Hard Drive Expansion

What is the best solution for increasing the size of my hard disk on my mini? Is there a way to add an external and have it show up as part of the internal storage space?

Joe,
I replaced the hard drive in my 2 year old mini yesterday. I was careful and it took me about 40 mins. I spent the most time making sure the case went on straight at the very end. I followed the instructions from ifixit.com as mentioned above:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repair/Installing-Mac-mini-Model-A1176-Hard-Drive/11 08/1
These are very good instructions with photos of each step - just make sure you you choose the appropriate model.
I bought a 500GB replacement hard drive (only 5400rpm in my case). To start the process, I connected the new hard drive to the mini using a USB to SATA adapter and used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the old hard drive on to the new. http://www.bombich.com/ I checked it worked by booting from it before taking the machine apart and making the replacement.
Good luck

Similar Messages

Hard Drive Expansion/Upgrade

Choices, choices! I am rapidly filling up my stock Maxtor 250 GB hard drive, and I need to upgrade. I've read most of the posts in this forum, and see many potential ways to go. Hopefully, some of you experienced power users can give me some guidance.
My needs/wants:
- Extra capacity. I have a large collection of transparencies I’m scanning. I think my needs (for the next couple of years) will be met with around 350 GB of storage.
- Backup. My (pathetic) backup routine has been to copy important data files to my Powerbook. I need a much more complete, robust, and systematic process for backup.
- Performance. Not a priority, but would be a nice benefit.
- Cost. Not a big deal, but I’d obviously like to save money if I can.
- Heat dissipation. My office is not air conditioned, and gets hot in the summer (90°+). The heat doesn’t bother me, but am afraid of what it might do to an insufficiently cooled drive.
- Space/clutter/convience. I prefer to keep all of my drives inside my G5, but will readily go with external drives if there are good reasons to do so.
Here’s what I’m currently thinking of doing:
Slot 1: Maxtor 72GB Raptor OS, applications (boot)
Slot 2: Hitachi 7K500 backup
Sonnet Tech G5 Jive
Aux 1: Maxtor 7Y250M0 (stock 250 GB) data (RAID 0 drive 1)
Aux 2: Maxtor DiamondMax 10/ 250 GB / 16MB data (RAID 0 drive 2)
Thoughts? Here are some of the things I’m wondering about:
- Will there be any issues pairing my stock Maxtor with a newer 16 MB Maxtor 250GB in a RAID 0 configuration?
- Will I have power or cooling issues with the G5 Jive and the RAID pair?
- Where is the best place to buy this stuff?
Thanks in advance!

MacGurus was always strong on SCSI, out of which the Burly came. Same with Seagate Cheetahs. Seagate may not be the fastest, but it usually is reliable and trouble-free regardless of chipset, controller, or OS. And some buy based on "quiet" or warranty. So you're right, they have.
Sonnet Tempo firmware has had trouble with Maxtor DM10/MLIII. Maxtor had a couple poor years, too, and the very first of the DM10 250GB models wouldn't even work on Macs. You could use a Maxtor utility on a PC, or RMA the drives. They also introduced staggered spin-up feature that doesn't work on all controllers, Sonnet had an issue with their 8-channel card and drives not showing up and RAID would keep failing. MacGurus carried Maxtor last winter, got burned, may come back.
Hitachi had a couple 7K250 models, noted on Barefeats, that had SSC and didn't work on SeriTek but would on Sonnet. The new 7K250 and T7K250 are fine. The 7K400 was not native SATA drive and also had SSC (OWC carries a non-SSC version of this drive, though the 7K500 is just plain superior now).
What has happened with SATA is a lot of changes being introduced and not everyone is on the 'same page' and 'qualifying' their equipment - the end user gets that job I guess.
No one ever lost a job in IT, the saying goes, for recommending IBM mainframes and DASD. Sometimes their mid-range and below wasn't the best, but once IBM was in a shop, they had great support and engineers to help you with your planning and upgrades - long-term commitment and relationship with a vendor, I could be sure of prices, support, and know the equipment.
A lot of people might be turned off by Granite Digital's SCSI costs. I swear by them (tried low costs solutions and threw them away) so I have a large investment in SCSI cables and such. Running four 15K drives, drive coolers, hefty PSU and fans, dedicated UPS.
IBM name took a big hit in storage, what with the 75GXP "deathstars" and poorer performance of their SCSI drives compared to Maxtor, Seagate (and Fujitsu but Fuji drives don't always work in FibreChannel and Mac systems I think). IBM still uses an extra platter as 'spare' so they can still map out bad blocks and get good yields, but their SCSI drives are hotter and louder than others) but any server farm is going to be in a noisy room where that shouldn't be a matter, and is climate controlled).
I keep my drives in a small, cool room - noise and heat are not a problem. Just like cooling an MDD, you look for how much air the fans in a case push, whether it has room for bay coolers, or has front and back fans, as well.
People want their external drive tower to be 'fashionable' and 'color coordinated' to their Gx Mac. I use to buy cases from www.hypermicro.com - CiDesign mainly because they are well made, metal, good cooling characteristics - but they have scaled back, harder to compete in today's market with cheaper products that can drive out even the good ones.

[SOLVED] Hard drive expansion options

Hello everyone,
I installed Arch on a 40GB hard drive I had laying around just to try it out. I have since decided to use it as my main OS. How would I go about expanding my storage onto a second physical hard drive (250GB)? Considering I already have Arch installed, is it possible for me to still use a LVM? When I run out of space on my 40GB drive, can I just change pacman's root installation directory to my second hard drive?
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
Last edited by crypt0 (2014-04-17 03:28:22)

Inxsible wrote:
I don't think the OP is using LVM. He is asking if he can use LVM without having to re-install.
I have to look for a post which enlightened me about using LVM after you have installed Arch. I haven't actually done that. Let me go find that post.
Edit: Here it is: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 3#p1396753
Try out and let us know how it went. I have been meaning to look into it, but just haven't had the time.
Sorry for the late reply. Yes that is what I meant. Blocks has however caused an issue with GRUB. The details are located here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=180190
Edit: 1. Got Blocks installed.
Last edited by crypt0 (2014-04-17 01:27:47)

Ibook g4 and hard drive expansion

I have an ibook g4 that came with about 40 gb of space on the hard drive. needless to say that space is about all used up. I'm wondering how I can expand my hard drive without getting an external hard drive-- or is that the only method? I'm also fairly computer illiterate so if anyone could give me the basics on this I'd really appreciate it. I apologize if this is the billionth time this question's been asked.

It is funny you bring this up.. i am trying to do the same with one of my powerbooks.. apple told me they do not sell the internal drives nor will they put it in for you. so i asked "if i buy one myself and put it in will it still be under my apple care warranty?" they said if something fails because of the hard drive or install it will void the warranty onthe computer.. if i put it in and something fails that has nothing to do with the har drive or me installing it they would cover it..
Long story short, you will have to buy a internal off of ebay or the internet and put it in yourself or have another retail shop besides apple do it for you.
hope that helps.

Hard Drive Expansion in the 1st generation iMac G5

I have a first generation iMac G5 that uses a Serial ATA hard drive. What is the maximum size hard drive that this computer will support?
Also, is there any way to disable the pulsing ambient sleep light?
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Current hard drive info in this thread
Did you apply the recent sleep light firmware update? Apple article

Optimizing hard drive expansion

Hi Everyone,
On my Mac Pro I currently have my hard drives as follows:
Bay 1 - WD3200AAJS (supplied with machine from Apple)
+Running OS, applications and assorted games+
Bay 2 - WD3200KS
+Running Time Machine and almost at full capacity.+
Bay 3 - WD1500ADFD (Raptor)
+Running Windows XP Pro and assorted games.+
Given that my mac is used primarily for gaming how best should I expand my drives for optimum speed!
1. Would it be worth raiding the two 320gb drives?
2. I've read that the new WD640AAKS is worth a go so should I buy 2 and raid them?
or
3. Buy two WD6400AAKS drives and use one for Mac OS and the other for Windows and use the two 320gb drives purely for back up?
I'm really unsure as to which way to go with this so any help would really be appreciated.

A mac primarily used for gaming is like a hooker primarily used for lectures in quantum physics. All that nonsense aside, your gaming performance will be mostly affected by your graphics card. Check xlr8yourmac.com for reports but off the top of my head I think you can combine two 3870 graphics cards and run them together under windows. It won't match the best PC's for gaming but it's worth looking at and finding out if it can in fact be done. I doubt raiding and such will make a huge difference to gaming. Gaming is all about graphics card performance, assuming you have plenty of RAM.

Blue iBook hard drive expansion

My friend has an old blue iBook with 6gb HD. She would like to load Panther but needs to expand the HD size. Someone has told her this is not possible. Is that true?
Is the HD a 2.5 inch?
If so can't I just replace with a bigger capacity HD ?
thanks
Pete

Hello,
First let me start by sating 6GB is more than enough room to install and run Panther. I had it installed on my blueberry iBook and I only had a 3GB hard drive. There was no room for additional storage but you will have 3GB left that I didn't have. Second, yes you can install a larger drive. There is quite a bit of disassembly involved but I installed a 40GB drive in mine this past weekend. It only took 2 hours from the time I started to the time I had it running and ready to reinstall the operating system. I had always heard how difficult these machines were to upgrade and granted there are lots of computers out there that are much easier to change the drives in but I found it to be rather simple. You can view instructions for the swap at www.ifixit.com , they lay it out step by step and you can even print out screw charts so you can tape the screws to it as you remove them so you will know where each one goes when you reassemble. Best wishes for the upgrades!

Hard drive expansion expert needed! - recommendations?

Hello-
I have a Powermac Dual 450 with a 120Gb Seagate drive and the original 40 (30?) Gb drive. I would like to add a second larger drive to create a mirrored backup using CCC or Superduper!. I see a few options, and ask you all what is the best choice:
1. Pull the 40GB drive and add another 120GB - the 40 is rarely used, and data could be transfererd to a 2.5 external drive.
2. Pull the 40GB and add a 200GB drive (which is now CHEAPER than the 120 at Circuit City - $50 vs ~$100), knowing that only 120 will be recognized - does this affect performance? Will the drive revert to 200GB in a newer machine in a few years?
3. Can I add a 3rd drive to this system, keeping the current 120 and 40??? Not sure from what I have read on line.
4. Go with an external enclosure - do I have to max at 120GB with this, or can I go higher? Since the internal is 120, I don't really need much more. Any advantage to the external over internal - speed? Seems a bit more $$. Easier for someone to walk off with the external than the whole computer too!
Enclosure recommendations?
5. Something else I haven't considered?
Right now I am leaning towards #2 as it is a $50 solution, but wonder about #4.
THANK YOU!

Hello,
when you sleep the computer the external should go to sleep , i got a problem though on my powerbook G3 233Mhz and the external sometimes stop the comp starting after a long sleep so i have to restart, but i haven't tried yet with the G4, so far i don't remember having problems with my Imac G3, i think it depends .
But when you shut down the comp then switch the external off but don't forget to start it up first before starting the comp back as the desktop still got the ex on it!!!
When you want to shut or unplug the ex you always heve to eject it first to get it off the desktop and save your data from moss.
if you set the computer to back up your data (eg.index) the comp should wake and start the script!!!
As far as speed with external or internal is a simple fact. Internal goes faster, but with a good processor it doesn't show much the difference to your eyes, it's stay at a good rate for the ex, the ext as the advantage to be able staying away from troubles . I mean you can always plug it in on another comp and use your datas rather than the inter might have more hardware troubles since it is plug straight onto the motherboard and else!!! it's always better to have an external to keep your data safe and back them up so clean ones are more likely to be on the ext than the inter in case of hardware problems or damages.
Get one that 's all I can advise you. Also i use Techtool Pro which help me keeping my data safe.
regards

Internal Hard Drive Expansion Suggestions

I would like to add another internal drive to my Mac Pro 2 Ghz, with 2 GB memory and 250GB drive. I was thinking of 250 to 500GB. I plan to use it for storing iPhoto files mostly. Speed is not a primary factor. Reliability and cost are. I would like to take advantage of the collective knowledge on this forum to help sort through the many alternatives that I've read about so far. What has worked for you? Can I just plug it in and go? Where do I get it? Thanks in advance for you time.

AMUG has posted an article that displays performance of the Maxline III 320GB, Maxline III 300GB (7V300F0) and the Seagate 7200.10 with the latest shipping firmware version 3.AAE on an Apple Mac Pro. It is published at this link:
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/maxtor/
I would go with the Maxline III 300GB 7V300F0 based on these tests and my experiences. It can be found here:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000FLPWIY/arizomacinusergr
Have fun!

Two drives : same buffer on all hard drives ?

I just ordered a SATA Maxtor drive 300G 7200, Buffer 16Mo (model 6B300S0) to add onto the second bay of my G5 DP 1.8 Ghz.
The original drive (that will be kept in place) is also from Maxtor, 80G 7200, Buffer 8Mo.
I just went by this article from apple support "http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300355".
It says
"Storage :
Two Serial ATA controllers supporting up to 150-MBps data throughput per hard drive
Two 3.5-inch hard drive expansion bays with drive guides for a second drive
One 80GB or 160GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA drive installed in standard configurations(5)
Support for up to two internal Serial ATA drives; 500GB maximum system capacity(5)
8MB memory buffers on all hard drives"
Is this "8MB memory buffers on all drives" restrictive, meaning there might problematic to have two hard drives running with different buffers ?
Thank you for any suggestion, I still have time to cancel my order and order another drive with 8 MB buffer before tomorrow..
Luc

Thank you for your reply,
As a matter of fact, the Apple report is from october 2004, and my machine from April 2005, not much further away. I have found an happy report in XRL8yourmac from sept 2004 describing no problem with the same drive in a Dual 2.5 GHz Power Mac G5 .
The writer says it ran faster than the original 250GB Maxtor 7Y250M0 (8Mo buffer), but did not say if the two drives are running allong well or if he did replace the 250 by the 300. I understood that we cannot instal more than 500 Gig total in a G5 this generation ??
My specific question is :
Is it any reason to think that running two SATA drives with different size buffers would be problematic ?
Many thanks
Luc

How do I reformat my Seagate Expansion external hard drive so I can use it for Mac

I recently purchased a 3TB Seagate® Expansion® external hard drive for PC. My plan is too reformat it so that I can use it, but it has been acting wierd on me. It says on Disk Utility that it is 4 gbs but I have a 3TB one. Im on OSX mavericks by the way. Thanks!

akostainsek,
the diskutil output shows that the disk has no Apple-recognized partitioning. Try the following commands in Terminal to establish the partitioning, and to see if it takes effect:
diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ Seagate disk1
diskutil list
Again, please include in your reply the full output from these commands.

I want to format a Seagate Expansion External Hard Drive for Mac and PC

I ordered a Seagate Expansion 2 TB USB 3.0 Desktop External Hard Drive to use with my new Mac and my old PC (or at least get my photos off of both and put them on the drive). I thought all HDs could be formatted to use by both, I was able to get a Mac HD to work with my PC in 2008 (but it died). I am reading that this drive is PC only. I have Parallels and Windows 8 on my Mac if worse comes to worse but I would like all of my computers, real, virtual old and new to be able to access the external drive. Has anyone encountered this issue before? What should I format it in? FAT32? If yes, how would I go about that on a Mac. Or should I just return it?
I'm kind of Mac clueless. I spent my childhood through college on a Mac but I graduated right when OSX came around and I don't know how to work with the Mac "under the hood" like I did with OS9 and with Windows. So please talk to me like I am an an adult idiot.
Thanks!!!!

The optimum choice is to format it ExFAT, but do so on the PC, not the Mac. Alternatively, you can make two partitions - one for the Mac; one for the PC. Partition the drive using GUID when you make the two partitions. Format one using Mac OS Extended, Journaled. Format the other on your PC using NTFS if you won't need to write to it from the OS X side or use ExFAT if you do.
Drive Partition and Format
1. Open Disk Utility in your Utilities folder.
2. After DU loads select your hard drive (this is the entry with the mfgr.'s ID and size) from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window.
3. Under the Volume Scheme heading set the number of partitions from the drop down menu to two. Click on the Options button, set the partition scheme to GUID then click on the OK button. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Click on the Apply button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Select the volume you just created (this is the sub-entry under the drive entry) you will use for Windows from the left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
5. Set the format type to MSDOS.
6. Click on the Erase button.
When you connect the drive to your PC reformat the PC volume to either NTFS or ExFAT.

My Seagate Expansion 500GB external hard drive no longer works with my Mac

Hi
i have had a seagate expansion hard drive for the last year ish and it has worked as a time machine without any problem. when i first got it i had to format it to windows but that was simple and worked well. recently i unplugged it for a few weeks and have recently plugged it back in. now it won't register as my timemachine or show in finder.
I went into disk utilities and clicked 'repair' then click 'verify and these are the two errors i recieved.
Verify and Repair volume “Jon & Sarah Time Machine”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid index key
Rebuilding Catalog B-tree.
The volume Jon & Sarah Time Machine could not be repaired.
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
Verifying volume “Jon & Sarah Time Machine”
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking Extents Overflow file.
Checking Catalog file.
Invalid index key
The volume Jon & Sarah Time Machine needs to be repaired.
Error: Filesystem verify or repair failed.
I am hoping that someone has had the same issue and is able to help me with this problem.
all my back ups are on the hard drive so i really don't want to have to format it as i don't know what i will lose.
I have checked for updates for my Mac and it says there are none.
cheers
Jon

You need something stronger, such as DiskWarrior, to repair the HD.

Expansion base USB ports & hard drive no longer recognized

I have an HP dv5000 laptop and the xb2000 expansion base with a built-in hard drive in the base. I routinely undock the laptop while it's running and plug it back in again and have no problems. Yesterday, I undocked as usual, but then shut the laptop down while it was undocked. Then I put it back in the expansion base and booted up again. The problem is that now I can no longer see the hard drive in the expansion base and the USB ports for the expansion base will also not work.
The really sad part is that this is a new expansion base because the same thing happend about a month ago, but I thought it was a hardware problem and just bought a new base.
Can anyone please help me get my laptop to see the hard drive in the base and also get the USB ports working again as well?
Thanks,
OneTrader

I tried to post a reply on a computer with Internet Explorer 8 RC1. My CPU would always be 100% busy as soon as I hit the Reply button.
I complained to HP Support and was told that this forum is not compatible with IE 8. So, I am now on a computer with IE 7. UPDATE: I just executed C:\WINDOWS\ie8\spuninst\spuninst.exe and my HP Notebook reverted back to IE 7 without any problems so far. I am now able to edit this reply (without my CPU being 100% busy)!
I had exactly the same problem with all USB Ports and the optional 160GB USB Hard Drive being nonfunctional, immediately after Microsoft
Update (Custom) finished installing recommended driver "Cypress - Other hardware - HX2LP Kit (3.03.0000.2).
The device appeared in Device Manager, under Universal Serial Bus Controllers, as "HX2LP Kit (3.03.0000.2)". I uninstalled the device but
after a restart it was there again.
I executed System Restore to a date before the Cypress drivers were downloaded and installed.
All xb2000 USB Ports, the USB Hard Drive and Sound now work as before. I have been using a mouse and printer plugged into the xb2000 today. Also,
I completed a Windows Live OneCare, complete backup, to the Hard Drive in the xb2000 base, today.
The one thing that I hate about my xb2000 is that the Hard Drive keeps spinning as long as the Hard Drive Power Adaptor is connected to
the base. I use "Safely Remove Hardware" on the task bar to safely remove the USB drive and then disconnect the Power Adaptor from the base. If I leave the disk spinning, after a few minutes I get a very loud clicking sound which sounds like something inside the drive is beating on the hard drive chassis. Maybe it is the arm which holds the heads. Complaints to HP have not resulted in a solution to these aggravations.
Message Edited by iwampfler on 02-27-2009 11:45 PM

DVR Upgrade / Expansion - External Hard Drive goes idle

I upgraded my DVR by buying a 2TB external eSata hard drive. The external drive works when I power it on and it shows up in my DVR menu. I have been able to record to the external device and playback.
The problem is that the device goes idle and goes into standby mode. The cable box then does not recognize it and only records to the internal storage. The only way I can get it to record to it is to manually turn it off then back on. I contacted the manufacturer and it doesn't have a shutdown feature, they said the issue is with the cable box not sending power to it.
Is there a fix for this?

I am not sure why it is doing that. The external drives so still keep working if the box is in standby. To rule out it being a problem with the box you can hook it up to another box you may have or hook it up to a friends box to test it. Also refer to our e-sata page talking about the connectivity, drives we have tested and approved services for(though people have successfully used other drives) , and frequently asked questions.
http://www22.verizon.com/residentialhelp/fiostv/other+hardware/esata/129841.htm?
Anthony_VZ
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Hard Drive Expansion

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