{"id":5999,"date":"2012-01-02T12:54:23","date_gmt":"2012-01-02T17:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=5999"},"modified":"2012-01-02T21:01:04","modified_gmt":"2012-01-03T02:01:04","slug":"tearing-mac-mini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/01\/02\/tearing-mac-mini\/","title":{"rendered":"Tearing Apart The Mac Mini"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We interrupt this program so that I can finally get around to upgrading the 2006 Mac Mini of mine. I bought a larger, faster hard drive a while back and I thought the New Year&#8217;s weekend would be a good time to eviscerate the mini.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/willceau\/6621281419\/\" title=\"Bottom of a Mac Mini by willceau, on Flickr\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7012\/6621281419_54875b02a9_z.jpg?resize=640%2C480\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"Bottom of a Mac Mini\"><\/a>I used instructions from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ifixit.com\/Browse\/Mac\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>ifixit<\/strong><\/a> and it wasn&#8217;t too bad. Having the right tools and following their instructions to your specific machine is the key to success.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><a title=\"DSCN7027 by willceau, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/willceau\/6621278455\/\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7169\/6621278455_e178211bb5_z.jpg?resize=640%2C480\" alt=\"DSCN7027\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a>This is the top assembly of the mini that contains the fan, optical and hard-drive. It&#8217;s flipped upside down to show the hard-drive on the left.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The mini is reassembled and I&#8217;m in the process of transferring old hard-drive data to the new hard-drive. I&#8217;ll let you know how I make out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We interrupt this program so that I can finally get around to upgrading the 2006 Mac Mini of mine. I bought a larger, faster hard drive a while back and I thought the New Year&#8217;s weekend would be a good &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/01\/02\/tearing-mac-mini\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[317,518],"tags":[1191,295,537,296,1190,515],"class_list":["post-5999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computers","category-joes-garage","tag-1191","tag-apple","tag-hard-drive","tag-mac","tag-mini","tag-repair"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-1yL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":46968,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/01\/27\/party-like-its-2009\/","url_meta":{"origin":5999,"position":0},"title":"Party Like It&#8217;s 2009!","author":"Joe","date":"January 27, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Last week I wrote about upgrading a Mac Pro tower with a Solid State Drive or SSD plugged into a Peripheral Component Interconnect express card which I placed into one of the PCIe slots within the Pro's enormous aluminum chassis. It may sound daunting, but it was really straightforward. The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2009-mac-mini.jpg?fit=1000%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2009-mac-mini.jpg?fit=1000%2C750&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2009-mac-mini.jpg?fit=1000%2C750&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2009-mac-mini.jpg?fit=1000%2C750&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47445,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/04\/08\/the-greenstreet-mac-mini-adding-another-2010-to-the-cigar-box-fleet\/","url_meta":{"origin":5999,"position":1},"title":"The Greenstreet Mac Mini: Adding Another 2010 to the Cigar Box Fleet","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 8, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I wasn\u2019t planning on building another cigar box mini-stack anytime soon, but eBay had other ideas. A very clean 2010 Mac mini popped up for auction so I took a shot. I threw in a maximum bid of $37 on a whim\u2026 and was genuinely surprised when I actually won\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Greenstreet.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Greenstreet.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Greenstreet.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Greenstreet.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Greenstreet.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47683,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/05\/20\/reclaiming-my-creative-life-with-vintage-macs-the-maltese-mac-mini-stack\/","url_meta":{"origin":5999,"position":2},"title":"Reclaiming My Creative Life With Vintage Macs: The Maltese Mac Mini Stack","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"May 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"My second cigar box mini-stack is now complete. Like the first one, it pairs a vintage Mac with a modern one \u2014 a 2010 Mac mini running Snow Leopard and a M1 Mac mini running the latest macOS. They share one keyboard, one monitor, and one mouse through a KVM\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":46525,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/11\/28\/the-mac-minty\/","url_meta":{"origin":5999,"position":3},"title":"The Mac Minty","author":"Joe","date":"November 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s Black Friday, and while the shoppers in the West are killing each other over disposable junk manufactured in dystopian hellholes, I\u2019m at home basking in my frugal nature with my 13-year-old Mac Mini brought back to useful life with an installation of a Linux Mint operating system. I call\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/The-Mac-Minty-1.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/The-Mac-Minty-1.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/The-Mac-Minty-1.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10994,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/12\/23\/assembling-the-pc-that-will-become-a-mac\/","url_meta":{"origin":5999,"position":4},"title":"Assembling the PC that will become a Mac","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"December 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Originally, I thought I would painstakingly and carefully document the construction of this small PC and this post would be a visual guide to newbies such as myself. That did not happen. The obsession with the process and eagerness to see it all come together had me putting the camera\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/size-comparison.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/size-comparison.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/size-comparison.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47326,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/03\/30\/reclaiming-my-creative-life-with-vintage-macs-the-cigar-box-mini-stack\/","url_meta":{"origin":5999,"position":5},"title":"Reclaiming My Creative Life With Vintage Macs: The Cigar Box Mac Mini Stack","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"March 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"After months of tinkering, I finally built the Murci\u00e9lago Mini-Stack: a 2010 Mac mini sitting on top of a 2022 M1 Mac mini, all resting on a cigar box. Two Macs, one keyboard, and zero subscriptions. Here\u2019s how I reclaimed my creative life with vintage hardware I already own.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}