A friend has a MacMini, the first one with Intel CPU: 1.5Ghz Core Solo, 512Mb RAM and 60Gb hard drive and Tiger 10.4.11. Hard drive was full and computer was very slow. We decided to upgrade with a new harddrive and more RAM. Opening and upgrading a MacMini is a challenge, but other people have written a lot about that.
Instead, I will quickly explain a simple method for making a clean install:
- Upgrade hardware – replace memory and harddrive
- Put old harddrive in USB external case
- Install Snow Leopard from standard install DVD
- In the end of the installation, you get the question if you want to migrate data. You want to do that, from Internal drive. Connect old drive to computer USB port. Select users and configuration. If you are fine reinstalling applications from scratch, dont migrate them
- Run software upgrade
- Install software
Pretty obvious? Well, as I prepared for the upgrade, it was not clear that it is possible migrate a Tiger disk in a USB case, when installing Snow Leopard. It works perfectly.
And 2Gb memory in a MacMini with a 1.5Ghz Core Solo performs very well for everyday tasks. A recommended upgrade.