[bside123]

Greetings. Looks like the hard drive in my late 2012 Mac Mini (purchased Jan 2013) has shot craps. I only use the unit as a music server. I am considering replacing the old, bad drive with a SSD from a third party such as Crucial, etc.

Has anybody done a replacement themselves? Is this a difficult task to undertake? Worth it? Also... once the SSD is in place, is the fan still needed?

Thanks in advance.

[srb]

Also... one the SSD is in place, is the fan still needed?

The majority of heat comes from the processor.  Even the slower processor of the series, a dual core i-5 M, has a TDP of 35W and a typical power consumption of ~ 28W so it still requires fan cooling.

Steve

[GentleBender]

I've replaced both drives of my Mac Mini Server (I believe it is 2012) with Samsung 850 pro 512GB models successfully. It was not very complicated and only took me about 15 minutes while taking my time. Just followed this guide https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Mac_Mini_Unibody.

Make sure you have the tools before starting and take your time and read though entire guide before attempting. Look at the comments at the end of the guide and you will see that you should not have to remove the logic board to just replace the hdd. I had to since I had to get to both hdd on the server model. Now the boot times are incredible and it feels so snappy!

[TrungT]

OWC
 

[bside123]

Ordered a SSD and Tool Kit from OWC. They were very helpful in recommending the right drive for my application, and they have a host of DIY videos and instructions. All my music data is stored on a OWC, 1TB external drive anyway. I'm gonna attempt the surgery myself, and if this goes well, perhaps I'll put a SSD in my MacBook Pro too.

[AllynW]

I have a Late 2012 Mac Mini and changed out the mechanical hard drive with a Crucial 1TB Solid State drive. I purchased the SSD from amazon.com and used the How To installation video on the OWC site. It was a fairly easy installation.  I used the software, Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the drive, its free to use the first 5 times. Also you will need a USB hard drive enclosure for the Cloning.  They are less than ten bucks also at Amazon.
 

[timind]

OWC
 

That OWC tutorial is freakin awesome!!!  If/when my 2010 Mac mini HDD craps out, I'll be ready.

[bside123]

Okay. So I performed the surgery and replaced the failed hard drive in my late 2012 Mac Mini with an OWC 240G SSD. The OWC tutorial IS awesome, and it is extremely easy to follow so long as you have the correct tools. I went ahead and ordered the tool kit for a discount price of $4.50... just to be sure. Actually the most difficult (time consuming) part of the entire operation was to seat the physical drive back into its grommets. That single step took some dexterous handling and patience. Otherwise, the rest was simple and straightforward.

Since my previous drive had completely malfunctioned (failed), the other time consuming part was to reload the operating system. No migration possible. I had no data on the drive anyway, since I only use it as a music server. My files are kept completely separate on an external Oyen firewire drive. The other steps were just to update the iTunes Library, reset preferences and to update and reset preferences for Audirvana Plus as well. Preferences are time consuming to reestablish, and because of the new drive, I had to re-optimize the Mac Mini for music playback.

Music is streaming as I type! Another minor success.

The new drive is fast, zippy, quiet and no vibration, and it wasn't expensive. This has definitely got me thinking about replacing the drive in my MacBook Pro. 

[rlee8394]

I just added the same SSD as well as installed two 4GB men sticks twenty minutes ago. Migrating from the old drive as I type this. Agreed, the OWC tutorials are great.

-Ron

[AllynW]

The new drive is fast, zippy, quiet and no vibration, and it wasn't expensive. This has definitely got me thinking about replacing the drive in my MacBook Pro. 
[/quote]

SSD drives are nice. After changing out the drive on my MM server, I installed a 240GB SSD in my MBP.  Nice and  zippy!