Mac Mini as external hard drive

Imagemaster
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Mac Mini as external hard drive

EDITED:

Can a 27" iMac 20,1 (2020) use a Mac Mini 7 A1347 (late 2014) as an external hard drive for extra storage?

My iMac only has 250GB of storage. Not interested in having larger hard drive installed or buying another external hard drive

Already have an unused Mac Mini.

Edited on Nov 22, 2022 at 11:00 PM · View previous versions

Nov 22, 2022 at 07:14 PM

Ho1972
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Mac Mini as external hard drive

Scratch for Photoshop? You'd be 1000X better off with more RAM, assuming the gods at Apple allow such a thing.

Nov 22, 2022 at 07:33 PM

Chefboyarsd
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Mac Mini as external hard drive

It's possible to use the Mac Mini as a remote file server. They are commonly repurposed to host external drives as a NAS for backups or reliable slow storage. A scratch disk needs to be fast and locally attached.

Your best bet is getting an NVME based USB C drive and using its fast, affordable high speed storage. I just moved from a 1TB to a 2TB for my photos and it's great.

+1 for more RAM too. I can't believe it's 2022 and Apple passes off high end machines with 8 GB. With prices, i'd have 32GB min for my video work.

Nov 22, 2022 at 07:46 PM

dhlewis
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Mac Mini as external hard drive

I use this Thunderbolt 3 drive as my scratch disk and for all applications that allow you to set an external cache including Lightroom previews.

https://sabrent.com/products/sb-xtmq-1tb?gclid=Cj0KCQiAg_KbBhDLARIsANx7wAyii0KZ-SC3d4FczbXVZaoq0hUq3WWqI5J2ALP0FgRjNdluaIkoUTQaAm3HEALw_wcB

I have a 2020 i9 iMac (with 48gb ram) and I have little to no performance issues and I rarely hear the fans kick on. Speed wise, Blackmagic reports 1825 mb/s write and 2500 mb/s read. So its a little slower than the internal SSD but by distributing the load you pick up performance.

Nov 22, 2022 at 08:31 PM

Imagemaster
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Mac Mini as external hard drive

Thanks for all the 'more memory' suggestions. Edited for suggestions for 'more storage' on Mac Mini.

Nov 22, 2022 at 11:01 PM

mcbroomf
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Mac Mini as external hard drive

Another option, open the Mac Mini, pull the SSD and put it into an external box. Assumes you have no further use the MM. You end up with a smaller drive (than the MM) and no power requirement so mobile if you need it.

Nov 23, 2022 at 06:33 AM

Scott Stoness
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Mac Mini as external hard drive

I think the answer is yes theoretically but perhaps not practically.

You can share disks on mini via wireless or network. Go to system preferences/ then Sharing. Make the files available to your iMac. But it will be slow and you will have to keep mini running. You will not want to do anything that requires speed. Typical network is 1gb/s which is perhaps 50mbs and will use up wireless/network bandwidth. Scratch disk or booting or remote operation are not likely to be available or reliable. And you are likely to have bumps every time you update your os.

I have tried this and it works. I have even screen shared running programs on mac within my house. It works too but its laggy. I think you may also even see externals connected to the mini but its a long time since I have done this.

Many people already do this for sharing music through macs for example. In a slightly different fashion. Access control used to be embedded in the iTunes.

The big bonus to this approach is that you will be able to work with the files anywhere in the house with your laptop.

Or you can put mini in target mode and boot as extension This will require too much work every time you turn on.

Edited on Nov 23, 2022 at 04:36 PM · View previous versions

Nov 23, 2022 at 07:49 AM

schlotz
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Mac Mini as external hard drive

You might consider setting the mini into target disk mode and connect it to your iMac.

Nov 23, 2022 at 07:56 AM


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