USB Boot on Mid 2010 Intel Mac Mini – How to Guide

Some more info would be helpful here. What app are you using on your iOS devices and Mac to connect to your Mini? What happens when you try to connect—do any errors appear, or does nothing appear to happen?

First off, make sure Screen Sharing is enabled in Sharing Preferences (Remote Management is only for using Apple Remote Desktop, so don't bother with that unless you're actually using that program). Double-check that Allow access is set to either "All Users", or "Only these users" with your user name included in the box.

Now try connecting from another Mac, using the Finder's Connect to Server dialog (under the Go menu, or ⌘K). Under Server Address, type in vnc://IP_OF_YOUR_MINI then hit connect. If you can connect that way, but not using the Finder's Shared panel, then the problem is likely in the Bonjour service that advertises the screen sharing option.

Another thing to check is what version of Apple Remote Desktop Client you have installed. If you have 3.6, there's a bug that can cause timeouts for Screen Sharing/VNC clients. The temporary fix is removing /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement and re-installing 3.5.3. This worked for me on Lion, I don't know if it will work on Mountain Lion. Make sure to keep a backup copy of the files you delete, in case the install doesn't work.

Each Mac has a minimum build number that has the necessary drivers to run that Mac. Sometimes a build will run tens of Macs and some builds are very narrowly scoped to handle all the existing models and that one new release until those drivers can be incorporated into the next numbered release of the OS.

• Mac OS X versions (builds) for computers

What this means for you, is you'll need to try booting to the recovery HD on that SSD and hope the version of recovery is new enough to work to download he proper installer and let you proceed with the build for that Mac. If not, you'll need to place the drive that came with that Mini back in (or into an external USB enclosure that costs about $5 to $10 and hold the option key) to select that external drive.

At that point, you can re-run the installer or migrate the data from the SSD to the external drive. Then you can wipe the SSD clean using recovery and migrate back without having to reinstall or lose any data or settings.

There are many paths to getting back in business - but knowing the minimum builds will let you check things next time to run the updates before you move the drive.