How would I migrate my external FireWire boot drive to a Mac Mini?

[Jerry®]

So I'm looking at the refurbished Mac minis in the Apple Store and wondering how I'd migrate my current external FireWire boot drive to one since there are no FireWire ports? Once I figure that out I thought I'd just hookup my external backup drive for my internal hdd and drag folders over like documents, iTunes, photos, etc......
Does that sound "right"?

Apple refurb Mac mini no FW


2012 model with FW?

[ka jowct]

I would not get a 2014 Mini. But if you do, you can get an adapter, Thunderbolt to FW. Check eBay to see if you can get a 2012 Mini instead.

[Jerry®]

ka jowct wrote:
I would not get a 2014 Mini. But if you do, you can get an adapter, Thunderbolt to FW. Check eBay to see if you can get a 2012 Mini instead.

Yeah I'm gonna try and find a 2012.

[hal]

there's nothing wrong with the 2014 model, but there isn't much difference between the two UNLESS you go for a PCIe SSD option. Really fast, REALLY expensive. Warranty is an issue of course...

[jdc]

I would not get a 2012 mini.

Are you sure your external boot is FW only? Might have both FW and USB.

Did you make your FW drive? DIY? or was it bought prebuilt? If a DIY, pull the drive and put in USB case, super cheap. In fact, thats prob what I do anyway... but depends on what you buy and how you plan to setup...

To expand on Hal post -- I would be OK with a Fusion drive -- or booting from an external USB SSD. But the internal options are faster...

[Jerry®]

jdc wrote:
I would not get a 2012 mini.

Are you sure your external boot is FW only? Might have both FW and USB.

Did you make your FW drive? DIY? or was it bought prebuilt? If a DIY, pull the drive and put in USB case, super cheap. In fact, thats prob what I do anyway... but depends on what you buy and how you plan to setup...

To expand on Hal post -- I would be OK with a Fusion drive -- or booting from an external USB SSD. But the internal options are faster...

My ext boot drive is a DIY - 256GB. Take a look at this photo of the back because I'm not sure what the open thin port is? But you're saying I could, say, get a 2012 mini and put this drive in?

[PeterW]

It's an OWC On-The-Go FW800/USB 3.0 case and the "open thin port" is the USB 3.0 port. Whichever mini (2012 or 2014) you get, just plug the drive in using that port.

[anonymouse1]

Open port might be a FW800 port?

That's an OWC case--what's the model number?

If that's a SATA drive inside, you could just buy a $15 USB 3.0 case, and move the HD to the USB 3.0 case for the transfer. BACK UP THE FW DRIVE FIRST!!!!

[Jerry®]

PeterW wrote:
It's an OWC On-The-Go FW800/USB 3.0 case and the "open thin port" is the USB 3.0 port. Whichever mini (2012 or 2014) you get, just plug the drive in using that port.

Thank you!

[Jerry®]

anonymouse1 wrote:
Open port might be a FW800 port?

That's an OWC case--what's the model number?

If that's a SATA drive inside, you could just buy a $15 USB 3.0 case, and move the HD to the USB 3.0 case for the transfer. BACK UP THE FW DRIVE FIRST!!!!

It's an SSD drive and yeah I've been keeping backups too (learned the hard way)