Apple Mac Mini (Late 2014) HDD replacement

[@davidconnor8000]

Thank you! This took me a few hours….given the tiny screws, and the Torq SECURITY tools, are different to regular Torq…. So the 1T HDD, now replaced with a 500GB SSD. 2014 Mac mini now runs like a dream! And no more slows between applications, even when all music and photos are open. Start up now 30 seconds - not 5 mins …and no more constant spinning wheel slows …WELL WORTH IT!!!

[@bioxfx5597]

My macmini runs super fast now. This is why I love KZbin! You saved me $1k

[@pesto12601]

Thanks for the video... just bought a used 2014 mac mini and a 500GB ssd drive, followed your video and boom.. a 4x increase in speed and bootup! Much appreciated.....

[@austinmccollumgmail]

great walkthrough. I ended up using a landscape u-shaped pin for the logic board ejection instead of a coat hanger. Thanks for the detailed steps!

[@rolfarands9500]

Thank you. I was able to watch the video first, then do the swap on my Mini and bring it up on the first try with this video. Only thing that I would add is you need a "security" T6 and "security" T9 Torx for this. You mentioned just T6 and T9 but they have that annoying little security hole in them. Nice job, thank you! The re-download of the OS from Apple, and then the OS patches and upgrades to latest, took forever ... Apple gets a fail there. A+ to you.

[@engineerinnewyork]

Amazing tutorial, I can’t thank you enough! To my amazement, I did not leave any screws behind, and the thing booted right up! This is not a job for the faint hearted. One minor correction, the screws that hold the drive in place are T8. Important because one of the screws is hard to reach (wires in the way), and using a T9 bit might strip the screw head.

[@X-OR_]

4 years later and your instruction worked great !!!

[@The_G]

Wow - excellent stuff, thanks for that very comprehensive take apart and rebuild - all working fast as now. Much Appreciated

[@recentalpaca5529]

I got one now, will be upgrading in the near future. Thanks for the excellent video.

[@sreekumarUSA]

Thanks for the highly educative illustrations, explanations, researches and videos, you have painstakingly took time to exhibit to all of us. Though , finally my brain got knotted at 0300 hrs, I’m left with a lot of doubts and questions dangling in front of me. But, I’m not going to disturb your peace n quiet life with it all. Please rest assured. I’ll riddle my Mac Service person with it all. But I learned a few from you. Thanks a ton, my friend for all your efforts to educate us all. Cheers.

[@anthonyc2808]

"Apple: Think different." Let's put the hard drive in a different spot, one that will annoy the shit out of our customers.

[@pesto12601]

well.. only true techies/geeks are going to try and do upgrades to these products anyway.. about 0.0015% of apples customer base... so why make it easy?

[@dgponce]

@@pesto12601 not sure since Apple didn't put the best it could fit. That's the reason to make this change.

[@pesto12601]

@@dgponce Agree.. and I made the change to the HD and it took 20 mins or so.. not hard with all the resources on the internet.. but I'm a techie.... your average mom buying one of these off the shelf for netflix and email could care less about SSD vs 5400 drives.. Thus, Apple makes it hard to upgrade but uses quality construction methods.

[@dgponce]

@@pesto12601 we ´ve to say that in all 2007/2008 pcs ssd dont make difference because the bus speed of the hard disk. But now a days, ssd are making a big difference. But its true, momys don't virtualize! (-mines did). thats the marketing goal, get much than you expect and this wasn't the case.

[@pesto12601]

@@dgponce agree 100%... if I were running a company with big marketing pockets.. i'd do the same thing.. nothing wrong with that since 99.99% of folks will never bother to even think what is inside the box!

[@TheIceboundthrath]

Thank you, you made this upgrade video very easy to follow, and saved my Mac Mini from being a paper weight.

[@glennhilbert5752]

Great instructional video! Very easy to follow! Brought new life to my Mac Mini! Thanks!

[@saskiagerarts2686]

Thanks so much for the tutorial. This was my very first try to get my mac mini faster and everything works!

[@ProducerCliff]

This is a truly great video, because it shows what goes wrong! Most people edit out the bits that go wrong which really does not help anyone trying to see how things are done. Well done! best instal video ever!

[@thrasher10000]

Excellent video thanks! Very clear, worked a charm.

[@noizedub80]

Just bought a mac mini, I own an iPhone and apple watch but never an mac OS device, nice video !

[@garethbjenkins]

Nice one. I'm planning on making this upgrade over the weekend.

[@mikeg8013]

Just finished my install. Thanks for the tutorial!!

[@javaruck]

Excellent video. My Mac mini has acceptable speed now and this was much cheaper than a new unit!

[@johnnyonthespot415]

This was an excellent video and easy to follow! Thank you!

[@riccardoromagnoli3007]

the groan you did at 11:05 ... made me laugh for a while !

[@bstewart9056]

Great video. I followed it step byt step.

[@roopinderpalsinghrandhawa9846]

I liked the video commentary more than the video!!!! Nice jolly way to make a boring task better. You also need better lighting in the video!!

[@thatsisjustcrazy8187]

Great tutorial!! Thanks so much. I used a Samsung 850 Pro and everything worked fine. Thanks again!

[@The_G]

Thanks so much for this - followed it step by step and all good - much appreciated.

[@netconnections2k]

Great detailed video and information. Thanks for posting it.

[@ParzivalKings]

Amazing works , thanks just upgraded my Mac to 1tb ssd

[@NKSAudio]

Hi.. My mac mini late 2014 blinks a second and goes off... Is that a problem with the logicboard and if it is yes, is replacing it worthy enough.. My machine is around 4.5 years old.

[@Vratiss]

changed HDD to SSD in my mac mini few days ago. What a difference. 512GB HDD was terrible and slow. For all it is not that hard, you just need good equipment.

[@bassamabulela]

"We'll just put that piece of tape back over it just for shits and giggles" ROFL xD

[@SteveTheNerd]

If you have an old Mac Mini with an HDD and it runs slow as fuck, do this, insert an SSD and have fun. Did that to my machine and boy it runs smooth in 2020! Definitely worth every penny and every bit of fiddling with odd screws and weird casings of the Mac Mini!

[@chadmorin5657]

So I have a 2014 16 gb and a 1tb. I have the adapter for the fusion drive. I have lots of ssd cards as luck would have it. Can I put a 1tb 2.5 where the hdd was and a 512 ssd card with the adapter to bring this i7 3.0 to a 16 gb ram and 1,512 gb ssd shared? That’s sounds like a pretty good machine. Tell me why I can’t do this? Also, why isn’t it anywhere online? OWC is so expensive compared to ssd (brand names now). A year ago they were a modest amount more, now they are the apples of ssds but without cutting edge. Crucial mx is just as good as any OWC. I’ve got crucial and Wd red card.

[@high4travel]

I do have 2014 Mac mini with 1TB fusion which I like to upgrade to SSD. Did you clone your SSD first before you install drive? What effect does 128G Apple SSD do?

[@satindersingh8105]

Brother TY, you hv done very good job, when you replaced the HDD in McMn. Can you suggest me which should I hv to buy Mac mini or iMac for my business.

[@zoltanbatiz]

Excellent video sir. Just wish I was that fast with the screwdriver! LOL

[@deetwoniner]

Success! Great vid. Tip, if you’re on a budget I used just one TR7 to do the whole job. It’s an odd fit but works for both TR6 & TR8 screws with a little extra pressure.

[@zhinchan]

How did you install the MacOS software from old HDD to PNY SSD?

[@FrancescoDeGiorgio]

hi! a quick question: If I buy the 512 GB SSD version, can I put an additional disk to the SATA controller? For example, If I buy the Samsung 850 pro 1 Tb, can I use it together with the original 512 pcie SSD? Thanks

[@markphenry03]

Thx for this, went like a charm

[@garmit61]

could you list which disk reader you have on the desk and the software you used to do this please? Any reason you didn't use Time machine?

[@guilloguzmanl]

With a PCIe NVMe blade SSD you get speeds above 700 MB/s, also you keep both the SSD and HDD and installation is very easy, you only need to move the metal cover.

[@lionelfranklin4529]

Can you tell me more about this? Where does the disk go? Since you say you don’t have to remove the old disk? Maybe a link?

[@guilloguzmanl]

@@lionelfranklin4529 sure, here is the instruction video from OWC kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6HcnoKMotdngZI

[@lionelfranklin4529]

@@guilloguzmanl Thanks a lot mate! Much appreciated. Ordered a set and let's bring this puppy back to live for my mom, it became very slow over the years! Thanks! Have a good one!

[@guilloguzmanl]

@@lionelfranklin4529 You won't regret it, it brought mine back to life!

[@lionelfranklin4529]

@@guilloguzmanl Damn! I was planning on upgrading my moms Mac Mini to a Apple M1 some weeks ago but you were right. It feels litteraly like I bought this machine yesterday! She only browses stuff and email (and never ever deletes or organizes files) haha but I gave her a clean install. It’s magic. Amazing for a 1.4 Ghz/ 4GB mac mini from 2014/2015. Best choice ever. Thanks a lot.

[@alanwong928]

Nice video, but them 2014 mac minis are slow, ive got a 2012 2.6ghz quad core with 16gbs of ram and a samsung 850 evo 500gb drive, it boots up in around 11 seconds.

[@quicksilver_x]

Will this model of mac mini accept any SSD bought from amazon/ebay? Or do I have to look for an Apple-specific SSD?

[@jonasnielsen690]

My Mac doesn't work, the fan just spins for 1 second then stops for 2 seconds. This just repeats. What could it be? No light or anything

[@malikdhadhalinux]

Hi, i recently bought i mac mini 2014 with the 500GB version and i plan to replace the hard-drive soon. How about replacing it with a 500GB Fusion drive or a 1TB fusion drive... Space really matters to me.!

[@CraftyZA]

Its been some time since you did this. In all honesty, was it worth it? I have the same mac, and if i have to upgrade the whole system it will be pc with ubuntu. In order to stay with mac for another year or 2, will you say this was worth it? 6 seconds off boot time? Sounds like a marginal gain. Once I installed Mojave, this thing became a slug. Stupid slow. Developing angular apps, npm takes 6 minutes to launch. On my work dell laptop of 2014 it takes 90 seconds... the bottle neck is the hdd. Got 2 gb ram free, and cpu @ 55%

[@kgibbsy]

Does the replacement SSD have to be the same size as the original HDD?

[@adrianovskyn36]

Muchas gracias, super útil.

[@JerichoJJericho]

Great Vid! Helped me tons. You sound just like Adam Scott to me. But that made the video even better!

[@legacykev]

Coat hanger does not fit on the one I am working on. Any other suggestions?

[@granfio]

Hello, the led power is not light up. I tryied the smc reset but the status led wont power on. Do you have some suggestions? Thanks in advance

[@gmdrandom6287]

Same

[@tmilas23]

Great video!!! Haven’t tried it yet, but gonna... What kind of monitor and connection are you using with your macmini 2014? Tried new LG ultrafine 4K and doesn’t work. Other lg’s do low resolution. My old NEC (bless its soul worked fine.

[@raos156]

Thank you great job.

Thx, for the video! Helped me a lot changing a HDD! Good job. Eaaassyyy ;) :D

[@gmdrandom6287]

I followed the tutorial but now the "on" light isn't lighting up. Everything else works though.

[@rondilello2169]

Thank you, sir. Will certainly undertake this task when the 'nerve' & the 'courage' allows me to (had just purchased couple weeksago). BTW, what might be the going price of this SSD? Best, Ron

[@jonljacobi]

The write speed is so slow because it's a TLC SSD and the test uses FUA, disabling any onboard cache. Write speeds will never increase with time. With the cache enabled you'll see faster writes. For fast sustained writing, get an MLC SSD.

[@NotSoWickedElphaba]

49 sec?! I have the same 2014 mac mini, stock 256G SSD and it starts in just 18 seconds! I guess that must be the reason for the price of apple SSDs? I was trying to figure out wether there's any space left for a second SSD, it looks like there isn't...

[@mdsd77]

ok been some time now - how do you like the performance? and has your boot up time adjusted to be faster?

[@arranpannell3923]

Does anyone know whether the hard drive screws are just T9 or T9 security?

[@danielineh865]

CCC Also copy OsX? or is there another step to take?

[@garmit61]

great video thanks. Apple really do want to change their anti upgrade mentality. I was completely disillusioned when they said I couldn't update the memory because they solder it to the mainboard. Why would you do that? Also they refused to sell me a replacement battery for my Macbook Air 11". Looking at building a Linux box now.

[@MrFmlouder]

why didnt you go the pcie method theres people on ebay selling them for like 40 dollars for the cable, 200ish + the 250 gig ssd drive included might have been a lil bit more expensive then the sata ssd but it would have been way faster. i did the cheap way for my mac mini usb 3.0 thermaltake drive cage + samsung 840 250 gig evo works preety well this will hold me down till i can source the pcie version of it ebay search Apple SanDisk 256GB SSD Flash drive 2014 Mac Mini + cable PCI-E Mac look it up

[@davidciotti6599]

Did you forget to connect the fan cable?

[@az22f]

Hello, what's the cable a minute 17:20 I broke the snap

[@le4040]

This was great!!! Thank you! :-)

[@lacerdapaulomusico]

Is the RAM soldered on the board or can it be exchanged?

[@guilloguzmanl]

soldered

[@SURGE101]

Watch this video and go to www.ifixit.com website, type in Mac mini 2014...then select hard drive upgrade. on the website it has clear pictures of the screws you have to remove etc. it also has clear pictures and instructions on how to remove the connectors. It looks harder than it actually is, you can get away with not buying the motherboard removal tool by just carefully pushing on the heat sink to remove the motherboard. It’s pretty easy once you get started.jay

[@lkky]

How was the operating system installation?

[@Esse_P]

Nice job dude ;) I've a little fear to try

[@wordup4112]

Thanks dude!!

[@1001-f4n]

successful. However, I used a couple of other tutorials as well to help me out.

[@GridDrifter]

Thank you

[@westfield90]

I would love to do this but so many places where things could go horribly wrong.

[@1martoon]

Do I need any specific SSD or any brand will work?

[@romanbrazhnikov9049]

2.5'' SATA III

[@1martoon]

@@romanbrazhnikov9049 Thranks a lot!

[@TamerBekir]

Was this a tear down of the 4GB or 8GB ram?

[@ilovemusic225]

thank you!!

[@ottoconceptart895]

I did mine it's faster than before 😁 there is also an adaptor for an ssd 😁😊

[@pcprobot]

I think trim is automatic you don’t have enable it.

[@georgiapatriot4575]

thanks!

[@thomasrusche6339]

You do not need a tool like shown at 10:32 to push out the logic board. Just hold the mac mini with both hands, then push against the lamellas using your thumbs.

[@martinbenko1209]

Thank you!

[@TheDanielTruong]

Is it possible to have dual Drives in the Mac Mini?

[@jetblack3417]

Only in 2010-2012 models... Apple removed that option in 2014 model.

[@chadmorin5657]

Mine has a fusion drive and they sell adapters to add on a ssd card to your logic board. Why can’t you do that update and replace the hdd with a ssd? Used ssds are not expensive as they were.

[@entername9632]

Good job on keeping everything in the shadows and behind your hands. Did you even watch this video after you made it?

[@nimit8388]

How do you install the OS on the new ssd?

[@GrooveYouVerse]

If the mac is connected to the internet, either WiFi or ethernet, OS X will download and install automagically.

[@ashikb1653]

which one to open t6 hole or t6

[@mustapha-ghlissi]

Hello guys, Who can reply to my question please: I have a Mac Mini 2014 which I'm using to build IOS apps, but simulator, xcode are running very very slowly Does this video is a solution ? who tried this ? Thanks very much !

[@gmdrandom6287]

It could be a solution. Ssds run much faster than hhds

[@Martyn0001]

Apple make it so easy to upgrade don't they!

[@johnd942]

Not a bad demo, but was spoiled with the swearing near the end; 19:10

[@taurus20077]

I have a 1GB fusion drive model and read/write speed is in the mid to high 600!

[@bangunwaspodo2756]

It's more difficult than heart surgery.

[@YakirGabay]

Wow Apple made it difficult to reach

[@kadavila]

After watching this I will NOT be replacing my HDD. I’ll just junk this stupid thing. Apple a whole fool for making replacing a cotdamn hard drive this anti-consumer.

[@marcelotakubo]

11:04

[@somplesi]

Go to 11min !!! :)

[@pieterlouis100]

your lighting is terrible. Can't see inside the mac

[@user-pc5dk7gp4b]

I really hate Apple for being such greedy fucks. But I do need to learn the operating system.

[@davesatay5563]

You don't even show a clear view of the screen, so we can see what options you are selecting. FAIL

[@GameTechDome]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@yeeters3197]

Thanks man!