# Second internal drive in a Mac



## ptram (Oct 31, 2017)

Hi,

I have been lucky to find a well-kept, second-hand Mac mini i7 quad-core (Late 2012). Since Apple has no longer made something similar, this is still the fastest, small desktop, headless multicore Mac, so I plan to use it for as long as it works.

Having been used as a small server, it features two internal HDDs. As I did with my current Mac mini, I plan to replace the first drive with a much faster and silent SDD (just evaluating between a 1TB Crucial and Samsung). At the same time, I don't know what to do with the second drive and bay.

As a general rule, I prefer to have all my disks outside of the Mac (apart for the system drive). I like to avoid any noise, and be free to connect or disconnect the external drives as needed. So, I also plan to remove the second drive. I would keep it installed, if I can be sure there is a way to keep it off when not needed. The system is very quiet, but I fear any buzzing and humming that might come from the spinning drive, and the increased heat that could make the fan spin faster.

Since I have the second drive connection already there, I could be tempted to replace the second drive with a spare Crucial MX200 SDD I have. But is a second internal drive needed? The only use I'm thinking of, is to use it as a cache. But it doesn't really appear as something really needed.

What would you do? Keep the second drive, remove it, replace it with an SDD?

Paolo


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## TGV (Nov 1, 2017)

Two smaller SSDs is in general faster than one large one, if you spread the contents. You could put the software on one drive and the samples on the other. 200MB is enough for system software, Logic and plugins, so I'd use that as the system drive.


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## LinusW (Nov 3, 2017)

The 2nd drive will spindown when not being used, so I would not bother about the noise if you don't need it. 
The question is whether you plan to run samples off the internal drive? Then I'd probably use SSD as 1st and HDD as 2nd drive. 
If you would run libraries on an external drive then I would not swap the 2nd drive. Just leave that drive, pop a SSD into the first/top slot and boot Internet recovery for OSX installation before the upgrade to Sierra.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Nov 5, 2017)

The second drive spins down?! What makes that happen?

You don't want that.

If you're looking for a use for the spinning drive, a second back-up is a good one.


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## ptram (Nov 5, 2017)

Actually, I want a quiet system. Disassembling the second drive would be complicate, so I would prefer to leave it there, but deactivated.


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## galactic orange (Nov 5, 2017)

ptram said:


> What would you do? Keep the second drive, remove it, replace it with an SDD?


As soon as I got a Mac Mini 2012, I took the HDD out and replaced it with a 500GB Crucial MX100. Later I got an OWC data doubler kit and added a 1TB Crucial MX100 for samples.



ptram said:


> Since I have the second drive connection already there, I could be tempted to replace the second drive with a spare Crucial MX200 SDD I have. But is a second internal drive needed?


You don't really need it, but the sample loading speed is very nice. And it's great to have everything contained within the Mini. One issue might be when sample drive space is running out. I have a 1TB Crucial MX300 on an external drive over USB for additional samples. If you will use the drive with another computer, like a laptop, then having all your samples on external drives will be more cost effective. As it stands now, I have duplicate sample libraries on my laptop and on my Mac Mini: a situation that would be avoided if all samples were external drives.

It's a bit of trouble to open up the Mini, but if you follow the instructions (on the OWC site) then I think the resulting upgrade is very rewarding. But to each his own.


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## ptram (Nov 6, 2017)

Galactic, I'm tempted to spend for an additional 2TB SSD drive, and replace the second internal drive. Sample libraries can be duplicated, so I could keep them mirrored on different drives.

This would make my system totally quiet, without even the external library drive.

If I may ask, do you see a big difference in loading speed, between the internal and external SSD?


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## ptram (Nov 6, 2017)

I discovered, in another thread of this forum, that UASP-compliant USB3 external boxes can reach very high transfer rates, not too far from an internal SATA-III. These boxes are inexpensive, and I happen to already own one, that I’m underusing.

Since both the Mac mini 2012 and another Mac I use are compliant with this standard, I will probably go this route, and have a single sample library external drive ready to be connected with the Mac I'm going to use.

Still, I don't know what to do with the second internal drive, but I would probably just be happy to keep it quiet.


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