As I am now 90% through my “switch“, it was time to change my external hard drive as well. I could have just plugged in my WDC “My Book” but OS X doesn’t support native NTFS Read/Write access. Plus, I really had nowhere to offload the data while I reformatted. Yes, I suppose I could have used Partition Magic (on the PC) to flip the file system over, but you’re missing the point.
My requirements were simple. Since I love my Mac Mini, it would have to “stack with it” and play nice. A few more ports wouldn’t hurt either, but space was the primary issue. Lots of companies jumped at the opportunity to create custom add-ons for the Mini, so I found there was no shortage of offerings from the Mac regulars. Newer Technology was previously unknown to this Mac novice but their MiniStack seems to be a favorite among reviewers. The sweet spot in their MiniStack product line seems to be the 320GB drive model, as this one was the cheapest one that includes a 16MB cache drive.
The box was nicely packed, and I was glad to see they included short Firewire and USB device cables. This is important, as they don’t need to travel far. The installation took only a few minutes, as I quickly powered down my Mini, added the additional two cables (one FireWire and one USB 2.0), and stacked! I allowed my Mac to fully boot before firing up the MiniStack. Once online, I turned on the MiniStack and sure enough, there it was, all my devices were available instantly and the drive was even preformatted!
NewerTech includes some software goodies on the drive, but I have not had a chance to sift through them. My feeling is that whatever shareware is on there, is most likely outdated by 6 months or so.
I then hooked up my WD external to the side Firewire port on the MiniStack and began copying the contents over. This was VERY fast. I really like the placement of the extra 2 ports on the side. From where my Mac is, I can easily add a pocket hard drive or my iPod without using up an extra slot permanently on the Mac itself. The MiniStack fits nicely with the Mini and matches the paint color very well. It has a glowing blue light to show power and drive activity.
The drive itself runs quite cool. Even during the intense file copy, the outer casing was not warm at all. I thought for sure it would be hot to the touch, but this was not the case! I even keep my mac in a closed door computer cabinet, with no ventilation and still, everything stays cool.
NewerTech shipped the drive out quickly to my door, and offered a nice discount on the shipping (at the time of purchase). I am very happy with this purchase and highly recommend this drive to all Mini owners.