Thank you so much for this video. I had purchased a Mac Mini 2020 with 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. With your video I was able to use a 1TB SSD as my Start up drive. And even use the migration tool and got my old settings and stuff added to the new SSD drive. Thanks again.
@@lucannon I'm guessing he had a Time Machine backup in another external drive, so he just used the backup with the Migration Assistant, at least that's what I would've done.
Best part of buying the mini or iMac, you can just focus on ram specs rather than hard drives! Is been years since I’ve done this. But I’m about to do it again
This video saved me! 3 weeks ago I bought a base M2 Mac mini and immediately tried to instal Ventura on my Samsung T5 SSD. After the installation I was unable to boot from the external. I tried once more reinstalling the OS but to no avail and gave up on the idea, assuming there was something with the Mac design making it impossible. Fast forward to yesterday when I came across this video and was idly watching it when my error became apparent . . . I was not installing the OS on the physical drive! Within 30 minutes of seeing those first few seconds of your video I was up and running with a Mac mini booted from the external Samsung. THANKS!
The external SSD is faster than my Mac was out of the box. To be fair, my computer use is limited to internet activity and Office suite software mainly.@@MaglorMusic
@@MaglorMusic think it would be faster. Just got the 2017 MacBook Pro no Touch Bar and it’s has a HD instead of ssd so using an external ssd would probably be faster idk.
This tutorial is an object lesson in how to define the task, execute it and check it. The presenter straightforwardly points out that the external will be slightly slower than the built in one and shows us how to, in effect, make our M silicon Macs behave like 2 computers in a single machine. It is particular boon to users whose work takes up a lot of space because he/she can store large data to a large SSD yet leave the production Mac free for everyday tasks or to do the large tasks on the plain Mac then store it immediately on the external. Those working in civil engineering, design and image-heavy jobs will find this tutorial invaluable. All tech tutorials should aspire to this standard.
In the boot selection screen, you can also hold control or option to set the drive to always boot from. :) You can also hold shift to invoke safe mode boot for the desired OS to boot from.
just this one video of yours basically answered almost all of my questions regarding running a MacOS from external drive and saving my internal SSD from eminent failure! (thanks Apple!). There should be a “two thumbs up” button for videos like yours!!
i installed os sonoma on external ssd but it doesn not work on macbook pro 2020 m1 does not start by any method. the disc does show up but when i click open it doesnt , what to do? even i changed the security setting but it doesnt work
This is the best & easiest tutorial video.. Thank you so much.. Now I have samsung 970 evo 500gb with acasis tb3 usb 4 enclosure as my external boot & it feels as snappy as I was using the internal ssd of my macbook air m1.. But I ordered a usb powered cooling fan to attach outside the enclosure just to be sure that there will be no thermal throttling will occur.. But as of now there is no overheating as I use it 24/7 as my main boot drive.. Now I don't have to worry about failing of the internal ssd.. It will remain at 100% health for a very long long time.. Also bought & intalled a paid version aldente battery charge limiter to save also my battery.. now I have a macbook that is built like a tank..
@@MichaelAbellera I have the acasis usb 4 tb3 enclosure on my m1 mini, and get 2900 read and 1400 write. With a dock on the mini I get 1900 write is what’s weird. Hooked straigjt up it’s 1400 and straight to dock 1400. Not sure why a dock in one port and drive in another my speed went up.
@@johnathanbeats If you use the Samsung 980 Pro, you will get full read and write speeds. The M1 machines limit the write speeds except for a few select drives.
I was exactly looking for a comment like this one, just bought the M2 Mac Mini with 16 GB of ram but 256 GB and I found the Acasis enclosure, I’m glad to read it works I’ll install a copy of macOS on a external SSD then 🙌🏻 So crazy that I will get better performance with the acasis than with the internal drive haha
Don't buy the T7 for any heavy workloads. It constantly thermal throttles. Get a Thunderbolt/USB 4 NVME encolusure that has a built in fan for the SSD to remain cool.
Thank you for the video. I was about to buy a new laptop/mini pc/mac mini. I ll use my macbook pro with an external SSD now. You saved my pocket from getting hammered.
Hi! I'm new to Mac, once I finished installing, & got to the restart countdown, it booted back to internal ssd instead of finishing installation after reboot. Do you know what is being done wrong? I followed every step exact until this point
Very good instructions. Does the internal drive have to be the same version of Big Sur as the external drive? I tried this twice and it failed, but I noticed the internal drive was an older version than what I was trying to install on the external drive. In the process I lost my boot up chime until I upgraded the internal drive. Thanks very much
I tried following these steps and for someone reason after installing it on the external device (in my case a regular USB and USB-C flash memory stick), it never boots up into the second stage of the installer. I am able to view the USB flash stick from the boot menu but clicking Continue does nothing. Does the external device need to specifically be a SSD?
Can it help to resolve the SSD swap issue? Have you checked out whether the SSD swapping happens between the Internal SSD or the external one while booting from the external SSD?
It completely eliminates disk swapping to the internal SSD. It's the drive you boot from that macOS swaps to, so any swapping goes to the external SSD. You can unmount the internal ssd in disk utility after booting if you want to be extra sure.
I tried doing the same on my external SSD with Big Sur installed, but it is not letting me to boot start and is suggesting me to reinstall the os.. when I try to reinstall, I get an SMART error message and is unable to select the disc as the install destination =(
I followed your instructions exactly. But no matter how many times I erase the hard drive in dial utility, (the hard drive itself and not just the volume) my Mac begins the install but never completes it. So I am left with an incomplete install on my SSD everytime. I've formatted my external SSD "APFS" Scheme is "GUID Partition Map" Are the any reasons as to why the installation of the Mac OS keeps failing?
Have you tried using the software called super Duper, and creating a full clone of your current MacBook onto an external hard drive? Defending on which OSU are on, this can be a bootable hard drive that you can work from
For MacBook Air M1 running Sonoma, make sure to plug your external drive into the second USB-C port. The first port’s configuration might prevent you from booting from the external drive.
Thanks for the tut! Very helpful information. I have 2 questions and i hope someone can answer. 1. Does it matter if i use the cheaper DRAM-less nvme drives? Is there a performance hit and is it noticeable? 2. Can MacOS take advantage of the fastest nvme drive? Or will a mid mid priced nvme drive suffice? This iMac 2017 is used for graphics only. No video editing.
For the first question, I would think that would depend on your cable (I'm not entirely sure, but that's my guess). As mentioned in the video, a cable in general, but especially a slow cable, can really make your performance take a hit (with the drive). Also, I have heard that DRAM-less ssd's can actually be slower than a spinning hard drive, so I would advise against it.
Im switching from a Mac mini i3 to a Mac mini M2. I now use Mac Mac mini I3 with a Sabrent Rocket 2tb SSD. It's good to know that I can continue this setup to M2 Mac.
Hi, Thank you, this video helped! I just have a question. Once i power off my macbook, Will i be able to unplug the ssd from my macbook and plug it back in when I’m ready to use my macbook again without any problems? I travel a lot and it would be inconvenient to have my ssd plugged into my macbook while it’s in my bag.
When trying to install MacOS on an external SSD, the internal SSD is always booted when restarting. When I select the external SSD in the Boot-loader afterwords, it only shows that the installation is corrupt. I would appreciate any help guys.
Hi Bartech. . Nice vid. . 2 questions; 1- Will this work with Monterey ? . 2-Once done, can I then make a bootable clone of my MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) ?
Is the installation only for the MacBook you installed it with or can you use the external hard drive on other MacBooks as well? I have an installation of Sonoma that I used on my 2020 intel but I can't get it to work on my M1
Hello, this is great video and great idea. I have new m1 Macbook Air and use it for Photoshop and Lightroom. I have lot of swapmamory everyday and this trick will help. Just have some questions if you can halp me. Which external ssd will you recomended and does it decress performans during work from external ssd.
go with the fastest nvme you can find (tip: samsung) along with a good thunderbolt 4 case and you won't notice a difference between the normal drive and the external one.
Hello there, I love your videos, thank you for sharing all your knowledge. I wanted to know if I can do this with a Hackintosh. So I can run Mac OS from my external SSD.
I haven't tried it yet, but do I understand you correctly that I can run my Mac mini M1 from an external SSD via USB 3.1 or should it be Thunderbold? Can you use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the internal SSD to the external SSD and then use the external one as boot drive? I'm doing that on my old Mac mini from 2012. But times have changed since then.
hi, first thank you for this video I have been searching for this for ages. I have followed the steps using a 13" M1 MacBook Air and I am now at the boot menu where my internal and WD Green 1TB. When finish installation restart once then when restart twice restart with the internal drive. then i go to option restart when I select continue for the USB drive it does the spinning animation for a few seconds then just sits there, never tries to boot. I am trying to make a Sonoma external drive from a mac on Sonoma. when i select in the system setting i tray to select the external drive an put this "The version of macOS on the selected disk needs to be reinstalled". Please help me
I have the same issue...my research said, you need to install a higher version than the current internal version so far, but there is no higher version available right now. Running on an Apple M3 Max with Sonoma 14.5 currently. I have not checked if I can choose the external drive for the migration, but as long as the Sonoma is not running on the external, I do not see it working either.....food for thought here
Did you have any solutions on this issue? I also face the issue. Currently, I can insert Sonoma to a external drive and it worked weel at the firest boot but failed when restarting mac air m1.
Thanks so much for uploading the video and I have used the process to upgrade my 2017 fusion iMac to boot off an external ssd NVME. My question however is, if I unmount the internal fusion drive will it remain unmounted even when I restart the machine? the reason I ask is because in the past when I have run OS off the external drives and there has been update, the OS update installed to the internal drive rather than the external drive causing me a lot of hassle. Want to prevent that from happening. Thanks
@@mitchellwittmann1883 boot to Recovery mode & select 'Utilities' at the top menu. There should be a 'Start up Security' option. from there, you can change the boot up security to allow for an external OS to run.
I didn't need to change any security settings. It just worked. M1 Macs work fine booting from external USB-C 3.0 and 3.1 drives since the release of 11.4. There were issues with earlier versions of Big Sur but they've been fixed.
Hmmm just tried this with T7 drive, installed and tried to boot from it and won’t boot. Im perplexed, followed video. Going to try it again. Hmmmm sertting owner and copying details from internal drive unchecked this time, that might have been what threw things off.
hh, someone needs to design a nice case, that can clamp under the macbook and hook up elegant via usb c without adding to much thickness and width. Than you can insert loads of stuff, like sd card, normal usb, maybe even a custom magsafe, 2,5" ssds, nvme pci-e ssds, a coolingfan for the air, more energy storage. Whatever you need. This could get handy, if the internal ssd might die and you don't need to open up your mac, okay maybe you need to remove the bottom cover to screw in the new one but exept that :D
Thanks for the video. I have no idea why Apple would make the internal ssd a soldered drive, because what happens if the ssd internal goes bad. Then its a big problem to desolder it and then solder a new one in. They should have used internal m.2, but no. Im going to use the OWC Explore 1M2 for a 3100 MB/s speed.
I have a enclouse of Acasis and a Nvme of 1tb WD SN850X . In the meter i got speeds of 2800 too. But using just as external extorage my enclouse gets very hot sometimes. I'm afraid ofthermal throttling .
I get this error, when trying to boot it from the external disk: An error occurred while setting “MacOS” as the startup disk: The operation couldn’t be completed. (SDErrorDomain error 108.)
Got a new mac studio with 500 GB hard drive. Crashing a lot because of GB intensive apps and having lots of apps open at the same time, which is needed. Would it resolve my crashing problem if I were to run only the OS from the internal drive and everything else from an external? And if so, can you tell me how designate the external drive as the default for everything else?
Hi, when you say crashing, do you mean literally spontaneous kernel panics and shutdowns, or are you seeing a message saying "Your Mac has run out of application memory"? A Mac should never crash just because of memory intensive apps. You can expect a warning message as your internal SSD reaches capacity, and you'll see a message if your Mac runs out of RAM which will ask you to close apps, but it should never just crash. Random shutdowns or crashes sound more like a hardware issue. I sincerely doubt that moving your data to an external drive would have any effect in reducing or eliminating crashes. As a general rule, you should aim to keep about 20% of your internal drive free (so, in your case that would be 100GB) as it helps with wear leveling. As for forcing your Mac to use external storage for everything except the OS, there isn't a system-wide setting for that. It's up to each individual application. For example, in Final Cut Pro, you go to Libraries, Properties, then Storage Locations, and choose where you want render files and caches to be stored. In Lightroom, you store your library on the external drive and set the cache location to the external drive under the performance tab in preferences. If you're experiencing regular crashes on a new Mac that's still under warranty, you should contact Apple. I've had random kernel panics on two occasions with brand new Macs and on both occasions it was a hardware issue that required a new logic board under warranty.
Thank you for video! It was very helpful. I am using ssd as external boot drive also took second ssd (smaller size) and using it as external drive for music. However, when mac starts it goes to question mark page. When i unplug second ssd which is used for music then mac starts with no issue. Please help
I've got a 2020 Mac Mini that successfully boots off my Samsung SSD. Tried the same thing with my MacBook Air M2 and get it starting to a repetitive loop with the Apple logo, restart, repeat, etc. Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?
I just bought this M1 Macbook air. Now im plugging my Lexar USB 32Go. But the thing is my USB can only be formatted in ExFat or other old MacOS formats like Macos extended (journaled). I tried both format and they dont work - it says "This disk doesnt use the GUID Partition Table Scheme." Also, im curious to know after you booted with your ssd, can you see your documents that you created in your old session
I wonder if this method could still be used if the internal hard drive is damaged? , on Intel-based macs it was possible, but on Apple Silicon, I have no idea.
I would like to upgrade my imac 2017 towards an external ssd since the built-in hardrive cannot be replaced without removing the whole screen and opening up the whole thing. However, I do not have the budget for a 1tb ssd. Can i just use a lower capacity external ssd as a boot drive and keep using the internal hardrive as extra storage like on windows? I'm pretty new to the whole mac ecosystem.
This didn’t work the first time I tried it (on a mac mini and a Samsung T7). I got a error message shortly after starting the installation. I shut down the mac and repeated the entire process and voilà! It worked - thus proving the old adage… if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…
M1 Mac does not allow Software Updates to be installed on an External SSD. To get the updates OS need to be installed again and again. Any solution for the issue, Thanks
Question: Can this external drive be used for a different mac? I have imac that runs and mac book that hard drive is dead. How can I make a external drive? Thanks for all your help
I'm unable to create bootable external drive in m1 mac. The issue is Apple has removed external boot option in latest macos. Are you able to create boot drive in latest macos?
Bro can i use windows 11 on macbook pro m1 pro using external ssd? Plz ans this? I dont wanna use any virtual machine or parrel i wanna use Windows 11 or 10 in macbook pro m1 using external ssd is that possible?
I have a Samsung Portable SSD T5 with Ubuntu 22.0.4 LTS installed and I recently got a MacBook Air with the M1 Chip. I have been trying to boot into the External SSD Drive without success, it does not even appear in the Startup disks list. However, it was working on my old MacBook Air with the Intel Chip. Please, what do you suggest I do? Can someone please help me here? Thanks in advance !!!!
@@BartechTV I really appreciate your reply. Can I ask you one more question? that 's if when i using software on such external ssd, does it help ssd internal swap problem too ?
Hi, i've a managed macbook pro m1 from my company and i will use it also for me. Can i setup the bootdrive also on my normal private iMac and put it later on the macbook? I`ve no access to the app store on the company macbook to install the os...
You can create the boot drive on another Mac, but it has to have the same processor type - you can't create a boot drive for an M1 Mac on an Intel Mac or vice versa.
hi, i tried this from a nvme drive, i bought cheap usbc enclosure from amazon and a samsung 980 pro nvme. everything installed, but i do get a fair bit of spinning beachball, and when rendering in cinema 4d it doesnt seem to be consistent speeds, i feel like theres a read write issue.. any thoughts? does a off the shelf standard samsung ssd have sufficient speed to run an os?
Hello, quick question: Once I got my bootable external SSD all setup and I'm now using that SSD in place of my MacBook when ever booting, will all my Applications store new data to this same external SSD? For Example: I'm working from the External SSD, and I moving an email from the INBOX (server) to a local folder in Apple Mail, will this email be stored on this same external SSD and not on the MacBook?
Yes, the SSD you boot from is the SSD that all your applications will use for storage. You can even unmount the internal SSD using disk utility or by dragging the icon to the trash.
@@BartechTV super, thanks An other question: Is it possible to backup the booted external SSD to an other external SSD, so that this second SSD would also be bootable in case the first SSD is lost?
Hello BarTech TV, I have an iMac M1, I've tried to install exactly as you described on a SSD SAMSUNG T7 1TB. The installation complete successfully, but when I powered off the iMac and restarted, the OS is loading and rebooting in loop. I've tried also with a hdd (mechanical) and have the same result, it's restarting after some seconds forever in loop. Any ideas? Thx
@@TheiTE Do you mean this won't work on the M1 Mac mini? I tried this recently and couldn't get it to work. I made two attempts but both failed when trying to install Big Sur onto an external NVME Drive via TB3 enclosure. One thing I noticed was that the version of Big Sur I had on the internal drive was earlier than the external, which may have caused this not to work?....Thanks
Just a quick question. If the soldered ssd in newer macbook pro fails, then I should be able to use an external ssd to get it working right? Thanks in advance
Only on Intel-based Macs. When the SSD fails on an Apple silicon mac, it's a brick. The boot firmware is on the internal SSD so when it fails the Mac will never boot again, not even from an external drive.
It depends on the SSD, but with a USB 3.x Gen 2 drive like the Samsung T7 it's barely noticeable. With a slower, SATA drive in an enclosure you do notice a slight slowdown.
Thank you so much for this video. I had purchased a Mac Mini 2020 with 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. With your video I was able to use a 1TB SSD as my Start up drive. And even use the migration tool and got my old settings and stuff added to the new SSD drive. Thanks again.
Hi Antonio, how did you manage to transfer your old files to the new startup ssd by using the migration assistent?
@@lucannon I'm guessing he had a Time Machine backup in another external drive, so he just used the backup with the Migration Assistant, at least that's what I would've done.
how much slower is the performance when working from external SSD? Would you say it's noticeable?
Best part of buying the mini or iMac, you can just focus on ram specs rather than hard drives! Is been years since I’ve done this. But I’m about to do it again
@@MaglorMusic I'm using a 4 tb NVMe ssd connected to a thunderbolt dock and it's about 20% faster than my M1 Mac Mini internal
This is the standard by which all help videos should follow
This video saved me! 3 weeks ago I bought a base M2 Mac mini and immediately tried to instal Ventura on my Samsung T5 SSD. After the installation I was unable to boot from the external. I tried once more reinstalling the OS but to no avail and gave up on the idea, assuming there was something with the Mac design making it impossible. Fast forward to yesterday when I came across this video and was idly watching it when my error became apparent . . . I was not installing the OS on the physical drive! Within 30 minutes of seeing those first few seconds of your video I was up and running with a Mac mini booted from the external Samsung. THANKS!
Literally kept me from buying a new computer. My 2017 iMac now runs better than it did when I first unboxed it thanks to your tutorial. Many thanks.
how much slower is the performance when working from external SSD?
The external SSD is faster than my Mac was out of the box. To be fair, my computer use is limited to internet activity and Office suite software mainly.@@MaglorMusic
@@MaglorMusic think it would be faster. Just got the 2017 MacBook Pro no Touch Bar and it’s has a HD instead of ssd so using an external ssd would probably be faster idk.
Super useful for evading employee monitoring software installed on your work laptop without having to open it up!
Except they can disable booting from external drives. 😟
This tutorial is an object lesson in how to define the task, execute it and check it.
The presenter straightforwardly points out that the external will be slightly slower than the built in one and shows us how to, in effect, make our M silicon Macs behave like 2 computers in a single machine.
It is particular boon to users whose work takes up a lot of space because he/she can store large data to a large SSD yet leave the production Mac free for everyday tasks or to do the large tasks on the plain Mac then store it immediately on the external.
Those working in civil engineering, design and image-heavy jobs will find this tutorial invaluable.
All tech tutorials should aspire to this standard.
In the boot selection screen, you can also hold control or option to set the drive to always boot from. :) You can also hold shift to invoke safe mode boot for the desired OS to boot from.
This was the single most beautiful tutorial I've encountered....Thank you so much for this one!!
just this one video of yours basically answered almost all of my questions regarding running a MacOS from external drive and saving my internal SSD from eminent failure! (thanks Apple!). There should be a “two thumbs up” button for videos like yours!!
i installed os sonoma on external ssd but it doesn not work on macbook pro 2020 m1 does not start by any method. the disc does show up but when i click open it doesnt ,
what to do? even i changed the security setting but it doesnt work
This is the best & easiest tutorial video.. Thank you so much.. Now I have samsung 970 evo 500gb with acasis tb3 usb 4 enclosure as my external boot & it feels as snappy as I was using the internal ssd of my macbook air m1.. But I ordered a usb powered cooling fan to attach outside the enclosure just to be sure that there will be no thermal throttling will occur.. But as of now there is no overheating as I use it 24/7 as my main boot drive.. Now I don't have to worry about failing of the internal ssd.. It will remain at 100% health for a very long long time.. Also bought & intalled a paid version aldente battery charge limiter to save also my battery.. now I have a macbook that is built like a tank..
How is the performance in your external boot? is it throttling or is there any significant performance loss
@@MichaelAbellera I have the acasis usb 4 tb3 enclosure on my m1 mini, and get 2900 read and 1400 write. With a dock on the mini I get 1900 write is what’s weird. Hooked straigjt up it’s 1400 and straight to dock 1400. Not sure why a dock in one port and drive in another my speed went up.
@@johnathanbeats If you use the Samsung 980 Pro, you will get full read and write speeds. The M1 machines limit the write speeds except for a few select drives.
@@melchora7 Inland NVMe SSD is what I got in it. Plan to go with gen 4.
I was exactly looking for a comment like this one, just bought the M2 Mac Mini with 16 GB of ram but 256 GB and I found the Acasis enclosure, I’m glad to read it works I’ll install a copy of macOS on a external SSD then 🙌🏻
So crazy that I will get better performance with the acasis than with the internal drive haha
Thank you very much! 2 years now that I use a 2 Tb NVMe on a M1 Mac Mini 😊
Hi, can you update the os in external SSD ?
My macOS always show
"The computer is missing firmware partition " how can i solve its ??
Did you notice any performance drop because of the booting from external T7 ssd? (in apps like lightroom, photoshop, premiere, etc.)
That is a real good question
Have the same question
U will notice
I have a T7 2tb used to boot my IMac and just in the process of returning it as the read/write speeds are abysmal.
Don't buy the T7 for any heavy workloads. It constantly thermal throttles. Get a Thunderbolt/USB 4 NVME encolusure that has a built in fan for the SSD to remain cool.
Thank you for the video. I was about to buy a new laptop/mini pc/mac mini. I ll use my macbook pro with an external SSD now. You saved my pocket from getting hammered.
GREAT Video tutorial! Thank You! No excess, no fat, right to the point....
Thanks to your video I am able to use a 2TB drive as my new boot drive. More Space!!!
M not getting like fresh mac setting option after restarting mac couple of times , its only came to original mac os the old one
Thank you for making such a detailed, easy to understand video. You helped me so much. Thank you!
What was the reason for choosing Owner at 02:26 ?? Does it affect any settings in the new operating system??
Good question. From my experience, once I had to enter the password of the main system to be allowed to boot from external ssd.
Awesome video! Thanks for taking time to record it. This is very helpful.
Hi! I'm new to Mac, once I finished installing, & got to the restart countdown, it booted back to internal ssd instead of finishing installation after reboot. Do you know what is being done wrong? I followed every step exact until this point
Same problem with me
Very good instructions. Does the internal drive have to be the same version of Big Sur as the external drive? I tried this twice and it failed, but I noticed the internal drive was an older version than what I was trying to install on the external drive. In the process I lost my boot up chime until I upgraded the internal drive. Thanks very much
I tried following these steps and for someone reason after installing it on the external device (in my case a regular USB and USB-C flash memory stick), it never boots up into the second stage of the installer. I am able to view the USB flash stick from the boot menu but clicking Continue does nothing.
Does the external device need to specifically be a SSD?
Can it help to resolve the SSD swap issue? Have you checked out whether the SSD swapping happens between the Internal SSD or the external one while booting from the external SSD?
It completely eliminates disk swapping to the internal SSD. It's the drive you boot from that macOS swaps to, so any swapping goes to the external SSD.
You can unmount the internal ssd in disk utility after booting if you want to be extra sure.
I tried doing the same on my external SSD with Big Sur installed, but it is not letting me to boot start and is suggesting me to reinstall the os.. when I try to reinstall, I get an SMART error message and is unable to select the disc as the install destination =(
Thank you for this very useful tutorial.. You saved my internal ssd..
Brilliant and straight to the point. Thanks.
I followed your instructions exactly. But no matter how many times I erase the hard drive in dial utility, (the hard drive itself and not just the volume) my Mac begins the install but never completes it. So I am left with an incomplete install on my SSD everytime. I've formatted my external SSD "APFS" Scheme is "GUID Partition Map"
Are the any reasons as to why the installation of the Mac OS keeps failing?
Have you tried using the software called super Duper, and creating a full clone of your current MacBook onto an external hard drive? Defending on which OSU are on, this can be a bootable hard drive that you can work from
Thanks for this. very informative. I will do this soon with Monteray. More power to you and your channel.
For MacBook Air M1 running Sonoma, make sure to plug your external drive into the second USB-C port. The first port’s configuration might prevent you from booting from the external drive.
Thanks for the tut! Very helpful information. I have 2 questions and i hope someone can answer.
1. Does it matter if i use the cheaper DRAM-less nvme drives? Is there a performance hit and is it noticeable?
2. Can MacOS take advantage of the fastest nvme drive? Or will a mid mid priced nvme drive suffice? This iMac 2017 is used for graphics only. No video editing.
For the first question, I would think that would depend on your cable (I'm not entirely sure, but that's my guess). As mentioned in the video, a cable in general, but especially a slow cable, can really make your performance take a hit (with the drive). Also, I have heard that DRAM-less ssd's can actually be slower than a spinning hard drive, so I would advise against it.
Is there a way to put a kali Linux on the external ssd on the Mac with Apple silicon?
Im switching from a Mac mini i3 to a Mac mini M2. I now use Mac Mac mini I3 with a Sabrent Rocket 2tb SSD. It's good to know that I can continue this setup to M2 Mac.
Beautifully streamlined and straightforward video! Will this work for Sonama, Ventura and Montere on an M1y? Thanks!
Hi, Thank you, this video helped! I just have a question. Once i power off my macbook, Will i be able to unplug the ssd from my macbook and plug it back in when I’m ready to use my macbook again without any problems? I travel a lot and it would be inconvenient to have my ssd plugged into my macbook while it’s in my bag.
Yea you can disconnect it when you’re not using it. It only needs to be plugged in while the laptop is on.
This was very helpful, however, unsuccessful with Mac Mini M2 on an external 2TB SSD. Any suggestions? I receive sddomain error 108.
Same here. I returned the M2 Mac mini. No fix.
When trying to install MacOS on an external SSD, the internal SSD is always booted when restarting. When I select the external SSD in the Boot-loader afterwords, it only shows that the installation is corrupt. I would appreciate any help guys.
That's great to have multiple Mac Versions or tests, now we only need the same for windows and linux.
Do you know if this is out by now?
Can you install OS on external drive (as backup OS) but than use it as regular data drive with system booting from internal drive?
Hi Bartech. . Nice vid. . 2 questions; 1- Will this work with Monterey ? . 2-Once done, can I then make a bootable clone of my MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021) ?
Is the installation only for the MacBook you installed it with or can you use the external hard drive on other MacBooks as well? I have an installation of Sonoma that I used on my 2020 intel but I can't get it to work on my M1
Hello, this is great video and great idea.
I have new m1 Macbook Air and use it for Photoshop and Lightroom. I have lot of swapmamory everyday and this trick will help.
Just have some questions if you can halp me.
Which external ssd will you recomended and does it decress performans during work from external ssd.
go with the fastest nvme you can find (tip: samsung) along with a good thunderbolt 4 case and you won't notice a difference between the normal drive and the external one.
Did this trick work for you?
Hello there, I love your videos, thank you for sharing all your knowledge. I wanted to know if I can do this with a Hackintosh. So I can run Mac OS from my external SSD.
Yes you can do the same with a hackintosh, it works just the same.
Is this still valid for macOS Monterey ?
This is amazing my dude, thank you so much for such an organized video.
For some reason, I thought this was impossible
I haven't tried it yet, but do I understand you correctly that I can run my Mac mini M1 from an external SSD via USB 3.1 or should it be Thunderbold?
Can you use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone the internal SSD to the external SSD and then use the external one as boot drive?
I'm doing that on my old Mac mini from 2012. But times have changed since then.
This tutorial is awesome. Thank you very much 🙏
hi, first thank you for this video I have been searching for this for ages. I have followed the steps using a 13" M1 MacBook Air and I am now at the boot menu where my internal and WD Green 1TB. When finish installation restart once then when restart twice restart with the internal drive. then i go to option restart when I select continue for the USB drive it does the spinning animation for a few seconds then just sits there, never tries to boot. I am trying to make a Sonoma external drive from a mac on Sonoma. when i select in the system setting i tray to select the external drive an put this "The version of macOS on the selected disk needs to be reinstalled". Please help me
I have the same issue...my research said, you need to install a higher version than the current internal version so far, but there is no higher version available right now. Running on an Apple M3 Max with Sonoma 14.5 currently. I have not checked if I can choose the external drive for the migration, but as long as the Sonoma is not running on the external, I do not see it working either.....food for thought here
Did you have any solutions on this issue? I also face the issue. Currently, I can insert Sonoma to a external drive and it worked weel at the firest boot but failed when restarting mac air m1.
@@pdinh411 No i didn't find any solution i steel looking
Thanks so much for uploading the video and I have used the process to upgrade my 2017 fusion iMac to boot off an external ssd NVME. My question however is, if I unmount the internal fusion drive will it remain unmounted even when I restart the machine? the reason I ask is because in the past when I have run OS off the external drives and there has been update, the OS update installed to the internal drive rather than the external drive causing me a lot of hassle. Want to prevent that from happening. Thanks
Totally bypassed the fact that you have to change your boot up security settings first before you can even think about booting to an external source
Do you know how to do this? I’ve been looking everywhere
@@mitchellwittmann1883 boot to Recovery mode & select 'Utilities' at the top menu. There should be a 'Start up Security' option. from there, you can change the boot up security to allow for an external OS to run.
And if youre using a m1 laptop, the external drive has to use a Thunderbolt 3 or USB 4 connection. It wont boot from a usb-c 3.1 connection
I didn't need to change any security settings. It just worked. M1 Macs work fine booting from external USB-C 3.0 and 3.1 drives since the release of 11.4. There were issues with earlier versions of Big Sur but they've been fixed.
Is there a drive you could recommend that you know to work?
what happens if you clap down the macbook to standbye that you've booted from an external SSD? Will it just go to sleep mode?
Hmmm just tried this with T7 drive, installed and tried to boot from it and won’t boot. Im perplexed, followed video. Going to try it again. Hmmmm sertting owner and copying details from internal drive unchecked this time, that might have been what threw things off.
Hey there! What happens if I format the old Mac HD disk after changing my booting disk to an external one?
hh, someone needs to design a nice case, that can clamp under the macbook and hook up elegant via usb c without adding to much thickness and width. Than you can insert loads of stuff, like sd card, normal usb, maybe even a custom magsafe, 2,5" ssds, nvme pci-e ssds, a coolingfan for the air, more energy storage. Whatever you need. This could get handy, if the internal ssd might die and you don't need to open up your mac, okay maybe you need to remove the bottom cover to screw in the new one but exept that :D
Thanks for the video. I have no idea why Apple would make the internal ssd a soldered drive, because what happens if the ssd internal goes bad. Then its a big problem to desolder it and then solder a new one in. They should have used internal m.2, but no. Im going to use the OWC Explore 1M2 for a 3100 MB/s speed.
I have a enclouse of Acasis and a Nvme of 1tb WD SN850X . In the meter i got speeds of 2800 too.
But using just as external extorage my enclouse gets very hot sometimes. I'm afraid ofthermal throttling .
Question please! I am trying to do this with a Mac Mini M2 but do not seem to be able to boot after following all steps. Any suggestions please?
Thank You,
If there was a swap memory it will be swapped on the external SSD? or still on the internal?
Swapping is to the boot drive, so if you boot from an external SSD the swap file will be there.
I get this error, when trying to boot it from the external disk: An error occurred while setting “MacOS” as the startup disk: The operation couldn’t be completed. (SDErrorDomain error 108.)
Is it possible to attach a separate dedicated line to the OS on the external SSD? Thanks.
That procedure would be the same for a Mac mini M1? Cheers....
Great video. However, I would like to know if there is a way I can clone my m1 Mac drive to an external thunder bolt drive?
This was very helpful thanks man!
Does the Wallet & macOS update works for you on extrnal drive?
Got a new mac studio with 500 GB hard drive. Crashing a lot because of GB intensive apps and having lots of apps open at the same time, which is needed. Would it resolve my crashing problem if I were to run only the OS from the internal drive and everything else from an external? And if so, can you tell me how designate the external drive as the default for everything else?
Hi, when you say crashing, do you mean literally spontaneous kernel panics and shutdowns, or are you seeing a message saying "Your Mac has run out of application memory"?
A Mac should never crash just because of memory intensive apps. You can expect a warning message as your internal SSD reaches capacity, and you'll see a message if your Mac runs out of RAM which will ask you to close apps, but it should never just crash. Random shutdowns or crashes sound more like a hardware issue. I sincerely doubt that moving your data to an external drive would have any effect in reducing or eliminating crashes. As a general rule, you should aim to keep about 20% of your internal drive free (so, in your case that would be 100GB) as it helps with wear leveling.
As for forcing your Mac to use external storage for everything except the OS, there isn't a system-wide setting for that. It's up to each individual application. For example, in Final Cut Pro, you go to Libraries, Properties, then Storage Locations, and choose where you want render files and caches to be stored. In Lightroom, you store your library on the external drive and set the cache location to the external drive under the performance tab in preferences.
If you're experiencing regular crashes on a new Mac that's still under warranty, you should contact Apple. I've had random kernel panics on two occasions with brand new Macs and on both occasions it was a hardware issue that required a new logic board under warranty.
Hi, thanks for the video. Can the external disc boot any Apple silicone Mac?
can u boot with windows 10 instead?
No windows 10 is incompatible with M1 processor
Thank you for video! It was very helpful. I am using ssd as external boot drive also took second ssd (smaller size) and using it as external drive for music. However, when mac starts it goes to question mark page. When i unplug second ssd which is used for music then mac starts with no issue. Please help
I have also same question mark issue bro ???? What to do m not getting any new setting like fresh mac os after rebooting
I've got a 2020 Mac Mini that successfully boots off my Samsung SSD. Tried the same thing with my MacBook Air M2 and get it starting to a repetitive loop with the Apple logo, restart, repeat, etc. Any ideas as to what I'm doing wrong?
I just bought this M1 Macbook air. Now im plugging my Lexar USB 32Go. But the thing is my USB can only be formatted in ExFat or other old MacOS formats like Macos extended (journaled). I tried both format and they dont work - it says "This disk doesnt use the GUID Partition Table Scheme."
Also, im curious to know after you booted with your ssd, can you see your documents that you created in your old session
I wonder if this method could still be used if the internal hard drive is damaged? , on Intel-based macs it was possible, but on Apple Silicon, I have no idea.
No, the boot firmware is on the internal SSD on M-series Macs, so they cannot boot, even from an external drive, once the internal SSD fails.
Can i just clone the internal disk to the external?
What happens if I decide to try and boot using a PC?
It won’t work
I would like to upgrade my imac 2017 towards an external ssd since the built-in hardrive cannot be replaced without removing the whole screen and opening up the whole thing. However, I do not have the budget for a 1tb ssd. Can i just use a lower capacity external ssd as a boot drive and keep using the internal hardrive as extra storage like on windows? I'm pretty new to the whole mac ecosystem.
Yes, absolutely. Even a 256 gb one will work
Thank you.
Thanks! Can I delete OS from internal drive after I've done this?
Yes, you can.
Question? 🙋♂️
What would happen if the usb disconnected (by accident) while using it. Say an idle state.
You'd lose any unsaved data and would have to restart your Mac.
Can this method use to install windows on mac book air m1 and store windows on external ssd ( 16gb 256gb) Please reply 🙂
This didn’t work the first time I tried it (on a mac mini and a Samsung T7). I got a error message shortly after starting the installation. I shut down the mac and repeated the entire process and voilà! It worked - thus proving the old adage… if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again…
M1 Mac does not allow Software Updates to be installed on an External SSD. To get the updates OS need to be installed again and again. Any solution for the issue, Thanks
Question: Can this external drive be used for a different mac? I have imac that runs and mac book that hard drive is dead. How can I make a external drive? Thanks for all your help
Yes you can use it on a different Mac.
I'm unable to create bootable external drive in m1 mac. The issue is Apple has removed external boot option in latest macos. Are you able to create boot drive in latest macos?
Do you need to format the internal drive to use it as storage and booting from the External SSD?
I can do that just when my internal drive fail? Because I think this will happen eventually in my base model .
No, the boot firmware is on the internal SSD so after the internal drive fails you can't boot any more.
@@BartechTV wow...Thanks for the info. I think I will do that in a backup SSD.
Literally a life saver!
Bro can i use windows 11 on macbook pro m1 pro using external ssd? Plz ans this? I dont wanna use any virtual machine or parrel i wanna use Windows 11 or 10 in macbook pro m1 using external ssd is that possible?
I have a Samsung Portable SSD T5 with Ubuntu 22.0.4 LTS installed and I recently got a MacBook Air with the M1 Chip. I have been trying to boot into the External SSD Drive without success, it does not even appear in the Startup disks list. However, it was working on my old MacBook Air with the Intel Chip.
Please, what do you suggest I do?
Can someone please help me here?
Thanks in advance !!!!
Hi, does it help ssd swap problem on the m1 .when i using the external ssd instead ???
If you boot from the external SSD it completely eliminates wear to the internal SSD. It's the boot drive that's used for swapping.
@@BartechTV I really appreciate your reply. Can I ask you one more question? that 's if when i using software on such external ssd, does it help ssd internal swap problem too ?
Hi, i've a managed macbook pro m1 from my company and i will use it also for me. Can i setup the bootdrive also on my normal private iMac and put it later on the macbook? I`ve no access to the app store on the company macbook to install the os...
You can create the boot drive on another Mac, but it has to have the same processor type - you can't create a boot drive for an M1 Mac on an Intel Mac or vice versa.
Can this method help to sustain the internal SSD of Mac m1?
Is the process the same if I have a USB flash disk instead of an external SSD?
Yes its just the same.
How can i restore all my info to the new drive app docs and all?
Can I encrypt the external boot drive?
hi, i tried this from a nvme drive, i bought cheap usbc enclosure from amazon and a samsung 980 pro nvme. everything installed, but i do get a fair bit of spinning beachball, and when rendering in cinema 4d it doesnt seem to be consistent speeds, i feel like theres a read write issue.. any thoughts? does a off the shelf standard samsung ssd have sufficient speed to run an os?
My imac m1 doesn't want to boot from ext. sdd, I did eveything as You,dont know what is the problem 😒
What about running windows from an external ssd?
Hello, quick question: Once I got my bootable external SSD all setup and I'm now using that SSD in place of my MacBook when ever booting, will all my Applications store new data to this same external SSD?
For Example: I'm working from the External SSD, and I moving an email from the INBOX (server) to a local folder in Apple Mail, will this email be stored on this same external SSD and not on the MacBook?
Yes, the SSD you boot from is the SSD that all your applications will use for storage. You can even unmount the internal SSD using disk utility or by dragging the icon to the trash.
@@BartechTV super, thanks
An other question:
Is it possible to backup the booted external SSD to an other external SSD, so that this second SSD would also be bootable in case the first SSD is lost?
Hello BarTech TV, I have an iMac M1, I've tried to install exactly as you described on a SSD SAMSUNG T7 1TB. The installation complete successfully, but when I powered off the iMac and restarted, the OS is loading and rebooting in loop. I've tried also with a hdd (mechanical) and have the same result, it's restarting after some seconds forever in loop. Any ideas? Thx
Interesting, I have had the same issue. M1 iMac with 500GB T7
Did you find any fix yet?
Check your MacOS version I’m running BigSur exactly like the video it wok’s in mac mini M1
@@Leopoldo-III Turns out booting from external drives is not the same on a Mac mini as on other Apple Silicon macs :/
@@TheiTE Do you mean this won't work on the M1 Mac mini? I tried this recently and couldn't get it to work. I made two attempts but both failed when trying to install Big Sur onto an external NVME Drive via TB3 enclosure. One thing I noticed was that the version of Big Sur I had on the internal drive was earlier than the external, which may have caused this not to work?....Thanks
Just a quick question. If the soldered ssd in newer macbook pro fails, then I should be able to use an external ssd to get it working right? Thanks in advance
Only on Intel-based Macs. When the SSD fails on an Apple silicon mac, it's a brick. The boot firmware is on the internal SSD so when it fails the Mac will never boot again, not even from an external drive.
how much slower is the performance when working from external SSD?
It depends on the SSD, but with a USB 3.x Gen 2 drive like the Samsung T7 it's barely noticeable. With a slower, SATA drive in an enclosure you do notice a slight slowdown.