I’ve got an old Mac mini from way back in 2011 that I’m planning to give a second life. It’s going to be my go-to media hub, handle some light background tasks, and maybe even help out with a few side projects. Now, the latest macOS version Apple officially supports on this little guy is High Sierra (macOS 10.13). But let’s be real, High Sierra doesn’t even have Apple Music—just good ol’ iTunes! So, I figured it was time to get adventurous and try installing something newer and shinier.
Of course, since Apple decided to leave anything beyond High Sierra off the table for this model, I had to call in some help from the OpenCore Legacy Patcher. This nifty tool is like a secret key, unlocking the potential to run newer macOS versions on my vintage machine.
Note: do not install Sonoma (macOS 14). Yes, it will install, but you will be running into tons of issues.
What do we need?
A decent USB Flash Drive, 16GB or more. Here is a cheap one that I can recommend for just $8 dollars. The SanDisk 64GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive.
Creating the USB installer
First, using the same computer, the Mac mini Mid 2011, we have to download the OpenCore Legacy Patcher. Here is the link: https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/.
The latest version, as the time of this writing is 1.5.0. Download whichever is the latest when you are following these steps:
Once downloaded, double click on the .zip and then click on the App icon:
Select macOS 13.6.9 Ventura and click on Download button. The download will start…
Select the USB where you want to create the installation flash drive:
You can click No in the next screen:
All set. You have created the USB installer.
Installing macOS Ventura
Let’s assume you don’t need any of the data in your current computer, so we can reformat the drive and start completely fresh. Restart the computer and hold down the Option key. You should see this:
You will be clicking on Disk Utility and Continue since we are formatting the Hard Drive first:
Select the internal drive, and the click Erase:
Put any Name, select APFS, and click on Erase:
Now click on Done once ready. Quit Disk Utility:
Now, clik on Install macOS Ventura, Continue:
Click on Continue again, Click on Agree, Agree and then select the hard drive in which you want to install the operating system and hit Continue:
The installation will begin. Your computer will restart multiple times until you get to this first configuration screen. From then on, select what you want:
Now you have macOS Ventura on that old Mac Mini Mid 2011:
That’s it!
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