Best type of external drive for mid 2012 mac mini?

[Tidwells@aol.com]

I'm running out of space on my mid-2012 mac mini and I'm not sure I want to tear it open to replace the SSD with a larger one. I've done that previously on my mid-2012 MacBook Pro, but on OWC's site the instructions for the Mac mini are a lot more complex. If I purchase an external drive to hook up to my Mac Mini, which type of connection will be fastest and best: USB 3, Firewire 400, or Thunderbolt 1? My Motu 828 can hook up via Firewire or USB, so I have some flexibilty. Any recommendations on an economical enclosure/drive for best performance?

Second question: Once I start using the external SSD, should I move some completed DP projects from the internal drive to the external drive to make more room on the internal drive? I assume it's best to use the internal drive for each new current project. I also may want to purchase & install a couple more virtual instruments (probably acoustic guitar + orchestral strings) and I assume they will perform best if installed on the internal drive. Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Doug

[HCMarkus]

I'm sure Mike will weigh in here, but my experience has been good with USB3, which generally involves less expensive hardware, i.e. Samsung T5 vs X5. Thunderbolt will be the fastest, but you may not need that level of performance, especially with audio. You can roll your own using enclosures that are available as well... SATA3 to USB3 or PCIe to USB3. SATA will slow things down considerably if you go that route.

I'd recommend you also get a large backup drive and keep Time Machine rolling at all time... if you don't have at least two copies of your data, you are living a fraught life. I use BackBlaze (cloud) plus externals (local); if you are a Costco member, they are having a very nice sale on Seagate 8TB external drives (with USB3 hub built in). $120 starting Monday. These drives have been selling for close to $200 as of late.

You can certainly offload old DP Projects to an external drive, but if you do so, you should have two external drives, with one of the two backing everything up with Time Machine. I'd suggest a HD for longer-term storage and a second for Time Machine.

Virtual instruments are best housed internally if you have room, but you should be able to have VI data libraries on a fast external SSD as well if you run out of internal space.

[mikehalloran]

Running from a USB 3 external has a few issues. For me, it’s that you can’t enable TRIM which can slow writes if the drive is close to full. Others find wake from sleep issues but that goes away if you never let your Mac sleep except for the displays. But neither of those is why I do not recommend this for you.

Your bus is SATA III — nothing else is faster in or connected to a 2012 Mini. SATA III and USB 3 are about the same speed—a lot faster than the HDD these come with. The Crucial MX500 is available up to 4TB now. Your internal drive is now over 9 years old. Time to replace it. There’s a lot of life left in this machine even if the last supported MacOS is Catalina. Some of these (Fusion) also have a SATA III blade inside—if so, ignore it or throw it away. You want a large SSD replacing the OE HDD or Fusion drive. (If you had a 2014, I’d give different advice). I forget if these have a BR2032 battery inside (the 2014s don’t) but, if so, past time to replace it with a CR2032. These mimic GPU issues when the battery goes bad.

The 2012 and 2014 Minis are a lot easier to open and replace the drive than it looks. I do them one-handed—literally. The iFixIt instructions are clear and yes, there are many steps but you do them one at a time. There is a U shaped wire tool that makes removing the insides easier. Mine is in a box I’ll not see for a month due to a remodel or I’d mail you mine. Getting the right twist on reassembly to reset the power cable bracket takes a few tries for most people but, as soon as you do, the retaining clip goes back into place.

The 2012 and 2014 are similar in this regard except for the AHCI blade in many 2014s. Techs around here charge an average of $75 to do the job excluding data transfer. They don’t want you to see how fast they can do it — having only one useful arm, it takes me 30 minutes or so.

[Tidwells@aol.com]

Thanks for the info, guys!

Doug

[HCMarkus]

Good point about Trim there, Mike. Thanks for the reminder.

[James Steele]

...if you are a Costco member, they are having a very nice sale on Seagate 8TB external drives (with USB3 hub built in). $120 starting Monday. These drives have been selling for close to $200 as of late.

That looks interesting to me. I have a multiple spinner RAID enclosure that a client gave me years ago when he was going to recycle it. I have 5 1TB hard drives in there and a RocketRaid card taking up one of my PCIe slots. The thing is noisy. I was considering using it as big Time Machine backup and I like that I set it up with redundancy so if a drive is going bad, you open it up, pop in a new one and it rebuilds the data. But it's tempting to ditch it and get the Seagate and an inexpensive USB3 card and use that instead. It may not be as safe as the raid, but take up less room and be less noisy as well.

[James Steele]

Hmmmm... you could buy TWO of those Seagate drives, perhaps? Can Time Machine do some sort of redundancy? Back up exactly the same to two different drives so that if one fails you have another?

[James Steele]

I guess this answers my question:

https://www.macworld.com/article/232001 ... ckups.html

At that price for the Seagates it might behoove me to buy two and and then get a USB3 card and use Time Machine. Seems like that would be a fairly bulletproof solution and take up less space and be quieter than what I have going on now.

Any recommendations on a good USB3 card?
Seems like this should work fine at only $59:
https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Sonnet% ... /USB34PME/

[HCMarkus]

Hmmmm... you could buy TWO of those Seagate drives, perhaps? Can Time Machine do some sort of redundancy? Back up exactly the same to two different drives so that if one fails you have another?

Yes. And you don't even need USB3 card... they work fine over USB 2. Don't buy the last one in San Diego, James. Buy the last two. I'm planning on picking up three, in preparation for moving from the Big Mac to a Mini.

[James Steele]

Hmmmm... you could by TWO of those Seagate drivers, perhaps? Can Time Machine do some sort of redundancy? Back up exactly the same to two different drives so that if one fails you have another?

Yes. And you don't even need USB3 card... they work fine over USB 2. Don't buy the last one in San Diego, James. Buy the last two. I'm planning on picking up three, in preparation for moving from the Big Mac to a Mini.

Isn't USB2 a lot slower than USB3? I guess maybe once the initial overnight backup is done the periodic backups won't take that long? Haha... I better stay up till midnight like you and grab two of these. Oh... and I leave for AZ tomorrow morning sometime, but I will get you your card back and we'll do lunch when I get back!

UPDATE: I'm totally HUBBED OUT on my USB2. Seriously almost want the USB3 card just to have some free USB ports already and not get yet another hub. I have a lot of devices on this thing. Also I wonder if I want to upgrade to some sort of hybrid MOTU audio interface, it would be good to have it on its own USB bus? Hmmmmm....

[James Steele]

Hmmmm... you could buy TWO of those Seagate drives, perhaps? Can Time Machine do some sort of redundancy? Back up exactly the same to two different drives so that if one fails you have another?

Yes. And you don't even need USB3 card... they work fine over USB 2. Don't buy the last one in San Diego, James. Buy the last two. I'm planning on picking up three, in preparation for moving from the Big Mac to a Mini.

I'm thinking we both better be on the Costco site at 11:59pm PST (assuming Costco references to West Coast time?) and be ready to reload the page at midnight when the lowered price appears. They may go fast.

[mikehalloran]

USB 2 is slower than USB 3 with HDDs but not like with SSDs. Not a noticeable issue for Time Machine unless you have to do a complete restore — then you might wish you had the faster bus.

[James Steele]

USB 2 is slower than USB 3 with HDDs but not like with SSDs. Not a noticeable issue for Time Machine unless you have to do a complete restore — then you might wish you had the faster bus.

Good point, Mike! I think I'm gonna grab two of those drives HC Markus mentioned and then run them as redundant Time Machine drives. After the initial backup runs overnight, I'm guessing the incremental updates really won't be that bad. If it's more than I can take, I can buy a USB3 card. I just hate slapping more hubs on my Mac. I have a free FW800 port. hahahaha... lot of good that does me!

UPDATE: Looking at those drives again:

https://www.costco.com/seagate-backup-p ... 58004.html

looks like I could daisy chain them if I wanted to as they have ports on the front. Can't hurt to try that and see.

[James Steele]

Well I grabbed a couple of those Seagate 8TB drives. Seems like a great deal at $120. I'll use them for Time Machine so that they're redundant. Also went ahead and got a inexpensive USB 3.0 card on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/272407976946

Seller accepted a $24.99 offer and price includes shipping.

[HCMarkus]

I got my three ordered.