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

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.

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!

This was the single most beautiful tutorial I've encountered....Thank you so much for this one!!

Super useful for evading employee monitoring software installed on your work laptop without having to open it up!

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.

Awesome video! Thanks for taking time to record it. This is very helpful.

Thank you for making such a detailed, easy to understand video. You helped me so much. Thank you!

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!!

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

Thank you for this very useful tutorial.. You saved my internal ssd..

Thanks to your video I am able to use a 2TB drive as my new boot drive. More Space!!!

Brilliant and straight to the point. Thanks.

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.

Thanks for this. very informative. I will do this soon with Monteray. More power to you and your channel.

This tutorial is awesome. Thank you very much 🙏

This was very helpful thanks man!

I just subscribed! Great video!

Literally a life saver!

Amazing video, thank you!

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

Beautifully streamlined and straightforward video! Will this work for Sonama, Ventura and Montere on an M1y? Thanks!

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?

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 =(

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

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.

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

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

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..

Thank you so much ❤❤

That's great to have multiple Mac Versions or tests, now we only need the same for windows and linux.

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?

good job thank you

Thank you!

Thank you so much

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

My macOS always show "The computer is missing firmware partition " how can i solve its ??

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 .

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, thanks for the video. Can the external disc boot any Apple silicone Mac?

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

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?

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

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 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) ?

Thanks!

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?

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

Thx brother

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

Hey there! What happens if I format the old Mac HD disk after changing my booting disk to an external one?

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?

Do you need to format the internal drive to use it as storage and booting from the External SSD?

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?

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.

Ciao ho seguito la tua guida, quando ha finito l’installazione e da i due SSD per decidere quale avviare selezionando quello esterno non parte. Quale potrebbe essere il problema?

That procedure would be the same for a Mac mini M1? Cheers....

I’ve installed an external SSD (T7 Shield) on my iMac of 2017 5k 27 inch. Safari is very slow, performance is even worse than the original harddisk (Fusion). How can I fix this?

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

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?

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 !!!!

Can this method use to install windows on mac book air m1 and store windows on external ssd ( 16gb 256gb) Please reply 🙂

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

Do you think it makes sense to install OS from scratch to external drive if your 8/256 Mac (Mini) is heavily swapping? Our in this case OS performance would be compromised even if it’s installed on fast nvm drive connected over thunderbolt interface?

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?

Does the Wallet & macOS update works for you on extrnal drive?

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.

Can this method help to sustain the internal SSD of Mac m1?

I did this but software updates won't work when booting from an external drive, any solution to this?

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.)

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?

How can i restore all my info to the new drive app docs and all?

Thanks

Assuming I have two identical machines can I take the external drive to the second machine and boot from it without issue? Also if you select the external as your boot drive default and then start the machine with it unplugged does it give an error or go back to the internal as the boot drive?

I can do the same to use Windows on my Mac M1? i dont find the answer to this in any place on the internet..

ty😉

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.

I a have OSX Yosemite and Snow leopard on SSDs to run older video editing software's. Can I boot those OSX from USB with an adapter from my SSD 3.0 (formatted Extended Journal) on Mac mini M1 Big Sur or M1pro, M1 Max Monterey?

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.

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

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.

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.

Is this still valid for macOS Monterey ?

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?

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

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.

I do have a hardisk of Mac Intel machine can I boot it to Mac M1 machine

does anyone else have this error? in the software update in order to continue installation you need to be an owner

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

This was very helpful, however, unsuccessful with Mac Mini M2 on an external 2TB SSD. Any suggestions? I receive sddomain error 108.

Simplified instructions I came across. Can we use USB3 Type A External Drive ?

Is it possible to use CCC (carbon copy cloner) to create and maintain a bootable copy of your internal SSD in case it fails at some point?

What about running windows from an external ssd?

can you sleep the mac? will it be disconnected when sleep?

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

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.

Can i just clone the internal disk to the external?

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…

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...

Whats the performance like working off the T7 drive ? It should be pretty good with 10GB link.