Mac mini as an external hard drive

Can I use a mac mini as an external hard drive? if i can how do I make the connection?

You would restart the mini while holding down the T key on the attached keyboard. This puts the mini into Firewire target mode. Assuming the mini is attached to a monitor, you will see a moving Firewire logo on the screen indicating the mini is in target mode.
From there, all you have to do is plug it into the FW port on a second computer and it will look just like a hard drive to the other computer.

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    http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1661
    This mode has to be used carefully according to the protocol in the above link.
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    The limiting factor in your 2009 mini is the max 9.5mm drive thickness.
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  • Installing Mac OS on an external hard drive

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    Since I've gone both routes, I figured I'd chime in. Shortly after buying my mini bought an external firewire (don't even think about USB no matter what the sales drone might tell you) and cloned my system to it. I then created a nicely sized BootCamp partition and used the external for Mac work and the internal for PC work. I kept a small Mac partition on the internal removing everything from the OS and Disk Utilities - basically a fast diagnostic disk. That was a great way to work and a side benefit is that the 7200 RPM external FW drive booted up a bit faster. Disk space taken up? Well, yeah, but how big is an external drive? Besides, there are external drives (and do it yourself cases) made especially for the mini so you can stack them.
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  • I just got a new mac and use my external hard drive to save all my images to but whenever I go to save my photo to my hard drive it says I do not have write access....Whats wrong how do i fix this or do i need a new hard drive??

    I just got a new mac and use my external hard drive to save all my images to but whenever I go to save my photo to my hard drive it says I do not have write access....Whats wrong how do i fix this or do i need a new hard drive??@

    This is a Mac question not a Photoshop question, and I am a Windows users, but I can Google and this might be what you need to do:
    http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/change-read-permision-external-hard-drive-mac/

  • Can I replace the optical drive on a 2010 mac mini with a second hard drive?

    i was just wandering how easy it would be (if at all) to replace the optical drive on my 2010 Mac Mini with a second hard drive
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    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/drive_bracket/datadoubler/

  • How do you export your iphoto library from a mac air to an external hard drive to free up space on the mac air

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    Go to Pictures folder and copy the library to the external drive. Then, open iPhoto holding Option key and select the library in your external disk. Finally, delete the library on Pictures

  • How come my mac isnt showing my external hard drive after installing os x maverick? and how to i fix that??

    how come my mac isnt showing my external hard drive after installing os x maverick? and how to i fix that??

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  • HT201250 How do I back up a MAC G4 on an external hard drive?

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  • Can anyone help with clearing space on my Mac Mini, it says the hard drive is full and runs slowly.

    Please help, we got the Mac Mini from a family member so it may have his stuff on it but no longer required, we have only put a smal amount of data on it so don't believe we have over filled it. I backed up to a hard drive all photos etc as I thought it may be them filling it, now I cannot even scan a document to it. Is there any way to Defrag it as you can normally do to a windows system as well as either declutter it or restore the whole thing.
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    Smithy

    The first thing to do with a second-hand computer is to erase the internal drive and install a clean copy of OS X. You — not the previous owner — must do that. How you do it depends on the model, and on whether you already own another Mac. If you're not sure of the model, enter the serial number on this page. Then find the model on this page to see what OS version was originally installed.
    1. You don't own another Mac.
    If the machine shipped with OS X 10.4 or 10.5, you need a boxed and shrink-wrapped retail Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) installation disc from the Apple Store or a reputable reseller — not from eBay or anything of the kind. If the machine has less than 1 GB of memory, you'll need to add more in order to install 10.6. Preferably, install as much memory as it can take, according to the technical specifications.
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    If you already own another Mac that was upgraded in the App Store to the version of OS X that you want to install, and if the new Mac is compatible with it, then you can install it. Use Recovery Disk Assistant to create a bootable USB device and boot the new Mac from it by holding down the C key at the startup chime. Alternatively, if you have a Time Machine backup of OS X 10.7.3 or later on an external hard drive (not a Time Capsule or other network device), you can boot from that by holding down the option key and selecting it from the row of icons that appears. Note that if your other Mac was never upgraded in the App Store, you can't use this method.
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  • Can I use mac mini as a second hard drive

    I want to use a second hard drive to run Logic Pro and nothing else. Will a mac mini do this? Can I hook it up to my imac?

    Why not just get an external hard drive?  A whole lot
    cheaper.

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