SSD 500 GB for Mac Mini server 2010 (Snow leopard)

Tech has moved on! Sadly finding a HDD which supports SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) which is what your system requires will be very difficult (used is about it). At this point you really need to look at a SSD and your choices are limited here too!

So first we need to talk about SATA I/O speeds to make this simpler think how a single speed kids bike only offers one gearing so you have a limit of how fast you can go. A three speed bike offers so much more allowing you to switch between gears so you can climb a steep hill or run fast on a straightaway!

Here we have two kinds of drives Fixed Speed and Auto Sense. For many years we only had fixed speed drives, but the HDD makers realized they could offer more sales offering a drive which magically matched to the systems SATA ports I/O speed. That worked for many years but nothing stands still for long! SSD’s came onto the market and over time the cost of these drive dropped! So the HDD makers needed to cut costs to be more competitive, a which point the market for auto sense drives had already shrunk as most newer systems where SATA III (6.0 Gb/s) so they dropped older SATA II drives and auto sense drives as they could save money. Shortly afterwards SSD makers dropped fixed speed SATA II drives and many dropped auto sense! too to be competitive!

But we are lucky! One drive maker still offers Auto Sense! Which is what you need Samsung 860 EVO As you can see on the Interface line “SATA 6 Gb/s Interface, compatible
with SATA 3 Gb/s & SATA 1.5 Gb/s interface” is supported! While there is a 512GB version you might want to go for the 1 TB drive so you have some extra space.

You’ll also need to get the Snow Leopard (OS-X 10.6.x) installer to prep your drive. Sadly the link I had nologner works Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) and Mac OS X Leopard (10.5) Direct Download Links You’ll need to buy CD/DVD media Apple sold to get it unless you still have the grey disks that came with your system.