Mac mini Late 2014 Hard Drive Replacement

Written By: Sam Goldheart
  • Comments: 449
Mac mini Late 2014 Hard Drive Replacement

Difficulty

Moderate

Steps

35

Time Required

30 minutes - 2 hours

Introduction

Use this guide to replace the hard drive in your hard-drive-only or Fusion Drive Mac mini Late 2014.

This guide was made with a Fusion Drive Mac mini. If your Mac mini only has a hard drive, skip the steps about the PCIe SSD and its connector.

  1. xQgmEkALQhXhsoyB

    • The bottom cover is clipped onto three screw posts.

    • Pry near, but not right on the screw posts.

    Read Me First: I purchased an SSD drive directly from Crucial and, of course, it came uninitialized. After going thru the entire tear down, installing the new drive, and rebuilding the mini, it refused to recognize the new drive. So, of course, I had to re-tear it down, remove the new drive, insert it into an external housing and format it using my Macbook. After that the mini recognized the new drive. A word to the wise: format the new drive before installing it.

    tom -

    How were you installing the OS? I am planning on booting into a USB drive with a copy of OS High Sierra on it, and I assume I will be able to format my new Samsung SSD using that?

    Simon -

    On my Samsung EVO 850, mac mini download system automaticly

    Stefan Repac -

    Pre-formatting is not necessary if you make a USB boot installation drive with macOS installer. During boot up, hold down the option key until the mac boot into the USB, formatting can then be done using disk utility running off the USB drive.

    SBR249 -

    I had the exact same experience as tom. I installed a brand new 2TB Samsung 850 EVO and it was not recognized by the Mac Mini. I booted from a portable USB drive with a bootable copy of macOS High Sierra but the 850 EVO SSD I had just installed was not shown as an option. I tore down the Mac Mini again, formatted the 850 EVO, rebuilt the Mac Mini, and booted off the same bootable High Sierra USB drive, and sure enough the 850 EVO was recognized.

    maxim -

    diskutil list

    diskutil erasedisk [filesystem] [drivename] /dev/disk[disk number]

    Paul Rodgers -

    My drive (Evo 860) was also not initialized. I started in recovery mode and went to disc utility and from there selected the drive. I then was able to use the “erase” function on the drive. I just left the settings as default and as soon as it erased then the drive was ready to go.

    Nathan Cooper -

    Just completed this upgrade a few days ago, having purchased the 1 TB SSD kit from IFixIt. The kit arrived quickly and the tools and drive worked perfectly. The step by step guide posted here is pretty much flawless, but do pay attention to the specific comments from users on certain steps - they really help. As far as ensuring that the new drive will reboot and install MacOS, I watched 1-2 videos on YouTube about re-installing using the Internet Recovery tool and that worked perfectly. My MacMini is performing WAY better than it used to, for only a $200 upgrade kit and about 3 hours of work, all in. Thanks!

    Joshua Rednik -

    I’ve had Apple computers since the G3 machines and they have always been snappy.

    Unfortunately this 2014 macmini has always been slow but this upgrade (6 years later) has changed that!

    if you have a late 2014 macmini, do this.

    I used a 860 Samsung.

    Mike Hayes -

    A quick comment to tell you that at every step, make sure to read the comments and be careful. I managed to do the process fast without any problems, but thanks to the comments that warned me enough on the risky steps.

    Euronymous -

    This guide surely helped me breath upgrade and bring some new life into my macmini. Thanks to all who contributed.

    Cameron Hasell -

    can one of you give me the link for the screw drivers please?

    Gerardo Ramirez -

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    • Use the plastic opening tool to pry the bottom cover up off of the Mac mini.

    I used some wooden toothpicks instead of the opening tool. This worked flawless for me.

    mhomscheidt -

    Credit cards will also work. The cover should should pop off easily.

    Gregory -

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    • Lift and remove the bottom cover.

    I taped the "Mac Mini Logic Board Removal Tool" to the flat part of the antenna plate before sealing everything up again. I mean, where else am I supposed to store it without forgetting where it is? I'm pretty sure it won't cause any problems there.

    Richard -

    That’s a brilliant idea, @mrredwood!

    Dan Moore -

    I would suggest you wash the underside of the plastic as mine after 3 years was covered in dust.

    John Errington -

    I couldn’t get mine to snap back on

    David Yutzy -

    Make sure the 3 longer, thicker screws are in the right holes per the diagram in Step 4. (Hint: not next to the large black wireless button.) When those screws are in the right places, the back just snaps into place very easily.

    Gary W Edson -

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    • Remove the following TR6 screws from the antenna plate:

    • Three 4.1 mm screws

    • Three 1.9 mm screws

    Had a T7 security screw driver [and didn't want to wait to have the T6 version shipped to me], so I gave it a whirl. I lined up the driver with the screw socket, pressed down a bit to make sure the driver would get enough grip, and slowly [but forcefully] rotated the driver and got these screws out. BE CAUTIOUS not to strip the screws. May not work for everyone.

    KevCoStudios -

    As TR6 screwdrivers were sold out all over Germany and I wanted to exchange the HDD THIS friday, I took a VERY fine dental milling tip (0,8 mm head diameter) for my proxxon and milled away the little dots in the center of the the TR6 screws. After that I could open the case with a regular T6 screwdriver. All went fine, MM is closed again + working like a charm with it's new SSD. NOTE: For this task I used my loupe glasses (3x) ;)

    Martin Gerner -

    On the whole screw thing. I just used a tiny dremel drill bit and drilled out the security pin. I hate those screws. I don't see the point in locking the them with those. they should have left the screws alone.

    That Mac Guy -

    That worked for me, thanks for the trick!

    Arroba -

    great trick!

    James Almeida -

    I used the T7 very carefully. No problems.

    randywardak -

    I just had success using standard pliers to remove the longer screw posts, and then I used standard needle nose pliers to press down and grip the tiny screws. Please note that this method may/will cause scrapping of the aluminium cover.

    Barrythetech -

    Northern Tools sells a set of 13 Torx Security Keys for $28.99 that has the TR6 size.

    Gary Craig -

    On my 2nd drive replacement (swapping out to an SSD this time). Could not find my logic board removal tool. So I made another one from a metal coat hanger. So, here’s my tip, when you put it all back together: the logic board removal tool fits around that small black circle antenna perfectly and you can replace the large black cover over the top snuggly. No rattles or anything.. So, next time: I’m guaranteed to find my logic board removal tool.

    Andy Milne -

    The three longer screws could be removed with pliers.

    The three shorter once I drilled out with a sharp 3 mm drill.

    First put tape across the ventilation opening and carefully vacuum cleaned before taking of the antenna plate, though.

    Don’t you hate it when the manufacturer does things like this, though??

    ernstcline -

    My set of drill bits contained a T6H but no TR6 (I don’t know the difference). That worked too without problems

    Claus -

    I can recommend the Tekprem tools for this. That %#*@ security dimple foiled me until I got these. check Amazon ratings before you buy any tools, a lot of them that come from China are made with cheap pot metal rather than properly hardened alloys and will strip out very quickly. (Don’t ask me how I know this.)

    MrSpiral -

    I have T6 but not the required TR6, and my order for the bit from Amazon is going to take two weeks. I don’t have the patience to wait so…

    I was able to remove all of the screws but 1 with a pair of needle nose pliers and sheer force of will. The last one wouldn’t come off so I just finally gave up and bent the plate back until the screw broke off. It wasn’t pretty but considering there is a plastic cover over the whole assembly it was something I was willing to live with.

    Note that I can’t get the screws back in with the needlenose, they just don’t turn, so I will await the bit to arrive. In the meantime this computer is purring like a kitten, a whole new lease on life!

    Glen Candlewood -

    If you have non-security T6 and T7s, carefully drill away the middle of the screw with a very small bit, stopping frequently to vacuum out the filings to see if you’ve done enough. You don’t need to do much, and too much will strip the screw entirely. Then very carefully unscrew using a T6 (you may need a T7). I’ve done it twice and it works.

    bkbkbk -

    Crap, i'm stuck on these, too, and it's just the very beginning.. What can I say, that's simply unfair not to say plain stupid, Apple, but it's nothing new.

    Alexey Lyskov -

    I can confirm that the small pin in the middle of the TR6 screws can be removed (actually broken out) pretty easily with a small, flat head screwdriver that can just fit inside the middle hole of the screw (as recommended in some YouTube video).

    First, cover the antenna plate holes for safety. Then push the dots with the  flat head screwdriver from one side cautiously, but forcefully by leaning the driver against the outer side of the inner hole, until you see the security pin leaning a little bit. Then push it from the opposite side, until it breaks out.

    Bacs -

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    • Do not completely remove the antenna plate; it is still connected to the Mac mini by an antenna cable.

    • With the I/O ports facing you, flip the antenna plate to the right to allow access to the antenna cable connector.

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    • Remove the single 3.4 mm T6 screw and washer from the antenna cable.

    • Be careful not to lose the washer when removing the screw.

    This is a pain in the arse to get back on. Lock the screw down first when reassembling.

    Jim Allen -

    No need toremove this. The cable squeezes out of the gap under the case with enough length for the antenna plate to be out of the way.

    cheongi -

    Not necessary to remove just be careful and don’t stretch the cable.

    peter Tucker -

    Steps 6 - 9 are not needed…

    Gray Greensheim -

    I found it necessary to remove the screw (as instructed) as my antenna cable was attached to the washer.

    Ivan -

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    • Use the point of a spudger to lift the antenna connector straight up off its socket on the airport card.

    Is this really necessary? The antenna is no where near the SSD drive....

    mike -

    This was the most tricky part for me when remounting the Mac Mini. With my bad eyes, I’ve spent 10 minutes inserting this tiny round antenna plug in the hole. I’ve decided to put the screw back without tighten it too strongly and then it was easier.

    afajner -

    I have been having wifi issues ever since I changed the drive. I don’t know if this connector is the cause or not.

    Simon -

    I have been having wifi issues ever since I did this upgrade. Don’t know if it’s this connector or not.

    Simon -

    Afajner great rip. Worked great. Thx

    Milton -

    Afajner, your tip worked great. Thanks.

    Milton -

    This is a very fiddly connector. Afajner’s tip is recommended. Make sure the connector is in securely. It will not wiggle or make a ticking sound when pressed when it is seated correctly.

    maxim -

    I had trouble at this point too. My experience: Loosen the screw a bit and than center the antenna plug over the pin. In my case I heard a click when I plugged it in correctly. Don’t forget to tighten the screw afterwards.

    Matthias -

    Is this really necessary? The antenna is no where near the SSD drive....

    mike - 06/25/2017

    UP! is it?

    sandro.vezzali -

    Not strictly necessary for SSD access, no—just allows you to detach the antenna plate and get it safely out of the way. You can leave it in place if you prefer, but be careful to support the antenna plate and make sure the cable doesn’t get strained or yanked accidentally.

    Jeff Suovanen -

    Wenn nur die M.2 gewechselt werden soll, empfehle ich, den Antennenstecker nicht abzuschrauben und den Deckel einfach vorsichtig beiseite zu legen. Es ist dann allemal genug Platz zum Wechsel der M.2.

    Das Ausstecken dieses Steckers ist hier wirklich nicht einfach, da die Anschlüsse winzig und mit bloßem Auge kaum zu erkennen sind. Hat bei mir gut 20 Minuten gedauert, bis ich das Teil wieder drauf hatte. Eine Lupe kann hier wirklich helfen. Auch das vorherige Fixieren mit der Schraube macht es ggfs. etwas einfacher. Der restliche Ausbau/Umbau/Zusamenbau war nach einer knappen halben Stunde erledigt und ist für jeden mit etwas Geduld machbar.

    Des weiteren aufpassen mit der winzigen Schraube, die beim Zusammenbau leicht verkanten kann und dann sehr schnell abreißt.

    Hermann Röttger -

    In trying to remove the antenna connector pin from its socket on the airport card the socket came away from its location on the airport card completely, together with the cable and connector pin. Rather than replace the airport card (that would have a new socket) and a new connector/pin for the cable, I decided it would be worth trying to solder the connecting pin to the (now exposed) contact points for the socket on the airport card.

    Best time to do this is during the re-build _after_ replacing the hard drive, when the antenna is still unattached to the airport card. After the re-build (with no further problems encountered) it was quite easy to solder the connector pin with attached remains of the socket to the airport card's contact points - there's enough space for easy solder access without other sensitive components nearby.

    I had thought that my Mac Mini's wireless connectivity might be affected, but it wasn't.

    Now very happy with a fast SSD machine with wireless connectivity.

    David Paul -

    this was the most fiddly part of the reassembly operation for me too. Old eyes, despite good lighting, led me to try this multiple times before I finally got that satisfying click. I am surprised that people find securing the screw first to be helpful, as I didn’t have nearly enough room to move the cable around if I tried that. Also, while it is theoretically possible to do this entire operation without removing the cable, I would never chance it… It’s way too easy to damage something by yanking on the plate. I had a lot of peace of mind when I was able to set the entire antenna plate aside.

    MrSpiral -

    After I reassembling, my bluetooth no longer works. The antenna connector is definitely seated properly as I heard the click, and it was fully secured when I tried to wiggle the wire. Did anyone else have this problem?

    Sean Dickson -

    Update: when I disconnected the antenna cable, OSX retained my keyboard and mouse in the bluetooth device list, but it had apparently forgotten they were paired. I bought a usb keyboard and usb mouse to figure this out. Deleted the devices from the bluetooth list, rediscovered them, and now it’s working fine.

    Sean Dickson -

    Getting this connector back on was the single most annoying part of the process. I agree with loosely reattaching the screw first to hold the cable in place. I then used tweezers to manoeuvre the head of the cable into position and my finger to push it down.

    gdubai -

    To everyone making comments regarding their experience - fabulous!

    Donn Tarris -

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    • Carefully pull the antenna cable out from the gap between the power supply and case.

    Use tab that the screw goes through to align the connecter more easily.

    Rob Speight -

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    • Remove the antenna plate from the Mac mini.

    To save time and effort, note that you don’t need to disconnect the antenna cable from the radio module. Just carefully lay the antenna plate / cable assembly over to the side and perform the SSD switch.

    clinton -

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    • Remove the two 12 mm T6 screws from the fan.

    • Loosen the 27 mm T6 captive screw–it will get removed with the fan assembly.

    That 27mm screw should be very loose, since it attaches the motherboard to the case. When you’re trying to remove the motherboard, if the AC connection side of the board is not moving back easily, you need to make sure this screw is fully backed out from the case.

    There’s no danger in removing it completely.

    marklfarley -

    I suggest removing the 27 mm tool, otherwise Step 23 will not work.

    Arvin Bhatnagar -

    Actually you don’t need to remove 27mm from the fan. I was able to tilt a little when I take the logic board out in Step 23. I also didn’t take the fan cable too. When you pull the logic board out, put the fan on the back of logic board as you pull it out.

    Kenneth Z -

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    • The fan connector is trapped under the edge of the fan and cannot be disconnected until the fan is moved.

    • Do not attempt to remove the fan entirely.

    • Lift the fan straight up to free the captive screw from its hole in the logic board.

    • Pull the fan away from the SSD until you can easily access the fan connector.

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    • Use the point of a spudger to lift the fan connector straight up out of its socket on the logic board.

    When I did this the entire socket came off the logic board. What do I do now?

    Tyler -

    I broke off the connector. More photos of the connector may help. I lifted it but the pins broke off. It took me awhile to find points on the board to solder the wires to. I got 3 of 4 wires and the fan operates.

    Beryl Sachs -

    I would suggest NOT using the point end of the Spudger but the wide end. Place behind connector (wire side) and twist gently.

    If I may be so bold as to also suggest that a torch be used for those small components/connections.

    TisMise -

    Thank you, @TisMise! I placed the wide end of the spudger on the wire end of the connector and wiggled it up. The connector comes lose up - NOT out front in direction of the wires. Hope this helps. ?

    CK3 -

    I also broke the socket off. I don’t have the ability to solder little $@$* like that. I’m sad.

    Daniel Rackerby -

    broke it… how bad is the no fan option?

    Kris Chu -

    @TisMise you’re right thanks a lot! ;)

    Stefania Izzo -

    You don’t need to disconnect the fan cable to take out the logic board. When you slip the logic board out, put the the fan behind the logic board as you push it out.

    Kenneth Z -

    Definitely use wide end.

    Peter Harrison -

    That’s it, I used a needle! After reading so much people broke it, I rejected this step instruction and put a needle between the socket and the connector. It came out fine. Good that I also fix clothes, other than computers. :)

    Seff -

    As Kenneth Z said, I just left the fan attached to the board for the entire process (I removed the screws so it was just connected with the cable). After reading all the comments, I was too afraid to try to force it and it did not come off easily. Keeping the connector on is a little dangerous because you have to be careful not to pull on that connector too much but it seems pretty robust, which is probably why it is so difficult to removed. I just slipped the fan through after I pulled out the main board assembly.

    Richard Daley -

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    • Remove the fan from the Mac mini.

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    • Remove the 2.6 mm T6 screw securing the SATA cable connector bracket.

    This screw is very short, when I tried to put it back, the beginning of its thread got dusted and now it's impossible to use it to fix the bracket in place. It should be 3.5 mm instead of 2.6. Nevertheless, the SATA connector is firmly attached to the logical board withou screw+bracket and my mac mini is working nicely.

    mario.estolano -

    My mini came with only a PCIe SSD on it. When I got to this point, I discovered that because it was never shipped with a hard drive, there was no securing screw, no cable connector bracket, no cable connector, and no hardware for securing the drive. Fortunately, there is still a hole in the logic board where the SATA cable is supposed to pass through, and the logic board does have the appropriate connector. if you buy an OEM SATA cable, you can actually secure the SSD in place using a little bit of electricians tape. Because it has no moving parts, it’s not going to rattle itself loose. I am more concerned about not having a cover for the place where the SATA cable clips to the logic board, but I put a little electricians tape over it to hold it in place and I will see how that works.

    MrSpiral -

    If you are adding a sata drive to a pcie mac mini 2014 only you wont have this part - as per MrSpiral’s pos. Using a 2012 additional drive kit will give you the sata connector to connect the drive to the logic board but not the securing screw and plate (next step) it would be good to be able to get this part. if anyone has any links that would be appreciated.

    Edward Chandler -

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    • Remove the SATA cable connector bracket.

    This procedure works to add a SATA hard drive/SSD to a PCIe SSD-only Mac Mini using iFixit's Mac Mini Dual Drive Kit. The one thing that's missing from the kit is SATA cable connector bracket (and screw). This is not the end of the world: the cable is a snug fit in the logic board socket, so the bracket is only a safety measure.

    Dominic Dunlop -

    Its shown in the 2nd picture but is very easy to skip over and I almost lost mine because I did exactly that. While I thing the connector would stay without it The little cover that hold the connector down would be a bad thing to have floating around in the machine.

    jeh.dominic -

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    • Use the flat end of a spudger to lift the SATA cable connector up off of its socket on the logic board.

    Last time I did this I got the tool under the socket and it broke off. This caused the power light not to work. I don’t use the IR function so it wasn’t an issue. When putting this connector back on, make sure it seats well as many have has issues with the the power light not working. You will read more of this on the comments at the bottom

    Greg Bouten -

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    • Use the tip of a spudger to disconnect the IR sensor cable connector by prying it straight up from its socket.

    Be careful in this step. I am known for my gentle hands and the little cable flew out regardless. Was able to reinsert with no damage but was terrifying!

    Liliana Chavez -

    What if the entire connector came off? Can this be glued again? How can I fix this?? :(

    Cai -

    @caicruzz The socket will have to be re-soldered to the board. It’s not terribly difficult, but requires some specialized equipment and I wouldn’t recommend it as a DIY on any machine you care about, at least not without a lot of practice first. I’d suggest reaching out to a repair shop that handles board-level repairs. Sorry for the frustration! Accidents happen sometimes; fortunately this one is very fixable.

    Jeff Suovanen -

    This happened to me as well. Can I simply tape it in place? I’m never going to use the IR sensor anyway.

    Joseph Stillwell -

    Is you made mini working without connecting the Broken IR bracket? I did this the other day and I can live without the IR and LED light. I could solder it, but rather not if the machine works without it

    John Kokkas -

    I did this. So mad at myself. Will my Mini still work if I left it as is. I understand that I won’t have IR and the LED light won’t work, but I can live without it

    John Kokkas -

    I broke it too. Really annoying as I do use (or, used to) the IR sensor).

    Daniel Rackerby -

    Of course I broke mine off… Be careful when you put the cable in! The Mini is working without it but no IR and LED on the front.

    bigsee -

    Use a fine tip set of tweesers and slip the end under th wires and gently pry up.

    juggledad -

    Je l’ai cassé aussi ….

    Bruno Villers -

    I would recommend to go on till step 24, till the motherboard is pulled out slightly, then come back to this step. The space is very tight between the connector and the hard disk bracket, which makes it difficult to slide the spudger underneath the wires. It is much easier when the motherboard is slightly out and have more space for the tool. I followed @juggledad’s comment, and used a pair of fine tip tweezers to pry the connector out.

    Xu YANG -

    Capteur cassé; comme vous autres

    Pierre-alexandre98880 -

    You may also use a bowed paper clip and slide it under all wires and gently pry it open

    Gero Alexius -

    Because of the warnings in the comments I decided to use another tool. Instead of using a spudger, I carefully used the Flathead 1 bit from the iFixit Mako precision bit set in this step. That worked well for me.

    Sicco Pier van Gosliga -

    YES! I followed recommendation to go on till step 24, as Xu Yang suggested. Worked easy for me. Thank you all!!!

    Efrain De Luna -

    Thanks for the recommendation to wait to remove this one, often find the comments on these guides so useful.

    Ahmad -

    That’s it, I used a needle! After reading so much people broke it, I rejected this step instruction and put a needle between the socket and the connector. It came out fine. Good that I also fix clothes, other than computers. :)

    Seff -

    IR connector also controls Bluetooth.

    Jon Dear -

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    • The following three steps only apply to Mac minis equipped with a PCIe SSD. Skip the next three steps if your Mac mini only has a hard drive.

    • Remove the two 2.6 mm T6 screws securing the PCIe SSD cable bracket.

    Steps 18-20 only apply if you are removing a fusion drive. Otherwise skip to step 21 during removal.

    Stephen Reaser -

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    • Remove the PCIe SSD cable bracket.

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    • Lift the PCIe SSD connector up off its socket.

    Is the PCIe connector present and usable on the mid-range Mac mini? I don't need the ~$300 fusion drive but would like the comfort of knowing that I can add an extra SSD in the future.

    Michael Johnson -

    No, only present in Mac Minis configured with a fusion drive.

    rasmus -

    Not true. I am looking @ the inside of a mac mini _not_ configured with a fusion drive, and the connector is present.

    Samuel Bostick -

    The PCIe connector is only present if the computer came factory configured with any sort of flash storage (SSD or fusion drive). Otherwise, the cable, the connector, the bracket, and the 2 screws are all missing. The fusion drive is essentially a disk drive plus a small capacity SSD blade which the OS recognizes as a combined drive. Fortunately, if you didn’t have an SSD before, you can easily buy the connector cable part on the internet. The bracket and screws are not necessary.

    SBR249 -

    Is it correct that the “iFixit Mac mini Unibody SSD Upgrade Bundle” with a 500-Gbyte Crucial MX500 SSD does not require a PCIe connector? This is for a late 2014 Mac Mini with a failed HDD (order number MGEM2*/A). I think it is correct, as the connectors on the Crucial SSD look just like those on the HDD, but just checking…

    David Newman -

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    • Remove the single 16 mm T6 screw securing the logic board.

    There were 2 screws on the Mini I disassembled.

    Keith S Coker -

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    • To remove the logic board, the two cylindrical rods of the Mac mini Logic Board Removal Tool must be inserted into the holes highlighted in red. Inserting instruments into any logic board holes other than the ones highlighted in red may destroy the logic board.

    • Insert the Mac mini Logic Board Removal Tool into the two holes highlighted in red. Be sure the rods make contact with the case under the logic board before proceeding.

    Instead of the removal tool it is also possible to use two metal pins with 2,5mm diameter.

    Yuuki Galaxy -

    A T8 screw driver worked best for me on the 4 hard drive screws.

    rparks89 -

    Yes - You need a T8 there rather than T9.

    amrgardner -

    T9 was a perfect fit for me.

    dloftis -

    T8 screws in my HDD

    aiino -

    You don’t need a tool for this step, just turn the Mac Mini around 180º and push the vent for the fan with your thumbs. The board will push straight out. That’s what I did.

    Daniel De Ciantis -

    Sure, nice tip - it works for me fine - thks for it :D

    Tom

    Tomáš Pokorný -

    Simple thumb-pushing didn’t work for me, so I bought the tool.

    Insert the MMLBRtool. How far? There’s an initial lip you might catch about halfway down, but wiggle beyond the lip to a definite bottoming out, and equal lengths of the tool on each side of the elbows as shown.

    As you lever the logic board per the illustrations, you’ll notice the black bezel begin to separate on one side or the other. Use a prying tool or guitar pick to help separate the bezel from the body on top and bottom, and the logic board will slide out easily with gentle prying.

    On my Mini, the bezel’s retaining clips (best seen in Step 25) were very snug to the body, preventing the thumb-push. Using the pick released them from the body.

    s gardner -

    You definitely don’t need the tool. Just get two screwdrivers small enough to fit in the holes and push them both at the same time. I have about a million tiny torx screwdirvers that came with iphone screen replacement kits. I’m sure you do too.

    Mark2000 -

    This is exactly what I used, thanks for the tip. Worked a charm once I leveraged both small screwdrivers back with even pressure just like you can with the removal tool.

    Ahmad -

    I used an old coat hanger. I just cut the end off with some pliers and then bent it into a similar shape as the tool. The biggest thing is making sure both sides are about the same length. Also, don’t put your thumbs on the black plastic part on the back of the mini because you won’t be able to pull the logic board out that way.

    Nathan Cooper -

    As I didn't have the Mac mini Logic Board removal tool, I used two small Alien tools, similar to the Mac mini Logic Board removal tool.

    marcoscaj -

    I paid the five bucks and I am really not sorry I did. Yes, I probably could’ve made my own or fiddled it out with a couple of screwdrivers, but without having done it before, knowing how much leverage to apply and in which direction was made much easier by using a proper tool.

    MrSpiral -

    I used 2 screw drivers as suggested, and pulled towards me with my palms against the sides of the case. Even with a lot of muscle, I failed. The solution was to get a helper on the opposite side of the table. Using the fingers of both hands along the circular opening in the case, the helper pulled as I pulled on the screwdrivers. They should be kept vertical, so as to not damage the board. There is no way the procedure pictured in step 23 would have worked for me. My board must have needed at least 20 pounds of force to move

    mail -

    Totally didn’t need to buy the tool they recommended. Just use two tiny screwdrivers (the same ones you are already using to take apart your mac. Pull at the same time toward you and the whole board popped out in a few seconds.

    Scott Provost -

    etape la plus délicate du tuto, j’ai pour ma part fait levier avec la partie plate de la spatule en plastique entre le berceau du disque dur et la carte mère juste à coté du connecteur ir, la facade s’est légerement décollée, j’ai changé de place toujours avec la même méthode et la facade a continué de sortir, j’ai ensuite pu aider avec les trous initialement prévus (j’ai utilisé 2 tournevis torx très fin) et ensuite c’est sorti sans souci

    Olivier VH -

    I had the tool and it worked perfectly. However, it did not push easily out. It came out hard and nearly went flying. Luckily nothing was damaged but just FYI, mine was super tight.

    LESLIE DOW -

    You totally don’t need the one-use-only “logic board removal tool”, that’s silly. If you push against the heatsink with both thumbs (being careful not to make the board flex) and wiggle it out it’ll eventually give and slide out.

    Gary Diamond -

  23. OmFRAAmW5togMEmZ
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    bOT2seSCgI5ZFVTi
    BQHOVOq1G1UIXG3a

    • Carefully pull the tool toward the I/O board. The logic board and I/O board assembly should slightly slide out of the outer case.

    • Cease prying when the removal tool makes contact with the opening in the rear case.

    • Remove the Mac mini Logic Board Removal tool.

    I had some trouble getting mine started here. If your logic board seems stuck, try pushing the removal tool on both sides near the bottom (vs the top like the photos show) with your index fingers, holding the case with your ring and pinky fingers so that your hands are completely free of the back of the computer (the side with the ports). This worked for me. Otherwise, this guide made the process smooth!

    moorejeffery -

    I had the same issue until I read this comment. Worked as explained. Thanks !!

    marcstonge060698 -

    The removal tool fits into sockets below the board, just 'lean' the tool over and the logic board will ease out. When refitting the logic board make sure the tabs around the I/O shield slip inside the shell and press home firmly. If the fixing screw does not thread into it's hole, the board is not fully home.

    Malcolm Norwood -

    This is what worked for me!

    Rick Allen -

    Make sure you do *not* have your thumbs on the black plastic I/O shield while attempting this step!

    Stephen Reaser -

    I was able to push the logic board out, with a little bit of stress and patience, without the specified tool. Rather I used two paper clips, larger than average, and being very gentle to get the initial nudge. I then finished it off using only my fingers, as the paper clips were not strong enough and would have bended. Doable, but probably easier with the tool.

    mt -

    Even with the tool - it takes more force than you think. There are clips on both sides of the board. Be aware of that when putting it back.

    Jim Allen -

    I used 2 mini flathead screwdrivers with the same thickness as the holes with the heads aligned straight up and down. They will fit into little sockets attached to the case below the board. The side with the power cord came out much easier than the side with the headphone jack, so I removed the tools after a small gap was created and pushed semi-hard on the logic board with a broken spudger (a screwdriver would have worked, too) right in the elbow curve shown to the left of the screw in step 14, and the whole thing slid right out.

    unixmonkey1 -

    I saw a video where a guy just used a coat hanger to make his own tool. Good to know in case you've already started taking it apart and haven't already purchased the tool. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgEBPlz4...

    James Almeida -

    The coat hanger trick worked flawlessly for me. Very easy.

    Jochen -

    May be its me, but I had a right issue with this, I then noticed the screw I loosened in step 10 was bending over. I removed the screw completely, logic board came out, and the metal pillar on the underneath of the board where said screw went in was bent. When I put it all back together afterwards after changing the drive, that long screw was bend, on straightening everything up, the pillar snapped off the logic board. Everything tightened up and its booted up fine. It might just me not following the instructions properly though

    steve -

    Same here. The screw has to be backed out further than I thought. This should maybe be clearer.

    marklfarley -

    For me the screw loosened in step 10 came out with the fan. it "should" be a captive screw meaning it doesn't stay in when the fan comes out

    Bill Pennock -

    I had 2 complete sets of allen wrenches, one metric and one standard and found one each that fit the holes perfectly. With those I was able to find the "pry spots" that are on the base of the case very easily and a slight nudge moved the board. really worked EXCELLENTLY

    Bill Pennock -

    My logic board was hung up on the left side with the plastic retainer or the two grounding tabs not giving up the ghost. There is no good picture of this on this procedure. If you go the the heat sink replacement procedure you can see a pretty good bit of it below the presenter’s right thumb in the opening pic and in a larger pic at step 27. Not that the logic board assembly can move much while seated I was able to shift (ever so slightly) the black plastic backside to the right and the board finally unlatched and came out. I was so worried that I was going to over force it and break something, you know, like the logic board. Not sure if I have a solution other than don’t force it. If it seems hard and one side seems to have a screw or other some such locking device stop forcing it and try shifting the logic board to the side opposite were it is catching.

    Eric Jorgensen -

    I had an issue during reassembly where the AC in socket was just offset and would not line up correctly. I inserted the power cord (unplugged from wall) as I did the final push and everything finally lined up right.

    Austin McGuire -

    One thing about sliding the assembly board in, i.e. when you are doing the steps backwards, is that there is squishy pad on left and clip on the righ (when viewing mac mini from bottom) if you carefully observe and then it becomes easy to get the assembly in or out if you think about it.

    Trushar -

    Though I’m sure the tool would work really well, we were able to trouble shoot this with an old microwave oven tray. We clipped the pieces and they were strong and small enough to help remove the logic tray.

    Kuldip Kainth -

    This step seems like it would be easier with a lot of thin tools like iFixit’s Jimmy being used to release the clips holding the IO panel to the case. It will slide apart with brute force, but until you realize what’s holding it shut, it feels like more force than it reasonable.

    Patrick Friedel -

    As I didn't have the Mac mini Logic Board removal tool, I used two small Alien tools, similar to the Mac mini Logic Board removal tool.

    marcoscaj -

    No clips or screwdrivers. I used my barehands over the air tunnels, that was very quick.

    I’m not sure how safe it is but worked just fine for me.

    Antonio Cuamatzi -

    This was very daunting going in (I had flashbacks of iPhone 4 screen replacements), but turned out to be mostly a breeze. Despite the amount of steps everything inside is very modular and fastened with a minimum number of screws. Logic board module slid right out with very slight pressure on the air vents. Most difficult part was getting the DC connector out and the side clips of the logic board module back in. Much to my surprise, I had it all done in 25 mins. Excellent guide.

    Mitch Russell -

    I used a single mini/ Jewelers philips screw driver #0 that fit perfectly into the hole and he socket at the base. A gentle “lean in” on each hole loosened the board, ready to slide out.

    Torsten Borchers -

    After some head scratching I found you don't want to insert the removal tool too deep. If you do you wont be able to slide the board out.

    Sam Pearson -

    YES. What is not clear on the pictures is that the whole board slips as a drawer, as shown on picture of step 25. When I understood this, it helped a lot.

    JICRO -

    I followed the advice of a pro, put the machine on the floor and my knees to the back end corners. From there I could push with screwdrivers down the holes and it loosened.

    Esben Harbo -

  24. QUBWLEadrumFSYwZ
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    • Pull the DC-In cable connector straight out of its socket on the logic board.

    When reassembling, I made the mistake of pushing the logic board all the way in before trying to reattach the DC-In cable connector. It is much easier to reattach the connector with the logic board pushed in just short of final seating.

    Saqib Qazi -

    Very usefull comment!!!

    Jean-Marie Sengelen -

    Excellent tip, thank you! I would suggest to @sam that this tip be added to the main steps so that others are more likely to see it. Saved me a lot of potential difficulty!

    Ian Davies -

    very small needle-nose pliers help, when reassembling.

    allanschwartz -

    This is very tricky and to get it off requires a fair bit of (considered) force. Putting it back on I also found a little difficult until I realized it seats slightly lower than you might anticipate. The connector isn’t flush with the top of the motherboard.

    Rob Speight -

    I was going to make this comment too. I spent 10 minutes trying to plug it in. It sits much lower than I expected too.

    Richard Daley -

    I agree with the comment above. When you’re putting everything back together, take time to see the connector properly before you push the logic board all the way in. It saves a lot of hassle.

    MrSpiral -

    I could not get my big fingers in to grip the wires. I used a small flat bladed screwdriver against the tiny ridge on the top of the connector. I pried against the board.

    mail -

    Use some tweezers to help work out each side as you pull with your fingers.

    Scott Provost -

    I pushed down on all the wires against the black plastic frame beneath to secure the wires tight. This allows you to then pull the logic board from the front until the connector pops out.

    Julian Robbins -

    Pour faciliter l’extraction de cette nappe de fil j’ai fait une boucle autour de celle-ci avec un lien fait d’une fine bande de plastique noir muni en son centre d’un petit fil de cuivre pour la solidité, on trouve ce genre de liens au moment du déballage de matériel électronique ou ils servent à tenir les câbles enroulés dans de petit sacs plastique. Une fois enroulé autour de la nappe il suffit de tirer sur cette attache ce qui permet de tirer sur tout les fils de la nappe en même temps et ainsi d’éviter de tirer uniquement sur quelques fils.

    Patrick Ponsard -

    Thanks for a thorough guide, except for one point -

    the Hard Drive connector landing point on the Logic Board. I did not notice how the connector came off when I pulled the Logic Board.

    Please add a circle around that connector on the logic board, AND how to get it re-installed. I ended up ripping the tiny gold "connections" off of a logic board when trying to get the Hard Drive cable re-seated.

    Edward Westerdahl -

    I actually missed the step prior and had to remove after I called loosened the mother board. Fortunately, when I pill on the board to come out, it conveniently pulls out this connector at the right angle.

    Joe -

  25. sUOTlxNTDrfULJBe
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    • Carefully slide the logic board assembly out of the Mac mini, minding any cables that may get caught.

    When sliding the logic board assembly back in later, mind the tabs, especially those at each end.

    Richard -

    When sliding the logic board back in, also be careful and make sure the rubber “sock” on the logic board wraps around the AC-in socket on the power supply.

    Anton -

    If you can’t get the logic board assembly back in so that it is flush (as it was before you did your surgery on the machine) then I would pay attention to two things: 1) the “sock.” Make sure it is back in place in the right way. I wish I could tell you which way that is but because there is no picture I had to guess and I can’t remember what my guess was now. 2) the retaining clip in step 26. I was unable to properly seat the logic board back into the machine so that it was flush UNTIL I fooled around with the clip and, I GUESS, put it in properly this time. After I did that I was able to properly push the logic board back into place.

    Christopher Todd -

    These comments just reinforce the fact that iFixit should include reassembly instructions! Just saying to reverse the procedure is not adequate. Reassembly often has unique issues that are not encountered during disassembly.

    kevs -

    Unless it was seated perfectly when the machine was first put together, the “sock” is likely to come off the logic board assembly when you pop the logic board out. To help reassemble, I have this advice:

    1. The sock has two parts, a stiffer rectangle part and a softer oval part with ridges. The oval part goes towards the outside (back) of the board assembly (where all the receptacles are for the external connections); the rectangle goes towards the inside of the machine.

    2. The rectangle has a stiff, rectangular “magnet-like” piece on one side: that’s the bottom. The top has a slight indentation that fits directly under a “clip” piece on the logic board. That clip is pretty much the only thing holding the sock to the board.

    3. The entire sock does not really seat strongly into the logic board, it’s sort of a gravity fit. So don’t look for places to jam things in: just lay the sock in gently and hook it under the clip and just make sure the oval aligns properly around the socket where the AC cord fits in.

    daniel.brotsky -

    This was a huge help!

    Scott Lent -

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    • The AC-in socket is secured with a small metal retaining clip.

    • Use tweezers or your fingers to pull the clip away from the AC-in socket, and remove it from the Mac mini.

    • When replacing the clip, push it in until it stops—it should be secure even if there is no audible click.

    Be careful with this seemingly easy step. A few weeks after following this guide to replace my hard drive I noticed that something inside the Mac mini was loose and moving around. I was very annoyed but decided to open it again to have a look and it turned out the be the retaining clip.

    I think I damaged it a little bit and it's not holding into place firmly like it is supposed to anymore. I wonder if I can remove it completely in case it happens again.

    Franck Thomas -

    This re-install of the clip was surprisingly pesky, I agree. The AC-in socket wanted to sit too far towards the edge of the case, so the retaining clip couldn't be slipped on far enough to close fully around it. I had to push the AC socket to the left while sliding the clip to the right until the wings were really securely closed.

    Jon Scott -

    This. Took me almost 15 minutes before I figured that one out.

    Robin Van Hoof -

    I fully agree with the pesky nature of this clip. During my reinstall I noticed that the logic board assembly would not go back in flush with the metal case. Nothing I did changed that. I had to pull out the logic board assembly again and for some reason I decided to futz with the clip. I think I must have re-seated it a little bit better because I was then able to push the assembly back into place and make it flush again. This pin is a PITA!

    Christopher Todd -

    I ageee. When it popped loose I thought I broke it. My retaining clip disappeared but that plug is very tight.. it’s not budging. Take the time to make sure it’s aligned properly - there are little indents in the top and bottom of the case. You’ll know it’s right if you don’t have to fight it.

    Jim Allen -

    I don’t understand why this retaining clip is necessary. The AC-in “latch” is positioned by the grove in the case, and quite tight. The power supply is keyed in the back, and attached with the (step 29) screw. I can’t see the retaining clip doing anything, so I will leave it out.

    allanschwartz -

    I left mine out as well. Like you, I just can’t see how it is necessary unless perhaps you take your mini on the go and it could be moved around a lot. If the mini is just going to sit on a desk, i don’t see any way that the plug comes out of place.

    Nathan Cooper -

    After completing this guide and reassembling I picked up my Mac Mini to put it back on my desk and noticed something rattling around. I can only think it was this part. Worth checking its firmly in position before going too far with reassembling.

    Gareth Little -

    This was the most uncertain part of the process for me. Coming out was easy, but in reinstalling it didn’t offer me that satisfying click or settled feel. When it and the AC socket looked and felt firm and stable, I called it good enough and judged, like others, that the clip was really unnecessary. Everything lined up, so I felt ok about it. That AC plug is so tight that when I went to pull it out before starting the repair, I momentarily wondered if it was built in, so when I was able to plug it back in firmly and nothing was loose, I felt good about it.

    Matt Burleson -

    Pour les francophones, il faut pousser le connecteur d’alimentation légèrement vers la gauche (centre du boitier) et non vers le bord afin de pouvoir remettre ce pu…. de circlip : )

    car sinon le clip est impossible a remettre sinon…

    Attention a ce qu’il soit bien en place sous peine de le voir se balader dans le Mac mini et faire courcirtcuit

    pour les plus frileux —> un bout de scotch toilé et c’est réglé !

    Jeremy -

    il y a en plus une pièce en caoutchou sur le connecteur sur mon Mac mini ;)

    Jeremy -

    When putting back together: The latch needs a leg on each side of the front of the AC-plug.

    Esben Harbo -

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    • To free the power supply from the case, grab the AC-In connector, which acts like a latch.

    • Rotate the AC-In connector 90 degrees counter-clockwise.

    I have a supplementary rubber parts on the connector.

    How to send you the pictures ?

    Jeremy -

  28. HfTHCTH4EagB1o6v

    • The AC-In latch should fit into the groove above it in the case.

    • During reassembly ensure the power supply is inserted far enough into the case that the latch will engage with the groove.

    "During reassembly ensure the power supply is inserted far enough into the case that the latch will engage with the groove." -- Tip: Flip the case upside down and wiggle the power supply a bit to get it seated properly so the screw hole lines up.

    Brad Bowers -

  29. GqFBpssMTFQ21Egb

    • Remove the 8 mm T6 screw securing the power supply.

    During reassembly, leave this a bit loose so that you can wiggle the AC-in latch into place in step 28

    Sandip Bhattacharya -

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    • Slide the power supply out of the mini, minding any cables that may get caught.

    When re-seating the PSU, be sure to align the little metal tab that points toward of the front of the Mac Mini so that it mates with the receiving socket at the front of the case. If not, the light at the front of the case that glows white when the Mac Mini is in various power states will not illuminate.

    maxim -

    I am completely unable to remove the power supply. I followed all steps, but at the last, the power supply does not move at all. I can wiggle it a fraction of an inch from side to side, but that’s it. Need help!

    Charles Lindauer -

    @lmc Did you manage to get it out? For anyone else who has this issue - it seemed to be stuck for me too, but I just needed to use the part that we just unscrewed and put leverage on it while pulling on the end of the power supply with my fingers. Make sure the AC latch is turned all the way to the left so it’s not bumping into the chassis.

    Josh Hyde -

    I did finally get it out, but it wasn’t easy. It had to be jiggled just the right way.

    Charles Lindauer -

    To anybody else having the issue, the AC-in header needs to be twisted to the left to be removed. The sides have grooves that they fit into.

    Houston -

    For what it's worth, the power supply "latches" onto the part we just removed the screw from, so you may need to twist the power supply slightly clockwise to lift the tab off of the mating spot on the rail. When you do this, the whole thing comes out much easier.

    Patrick Friedel -

    Ottime istruzioni, per rimuovere la scheda logica al punto 22 + 23 si possono usare 2 punte in metallo da 1.5 mm, io ho usato delle punte per ferro del trapano al contrario, importante è inserire fino in fondo, a contatto con la custodia in metallo.

    mauro.santangelo -

  31. Kv3befCVhWcnhAtV

    • Remove the single 8 mm T6 screw securing the drive tray.

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    • Lift the drive tray up out of the Mac mini.

    When re-installing drive tray, note two holes in tray engage two spuds at the far end. I fumbled with this for a minute.

    Jon Scott -

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    • Remove the four (two on each side) 6.5 mm T8 screws securing the hard drive to the drive tray.

    Like others, a T8 screw driver worked best for me on the 4 hard drive screws.

    sorinjc -

    it is t8 not t9. you owe me a TR6 Torx Security bit :D

    giammin -

    I found the 4 screws quite hard to remove and needed to use an 8mm spanner on the back of my T8 screwdriver to get them loose.

    Reiner Friedel -

    Screws have loctite residue. I put a tiny drop of fresh blue (semi-permanent) on each screw before reinstalling.

    Jon Scott -

    T9 was the right one for mine

    Bill Pennock -

    T9 Torx from recommended barely allowed me to remove these screws. I had to press very strong them into screws, so that pressure and minimal adhesion made it possible to move something.

    Vitalijs Ozornins -

    T8 was more appropriate for me !!!

    afajner -

    The instructions at the top recommend a T9 but the link plops a TR9 into your basket. In any event, the T8 works better.

    tom -

    T8 was also good for me. Mini was manufactured in 2016 October.

    soul.tan -

    TR7 did the job.

    Benni Piron -

    Is this a security screwdriver just like the TR6 Security Screwdriver?

    Shubham Ojha -

    When i did the re-assembly as I was adding a drive to a pcie only mac, i didnt have any t8 screws (so used standard phllips onces which came with the sata kit but i struggled to make sure the wires were out of the way. I dont know if the configuration for mac minis with drive is slightly different but you need to be careful not to screw down any of the wires (i think for IR sensors).

    Edward Chandler -

    Can anyone confirm a T8S (security) driver is needed for this, not a non-security T8?

    Cornfritter -

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    • Lift the hard drive up and remove it from the drive tray.

    • During reassembly, be sure to thread the hard drive cable through the slot in the drive tray.

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    • Lift up the ribbon cable and carefully peel away the black tape underneath. It secures the SATA cable connector to the PCB of the hard drive. Failing to remove the tape will almost surely cause the contacts soldered to the flex cable to rip from the connector housing, as the retention force of the contacts in the housing is quite low.

    • Pull the SATA cable connector straight out of the hard drive.

    • Carefully peel off the two black, square-shaped sticky pads (one visible in picture) from the corners of the hard drive, and stick them to your new hard drive in the same locations.

    The bottom of the hard drive SATA Connector had a bit of black tape on it holding the Mac SATA connection to the bottom [circuit board side] of the hard drive itself.

    Check to see if yours has this as well before applying too much force removing the SATA connector from the hard drive.

    KevCoStudios -

    Are there any temperature sensors glued to the HD as in the previous versions of the mini?

    Matias -

    I found the SATA cable itself glued to the drive. Once I pulled the cable up and away from the PCB, I found a piece of black tape (as mentioned by KevCoStudios) holding the connectors together.

    dloftis -

    when I replaced HD, I used Capton tape to Supplant black adhesive strip that had lost its stickiness.

    Macrepair SF -

    This tape is critical. For some reason, apple supplied a very loose fitting SATA connector. Tape is required to keep the HD attached.

    James Billy -

    %#*@, got this far all ok, but didn't notice the tape and pulled too hard, ripping the metal pins out of the connector! Where can I find a replacement part?

    Sky Willmott -

    Did the same thing, wondering if you ever found a replacement?

    Alex Boyd -

    I did the same thing. I found a replacement on Amazon using the serial number printed on the underside of the connector. It worked like a charm.

    Anthony Califano -

    This guide is almost perfect aside from the omission of a picture of that well-hidden adhesive. I've seen it on other Apple SATA connectors, but it's been a few months and I didn't think about it today.

    Please someone upload a picture of the adhesive on the PCB side of the drive. I'll gladly do it myself when I next open a 2014 Mac Mini, but I've no idea when I'll get to open another one.

    I also struggled mightily for about 15 minutes before finding the small black tape. Like a jerk, I forgot to take close up pictures while I had it apart :-

    I was probably 5 minutes away from breaking off the SATA connector by prying too hard using a spudger on each edge of the cable.

    If anyone has pictures, hopefully they can upload here to help out others.

    This mac mini was significantly different from previous minis I've worked on, the guide saved me A LOT of time.

    Thanks for the great writeup!

    Daniel Cassel -

    @rebootninja I bought mine last december the 500GB model and just ordered the tools and a Sandisk SSD Plus, I could send pictures of the tape when i do it myself. Im not sure when. Since i'm living in Maldives, orders from ebay and online takes 3-5 weeks to arrive. However, i shall keep a note of what you have mentioned here. I have read the guide twice now and now i think im quite ready to perform the surgery when the tools arrive :)

    Mohamed Malik -

    Cable looked to have been glued down with just a spot of RTV (silicone.) Easy enough to peel slowly with spudger. Ordinary RTV is corrosive to electronics so if you add fresh, make sure it's electronic-safe. I also reinforced the black tape on re-assembly with a strip of Kapton tape, and burnished well with spudger.

    Jon Scott -

    If you still need the images for the sticker.....

    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wq8vxwejqjbm0...

    Thanks for the guide.

    Leo Rudolph -

    In order to avoid any kind of issue to the SATA cable, I suggest to warming the part. A hairdryer could works for the scope.

    Claudio -

    Tough to see the 2 black stick pads. Noticed them on the old hard drive after I reassembled everything with a 1TB Samsung SSD. Don’t think I need the pads as SSD has no moving parts. Would be good if the author circled the 2 pads on the HD.

    Phatcat -

    This happened to me as well. Did you have any problems further on?

    Jakob HJ -

    Wer das Klebeband sucht: Es ist auf der verbauten Festplatte - das rechteckige ovale “schwarze Ding” in Abbild 35, das halb über den Sata-Anschluss der Platte geklebt ist.

    Hermann Röttger -

    I found the tape and removed it, but didn’t notice the tiny screws in the connector and of course pull the cable out of the connector. Ordered a replacement and installed it.

    Leonard Jessup -

    I’m new to Mac. How do you load the OS on the new drive? Before or after replacement? Using what tools? Thank you.

    David -

    As others have said, the SATA cable is stuck to the drive with a spot of something sticky. I used a long thin flat metal prying/opening tool (often found in mobile cell phone opening kits), and inserted this between the cable and the PBC, and gentle wiggled it while gently pushing it through. This separated the cable from the drive quite easily. After I attached the cable to the new drive, that spot was still a bit sticky, and was good to stick onto the new drive as well!

    Ken -

    Jack83

    Tutoriel très clair. Manipulation de difficulté moyenne. Il faut cependant de petits doigts et une bonne vue.

    Merci pour votre aide, travail fait en 45 minutes. tournevis Torx 6 Security en coffret de plus de 100 pièces pour moins de 20€.

    Jacques Lefèvre -

    I can’t source the Toshiba 1tb sata drive anywhere, can I use any other sata drive?

    Sonni -

    Any 2.5” drive should work. I would get an SSD, like the Adata SU800 or Crucial MX500.

    maccentric -

    The tear down instructions were great! I just should have paid more attention to the note about the ‘hidden’ black tape.. I missed that! So the SATA connector came apart as predicted in the instructions. So…… Now I get to do it all over again with a replacement cable!

    Roy Pressman -

    If this model just shipped with the PCIe SSD, does it come with the cable for the 2.5” drive? Is this the same cable for previous models? Upper or lower cable?

    Charlie Nancarrow -

    sem voces nao seria nada

    jo20507 -

    Ha, you go through the million steps… and then need to deal with the TWO pieces of tape on the connector! This step definitely should've addressed it more.

    I ended up applying mild heat, and using prying tools to successfully pry the connector off in whole and not just half of it.

    On the replacement, I went for a piece of office Scotch tape :) (where the oval tape was, between the drive's edge and the SATA connector; not the ribbon's middle). Electrical tape would stretch, and this is to prevent lateral force from loosening the SATA connection.

    That's some s——y engineering for Apple, I'd say — seems like a slew of last-minute patches to reinforce that SATA ribbon connector.

    Drew -

Conclusion

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

Author

Sam Goldheart

Member since: 19/10/12

457524 Reputation

220 comments

Hello, the following hard drive goes on the Mac Mini ??

http://www.sandisk.de/products/ssd/sata/...

schneiderschutzraum -

no problem. but if you can get a evo 850 or a pro for the 2014 is better

Carlos De Bernard -

All in all, this was a fairly terrifying process, however this guide was a massive help! Thankyou!!

geeksix -

This is exactly the reason I purchased their tools. They offer these guides which have helped me save several of my computers and a couple of my phones over the years. The $70 was a small price to pay for the help and I love the tools.

Nick Maietta -

Ordered kit which arrived very quickly from Germany to UK. Only problem with taking it apart was with the IR sensor was difficult to lift up and I ended up pulling the whole fitting off glued it back on but now have no working IR sensor or front light but everything else works fine. Swapped SLOW HDD for SSD and now my Mac MIni is flying.

Andrew -

Sam - i bought the tools and followed your guide and everything went very well - the steps were clear and precise. The only problem I am having now is that the Mac Mini format my new EVO SSD as though it were a Fusion Drive with two partitions. Is there any way around this?

Thanks,

Steve Maiorano -

I am late on this post but thought I’d reply. You need to break the fusion drive in Terminal. Terminal commands (the rights ones) will remove the coreStorage setup and the drives will appear seperate. There are plenty of tutorials. Type how to split or break a fusion drive in a search. It is similar to building it in Terminal. It is done from a USB boot drive. It is not hard if you follow instructions and get the command right.

opinio -

How do I know what SSD drive will be compatible?

godurbin -

Samsung EVO 850 is compatible. 1 year ago I manage to replace mac mini’s HDD with this SSD and only what I need to do is sit back and wait that Mac do the job, macOS is downloaded automatically

Stefan Repac -

could you suggest a good replacement drive?

godurbin -

You can find a list of compatible drives at the top of this guide.

Jeff Suovanen -

Hello. I have this sdd: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BQ8...

Do you know if I could use it in a mac mini late 2014?

Daniel Luiz Costa -

If I buy a SSD only Mac mini, can I add a SATA hard drive??

Zhenfu Shi -

i was wondering the same, did you find it out?

Francesco -

Yes, you can. You'll need a Mac mini-compatible SATA cable but these are readily available online for under a fiver. (Alternatively, of course, you could add a second SSD.)

Roger Houghton -

Hi,

I have mac mini 2014 i5 2.6 GHz model.

Will it support Kingston SSDNow V300 SV300S37A/240G 240GB SATA III 2.5-Inch for upgrade and also will it supports trim support ?

Arul Jeba -

After replacing to full ssd, my mac works great, but the mac mini front light does not come on at all...anybody know why or a fix?

alejandro begines -

Realign the power supply. You should hear a definitive click.

Jim Allen -

Very good step by step. Thanks.

I passed from 1min15s to 12s booting time !

Nicolas Gaillet -

Many thanks for the excellent details in this guide, swapped out for an SSD in a flash!

Jonathan Millsted -

do you know if i can add 2 hdisks (a ssd 500 gb + a sata one) with the dual drive kit?

Francesco -

Thank U very much, very useful!

Javier Vitorero -

Hello! Just a quick question:

Right now i have a mac mini 2012 with the ifixit dual drive kit (1 samsung 850 pro 500 gb and 1tb 5400 rpm disk), can i buy the 2016 model (2014?) and put my kit on the new mac? Should i buy the fusion drive version or the ssd one?

is the ram replaceable?

thanks!

Francesco -

Hi,

As far as I know, you cannot use your kit on the latest Mac Mini.

If you buy a Fusion Drive version, you will have an SSD on a Mini-PCIe connector, that will not be here if you do not take the fusion drive.

No, the RAM is soldered on the motherboard.

Regards

Nicolas Gaillet -

Just an update - I have the late 2014 model and it works fine.

Jim Allen -

I have a question for SSD variant.

If i order mac mini from apple with SSD (PCIe variant i hope) there should be empy space where normal HDD should be. Is that correct? Can you verify or deny that?

That could be the way how to get two disks inside once owc release their new ssd's.

Thank you

jakub -

I was wondering the same :) I was thinking to buy the SSD version and then adding 1 Tb disk to the SATA controller, it could be a good solution.

Let know if you find it out :)

Francesco -

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

Francesco -

Thank you, it was a walk in the park. I only encountered two problems: step 24, pulling the DC-in cable out and step 27 (on the reverse operation), making the AC connector back into the horizontal position. Also, the metallic clip from step 26 is a ##&&% to put back on, especially because there is no feedback if the clip is in the original position.

stefan -

Fantastic guide. Got the job done & the mac mini is now flying. Thank you!

Milind Kanetkar -

I've just purchased the Mac Mini do these instructions apply to the late 2015 model?

Neil Henderson -

There isn't a late 2015 model, the last model they made so far is the late 2014.

twhitten -

Dont buy the economy TR9 it wont fit in the screws, you have to strip them away a little bit to even get the TR9 economy in.

twhitten -

I just installed the Samsung EVO Pro 850 512gb SSD into my HDD slot as i purchased a HDD model of the mac mini only. This SSD works like a charm, my boot time before with the 5400rpm HDD was nearly 2 minutes, with this SSD it is now down to 9 seconds! I highly recommend updating your mac mini if its an HDD only with an SSD as it will speed it up tremendously!

The teardown wasn't bad at all, i had tore down in 15 minutes and had it put back together in 15 minutes. The only trouble i had was taking out the HDD, Ifixit sent me a TR9 instead of just a T9 and the TR9 is bigger, it wouldn't fit but i stripped away at the screws and finally made it work!

twhitten -

twhitten are you experience any compatibility issues with it. I Just just ordered the tools via iFixit. And now i'm looking for an SSD and the Samsung EVO Pro 850 is the number one on my list. Asking cause some on youtube are saying it as compatibility issues with mac minis...!

Thanks In Advance..!

Mohamed Malik -

Clear Guide Thank You !

william petreman -

I followed the instructions and replaced my HD with and SSD - well worth it.

However, several glitches along the way:

1. The TR9 screwdriver I purchased from iFixit sucks. The handle turns but the shaft doesn't. The screws holding the original HD to the tray were so tight, I had to go to Geek Squad to have them removed.

2. It wasn't clear what the power supply clip held in place. I managed to get it back in, but I'm not sure it is holding anything.

3. It was not clear if the tape holding the SATA cable connector to the original HD was needed for the new SSD (It wasn't). I ripped it while taking it off.

4. The DC-In connector to the logic board would not come out using fingers - not much room to get fingers in. Had to pry it off using a flat head screwdriver.

David Marks -

Can I use the same sshd but it has 2tb instead of 1tb? I wanna replace the 2tb but i wonder if it is compatible with the mac mini late 2014. My specs i5 ram 16gb, 1th hdd 5400rpm. thank you!

link from amazon https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Firecuda-...

TUAN TRAN -

Done it....it went flawlessly....

Mohamed Malik -

Absolutely wonderful guide. I've built/torn down/reassembled a ton of PCs in my life, but this was more like solving a puzzle. Thanks for the help, I probably would have broken something without it!

Andrea Gatley -

Thanks to this guide it was quite easy to replace the awful slow harddrive with a fast ssd. I think I got a new computer. Thank you very much for this guide.

dirk hampel -

1. Will Samsung -850 Pro SSD work with Mac mini 2014.?

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-850-PRO-2...

2. How many SSD slots and HDD slot are there.?

3. If i order Mac Mini with HDD then if there is another slot for SSD then can i install SSD and use it as fusion.?

vip -

After I got a quality TR6 it only took approximately 20 minutes to teardown and an additional 10 to put back together. New 2014 Mac Mini MGEN2LL/A (i5 2.6ghz 8gb ram 1tb 5400rpm hard drive) took 46sec to go from button push to login screen. Swapped in 500gb Samsung 840 SSD, which now takes 19sec from button push to login screen. Prior to swapping the internal drive, I used the same Samsung SSD in an external USB3 drive enclosure - took 35sec to login.

Nathan Church -

Thanks for the instruction !

They helped me swap the HD out for a nice SSD, and install the UpTone Audio MMK adaptor and fan control upgrade (separate walk thru).

I ran into a few issues, that others have mentioned, but nothing I couldn't figure out. The only thing I needed that wasn't in the he MMK took kit, was a good pair of tweezers.

Dave Ayers -

Thanks for the guide - the key is to follow the instructions to the word, read all the comments and take your time. It's difficult to know how much force to use especially when detaching the IR and DC connector.

Nicholas Kutner -

the retaining bolts for the drive chassis are definitely T8's, not T9

placebomessiah -

I have the latest Mac mini (latest 2014) and it has a 1TB fusion drive, but I would like to install a second one (Samsung 850 PRO - 512GB - 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-7KE512BW)), as the primary HD. Is it possible with the ifixit dual drive kit?

Tulio Guimaraes -

I would also like to know what tools to by. I have the 1Tb normal drive and i would also like to add a 2ssd

Dmitrij Moreinis -

Just did this and it worked so well - I bought the ifixit parts because the extra $20 or so was worth it to make this an easy job. Hardest part - getting the AC connector back in, and then reseating the logic board - the instructions don't mention to push in the tabs on the sides as it goes back in. Booted right up - super fast - thanks for the help ! I bought the T6 driver, the special logic board tool and several spudgers. They were all VERY helpful.

David Bott -

Do you really need TR torx drivers or will regular non-tamper-resistant ones work?

R C -

The initial screws in the bottom of the Mac Mini are TR6 screws, which have the security post, so a Torx 6 security is a must. The other T6 and T9 screws are non-security, however, security versions will work fine.

Sam Goldheart -

Awesome guide. It looked daunting but I did it with my 9yo son and it was actually really easy. There were a couple of steps where you needed small fingers for sure. My old HDD (1TB 5400 RPM) tested with Black Magic showed Read/Write speeds of 30-30 MB/s. With a Crucial 1TB SSD hooked up via USB (in a cheap little enclosure) it was 41 MB/s. Same SSD installed inside the Mac Mini: 350-390 MB/s read and 420-480 MB/s write. And it absolutely flies compared to the stock drive. I ended up ordering the parts from Amazon because iFixIt was out of the T9. Wish I could contribute some money to iFixit or Sam, because this was an incredibly valuable guide. (Let me know if/how I can!)

Pro tip: I used one of those pill boxes with compartments for every day of the week, to store the screws from each step. That way I'd make sure to use the correct screws when reassembling.

R C -

I did too (use one of those pillboxes)! Each step I used one pillbox. It worked like a charm!

Christopher Todd -

Hello, I just follow this guide and on my Mac Mini there was no SSD to remove so it was easier but I have to tell people who are missing some tools that there are few ways to overcome it. For the whole tutorial I just used my iFixIt 54 Bit driver. It's really handy and I never stumbled upon a screw I couldn't screw while having it ! To remove the back cover I used an old postcard (rigid paper/cardboard) and instead of pushing on one point I slided the paper around the side of the back cover ! Also, to remove the connectors just use a flat screwdriver and be gentle, it usually works great. Finally, to remove the motherboard, I started by using iron wire but I bent kappa so instead I went with ye ol' thumb switcharoo which consist simple of pushing with both thumbs on the black ventilation thing. Just push gently and don't push sideways or it will destroy the ventilation. Also, don't forget to remove the black sticker on the SATA connector !

sam -

Fantastic guide! Thanks to the author and those who also contributed on the comments. What seemed like a daunting task was made much easier because of you.

Chris Arevalo -

Just did my Mac Mini. Everything went without a hitch except the putting in the last screw to hold the antenna connector back down broke. Put a dab of silicon on it.

David Trotsky -

Nice procedure. I did screw up bad though and managed to rip off the fan connector from the mobo because I did not take the time to read the part about lifting the connector out of the socket. I thought it slid out, not up. Ooops. I didn't have the mobo removal tool, so I fabricated one out of a metal coat hanger, and it worked perfectly. In the end, my mobo was dead anyway due to a corrupt EFI, so even though I damaged the fan connector, I didn't lose anything. I learned a good lesson and I will know what pitfalls to avoid next time. Tools I used: ifixit 64-bit driver kit, spudger, tweezers, coat hanger and diagonal cutters (to cut the coat hanger).

Patrick -

Where can I get the sata flex cable for the 2014 mini? I have a PCI flash drive installed and an empty bay for a second hard drive, so I need the flex cable. Do the ones from the 2012 minis work?

tmilwaukee -

Just followed this procedure through and have to say it helped enormously. I hadn't got the motherboard extraction tool so made one out of a wire coat hanger bent to shape, the diameter of the wire was spot on. Worked a treat, however it does require quite a bit of force which is un-nerving, but once you have created a gap between the back panel (Black Bit) and the casing you can get your thumb and or finger nails in there and pull it out the rest of the way. 480GB Sandisk Ultra II installed and what a difference it makes to performance. Cloned the disc first using Carbon Copy to the SSD on an external USB SATA docking station, tested by booting from the USB SSD first to check all was OK, then performed the swap over. Thanks for the Teardown guys.

Nick Franklin -

Nearly flawless instructions. I replaced the default 5400 RPM 1TB hard disk with a Samsung EVO 850 500GB SSD (2.5” drive style). Everything went off without a hitch, the computer is fast, and everything (including front light) works great.

Thank you.

(Two quick things: 1. There’s a black sticker that looks like a rounded rectangle that holds the SATA connector to the hard drive itself. Remove that and replace it on the new drive. 2. The antenna cable is difficult to get back on. I’ve done many of these on other Macs. Put the screw back in first and line it up. Be gentle. Persist. You’ll get it.)

Kent -

Hello,

I have Mac mini late 2014 with 16GB RAM and 2TB Fusion Drive. Working with this fusion drive is quite odd. Do you know is it possible to change this fusion drive with 2 TB SSD?

Best regards

Christo

Leopolde Saroyan -

Hard drive needs to be formatted first. I bought a usb 3—to—SATA 2.5” dock, formatted the drive and it worked. Before that disk utility and Mac OS High Sierra could not see the drive.

Neil Grogan -

My hard drive failed on my Mac Mini Model A1347. I want to replace it with a simple 500gb drive and then sell it.

1) What drive should I buy?

2) Is it easy to replace the hard drive?

3) Is it worth replacing the hard drive before selling it or just let the buyer deal with it?

Thanks!

Michael Goldberg -

Hello, I have an SSD-only 2014 mini; Is it possible to add a HDD using your “Mac Mini Dual Drive Kit”, which is reported to be only compatible with 2011 and 2012 mini? Should I also buy your “Mac mini A1347 (Late 2014) Drive Tray”? Or something else?

Thanks

tartiflette -

Yes, I’ve got the same Mini and my second unit is a Crucial SSD. Very easy to do!

JuanjoSVQ -

finally completed this task after delaying for about a month plus (waiting the tools arrived from my friend. Must say that it pretty tough job given that how much i dislike the tiny-winy things inside it.

Syahmie Ramley -

Seeing the same issue as some others, power light not showing on even though everything else works. Anyone found the cause (and associated fix) for this ?

thanks

SSACP -

Seeing the same issue as some others here, no power light. Everything else works just no light. Anyone found the cause (and associated fix) for this ?

thanks

SSACP -

Hi, I had the same problem for the power light. The culprit was the IR sensor cable at step 17, that gives power also the light. When I reinsert it the very last pin on the left side (see photo at step 17) was not fully fitted. I fit it completely and the power light turned back. Hope it helps! Sorry for my english!

Corrado Pissarello -

I did this !!! Many thanks to Sam and iFixit, as the mini was pretty well unusable with its original HDD after upgrading to High Sierra. I replaced it with a Crucial MX300 SSD and it now purrs quite happily. My only bodge was to use a bit of welding rod bent to shape as the logic board lever tool.

I formatted the SSD to a GUID partition map first of course then fitted it and ran the High Sierra upgrade which updates to APFS… blah blah blah but you know it makes sense.

Thanks again iFixit and Sam Lionheart

Steve Clen-Murphy -

These tear down notes were awesome. Replacing my HDD with the Samsung SSD 850 EVO went very well! Great instructions.

I however am not able to set the partition scheme to GUID. I’m not sure if I missed that step in the first time I formatted the SSD. Now when I go to disk utilities there is NO OPTION for setting the partition scheme to GUID. Mac OS X will not install without the scheme set to GUID.

CAN ANYONE HELP ME? Is it possible to force the reformat/erase in disk utility, or some other utility to set the partition scheme to GUID?

I do have my old HDD connected to my Mac mini via a SATA/USB cable and am able to boot from it.

There is not “media line” in DU, so the option to re-partition the SSD is not even there.

If anyone could point me to the right information that would help me greatly. Thanks.

Philip Schroeder -

Figured it out.

Upset at myself. I’ve run into this before, it was just “one little thing”. In Disk Utility the media is NOT always visible by default. You need to click on the VIEW icon to select SHOW ALL DEVICES. This one little step, if missed, can create a bit of frustration. The Samsung 850 EVO is working great, formatted. It has transformed the mac mini into a whole new experience.

Philip Schroeder -

These instructions were great! I was able to successfully upgrade my Mac mini with a 1TB HDD to a Samsung 850 EVO 1TB SSD in about an hour. I took my time and made sure I followed each step exactly and it went very smoothly. My Mac mini is now much faster and I was surprised that it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be. The iFixit tools made the job really easy. Anyone who has a Mac mini with a HDD should definitely get an SSD and do this upgrade. Thanks!

Neal Narkis -

Great guide, even if it looks intimidating you won’t regret switching out that slooooooow HDD for a SSD. Took me 50 minutes. Now my Mac mini is flying. Also, great support from ifixit (missing one tool in my order that was quickly sent to me) FIVE STARS *****

Richard Olsson -

I've heard that if you are upgrading from a Mac mini 2014 model with only a HDD, you will need to buy the PCIe cable to replace it with an SSD. Is that the case or is the cable already there?

Josh -

I did not have to replace anything. The Samsung 860 EVO swapped out seamlessly with the existing hard drive, with no additional cables necessary.

Frank Hughes -

Einfach nur super beschrieben. Danke.

KB -

Another great guide! I split my Fusion Drive and replaced the HDD with a 1TB SSD with no issues. Thanks!

kevmacmills -

Worked great. Just needed to partition the drive. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/650...

Micah Thompson -

30 Min, Everything went well. SSD Replaced, Thanks very much :D

John Grace -

A TR8 Security Torx could be used to put off the firts screws thats says it with a TR6 Security?

Carlos Agustin Guanipa Alvarez -

Piece of cake.

Petr Šavelka -

35 min. Everything went well. The hardest part was reconnect DC in cable with pudgy fingers. Installed 2TB Firecuda drive no problems. Thanks!

gyu -

hi is it possible i can i add 2 ssd to this? mini is 2014 with 1tb hdd.

nickmcken -

Upgraded my 2014 model with a Sandisk 512 SSD and it went flawless, thank you for the info and tools!!!

Kimberly Horspool -

Can i replace the 1TB Fushiondrive with a nomal 2TB HDD?

adiglauser -

On the money. Took 22 mins from start to finish. Thanks for the easy to follow guide. New life for my mini with a SSD.

lenharpd -

Indispensable guide. I used it and the iFixit tools in conjunction with a YouTube video and the process was scary but surprisingly easy. (After all, I understand these things are originally assembled by 10-year olds.) I swapped out the 500gb hard drive on my infuriatingly slow late 2014 Mac Mini with a 500gb Samsung 860 EVO SSD and I am frankly astonished at the gain in speed. It is like having a brand new computer. I spent less than $150, including the drive and the iFixit tools. Far less cursing in my house now, I thank you for such a clear, concise guide.

Frank Hughes -

This guide was indispensable. I have a 2014 (late? mid? I can’t remember and I can’t find out because the machine is literally downloading the new OS in recovery mode as I type (on my MBP)) MacMini. Before the surgery, my Mini had the 1GB HD that it came with. Needless to say, it was painfully slow. I purchased the tools recommended on this site and followed all of the instructions. In the end I installed a brand new 500GB Samsung 860 EVO SSD HD in my MacMini. Thus far everything seems to be working correctly. Hopefully, I will get the speed gain that I understand comes from swapping out a spinning drive for an SSD. I’m so excited!

Thanks iFixit.

Christopher Todd -

I just want to follow-up. I have been using the computer with the new SSD in it and I can’t believe what a difference it has made. Frank Hughes wrote that it was like having a brand new computer and I am in FULL agreement with him. Prior to the SSD it would take perhaps a minute or more to open word or excel. Now the icon literally bounces AT MOST 5 times and the application is open and ready to go. This goes for all of my other apps too: iTunes (which seems to open nearly instantly now), Pixelmator, Acrobat, etc. I rarely wanted to open anything on that machine because it took FOREVER! The entire thing was sluggish; it took forever to process anything. The startup time has dropped DRAMATICALLY! It went from minutes to less than one. I could go on . . . .

Anyhow, I would recommend this upgrade to ANYONE! DO IT! You won’t be disappointed.

Christopher Todd -

非常感谢, 已经成功更换硬盘

pal_xie -

What tools do I need to transfer the OS to the new drive?

Sam Curcio -

@sfcurcio : Get some form of USB 3 enclosure, and you can boot to the recovery menu, and use Disk Utility. At least, that worked for me to go from a 1TB HDD to Crucial MX500 1TB SSD. There are various guides online on how to clone your boot drive.

You can then use the USB enclosure for the old drive, and use it for backups and such.

Great guide - a bit scary at times, but worth it in the end.

Bill Somerville -

I’d like to put a 3TB drive in this machine, but it’s 15mm tall. Will that fit or is it too thick?

Mark2000 -

It might sound crazy but it took me 45 min - to an hr to finish. One thing about sliding the assembly board in, i.e. when you are doing the steps backwards, is that there is squishy pad on left and clip on the righ (when viewing mac mini from bottom) if you carefully observe and then it becomes easy to get the assembly in or out if you think about it. Also I had congested nose that dad and my kid had a cold as well so she was getting cranky. I couldn’t resist but had Glenfeddich 14year old while doing the upgrade to 480gb ssd to a 2014 Mac mini. So it is not so bad. Just watch the views couple of times, be gentle and question your action before executing it. You will do absolutely fine.

Trushar -

Great job on this write up. Made the job less painful.

Jim Allen -

For my mid-2011 Mac Mini I had to skip steps and read comments to know that. This guide was step by step on the money for me.

For those, thinking about getting a regular hard drive ONLY versus a fusion drive which is your SATA + SSD; I highly recommend the added $100 for the fusion drive. Here is why. When you replace that spinning disk with your own SSD, the chasis has that extra SSD attached to it. That translates into even more SSD storage you can partition/reformat and use!

Anyways, AWESOME write-up. I have the Mac Mini removal tool, the splunger, and 64 bit driver kit. All worth the money, IMHO.

Arvin Bhatnagar -

Awesome guide, I did it several times already and no problems so far. But now I have to upgrade MacMinis right after ordering them, i.e. WITHOUT EVER STARTING them from their original HDD. I wonder if this will cause problems with the MacOS that I install later (serial number registration or whatever..)? Has anyone ever tried this?

Thanks for any information!

Tobias Münch -

I just did this with a new system never having booted it. Power on while holding T key to get virgin mini in target mode. Connect mini by thunderbolt cable to 2nd mac where the unformatted SSD also is located in a SATA dock. Use SuperDuper to clone the mini’s factory image onto the SSD. Cleanly unmount/eject/disconnect everything. Install SSD using these instructions. First real boot of new mini runs initial setup from SSD just as if Apple had shipped it that way. All this worked for me on the first try. One could do this in reverse order - install SSD first then clone factory image back into the mini using target mode, but I thought it was safer to capture the image before taking anything apart.

Steve D -

Great guide, thanks. Followed this step by step and successfully had the Mac up and running in about 30 minutes.

I dropped a 1TB Crucial MX500 in to replace the stock 1TB HDD. World of difference! And so quiet.

I have used iFixit to replace memory and HDD in 2007 MBP, 2009 Mac Mini, and now this 2014 Mini. These guides are invaluable, the fact that you list all the tools at the beginning is fantastic. Your service is the best!

bowersrob -

Great guide. Thank you.

Restore from Time Machine couldn’t find the new SSD. So I switched to disk utility and chose ‘erase’ with option APFS.

Back to ‘Restore from Time Machine’ the restore went well.

Katja Süss -

Perfect guide - covers perfectly every step that was needed and no non-sense. Replaced factory 500GB HDD with 1TB Crucial MX500 and works as a charm!

Antti Latva-aho -

Great guide!

Works like charm, this one too! Have Mini 2011 and 2014, both now with a SSD, 1Tb (2011) and 2Tb (2014).

And great tools!

Johan Roman -

My Mac Mini late 2014 1.4GHz i5 with 4 GB RAM sluggish at best as OS X El Capitan (10.11.6) averages 6-8 GB RAM routinely. The OSX is constantly moving active memory from RAM to HD (the base 5400 rpm HGST 25K500-500 HD).

Booting was 15-30 seconds and from application to application.

Shame on Apple!

I decided to swap out the HD with an SSD. I decided on a Samsung EVO 1 TB SSD. I followed this EXCELLENT guide and replaced the HD with the SSD without much of a problem except removing the HD SATA cable was difficult and I broke the cable. Ordered a replacement. Now, my Mac Mini Late 2014 boots in about 5 seconds and literally flies from application to application like my old Mini did or probably slightly faster.

Bottom line, Apple should have NEVER put the 5400 rpm HGST HD in a machine with such low memory as the operating system typically uses 6-7 GB RAM.

So get rid of the HD for a SSD! Don’t waste your money with the PCIe slot either (yes the connector is there) but more $$ than a sata SSD!

Marc Marchioli -

Amazingly easy to do! Mine is the 2.6Ghz i5 with 8Gb RAM and was getting seemingly slower in bootup and running applications but replacing the drive with a Samsung 860 EVO 500Gb has transformed it! I’ve gone from 2m 24s boot time to 22seconds!! Applications start so much quicker too it’s unreal! Best £90 I’ve ever spent!!

mm2004 -

To you who think…. “i will never manage this”… keep calm..

Buy the proper tools, read the instructions carefully and the comments made by others on this page

and you will fix it :-)

I replaced my 500Gb old HDD to a Hitachi 860 EVO SSD 500Gb today without any issues.

Now my Mac Mini Late 2014 got a new life!

Thanks for a really good guide and for those of you who have posted comments for tips & tricks!.

//Hans

Hans Karlsson -

Awesome tutorials, thanks so much for it. It aint easy without a guide and I can easily break the smaller expensive parts. I managed to upgrade my drive to SSD.

Den -

Excellent guide with crucial tips. Installation went very smoothly. Very happy!

Chris Petersen -

Thank you very much, iFixit team! The procedure worked just to me!

mario.estolano -

Thank you. I did worry about the little prong at the back of the hard drive tray that needs to go into the power supply when it is slid back in. Surprised that there was no warning to be extra careful with that so it didn’t bend and jeopardize going in the right place when the power supply was reinstalled. Tiny screws and big hands don’t go along well, thank goodness for tweezers!

Doug Roberts -

Don’t know if this is where I should ask…. but if I go ahead and put a new empty ssd in my late 2014 mac mini, can I just re-install OS (mojave at this point, with mac OS utilites? (command & r on boot. ) I don’t want to clone it externally as it has too much info and not enough room on new drive. Thanks!

Robert Hamilton -

Yes, see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201314 and use reinstall (works over wi-fi). Be sure to partition the new hard drive first using the Disk Utility included in the recovery utilities, since otherwise the recovery option won’t list the new drive as a location to install the OS.

David Green -

Worked well with Samsung 860 EVO. Great guide, easy to follow. Having the right tools is critical.

David Green -

Excellent post. Upgraded 3 very slow Mac minis with Samsung 860 EVO, all back on being usable now :).

Thanks!

Eric Genet -

Not easy, but the comments helpd.

The only problem was to get the antenna socket back to place, it didn't fit first so the wifi signal was weak, reopened and then it popped into its place, all good now.

Thanks!

Asaf Milo -

Completed the replacement of the normal hard drive with a Kingston A400 SSD without iFixit’s Repair kit.

I used a cut piece from a coat hanger for the metal logic board removal tool.

Small tweezers, a finished ball point pen, guitar picks and a good flashlight helped a lot to finish the process without hassle.

I also used the SuperDuper! app (on trial - didn’t purchase it since it was mostly for a one-time thing) to clone my old hard drive that came with the MacMini. Since the SSD was 480GB and the old drive was 500GB in capacity, I was able to do a successful clone. To connect the new SSD to the MacMini for the cloning I used a cheap SATA SSD enclosure. It took around 5 hours to clone the drive completely but it was well worth it.

I use XCODE and the improvements were massive.

The metal retaining clip in Step 26 is used to keep the AC-In connector in Step 27 from rotating.

All in all, it was a great success. Thank you iFixit and the people who commented for this great guide.

Wouldn’t be able to do it without you!

Cheers!

Thisura Dodangoda -

Hate to say it, but the way Apple has been in the last 10 years… I might just have to go buy a Dell.

Bryan -

Super Anleitung - habe heute danach meine HDD durch eine SSD im MacMini ersetzt. Jedes Bild und Menuepunkt waren exakt beschrieben und bebildert. Lediglich der Rückbau der WLAN-Antenne war etwas fummeling, weil sehr klein.

DANKE für die Anleitung - sonst hätte es nicht so geklappt

Herbert Kaminski -

I replaced my Mini’s failing hard drive today and it was the smoothest Mac repair I’ve ever done. The guide is perfect. The comments in each section helped immensely. Thank you iFixit folks!

mollyf -

Best guide ever. First time ever replacing anything on a computer and it was relatively easy. Done in 30 minutes. New Samsung 860 Evo SSD on Mac Mini 2014. The only thing I would add is a link on how to install Mac OS or a quick guide.

Rod Godoy -

Thank you! Completed it in 45 minutes flat.

Rollo -

Fantastic tutorial. A newbie to doing any computer or mac DIY but I am reasonably practical. Had the whole thing apart and back together in under an hour and worked first time which is great!

I used the software superduper (just the free version) to copy my 1Tb rotating disc to a 2Tb SSD which took just under 5 hours to complete but meant once SSD is in it was just logged straight back in without worrying about time machine.

I'm in the UK so bought a kit through Amazon rather than the iFixIt one which had everything I needed.

Congrats to the author for a great walk through and thank you!

James Jennings -

I was mistaken about my Macmini 7.1 - LATE 2014 specs. Thought it had a 256 SSD drive but it had only a 256 Flash drive. If i understand this correctly, I can add a 1T SSD drive to the empty bay underneath the Flash drive but I can see I am missing a SATA cable to connect it….?. Will I be able to purchase one to add the second drive ? If so what should I be looking for? Many thanks for your kind help,.. Beth

BethPD -

Changement du disque par un SSD en 35 minutes, sans aucun problème.

Excellent tutoriel, précis et très bien fait. Un des meilleurs qu’il m’ait été donné d’utiliser.

Un grand bravo à l’auteur.

Jean-Georges Damestoy -

Thank you for this very good guide, it was quite easy to switch the drive :)

Bruno -

Thank you very much! This was my first Mac Mini job with my new biz and I would have never taken it on if not for this guide. Everything was very clear and though I started sweating a bit worrying about popping a piece off the board while removing cables like others had mentioned.. I didn’t have a bit of probs with them. Only issue I had was twisting the power plug back into the right position when reassembling.. (I did it the wrong way at first… took a breath then did it the other way and all was perfect. Plugged it in, put in flash drive with Mojave, booted to disk utility and erased the new Firecuda 1tb drive, and installed MacOS no prob. Thanks again! :)

Joshua Cornman -

Thank you very much for the support and good service!

Rubén Contreras -

Steps 17 -20 you (like me :) might not have a fancy PCIe SSD :)

Step 30 was a pain, wiggle, wiggle, but it all worked fine in the end - Mini now runs on a Singsong 860 EVO w. a massive speed improv compared to the ol’ 5.400rpm factory built-in HDST, which got a bad sector after only 17k hrs of operation and was therefore replaced :)

MrGreen -

P.S. Step 22 & 23: no need for that special tool: simply push w. both thumbs against the air outlet (that ventilation grill) and the Logic Board will come out smoothly :)

MrGreen -

Thanks, worked great. You can use a tr7 screwdriver, and instead of buying their tool you can stick Allen wrenches in the holes to pull out the logic board.

Zavier The Great -

Guide worked great for me replacing an old 500 gb HDD with a 500 GB EVO 860 SSD. Just take your time and look at all the pictures and comments in the different steps. They can be very helpful in the couple of slightly tricky areas.

If you do not have any tools, the only unique things you really need are a T6 Screwdriver and a T8 for the Hard Drive Enclosure. Having something like a butter knife to pry with is helpful and having something with a very small tip (preferably plastic but just not a knife) is probably needed to get some of the connectors off easily. The logic board removal can be accomplished several ways. I used a coat hanger to make myself a tool like they showed, but any two small objects can be substituted for the removal tool. Everything else is about keeping calm and being careful. Good luck!

Nathan Cooper -

Ordered the tools (t6-t8 security and a removing tool) and arrived in 4 days from Germany to Hungary. Everything went well but I broke the f*cking IR sensors slot off from the MoBo… my fault and the Mini is like a new with the new SSD!!!

bigsee -

Thank you iFixit. This was an awesome little kit and a very well put together guide. A flashlight also comes in handy! Thanks again!

Rob Speight -

Very nice review and thanks - definitely helped!

1) I did not bother putting the metal retaining clip back in again. It was nearly impossible and to be honest, found it to be useful - as many others here did.

2) I used a cheap SSD that works well - Kingston 240GB A400 SSD 2.5'' SATA 7MM 2.5-Inch SA400S37/240G . $30 and made a HUGE difference in performance.

The easiest way I found was to connect it via an external USB caddie, wipe, clean install (Mojave), and boot from that. Afterwards I did the disk replacement.

Sam -

can I put SSD M2 model on my base modile late 2014 core i5.1,4ghz ,4gb ram ,500HDD

lourance alhameed -

No, you can’t - even if you have the PCIe-SSD slot in the box, the standard M.2 SSDs won’t fit or work. You can only replace the 500 GB HDD with a 2.5” SATA SSD, but it really makes a huge difference and is worth the effort. Clone the HDD to the SSD over USB, then follow the guide and you’ll see a massive boost in performance.

Karsten Haut -

Thanks y’all for the guide.. worked great and got the install done first try w/out issues!

Codey Holland -

Used this and some videos, this was perfect for walking backwards when putting everything back together. Redid the thermal paste on the CPU too while I had it open, thank you!

Drive used: WD Blue 3D NAND 500GB SSD.

Formatted in the Disk Utility and off to the races

Samuel Rojas -

Ottima guida eseguita senza problemi! :) grazie

Stefania Izzo -

Just finished and it worked!! Couple of burps along the way which were my fault but it went well. Thanks a lot. Good guide.

Robert Enzminger -

Please, the maximum GB SSD can I change my HD 1TB HDD 5.400 RPM ?

My Mac mini mac is:

2.6GHz2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz) with 3MB on-chip shared L3 cache

1TB (5400-rpm) hard drive

8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 memory

Thanks!!

Marcelo Vervloet -

I don’t think there’s a size limit for the SSD, all of the available 2.5” SSDs up to 2 TB should work nicely. I haven’t seen any larger ones in the stores yet, but even 4 TB should work. Read about issues with specific models only, e.g. the Toshiba OCZ TR-200 series, but even this is not fully confirmed as other users said they work nicely.

Karsten Haut -

I didn’t hold out much hope for the 250GB SSD upgrade that I did but it turned a Mac mini which was soo slow that it was unusable into a viable and quite fast (comparatively) machine, for the price its really unbeatable. and if you take your time its a relatively easy installation.

philipjbrown -

I used Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the HDD to a new, cheap SanDisk Ultra 3D SSD hooked up to a simple SATA-to-USB cable from my toolbox.

Thanks to this guide it was perfectly easy and took quite exactly 2 hours, including the clone process that took longest. I know, CCC is basically unneccessary, but it’s a free three-click-solution due to a 30 day free trial period. My trusty old Late 2014 Mini feels like a new machine now, but with exactly the same system as before.

Incredible how easy this was, you don’t even need the system board removal tool as it can be replaced by two tiny hex/Allen keys. Had the TR6 and TR9 bits in my tools already. I don’t know why I haven’t done it much earlier, the performance increase is amazing.

Tip: enable TRIM for SSDs by entering “sudo trimforce enable” in the Terminal. This will keep the SSD performance high for much longer, but needs to be enabled manually for free market SSDs because Mac OS will only enable it automatically for drives with Apple firmware.

Karsten Haut -

My 1TB SSD kit came in on 11/21/19, it was an

an easy 45 minute install. Now bootup is 25 seconds, and a restart takes 30 seconds until I log into my Mac mini Late 2014 model. I highly recommend this upgrade from my old slow 500GB 2.5 internal HDD.

Darren Solomon -

Nice work. I bought the kit and it was far easier than I thought it would be.

jeh.dominic -

Hello, My Mac Mini has a 250gb SSD in it already will this impact the process of replacing it?

scott -

Job well done! I have a Mac Mini Late 2014 with 500GB HDD. I saved $89 that local shop was demanding, by doing this myself. You have documented very precisely the steps. There were no ambiguities. I figured out upfront that tracking back tiny screws while re-assembling would be a daunting task. Here is what I did. Got a dozen of small tiny zip lock covers and small yellow post-it stickers. Each step that involved removing screws, I put those tiny screws safely in a new ziplock cover and pasted a label that reads “Step nn”. Now reassembly was a piece of cake following these instructions. Dis-assembly and re-Assembly was no problem. Took me some 1 hr to do it. I suggest using some magnifying glass or just a low power reading glass, even if you have normal vision. This really helps. Thank you for your help and posting to community. It is a great feeling when we do the job ourselves, there is satisfaction.

Manju Ananth -

This is a very good guide. Took me less than 30 minutes with this guide.

Thank you so much

MacFlensi -

This went BEAUTIFULLY!

My advice to other first-timers (like me) inexperienced at fiddling with super tiny, dense electronic things: read through most or all of this material before you start, look at all of the diagrams and their animations, and definitely read the comments! If you do a read-through ahead of time, you’ll have a body of awareness - even if it’s cloudy and lacking context - that can/will help you navigate puzzling things that you encounter.

Note that many of the comments are left by people reassembling their unit and following the instructions in reverse order. Realizing this may be helpful in interpreting what’s being said.

Thanks to Sam, the other contributors and definitely all of the commenters! This body of information is pure gold.

Thank you, thank you.

William Seneshen -

Very good procedure and easy to follow. Total rime was about 45 minutes.

I Bought my tool kit via Amazon. Very happy with the quality.

Too bad there is no logic board tool included. I improvised with two 1/16 inch allen keys and used a larger one to gently pry against them.

No issues although removing the tape from the SATA connector was a bugger and my SATA cable was also fixed with a small drop of adhesive. I had to coax it up with the flat spudger.

richard murray -

excellent how to, worked perfectly, can’t be happier

Abram Kaufman -

정말 최고의 선택입니다, 덕분에 아주 쉽게 ssd 교체했네요, 복받으세요

karnetius -

I have a late 2014, 1.4GHz processor Intel Core i5. I would like to replace the hard drive with something faster. I heard SSD was better than a hard drive. Can I put SSD into this MAC Mini? Or what should I replace the existing hard drive with for best performance?

Roselie Rasmussen -

Hello,

I'm glad to help you. My Mac and you are the same model, you can certainly replace it with a SSD. It will run fast than before after replacing the SSD, trust me. My replacement hard disk model is Samsung SSD 860 EVO 500GB. The write speed is about 500MB / s.

Tim Brain -

Thank you for your excellent guide. Job done!

Ross Wilkinson -

This is my first opening or work on mac and i broke IR cable (Step 17) as i forget to detach. Please help some one.

Ramesh Loncha -

Hello Sam - I have followed the guide step by step and feel that I have not made any obvious mistakes yet the mac is no longer turning on. The light doesn’t turn on the mac mini when I press the power button and the fan doesn’t spin either. Any ideas on where I should begin to trouble shoot this, or any guides on maybe some fixes?

mp me -

Any ideas on getting 2TB SDD in late 2014 mini? Either 2TB drive OR two 1TBs? Thanks

Russ -

Hello, I need you help.

First I followed your tutorial to change the hard drive. Thanks to you I have found quite easy to dismantle ma y mini. Once I arrived at the last step, surprise, there is no hard drive in my mac mini other than the ssd on the top. Is it possible to add an extra disk or the only thing I can do is upgrade the actual Ssd.

Many thanks for your help,

Xavier

xavier.dornellas -

Hello,

I'm glad to be able to help you! It seems that the hard disk on Mac mini can only be replaced at present. Although the Mac mini Late 2014 reserved another hard disk interface on the logic board, it's a pity that we didn't have a converter for that interface. This converter only exists in the Fusion Drive models, but not in the single hard disk or single SSD models.

Tim Brain -

Brilliant. That worked really well. Completed in 45 minutes! I’d definitely recommend getting that small U-shaped tool otherwise it might have been tricky. Cheers!

Stef Lewandowski -

I was fretting at the thought of shelling out $300 to replace my spinning disk hard-drive with an SSD. These instruction sets are awesome: they save tons of money and are very well thought through and written. I bought the basic iFixit tool kit to help. Every tool I needed was in the basic kit. I will only buy iFixit toolsets to honor these guys for the instruction sets.

Scott Brians -

Used the instructions to replace a late 2014 500GB HDD with a different 500GB HDD (I went economy mode for my mom). Instructions worked perfectly. Thanks!! BTW, I bought and used the iFixit PRO Tech Toolkit. Great set of tools!!

Les Warden -

What interface is suitable for the replacement drive?

I have a 1TB HDD Mac Mini and am aiming to replace it with a 1TB SSD. Will a SATA III interface work for this upgrade?

Thanks.

anon -

If you haven’t done the upgrade yet, a standard SATA 2,5” interface works - the I , II, III indicate the speed, not the connector, and they are backwards compatible

Wannes -

Amazing guide. Replaced the HDD with an SSD in no time (about 45 minutes).

the guide was spot on - no mistakes. Recommended.

John -

Hi,

Thanks very much for your Tuto, you did a perfect job! It was a great help to upgrade my Mac mini. ;-)

Olivier Albrecht -

Thank you for the detailed instructions. I just replaced the slow HDD on my 2014 Mac mini with a new 2.5” SSD. I had to buy a tool kit mostly because of the TR6 bit required at the beginning. TR6 is the star shaped tip with a hole in the middle. Everything looked just like the instructions and it took about 2 hrs to do it methodically. The Mac mini now loads up fast and feels like a new machine again.

Julian Gomez -

Tutoriel parfait. HDD remplacé par SSD en moins de 20 minutes en suivant exactement les consignes précises et très bien illustrées. Je n’ai rencontré aucune difficulté.

Merci aux techniciens de iFixit.

philippe.laurent16 -

Guida perfetta

Marco Romeo -

Thanks iFixit ! I changed the 500Gb HDD to Sandisk Plus SSD 240Gb and am so happy. I am on OS X Catalina with 1,4 GHz i5 CPU and 4GB RAM, so it used to take 9 minutes to start up all the stuff on HDD. With this SSD, it takes 30 seconds ! It’s not that hard to execute this tutorial, it just needs attention and focus. Cheers !

Renato Masuda -

amazing!!!! thanks!!!

Fernando de Paula -

Chi non è pratico come me, nel senso che non l’ho mai fatto a sostituire un HD è consigliabile portarlo da JUICE a Milano?

filippo.schp -

I should have used this far more detailed and useful guide than the general iFixit teardown, yesterday. Oh well, job done and it even works again.

Wannes -

If you are careful while disassembling, this is a straight forward process. I used SuperDuper! to clone my original drive to the new Samsung EVO 1TB SSD and the mac booted perfectly. I highly recommend this upgrade.

Paul Di Biasio -

my mac does not recognize the SSD, it says disk not ejected properly, it worked fined for a few days, but once i powered it down and did not start it for a few days - when i started the mac mini again, it went back to the old disk. My SSD is sitting outside the mac mini, did not yet put it inside.

any ideas on how to fix this?

Pramod -

I followed and completed the Hard Drive Replacement guide and ran into a problem when I turned the computer on - no sound. Despite no sound, the computer starts up fast and the applications run much faster than before.

I checked the Sound in System Preferences and the Output was set correctly to Internal Speakers. Also, mute is NOT checked.

I did the PRAM and SMC reset and used Apple Diagnostics to see if there were any issues with any of the components inside the computer - there were none.

The OS is updated to Catalina.

And lastly, I replaced the original hard drive with a Western Digital 500GB WD Blue 3D NAND Internal PC SSD which Amazon says is Mac compatible.

I took the computer apart and went through the steps a second time and still got the same results of no sound. Is it possible that I missed connecting a cable or perhaps damaged a component?

Thanks!

Stuart Wexler -

I bought the kit and followed the instructions. Went flawlessly. It’s a whole new computer. This Mac Mini was always slow, but now it’s as though I bought a brand new mac. It’s amazing to me that a hard drive could make this much of a difference. The instructions and the comments were perfect and really helpful!

Make sure you do some research on how to reload the operating system. I looked into it after I swapped the hard drive. And unbfortunately I have a logitech wireless keyboard which didn’t allow me to use any of the booting freatures. Fortunately Mac devices will boot from an external HD. I was able to go into my old HD (with the included external HD enclosure that Fixit includeds in their kits) and download and install Catalina on the new HD. It took some research and trial and error to figure out that solution…in the end it was more than worth it!

Ian -

Great guide! Everything went smoothly and now the Mac mini is noticeably faster.

Spudger, logic board removal tool and TR6 torx security screwdriver are essential!

Thanks!

Daniele -

Ha! I dismantled a Mac Mini! And I put everything back in place!

Fantastic guide! There were just very minor situations when I got a bit insecure and hab to just trust you (like unplugging the logic board and other tiny plugs)

Thank you very much!

david braun -

Thanks a lot to the author. My Mac Mini from 2015 was so slow I never could do something with it !!! Thank to this procedure I could replace my SATA by a SSD and now my Mac mini finally works fine !

Eric M -

I followed this guide and loosened the logic board with a bent coat hanger (it was really hard to loosen it). After reassembly the Mac doesn’t start at all. I wonder if I’ve damaged the logic board? I’ve disassembled it once more and tested the new SSD in another computer, it works, and reassembled it again, still doesn’t start. Here’s a photo of the logic board.

Fredrik Gynnhammar -

Can I use a Samsung 860 EVO 2TB SATA 2.5" Internal SSD?

Jean -

VERY grateful for this guide. It looked terrifying, but the steps and clear annotated photography made it very doable.

Greg Young -

Just replaced the 500 GB hard drive with a 500 GB Samsung EVO 860. Great guide, and quite fun! For me, the hardest steps were wiggling parts out of the outer case. And for some reason I was slow to catch on to what was meant in Step 28 about the groove related to the AC-in connector. Certainly, a little delicacy is called for.

The one complication is I no longer have working power-on and drive-accessing indicator lights shining on the front of the Mini case. Not having the drive light does not matter at all. I am just curious why it’s not functioning, since it did function when I had the SSD in an external enclosure for a little while before installing it in the Mini. The power-on light is useful in a minor way but certainly easy to live without. Why would installing the SSD affect the power-on light?

Other than that, the Mini is firing on all cylinders, and the SSD certainly gives it a major lift. If anyone can satisfy my curiosity about the indicator lights, I’d be most appreciative.

Jace Hatsib -

Guide was excellent; took all the anxiety out of the process for me. Didn’t break anything, thanks to the warnings.

Matt Burleson -

If you are using Fusion Drive, don’t assume is the hard drive (HDD) that is faulty. It may be the SSD. First backup your Fusion Drive then use your Disk Utility to separate the fusion drive to SSD and HDD. Do a check and you will be more accurate which drive is the faulty one. Sharing my 2 cents.

Hosea -

Grande Guida. Ho sostituito l’hd con un SSD su un mac mini ed e’ rinato. Unica accortezza verificare di avere il cacciavite torx di sicurezza per svitare le prime sei viti. Un Torx normale non funziona

Fabio Gregoroni -

Hi Sam thank you for this brilliant guide with which I’ve just updated a my late 2014 Mac Mini from a slug to a cheetah with a 2TB SSD. Itunes/Music is once again usable!

hot dogz -

Great tutorial, well described and commented. I've just successfully upgraded my Mini to 4TB SAMSUNG SSD drive. Thank you!

Tomasz Sawko -

Hey, I’m late to the party, decided to try keep my grumpy old 2014 MM alive by swapping out HD against SSD.

The online helps were a GREAT help, couldn’t have done it without it.

Only caveat (to anyone else still messing with old 2014 MM) the 4 T6 screws keeping the HD in it’s little plastic tray: oh my! A car mechanic at Apple must have used a compressor impact drill to secure them! Took me a vise (to hold the HD assembly) a micro screwdriver and a Allen-wrench to prey them lose! Lordy, Apply , why…

But the rest was pretty straightforward. Thanks again.

lutz -

Exceptional! Well done Sam!

Denis Robillard -

Apple sucks. I am maintaining Mac Mini’s since the 2008 series. This Mac mini 2 HDD fail after 40 operating hours.

Shame on you Apple, choosing inproper hardware, selling your devices overpriced and making it everytime harder to open a srew.

Gero Alexius -

Excellent guide. I encountered the small black sticker holding the hard drive connector, I was able to carefully peel it away and reuse it on the SSD. The Mac Mini is very tight, I was most nervous on the small connectors that need to be “popped” up off the logic board. I used the flat part of the plastic spudger to carefully get close to the logic board holder and gently pop off the connector. Once I saw how the connector grabs the pins it made more sense. Also the DC connector did not want to separate from the logic board. I ended up using two spudgers on each end of the connector to gently pry it loose from the logic board (in the direction of the wires on the connector). That one is more of a traditional type push into socket connector. Hopefully resurrect this slow Mac. :)

Brad Walsh -

Thank you all for this guide! I first cloned my 2014 mini’s internal hard drive (1TB, 5400 RPM HGST) to a Crucial MX500 SSD (same capacity) using Carbon Copy Cloner, then followed these steps. (Just to be safe, I also made a Time Machine backup of my drive in case I had to restore a backup.)

Once I put everything back together and turned on my Mac, there was about 30 seconds of nothing happening on my screen…and then the Apple logo appeared. Boot time was fairly quick after that, maybe 30 seconds—far better than the five minutes it used to be!

Nhan Nguyen -

Thanks, man. I use this guide and I put a SSD in my old Mac Mini Late 2014 succefully.

Marcelo Bonatto -

This was a lifesaver. I’ve completed this twice now and it would be very, very difficult without these instructions!

Shane Kuester -

Merci pour ce très bon tutoriel…

L’opération c’est déroulée avec succès et le mac est beaucoup plus rapide à présent. A faire absolument sur un mac mini de cette génération car l’utilisation de celui-ci était devenue impossible “juste bon à jeter à la poubelle” une nouvelle vie pour lui.

Patrick Ponsard -

will be upgrading a late 2014 mac mini tomorrow to an SSD! this guide is vary helpful thank you!!!

Mike Hum -

This guide and the recommended tools is all you need to swap out the hard drive for a Samsung SSD. The step by step guide is clear, thorough, and easy to follow. It made an intimidating upgrade much easier. Highly recommended! Thanks!

Ray -

As of MacOS BigSur you can install many (not all) standard M.2 PCIe NVMe SSDs into the 2014 Mac Mini’s w/o so much disassembly. It is a much simpler procedure. (If you don’t already have a PCIe SSD. I would only undertake this surgery if your 2.5” HDD has gone bad or you want to really want to upgrade the 2.5” SATA drive.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/usi...

Jason Ball -

This was an exceptional guide! Thank you for creating it! This is not meant to be a negative, but it would be helpful if you listed the size of the 2.5” drives that are compatible. Not thinking anything of it, I bought a 5TB HDD which ended up being 15MM thick, which didn’t fit into my 2014 Mac Mini. It took some googling, but I finally found a site (See Source below) which explained this in detail for most all the Mac Minis. Thanks again, I was able to put in a 2 TB SSD in addition to the 512 GB M.2 SSD. Oh, and I bought the upgrade kit, what a life saver!

Source:

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_m...

Joseph Corley -

My mac isn’t turning on anymore. Light shines and fan spins for three seconds, and then turns off. No boot chime. Thanks

kayvk -

mac mini 1014 NVMe driver frequently crashes mac os monterey on startup and during sleep while power nap is enabled.

apple crash report indicates 3rd party NVMe driver panic

is there a firmware update in progress?

so far just a troubling annoyance since i backup daily to a internal crucial ssd

david c saunders -

You tell what the difficulty level is, and well as the average time it should take. I suggest you add another stat, and that is the amount of weight you will loose from the procedure. If it wasn't for the unbelievably GREAT, GREAT instructions you provided, I would have died from sever weight loose.

Thank you for your GREAT, GREAT, CLEAR, instructions.

Roland Pennock III -

It really is easy. It looks complex because of all the steps but it is really just breaking it down for clarity. If you can work with tiny screws and connectors you're good, The three things that set me off a bit:


1) Removing the fan power. I didn't know exactly how much force in what vector. But it actually comes out easily in a 'nearly up' angle and a little more force than feels safe (not a lot more, you'll break it)

2) Sliding out the main board. I didn't buy the tool :-( (But I was using the iFixit mega tool kit) I thought sticking the screwdrivers in the holes and pulling would work. Maybe it will for you but I couldn't get the right leverage. So I made a U shaped tool from an old bicycle spoke. Worked fine. The trick is that it really needs to bottom out on the case to get the leverage to overcome the snaps.

3) Reconnecting the radio antenna. Ugh. That thing is tiny and fiddly. It seemed smarter to screw it in (loosely) first then connect. It is not. Too hard to micro maneuver to get that thing in.

Tim Rochte -

Like some others here I discovered while reassembling that I had broken, without even noticing, the IR connector. Fortunately I had no need for that function, though with a broken connector the power light on front of the Mini will no longer illuminate. Others have reported that symptom, and this is likely the cause. The connector broke or is not properly seated. Again, not a big deal. I highly recommend that anyone undetertaking this upgrade also watch the OWC video.

George Johnson -

Why does it say you need a TR8 screwdriver in the Tools list? I don't see any TR8 security screws in the instructions.

Max Fenton -

This was such an excellent useful writeup, thank you! Helped me replace the failed disk in my Mac Mini today in about an hour :)

Brian Nash -

Clearly, the 2014 Mac Mini was designed to discourage these types of upgrades.This is pretty much a complete tear down to the bare chassis. This concise, step by guide got me through the entire process of changing out the spinning drive with a new 1TB Samsung 870 EVO SSD in about 45 minutes. I already had some of the tools needed. I did have to order the Torx TR 6 driver as well as the logic board removal tool. (both are essential.) A couple of the screws in my computer were Torx 5mm. I can't remember which ones, but this machine has obviously been apart before, so someone may have substituted the different size. The SATA cable must have also been replaced at some point, because the connector hold-down bracket and screws were missing. No problem though. The new drive has definitely improved the performance of this machine. I am smoothly running Parallels with Windows 11 Pro and XP. (yes, XP!) Before the upgrade, it was so slow it was nearly unusable. My sincerest thanks to IFIXIT for the great guide.

Mark Edwards -

Una guía completa pormenorizada, es de gran ayuda. Te agradezco este maravilloso aporte 👍

Mr.T T -

Warning! This is not an easy job (re-assembly in particular I found fraught), but this is a superb guide. I was able to replace my hard drive with an SSD without too many problems, Removing and re-fixing the DC in cable connector (step 24) I found particularly hard. DO make sure that you have your TR6 security screwdriver and the logic board removal tool before you start!

Don -

Hi.

Thanks for sharing. But after I followed this to a T, the Mac Mini (late 2014) does not power on. I replaced the SSD with the original HD, and I can now hear the disk spin up, but that is it. What am I missing?

Herman -

Hi!

Got your Essentials toolkit for $34 and a Kingston 240GB SSD on sale for $22 here in Sweden, tax included. Followed this guide and it took me 35 min to replace the drive in my 2014 mini! Great guide i must say, and promising quality tools. I wonder why I haven’t picked them up earlier since i work in IT but albeit not so often with hardware repairs. Also i found a pretty neat guide on how to run Ventura 13.x on it! Google core patch. So now i have a usable Mac mini again that is 100% up to date. Even got a nice set of Magic Keyboard and mouse to go with it since i sold my old stuff way back years ago. Very good condition for only about $110 which is about 60% off compared to new. Only thing not working is continuity camera for some reason.. well, Thanks for a great guide!

Hasse Edqvist -

Fabulous guide. I impressed myself ! Followed it to the letter, a first for me :) Worked the 1st time and nothing broke and no leftover parts. I provided my own SSD. And I fashioned a logic board tool out of a coat hanger. And now off to the iphone repair..

Si Mu -

When I started I thought to myself "oh it's an old Mac Mini, this is gonna be easy". Noooope. I forgot how long ago Apple had begun to make their devices so terrible to repair. Who designs the #1 likely connector to fail in the back of the machine, requiring taking (almost) everything apart! (Why Apple does, of course. :)

But thanks to the excellent guide plus your tips, I was able to do it all with no damage and successfully. Thanks!

Drew -

This guide was AMAZING! I was starting to get worried something horrible would happen Gotham when I did my upgrade, but this guide took the riddle out of it. I used to write/edit electronics and machinery manuals and services guides, and this was better in precision and detail than most I'd encountered back in the day. Glad I had need of a tool kit and it pointed me here. Sam did a great job, and I'm happy to be part of this community now.

Dan -

Excellent tutorial iFixIt! I just finished upgrading the hard drive.

First off I feel stupid saying this but if you skipped steps 18-20 when disassembling, remember you are going to skip them when reassembling and stepping backward. I spent a couple of minutes in a total panic shining my flashlight into the case looking for a wire that does not exist in my unit. Similar is true for the antenna which is even more stupid as I forgot that the other end of the connector was on the metal antenna plate for a moment and was looking for it in the case. As others have said, reattaching the antenna is the most fiddly part of the process.

I mentioned this in step above but I just left the connector for the fan connected the entire time and slipped the fan through when I removed the main board. That connector is both tightly attached to the board and delicate so when it didn't come up easily, I decided not to push it. You just need to be careful not to pull on it during the rest of the process.

Richard Daley -

Do you know what is the max size of hard drive accepted by the machine?

Johnous Fredricson -