Saturday, 1st March, 2025

Watched a Jeff Geerling video on replace Mac mini M4 storage with 3rd piece. In the scheme of Mac replacements, it didn’t look that hard. The only problem is you need another Mac to restore the software. Seems no longer possible to boot from a usb and install it, or do recovery from the internet. The 2TB upgrade he showed was $250 or something, vs. the $800 Apple charges for it. People were saying it’s cheaper to buy two macs, and two upgrades and do them each using each other to activate the Mac after install, then sell it and get a free Mac mini!

I had wondered about going into the Apple Store to do the DFU recovery stuff. Either just plain up using the macs on show - although probably needs a password at some stage? Or the Genius Bar. It does risk having questions asked, but it just shows up as an Apple device as the controller is in the M4 chip. If I don’t want to do that then I think back to 2015 Intel Macs will do it, so maybe some old mini will suffice, or find someone at the hack space who has a Mac.

Anyway, I’ve not looked at U.K. prices for memory chips, so I’ll see. But it makes the cheap 256GB model appealing. Hmm. 🤔

I noticed our car has a CD player. I should find a CD to use. When I drive back at ~2pm ish there’s nothing good on the radio. Admittedly I only have a couple of stations programmed but it’s always the annoying debate part where average joes call in with whatever nonsense they’re all arguing about and you have to listen to tales of people’s lives. All very noble but I just want to listen to music.