to prep your new drive. The easiest way is to setup a bootable OS installer following either of these guides How to create a bootable macOS Sierra installer driveHow to create a bootable macOS Mojave installer drive I do recommend sticking with Sierra as being the better OS for this system as its SATA based so the older file system runs better on it (HFS+) vs the newer one in Mojave (APFS). I don’t recommend running High Sierra as it has issues. Once the OS is installed you can then use Migration Assistant to copy off your user account, apps & data over to your new system. There are a few different ways to do this. You could use Target Disk Mode between your two systems, You can also just use your TimeMachine backup drive. Or using a USB to SATA adapter case/cable you can connect the original drive to your system (this is the case in the upgrade kit) Here’s more on the different methods Understanding the Applications for Target Disk ModeHow to transfer your old Mac’s data to your new Mac
