How to Boot your M1 or M2 Mac from an External SSD

24 Comments

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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

4. Is it possible to attach a separate dedicated line to the OS on the external SSD? Thanks.

5. Thank you so much ❤❤

6. We need more creator like this. Superb and high quality production video

7. 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.

8. 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?

9. 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?

10. 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!!

11. I cloned my m1 to external. However the system doesn't allow me to run on external drive somehow.

12. 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!

13. Thank you!

14. I can do that just when my internal drive fail? Because I think this will happen eventually in my base model .

15. 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 .

16. Any one know if this works for Ventura and M2 chip. I couldn’t get mines to work as boot but I got the OS on my SSD.

17. M not getting like fresh mac setting option after restarting mac couple of times , its only came to original mac os the old one

18. This is amazing my dude, thank you so much for such an organized video.
    For some reason, I thought this was impossible

19. Any idea if this can be done on one MacBook and then the external drive transferred to another MacBook who’s password is not known? I want to know if I can repurpose a password locked mbpro that would other wise become e waste 🙁

20. 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.)

21. Works this also with Windows on Mac M1?

22. ty😉

23. What was the reason for choosing Owner at 02:26 ?? Does it affect any settings in the new operating system??

24. It will works with Monterey M1 pro?