if you purchased a mid-2011 Mac Mini you
might be interested in knowing that it
came with a delightful surprise on the
inside empty space what's so good about
empty space you can fill it with an
additional harddrive hi I'm MJ with
iFixit and today I'm going to show you
how to install a second hard drive in a
mid 2011 Mac Mini using our Mac Mini
dual hard drive kit this video is a
great overview of the process but of
course you're going to want to pull up
the repair guide on our site and follow
it step by step when you perform your
repair I'm gonna get all my parts and
tools together so I can get started
which shouldn't be too difficult because
the kit comes with everything I'm gonna
need the kit includes the proprietary
SATA hard drive cable mounting screws a
Mac Mini logic board removal tool a
spudger and a 26 piece bit driver kit
I'm also going to use a plastic screw
tray because they're going to completely
disassemble the Mac Mini and I want a
place to put all my tiny screws and an
ESD wrist strap to protect my Mac Mini
from any electrostatic discharge during
the repair now that I've got all my
parts and tools together I can get
started
unlike previous versions of the Mac Mini
we don't need to pry it open I can just
use my thumbs and twist this little disc
and the bottom should come right off
with the cover off we get our first
limited view into the insides of the Mac
Mini the first thing we're going to do
is remove the fan which looks like it's
being held in place by three screws but
we only actually need to remove these
two so I'll go ahead and do that
but those two screws removed I'm going
to carefully lift up on the fan but not
too hard because it's still connected to
the logic board via that little cable so
I'm just going to use the pointy end of
my spudger to disconnect it
now that the fans out the next step is
to remove this antenna plate and the
callee
with the last screw of the antenna plate
out I can lift up carefully on it and
pull it out just a little bit again you
don't want to pull too hard because it's
still connected via this little cable
again I'm going to use my pointy end of
my spudger and just disconnect that very
gently with the antenna plate out
there's only a few cables and a couple
of screws holding the logic board in
place so I'll get to work on those
at that done we can take the logic board
removal tool and begin to slide the
logic board out of the case only insert
it into the right holes and only prize
so far until you see the i/o board
visibly separate from the case now that
we have the board partially out I'm
going to use my spudger or you can use
your fingernail to disconnect the power
cable with the power cable disconnected
the logic board should just slide right
out but be mindful of any cables that
might get caught along the way with the
logic board removed we can get to work
on the hard drive and the power supply
the hard drive should just lift right
out
with the power supply removed the last
thing we need to do is remove the hard
drive tray and that's only held in place
by one screw with the hard drive tray
out we're ready to begin the
installation of our second hard drive
the first thing we're going to do is
install the grommets and the lower
section of the hard drive tray when that
done we're ready to prepare a second
drive for installation by attaching the
hard drive cable and two of the
retaining posts
with those two retaining posts in we can
slide the hard drive into the hard drive
tray and attach the remaining two
retaining posts on the other side
all that's left for me to do now is
reassemble my Mac Mini and enjoy the
benefits of having that second hard
drive of course you can find the Mac
Mini to a hard drive kit and all the
other parts and tools mentioned in this
repair at I fix it calm if you want to
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for watching and happy repairing