Can I make an old Mac mini into a back up drive?

I have an original Mac mini that is not used any more. It still works great but decided to upgrade it to a newer version for my son to use.
Is there a way to utilize the Mac mini and make it into a time machine type back up drive?

garry.ferguson wrote:
Is there a way to utilize the Mac mini and make it into a time machine type back up drive?
booted into _*Target Disk Mode*_ and connected directly to any other Mac on your local network, TM should be able to back up to the Mini's drive. see this: http://web.me.com/pondini/Time_Machine/2.html.
JGG

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I think so
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See Here for Transferring from Old to New...
http://web.me.com/pondini/AppleTips/Setup.html

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I was thinking of buying one of the new mac minis.
I have an older one from 2006 (with OS X Tiger 10.4.11 and 512Mb of RAM which means it's not powerful enough for any OS after Leopard) and I was wondering if it would be possible to use that machine as the external superdrive instead of forking out for a new apple superdrive?
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rcmjohn wrote:
I was wondering if it would be possible to use that machine as the external superdrive instead of forking out for a new apple superdrive?
yes.
booting the the Tiger Mini into target disk mode and use its ODD drive on the other Mac.
it may be necessary to pop in the optical media before booting the Mini into TDM.

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My thoughts are that your difficulties could be one of these:
your non-retail DVD may only work on a very limited range of Mac minis
the installer may not like your new RAM
the installer may not like the language change especially if the disk has not been erased first
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back up your whole mini hard disk to an external disk - see notes
erase the hard disk and partition into 2 volumes with Leopard install DVD
try to install Leopard on one volume
put original OS on the other volume
Notes:
Carbon Copy Cloner can be used to backup the whole hard disk
ensure the mini can be booted from the external disk before you erase the internal disk

I have an 6 year old mac mini having issues. I can turn it on, get the apple logo and blue screen and nothing else.....help!!

i have an 6 year old mac mini with issues that started two weeks ago. I can turn it on , get blue screen and turning circle and nothing else......help !

Hi,
Have you tried some of these? http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1533
The first things I would try would be to press shift during start up, this will boot into safe mode.
I think you'll need to purchase a copy of Snow Leopard to re-install the OS.
There's another couple of suggestions here; http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417 where you can boot into single user mode and look at repairing disk permissions if that's the problem.
I would hope that if you could boot into safe mode or single user mode, then that may automatically rectify your current issue. If not, then I'm pretty certain that a fresh install will be the ultimate answer.

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If your configuration supports Target Display mode, use that. If not, not without a standalone monitor and a product such as ScreenRecycler.
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Hi,
I do not have a wifi router.
I want my iPhone to be able to use my broadband internet instead of the slow EDGE internet.
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Message was edited by: d00by666

I did this.
I think I am doing something wrong. I am doing something wrong in this setting *from ethernet to airport*.
see attached screenshot.
To start Internet sharing on a computer using Mac OS X:
1. Open System Preferences, click Sharing, and then click Internet.
2. Select how you would like to share your Internet connection, and then click Start. You
can choose to share your Internet connection with AirPort-enabled computers,
computers with built-in Ethernet, or both.
Note:
If your Internet connection and your local network use the same port (built-in
Ethernet, for example), contact your ISP before you turn on Internet sharing. In some
cases (if you use a cable modem, for example) you might unintentionally affect the
network settings of other ISP customers, and your ISP might terminate your service to
prevent you from disrupting its network.
3. If you want to share your Internet connection with computers using AirPort, click
AirPort Options to give your network a name and password.
----------------------------------------------------

Can I install Snow Leopard on an old mac mini?

Hi, my parents have an old mac mini and they have bought a new camera to use for Skype, but it won't work on their current OS (Panther or Tiger I think).
So, can I install a newer operating system on the old mac?
Thanks

Shlubtastic wrote:
how about Leopard 10.5?
10.5.8 is fine. Obtaining it may be more difficult.
You'll need a Leopard retail install disk.
This info is provided by TexasMacMan, with updates from me;
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard installation system requirements
http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24950
Leopard is no longer available at the Apple Store but may be available by calling Apple Phone Sales @ 1-800-MY-APPLE (1-800-692-7753). {Note - this is now very unlikely, but no harm in asking}.
If you can't obtain a retail install DVD from Apple, look on Amazon MP, eBay or Google the installer part numbers to possibly find at an on-line store. Here's what to look for:
MB427Z/A Leopard 10.5.1 install DVD
MB576Z/A Leopard 10.5.4 install DVD
MB021Z/A , MC094Z/A Leopard 10.5.6 install DVD (single user)
MB022Z/A , MC095Z/A Leopard 10.5.6 install DVD (5-user family pack)
{the bold order numbers are the later ones}
Installing Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1544
Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Installation and Setup Guide
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/leopard_install-setup.pdf
After you install the base 10.5, download & install the 10.5.8 combo update at http://support.apple.com/downloads/Mac_OS_X_10_5_8_Combo_Update
{This is still available on Support Downloads}

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The situation concerning the hard drive is complicated. It is not included in the list of Excluded Items.
If the drive is not "Excluded", then it must be included. That is the way that Apple's software works.
But, nor am I given the option to select it or any of the items in it for adding to the list of Excluded Items.
If you want to add an item to the list of Excluded items, click the + button at the bottom of the Excluded list, then navigate to select the drive to add it. Once the drive has been added, you can go back in and select the items.
When I go into the exclude from backup area and select the hard drive, it and the items in it appear in dimmed form, but I cannot select them.
Sorry, I do not understand what you are trying to say here.
What I want to do, but cannot, is what I did before, select one of the items in it not to be backed up and leave the rest to be backed up
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have not seen the 'Quick Erase' option.
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Just bought a new Canon Vixia HF R300. It looks like I have basically two recording modes--either AVCHD or MP4. I have a year old Mac Mini on Lion with increased ram. I edit on iMovie and upload to You Tube. Which recording mode would be best?

Hi...
I just bought a Canon Vixia HF R300 camcorder. It looks like it gives me a choice of two recording modes AVCHD or MP4. I will be uploading onto a year old Mac Mini with the Lion Operating system and increased ram. I will be editing in iMovie '11 then uploading to You Tube. Which recording mode should I use? Obviously I'd like to get the best quality but I also want it to show well on You Tube. What do you think? Thanks for the help. Bill

Hi
What program can you use to convert AVCHD to a DVD format?
Share to File (in iMovie) - AND AS 480p - NOT Higher as DownScaling will be done badly.
Use this file in iDVD or Roxio Toast™ or what DVD Authoring program You've got.
To make a VIDEO-DVD You must use a DVD Authoring program - to get the right compression format AND Structure - It is a MUST.
There are free alternatives - but resulting DVD hasve been far from what quality iDVD (and Toast™) will deliver.
To get best possibly DVD - also this counts.
- DVD brand used - I only Verbatim
- DVD type used - I only DVD-R Single layer (4.7Gb)
(DVD+R works for many and DVD-R/W usually don't work OK and Double Layer also are a problem to it self)
- BURN SPEED - I set this as low possibly (usually x2)
- Free Space on Start-Up Hard Disk - MATTERS - I never go less than 25Gb
Good Luck
Yours Bengt W

Specs of new Mac Mini worse than the old Mac Mini?

I just looked at the new Mac Mini, released today I think, but it seems that you can no longer select SSDs, and the highest-spec Mac Mini had TWO SSDs available - not available anymore!
Also, I waited for this update with the hope that MORE RAM would be available - I really want a 32GB machine to run as a slave, and I need LOTS of RAM for this machine, but there's no option for that without buying the Trash Can Mac Pro, which has all sorts of features that I DON'T need.
What is the go with Mac Mini specs going BACKWARDS?
Also, any advice would be great. I'm considering having a PC made for my slave computer, but I'd rather not do that, PCs suck. lol.
Thanks!

The new Mac mini does support 'flash' storage aka SSD storage. The difference is that the Apple listed options for the new Mac mini for flash aka. SSD storage now use the PCIe interface and not the old SATA interface. PCIe is much faster than SATA.
The new Mac mini does support a 'Fusion' drive, this is Apple's 'hybrid' drive approach which combines a traditional hard disk with a 128GB of Flash storage. Since the new Mac mini does support a Fusion drive and a Fusion drive includes a traditional hard disk we can safely deduce that the new Mac mini does have at least one traditional SATA drive bay.
What is not yet clear is how many PCIe flash storage connectors it has and how many SATA connectors it has. It could be for example that the 1TB flash storage choice is actually made up from 2 x 512GB, however since the new Mac Pro also lists the same PCIe flash storage choices of 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB and the new Mac Pro only has a single PCIe SSD connector it is highly likely the new Mac mini also only has a single PCIe connector.
While it would be nice if it still had the option of two SATA drives and also a single PCIe flash drive, I think it is more likely that there is only one SATA connector. This makes internal RAID1 less practical, not only would it now be very hard to get two matching capacity 'drives' but even if you did they would be at vastly different speeds. One can still use external RAID storage.

Can I make an old Mac mini into a back up drive?

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