Indigo Domotics

The HDD on my 2014 mac mini died yesterday after several hours of trying to do recovery I have installed macOS on a USB drive and started the Mac on that. Running disk utility on the internal HDD there are problems with it that can't be resolved. Any ideas of other software to try to fix it?
If I can't fix it, is using an old 500gb ssd I have in a USB enclosure a long term option. Can I recover the time machine backup onto that?



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If you're feeling brave:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+Mini+L ... ment/32815

It is not that bad if you order one of the kits with the right tools and stick an SSD in at the same time. I have done two but study the instructions and you tube videos and it was ok. It is fiddly but not like surgery on a phone which is too much for me.

I agree that it's doable but you need to be very careful--especially with disconnecting things from the mother board.

If you do attempt this, don't drop $5 on the motherboard removal tool. You can easily make one out of a wire coat hanger.

Thanks. Short term I'll go with the external ssd so I can get back up and running then look at moving it inside the Mac later. Never lost a HDD on a PC in 20 years. Second hdd to go on a Mac in 9 months that I've had Macs.


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Really. In my experience, that's unusual. I did lose one Mini to a logic board failure after something like 5 years, but I've got Macs that are still running strong after 10.

siclark wrote:

The HDD on my 2014 mac mini died yesterday after several hours of trying to do recovery I have installed macOS on a USB drive and started the Mac on that. Running disk utility on the internal HDD there are problems with it that can't be resolved. Any ideas of other software to try to fix it?
If I can't fix it, is using an old 500gb ssd I have in a USB enclosure a long term option. Can I recover the time machine backup onto that?



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Easiest would be to boot to Internet Recovery (cmd-optn-r) and choose restore from Time Machine backup. Select the external drive as the destination. It will wipe the drive and restore the backup onto it.

I have had luck with DiskWarrior recovering drives that Disk Utility could not, but not if the SMART diagnostics say the drive is failing.

DiskWarrior has been my go to utility for 10 years and it rarely doesn't solve the problem. When it doesn't, the problem is usually hardware.

Thanks... was pretty confident time machine had it all, and the drive was properly failing so not worth the cost of DiskWarrior, but might look at it in the future.