Boot MacOS From External SSD On Your 2012 Mac mini - Tutorial
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- Опубликовано: 30 апр 2021
- Learn how to boot MacOS off an external SSD enclosure on your 2012 Mac mini to speed it up. This process will work on most older Mac Minis. If you are looking to make your Mac mini computer faster, booting off an external SSD drive is one way to do this. In this video we teach you how to boot from an external SSD making your Mac computer much faster.
If you are interested in booting MacOS off an external SSD drive then this tutorial will provide you with step-by-step directions. Most older Mac mini have a slower spinning hard drive and this process allows the Mac mini to boot from the external SSD making boot and application load times much faster.
In the video we use the following items but you can use any external SSD drive that meets the same specifications:
Inland SSD - 120 GB - amzn.to/3ebx31e
Inland SSD - 256 GB - amzn.to/3nGlylz
Inland SSD - 512 GB - amzn.to/3vrwqXo
Inland SSD - 1 TB - amzn.to/3eeGfSV
WaveLink External Enclosure - amzn.to/3eL97kx
Better Hardware Options:
Samsung Evo SSD 500 GB - amzn.to/3vAOb6B
OWC Mercury Elite Pro Enclosure - amzn.to/3nFa55Y
Thanks for watching this video on making your 2012 Mac mini faster. Please support the channel by subscribing or using one of the links above to purchase a product. A small potion of that sales goes to support the channel. 
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Viewed several Videos on this topic - your’s was my favourite - clear and precise. Got my Samsung T5 SSD up and running in no time on an IMac late 2015. Vast improvement thank you very much.
Thanks for sharing and the nice words.
This is literally the EXACT tutorial I needed. Running an old Mac Mini sometimes to drive a TV and the internal spinning drive died recently. Amazing.
Thanks for watching and good luck with everything.
Craig - reformatted the disk on another mac and all worked perfectly. Many thanks - Have a great Xmas
Glad it worked out. Merry Christmas.
Wow! This made my MacMini i7 2012 as good as my 2017 MacBook Pro! Thanks for the easy yet detailed step by step!
I'm glad it helped. Thanks for watching.
I also have a couple of 2012 Mini, and the SSD and 16B RAM made an enormous difference. It made a New Mac out of the Mini 😁.
For me, well worth the price. 256GB SSD’s are fairly inexpensive; if needed, you can use a 128GB, although this size is usually using older tech.
Exactly what I was looking for!!!! 😮🙌🏻
Thanks for watching and the feedback.
Thanks this was a good reminder for me.
Thanks for the feedback Carlton.
Very helpful! Thank you ❤
Thanks for watching and the feedback.
I just want to say thank you for this video. I did this to an older iMac several years ago and promptly forgot how I did it. Your video walked me through it step by step and after watching it yesterday, I immediately went home and setup an external boot ssd on my 2014 Mac mini. Appreciate it!
Thanks for the feedback and for watching. I hope you can sub as I make a ton of Apple Mac content. Thanks.
@@craigneidel Done.
Thnaks.
Nice video. I purchased a used 2018 Mac mini and will do this. I’m new to Mac and didn’t know the sad in this machine was only 128G. I plan on using this as an audio machine for music. Thank you.
Thanks for watching and good luck.
Thank you! I can’t wait to try it on my late 2012! I put 16GB ram in it which helped the speed a lot but not nearly enough bcuz it was so bad before the ram upgrade that it couldn’t even awaken from sleep.
Thanks for watching and good luck on the project.
Thank you Craig this is what I been looking for when I upgrade my 2013 iMac to SATA drive and Leven 1tb SSD and that will be my bootable drive
Ok, thanks for watching and good luck.
Great video. My Dad does this on his late 2015 4k imac with the fusion drive and it's dramatically faster than the built in fusion drive.
Thanks for the nice words. Yes, they can really speed up older systems for sure. I do it on 3 different systems.
I’m gonna try it
Give it a shot. Only takes an hour.
well done
Thanks Stan.
Thank you, This solution will work for me because I may need to keep Yosemite on my internal hard disk for program usage. However, it is now buggier than heck, and hard to use anything on since nothing is supported anymore.
Thanks for sharing that info and watching.
Thx amigo
Thanks
This was great, Craig! I hope you’ll consider creating another version of this video which uses Disk Utility (or perhaps a third-party utility such as Carbon Copy Cloner) to clone the original boot volume to the new external drive instead of installing a virgin OS on the new external drive. Most people would probably find that to be a better process if they plan to actually use the external as their main drive. And perhaps a video showing how to migrate apps and data or an entire /Users folder from an existing boot volume to a new one.
Thanks for watching John. For sure that might be a good future topic. I'm investigating doing this on M1 MacBooks now just to see if it's the same process.
Wow that was something different
It's something many people do in order to speed up older Macs. Thanks for watching.
Good Stuff! Nice job explaining on how to do this. Question for ya, Can you access Data from the non-booted drive?
Yes and thanks. Don't erase other drive and you can boot back into it to use apps even.. or you can access it for data if you booted into SSD. Just can't launch apps from old drive unless you boot back to it. I never erase old drive so I have option.
@@craigneidel Excellent! Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Great video thanks note you can do this with a nvme m.2 drive and a enclouser 4 times faster than the 2.5 ssd
Thanks for the tip and for watching.
Remember, the limiting factor is the USB3, so the speed of a nvme m.2 will be wasted
@@ernestgalvan9037 in theory it’s true but remember usb 3.0 RUNS at 10gbs per second meaning with an nvme u get 600 to 800 depending on the enclosure and drive you get a regular ssd would run from 250 to 400 and a regular spinning drive from 30 to 50mbs I have already confirmed this
@@DjDynamitenyc ..the theoretic transfer rate of USB 3.0 is 4.8Gbit/s, approx 600MB/s.
SATA-III theoretic transfer speed is 600MB/s, approx equal to USB3
MVME theoretic transfer speed is 3.5 GB/s, approx 5x USB3
Yes, newer USB iterations have faster speeds
MVME was engineered to run on a far faster bus than SATA or USB3.
Certified Thunderbolt 4 can run at 40Gb/s bi-directional. NVME will not saturate this bus.
(N.B. Certified TB4 requires ALL parts of the bus to be compliant, including cable length limits, else speed is reduced)
Thanks for the video Craig! Quick question, will the software applications install in the external drive now? If so, that's another reason to do this, so that not only speed is improved but also storage space.
Yes, if you boot off the external drive that is your computer basically. So all apps and programs would be installed on the external SSD. Thanks for watching Arturo.
Nice and clear. I have a question my Mac Mini HD is dead, so if I do the same as you did - take a new SSD and install Catalina on it using my other laptop, can I after that install this SSD to my Mac mini instead old har drive? Hope my question make sense. Thank you.
What is dead on Mac mini?
@@craigneidel Thank you reply. It looks like the hard drive, I tried recovery but system doesn't see the drive. So I thought I just will swap with the new SSD but not sure if it will work.
@@Klaxet it should as long as it's only hard drive. Best of luck.
This is a great video, thanks for your sharing, I have some question, if already install the OS in the external SSD, can I format the internal HDD use for a storage? If possible, could you mind teach me how to do that? Thanks a lot.
Yes you can but I recommend you keep that so you can boot back into it later. It will still show up so you can store files on that older drive but just in case you need to boot back into the original drive I say to leave that one as it was.
@@craigneidel Thanks for your reply
Hi Craig. A slightly related but tangential topic related to your video. Since it's quite simple to boot off an external SSD drive on a mac mini, is there any reason to choose the upgrade HD option when buying a new mac mini? For example, the M2 mini's just came out but the price difference between the 256 vs 512 vs 1TB options are significant. Is there any reason NOT to buy the 256gb model, then boot off a larger external SSD HD? The cost savings are significant. Thanks!
If you go with the larger built-in SSD then that is going to be quite a bit faster. But, booting off an external SSD can work fine also and is normally fast enough for most people and tasks. Some people just don't want to mess with all that so it's worth it to them to get the space or to open up the system and just replace the SSD. With the M1 and M2 you don't have that option though like the older Mac minis.
Thanks for the great video. Been trying to do this with Late 2014 Mac Mini Big Sur and no luck, keeps failing error during installation...wondering if I can revert to Catalina and give it a go.
I have not heard about people getting the error but maybe try and load Catalina or Mojave on the external SSD and then you can upgrade that once it starts working. That might work but let me know what you find and thanks for the feedback.
@@craigneidel I deleted the OS on the internal HD and it worked! Now the SSD is the only startup drive available.
Hi Craig,
First of all, big thanks for the video tutorial! I've managed to boot my 2012 Mac Mini on a Samsung T7 SSD now, with macOS Catalina. WAaaaay faster now :-)
Quick questions please...
1. When booting from the SSD, the sound output works on my Mac mini builtin speaker but not on the built-in speaker in my external Dell monitor U3821DW (which worked fine when booting from the Mac mini previously). Did you experience similar issues? any workarounds please?
2. Was hoping to run macOS Big Sur on the SSD with my Mac mini. Any thoughts? Have you tried?
Thanks again!
On that model I have not tried that but you can only run what the 2012's can be upgraded to unless you use special software to allow further upgrades. I'm not sure about the speaker issues as I have not see that but will post if I find anything on that.
Craig - Great video and have followed it carefully (using a Samsung Evo Drive) BUT download Catalina to the SSD drive as its the disk doesnt use GUID Partition Table yet on Disk Erase theres only Mac OS Extended Journaled or Case Sensitive Journaled as options (other than MS Dos Fat). How do I format the SSD drive for GUID?
I haven't seen that before but Mac os extended journaled will work fine. If there is apfs that should work too. I have used both and about the same.
@@craigneidel Craig - the problem is that it won't let me load Catalina on to the SSD and comes up with a message saying that it needs the SSD to be formatted to GUID (it wont accept MAC OS but when formatting it on the Mac there are only 4 options (two for MS) and only two for MAC Journaled. Is there a way I can format the SSD Samsung drive to GUID ?
Damn .. I got a 2tb Samsung evo internal ssd for $100 that I just installed in my 2011 Mac mini. Crazy how fast memory costs decrease. In two years I bet my same 2tb ssd will be like $50 or less. As for my upgraded 2011 mini.. it runs almost as fast as my new mini m2. Amazing difference.
Yes, the costs are very cheap now and the drives are getting faster. Back in the day it would cost an arm and a leg.
I boot from a 500Gb external SSD drive for my 2012 iMac. I'm going to be booting from a 1Tb external SSD drive for my 2019 iMac. I have to say to _anyone_ with a non-SSD HD iMac, _use an external boot drive_ Believe me, it's worth the investment (of time and money)
I do it on my 2017 imac and 2011 imac and it works great. Thanks for watching.
What about replacing the internal mechanical hd with an ssd instead of going external. Any advantage on speed going external?
Yes, that is best but you need to open it up and put it back together. Not very hard but this is easier and you can actually have multiple externals to boot from and they are like totally different Mac computers.
I have a late 2012 imac catalina and just bought a samsung T7 SSD - first issue is actually finding Catlina OS from the app store?
You should be able to get it here - apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314?mt=12
Hi there, Can I do this procces and then just format the old hard drive? I mean just use the old hard drive to storage old staff without the CATALINA system there.
Thanks🎉
Yes but I normally keep old drive the same so I can boot back to it if I want to but you can reformat if you want to use for storage
Awesome thanks.
Craig i mustve missed something very obvious.
are you using that new ssd solely as a boot drive to boot into your actual 2012 mini?
the way i watched it was you were showing that you could use either install as seperate machines. sorry im a little dense today.
Yes, if you want to boot from an external SSD it can speed up your system if you have a normal spinning drive in the system. But as long as you don't erase the original drive you can boot into either the original or the external SSD at any time and each are basically different Macs and would have different apps, and files etc.
Craig, can I create a bootable (not SSD) HDD (I don't care about speed) external drive? The reason is I want to experiment installing programs with the HDD so I don't corrupt the original SSD that's in the Mac Mini. Kinda of a pre-test of what programs work and don't work. It's just an install programs, not using the programs. Thanks!
Yes, you can use a normal spinning drive but it won't perform that great. Just don't format at APFS and as Mac Journaled. It should work but again, the performance may be bad and I have not tested performance on and external HDD.
@@craigneidel Craig, thank you for replying. You said what "not" to format the drive to, but what should I format the HDD drive to?
@@vegasvideoguy Mac os journaled
Mine is late 2014 mac mini Speedtest is 40 write and 41 read. Sucks like hell speed is like turtle slow. Then I bought a 1 TB Samsung T7 external after which my speed reached 400 and 406 write and read respectively it varies -5 +5 etc. was that an 800% increase.
Yes, booting off an external on these older systems makes a huge difference for sure.
FW800 drive enclosure makes it even faster or thunderbolt
Thanks for sharing.
So I have a question: once I have setup the new drive and boot from it, as I use the computer; will all data be saved to that new drive or to the internal one?
The new drive. That will basically have everything on it and be the computer. The other older drive can stay there and you can boot back to it if you want to later, but that would act as a totally different Mac at that point.
Hi how u doing? What is your screen resolution that ur using?
That was a while ago and I'm not sure what I was using at the time. I did connect it to the wide screen and so my guess is 2560 x 1080. The monitor was only capable of the 1080 res horizontal.
I have a Mac mini late 2012, I want to purchase an external ssd and enclosure. I have researched for 5 days and am more confused now than I was on day 1! My confusion is regarding the type of ssd to buy. Because the Mac only has FireWire 800, and Thunderbolt 1, the other connection is USB 3.0. If I buy an NVME m.2 drive and get a usb 3.2 enclosure will it work as a boot drive?
Next question, what ssd is designed for use as a boot drive?
Thunderbolt enclosures are rare and expensive by the way.
Just use the USB port if you want to boot off external SSD. Buy an enclosure and put in a Samsung SSD etc. It's fast enough using the usb port on the 2012 and will be way faster then a spinning HDD.
@@craigneidel does the type of ssd matter? Pcie, nvme, sata III, UASP with trim?
Could I use this method on a 2018 Mac mini? My ssd internal is soldered on board. Can I use external drive to boot and still get life out of my 2018
Yes, you can boot off an external ssd on that system. I have a video where I do it on a 2017 iMac on my channel also if you search for that. You would work with different OS versions, but the basic principle works the same as this video.
Hi Craig,
This is grate, Can I use this external drive as an internal drive , or the main drive to startup my dead mac mini? In another word if my mac mini has a coruppted disk, can I make an external bootable drive of of another mac mini and replace it with the non working one and getting my non working mac mini back to work? Thanks.
Yes you can works 100% note if you have another mac you can do this same process on the other mac once you finish just plug it in on your other mac once you power on just remember to press and hold the option key to boot from the ssd and your your good to go
Can you connect a usb a to usb c adapter on the 2012?
I did but the usb c was on the hard drive side since the mac mini doesn't have one.
Hi Craig, can this method be used to install a Linux distribution? Thanks.
To be honest I have not tried it. But since you don't delete your original drive you can try it and boot back if you need too. I just haven't tried doing that yet but maybe see if there is info online
Yes you can it's the same process but dual boot or even triple boot just install on the external ssd
Everything works great but my boot up time is quite long..about 4-5 mins. Once it boots up, speed is normal. Any idea on the slow boot?
I have not seen that before. Make sure you change boot drive to SSD but not sure what causes that delay.
2012 mac minis have an option to internally install a second drive. you need a special cable to plug it in the motherboard. This was no longer an option for mac minis after 2014. You'll get much better speeds that way.
Yes, I have done that a few times. But, in this video I was covering how to just boot off an external SSD if you don't want to open up the Macs and deal with the screens. The 2011s were easy but the 2012s require some skill on removing the screen (no longer just magnets) and putting it back. Thanks for the post though as it is true you can do that.
Great video. Do you think it would work on the 2020 mac m1 mini?
I may test that out in the future. I think I have seen people do this but need to confirm. It might be a good topic in the coming month or two.
Yes it does same process keep it mind to get better results with disk speeds you would like to get a thunderbolt 3 drive
How do I download the OS I am on from the App store? Nothing appears when I search catalina mac os
apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314?mt=12 - search on google and there should be places.
Hi, I have a question. Can you help me.
why I can't find APFS in disc utilities?
When I want to erase disc.
If you mac is older or you don't have an SSD it might not show up. Just use Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and it should work fine with and SSD also.
@@craigneidel thank you, I will try it.
(I have mac mini 2012)
@@championblessed2917 yes age is reason.
i got a mac moni in a garage sale without any of the logon credentials, how can I add/log-in into it without a password?
If you are locked out that could be an issue. Not sure but I would do searches on Google. If it wasn't reset I'm not sure you can do too much. Maybe try changing out the drive with a new OS install.
exactly what I'm looking for i have a late 2014 i bought off someone on eBay and it just runs soooooo slow, i was thinking ok if i buy a portable SSD can i use that as the bootable drive and not use the internal.
Yes, it will be like night and day once you do that. I have a few videos on how to do that so search my channel for boot off ssd.
@@craigneidel just got an ssd just gotta wait for it to be shipped then I’ll be doing this
@@anthonypollifrone6376 Good luck. Should be much faster.
@@craigneidel wait I’m having a problem I’m trying to DL Monterey but it won’t download as I’m getting it as new ? Keeps searching for updates instead ?
@@anthonypollifrone6376 download a earlier version then use that for external. Then upgrade. I have not tried it with Monterey only up to Catalina. I can only show people what I did but it's hard to troubleshoot individual systems . Hope that helps. There is also a ton of video on all versions on RUclips so try and look exactly issue up. Thanks
How can i import my apps from my internal drive to the external ssd boot up disk?
You can use the system migration tool in you os keep it mind you will need to re-enter all your product keys for your paid software like he said
@@DjDynamitenyc thanks for the reply, i manage to import all of it during the installation
it made an error the first try and second was a success no need to re-entering my product keys, only my adobe apps ask for product key.
@@JefreyDrummer cool
so just to confirm, it is no problem to be signed into icloud on both drives?
Both drives are treated basically as two different computers but there is a ton of other info on Google and RUclips that others have posted with more specifics before you try. Thank you.
Can I use a simple external SSD, not with the external Enclosure?
Yes, something like the Samsung works too just make sure you have a fast connection to the SSD if you are going to try and boot from it. That will be limiting factor.
@Craig Neidel thank you, I’m doing it right now
The only difference was that when it was installing on the SSD, it last 30 minutes, not 3 minutes. But it worked, thank you
i put in ssd in my 2010 mac mini it lot faster at first i was worried breaking wires because they are so small
Thanks for sharing and watching.
like
Thank you.
Hi-can I use this on more than 1 Mac mini?
I have not tried yet on Apple silicon cpus but any Intel Mac it will work on like iMacs. I'll maybe test it on silicon Macs in the future but maybe search for a video on that.
@@craigneidel I have a 2012 and a 2014 Mac mini so I wanted to use 1 SSD drive for both. Is that possible?
@@rickricky8544 I'm not sure and think it can only be used for one Mac. If I figure that out I'll let you know.
@@craigneidel
ok thanks!
Thanks.
“Install macOS Big Sur“ cannot be opened from a newer version of macOS." Any one get this notice?
I didn't but if you have more specifics I can at least provide something. I'm just showing the method in my video but you can imagine with all the different versions of MacOS and different Macs (years) it's hard to troubleshoot individual systems for people. Did you do a search for that message online? Thanks for watching the video.
when i go to the app store its says software update not install it again
I'm not sure exactly what you are asking. Thanks for watching though.
@@craigneidel i can't see the boot option once i long press the power button ✌️can't qe fixed this?
You are very good. BUT, could you use half of your words?
Yes, the issue I have is no time for the planning. I'm super busy but still put out about 400 videos in a 2 years +. With my real job I need to just go in and get the video done the best I can, but in the future I will take more time to plan things out etc. Just right now I don't have the time I need to do all that with my normal job etc.
Why not just swap out the drive for an SSD? Takes around 30 min 😊
On newer models you have to reseed seals etc. Most people don't want to do that. It's not hard but this is another option for those people. Plus you can run multiple external ssds and the are all different systems if you like that. Not for everyone but an option.
@@craigneidel changed my HDD to an SSD on my mini 2014 recently. Sure, you have to tear it apart but there are great tutorials for it and it’s not that hard. A bit frightening for some maybe. But with the newer macOS versions SSD is a must. I have run versions of macOS on external drives before for testing and as a portable Mac kind of. Like windows to go.
@@driver288 I did 2 iMacs so I have experience. I did a 2011 iMac and that was easy because it is just magnetic screen and then I did a 2014 iMac which was a little bit harder because you have to reseal the monitor. But overall, I think for some people that aren't tech savvy, it's going to be a little bit more than they can chew. Although either way if it works for you, I'm fine with it. Thanks for sharing.
At 6.19 I noticed that the SSD identified as a JMicro Media. I recently pirchased a UnionSine HDD 2.5" Portable External 500 Gb Hard Drive from AliExpress. Windows - Properties - Hardware revealed it to be a JMicro device.. At AUD18 delivered I can wear the loss if it fails as I have multiple copies of the files on it on other SSD/HDD. FAKE 1+TB SSD's I expect and advoid. But I have not heard of FAKE HDD yet. I have a 2013 iMac running off an external SSD. Magic.
Thanks for sharing.