But if you’re going to swap the hard drive for an SSD, you’ll probably want a 512GB or 1TB drive, which will have enough breathing room for files that you won’t feel constrained over the next few years. If you’re going to keep your old hard drive inside your iMac, you could save money on the SSD by going with a lower capacity model: 128GB or 256GB could be enough to hold OS X and all of your apps, keeping your music, photos, and videos on the old drive. It’s easier to replace the optical drive, but if you still use DVDs or CDs on occasion, swapping the hard drive is an option. Other people want to keep the optical drive and swap the hard drive for an SSD. Some people prefer to keep their old hard drives and replace the optical drive with an SSD. IMacs sold between 2009 and mid-2012 have two drive bays: one for the hard drive, and one for the DVD/CD SuperDrive. Here’s how I did it, and – if you’re up for a quick do-it-yourself project – what I’d recommend for you.įirst Choice: Are You Replacing or Keeping Your Old Hard Drive? With limited expertise and only three tools, I swapped out my old hard drive for an SSD in roughly 30 minutes.
Today, high-quality, capacious SSDs can be had for reasonable prices, and they’re surprisingly easy to install in iMacs. SSDs use high-speed memory chips rather than the spinning platter mechanisms in traditional hard drives, achieving up to 5X benefits in speed while requiring no moving parts. Five years ago, SSDs were both expensive and limited in capacity, making them unlikely components for most Macs. Yet there’s something you can do for $200 to $500 that will radically change your iMac’s performance: install a solid state drive (SSD) in addition to or instead of its original hard drive. Sure, the new iMac with 5K Retina Display looks a little nicer, but at a steep $2,499 starting point, it’s still a luxury, not a necessity.
Formatting one drive for the Mac OS and the other dedicated for Windows.Configuring a new drive as a Time Machine backup drive.
based technical support team which is readily available to assist you with your upgrade should you have any questions. Data Doubler also comes backed by OWC's award-winning U.S.A.
OWC provides free installation videos that guide this DIY upgrade step-by-step for each specific Mac model. Once formatted you can also setup the second drive as a Time Machine backup so you can take your backup with your wherever you go. Drive customization is easy and built right into OS X as the new Data Doubler mounted drive can be setup using Apple's Disk Utility program in which you can format the drive, create a RAID array using two drives together, or partition the new drive.
Once you've installed the entire Data Doubler drive assembly into your 2010 Mac mini's optical drive bay, you can customize how you want your internal storage to perform. The custom-engineered Data Doubler bracket comes ready to mount any 2.5" SATA drive up to 12.5mm in height. Supports SATA 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s & 1.5Gb/s Interface 2.5" Drive or SSD (Solid State Drive) of up to 9.5mm (Super Slim) heightīoost your storage capacity by adding a second hard drive, or enjoy near-instantaneous boot and app loading times by adding a Solid State Drive (SSD).Ĭonfiguration flexibility is yours when you replace your 2010 Mac mini's internal SuperDrive with an OWC Data Doubler with a hard drive or SSD.
Includes everything needed to replace your optical drive with a second hard drive or SSD OWC Data Doubler Mac mini 2009 Optical Bay Hard Drive / SSD Mounting Solution