Installing a Second Hard Drive in Your 2011 Mac Mini

Monday August 1, 2011 10:37 am PDT by Jordan Golson

Users can install a second hard drive in non-Server models of the new Mac Mini, according to MacRumors forum member Slyseekr. iFixit's teardown of the new Mac Mini released last month revealed enough room -- and an extra SATA port -- for a second hard drive to be installed, assuming one found the proper cable.

Slyseekr found that cable for $49 shipped, disassembled his Mac Mini, and installed a second hard drive, saving himself hundreds of dollars off the Server model. Step-by-step instructions are available on the MacRumors Forums.

The standard disclaimers apply of course: this is not an Apple-approved upgrade and may void your warranty, but a number of our readers have reported successful upgrades.

Top Rated Comments

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WiiDSmoker

11 months ago

Kind of sad that being able to add a harddrive to your computer is somehow amazing...:confused:

Rating: 8 Positives / 1 Negatives

Prodo123

11 months ago

Better yet:
Buy 2010 chassis. Buy cable. Gut your 2011 Mac Mini and reassemble it using the 2010 chassis. Install optical drive the same way. PROFIT.

Rating: 6 Positives / 3 Negatives

neech7

11 months ago

Kind of sad that being able to add a harddrive to your computer is somehow amazing...:confused:

Or is it worse that the cable alone cost $50.

Rating: 2 Positives / 0 Negatives

winston1236

11 months ago

nice! now lets get to the ram...

Rating: 3 Positives / 1 Negatives

flipples

10 months ago

Video for adding 2nd hard drive to mini:
http://www.techdc.com/2011-mac-mini-hard-drive-upgrade-video

Rating: 1 Positives / 0 Negatives

ksgant

11 months ago

A lot of people would probably go for the quad-core server model as a high-end mini if it didn't have such a terrible graphics card. I want to see someone retrofit the quad-core server with the better graphics card in the old mini enclosure since it would have more room to fit it all! Or maybe even the standard enclosure but with only one hard drive plus the graphics card. Now is that possible?

Well, we may have something soon that may fix that:

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/01/external-thunderbolt-pci-expansion-chassis-and-hub-in-development/

Rating: 1 Positives / 0 Negatives

macduke

11 months ago

You can get a quad-core mini, just that is bundled with a second 500 GB HDD, a 4 GB RAM upgrade and the $50 Lion Server package.

If you configure the quad-core version and the 2.5 GHz version with the same drive set, they both cost the same. Essentially you trade quad-core + server add-on vs. higher CPU speed + better graphic card.

(You also trade quad-core vs. cheaper way to add memory and drives yourself.)

Rating: 1 Positives / 0 Negatives

Samuriajackon

11 months ago

Yeah this and 1000+ dollar RAM upgrade! Woot.

Rating: 4 Positives / 3 Negatives

robzr

11 months ago

Kind of sad that being able to add a harddrive to your computer is somehow amazing...:confused:

Kind of sad that trolling on Mac forums is worth your time, and makes you happy ;)

Rob

Rating: 2 Positives / 2 Negatives

hyungsup

11 months ago