April 10th, 2009
How-to: Upgrade the SSD in your Dell Mini 9 (Runcore to Runcore)
In my last installment of How-to: Upgrade the SSD in your Dell Mini 9 I discussed the process of migrating from the stock STEC 16GB SSD (the brand that comes from Dell) to the faster Runcore brand of SSDs.
That tutorial specifically dealt with the Runcore 32GB. I was lucky enough to score a Runcore 64GB SSD recently and wanted to explain how to upgrade from one Runcore SSD to another (presumably larger) Runcore SSD — with a hackintoshed setup.
Note: The Runcore 64GB’s are mostly constrained due to parts shortages (no surprise there) but I forgot that I had placed a backorder (MyDigitalDiscount, $219) during a late night hackintoshing session a few weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised when it arrived on my doorstep this week.
The STEC to Runcore upgrade requires you to set up the new Runcore SSD from scratch. A USB connector on the Runcore makes this much easier.
The Runcore to Runcore upgrade was much easier. I followed the technique recommended by MyDellMini forum member STiMULi.
- Attach the new Runcore to the DM9 via the included USB cable
- Use Super Duper (or Carbon Copy Cloner or whatever) to clone the smaller (source) hackintoshed SSD to the new larger (target) SSD
- Swap the SSD’s
- Boot the computer using your DellEFI USB flash drive or optical drive (copius detail on creating those here)
- Run DellEFI application
- Choose Custom Install and then choose Reinstall Bootloader, Install Dell Mini 9 Extensions, Hide DellEFI files and Fix Bluetooth
- Restart the Hackintoshed Mini
I’ve since updated to DellEFI 1.1 final without issue.
Where have you found 64GB Runcore’s in stock?
Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
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| 04/11/09
