External boot drive suggestions

[BernDog]

My dad’s M1 iMac 128GB internal drive is full. I’ve helped him clear it out once to create as much space as I could around a year ago, but he’s having problems again. I’ll spend a few minutes to see what I can do again but it probably won’t be much. He’s an advanced hobbyist photographer, so I think apps may be the straw bales on the camel’s back. All file storage is already offloaded.

What interface and what type of SSD should I be looking for to create an external boot drive? TB4? What type of SSD? Should I do an enclosure/internal ssd, or get a prepackaged deal? I also don’t want to pay for the absolute fastest if the computer can’t actually make use of all the speed.

Thanks for any advice

[special]

I though (but I could be WRONG) that you cannot boot M1-M4 machines form external drives.

I hope I am wrong.

EDIT; I found this, it is possible but not as easy as Intel

"TLDR of his answer: booting from external drive is only possible if that drive was previously authorized using login and password of Mac's internal-drive admin."

https://apple.stackexchange.com/question...rnal-drive

[RAMd®d]

Clear out the internal SSD as much as possible.

The first thing you could do is get a couple of 2.5" SSD, 2 or 4TB.

Apps can stay on the internal SSD, most files can be stored externally.

Make these external storage for all the pics, and any files that aren't accessed often.

Does he do a lot of editing, work with large files, or RAW media?

Then he might benefit from an m.2 NVME which will be faster than 2.5" SSDs.

I'd do a roll my own for that, rather than a 'portable' one.

For an NVMe enclosure, I'd probably go with 40Gbps (theoretical) USB4 or TB3 or TB4 and look for a HiPo m.2 stick.

Again, what his needs and budget will dictate the best path to follow.

As an amateur, maybe speed isn't a big deal and 10Gbps or less is adequate for his use.

I don't recall if the M1 iMac is slower with 128G of storage over 256G.

If it is slower, faster work flow might be achieved with an aforementioned HiPo stick and box.

That's what I'd do.

Although other replies my change my mind.

[sekker]

An external TB SSD will work as a bootable drive.

Our sponsor sells some.

I have not tried to make an external USB drive work, but the link from special suggests it should.

[Diana]

You can boot an M1 from an external. However, if your internal dies then there may be issues, as in won’t boot at all.

It will make use of the fastest you want to deal with. I have my Studio booting from a thunderbolt drive; one thing I have noticed, however, is that I can’t get the drive to update, even when booted from it. I haven’t tried working on it (yet) as things are okay as is.

[Robert M]

Berndog,

Multiple options but much depends on how much you want to spend on the drive. The first decision to make is capacity. Since he's outgrown 128GB, I've no doubt he'll do the same with 256GB. My minimum would be 512GB. However, if I was buying the drive, I'd spend the bucks for at least 1TB.

Since your father is an advanced hobbyist photographer, I'd also opt for speed and go for a model that has a Thunderbolt interface. Thunderbolt 3. This then goes to the question of prepackaged or DYI.

I prefer DYI drives because it gives me the option to choose the drive and the enclosure. Although I've been using NVME sticks in OWC Envoy Express enclosures with tremendous success, my preferred Thunderbolt box is the OWC Envoy Pro SX. It's a well designed, high quality beast of a box.

It is the Thunderbolt only version of this model:



Note, I was able to get it as an empty enclosure. At this point, I'm not sure which Thunderbolt enclosure is the model of choice. Dollar for dollar, the 2TB model for $20 more than the 1TB is a no-brainer. Considering it's OWC, fanless wouldn't concern me.

USB 4 is an option, too. There are a large number of them from various brands. IF you go USB 4, I'd opt for a model that includes a cooling fan. nearly all of the USB 3.x NVME enclosures I have in use have fans.

Works nicely. OWC offers a nice USB 4 box that doesn't have a fan. Again, knowing the quality and solid design of OWC models, fanless wouldn't be an issue to me at all.

This is the OWC box:



Prepackaged models are an option, too. OWC, Samsung, Crucial, Orico and others all ave them. Definitely check the speeds of the drive. Some might be Thunderbolt but still only offer the speeds of USB 3.1 Gen 2 or USB 3.2.

The Envoy Pro FX model from OWC offers wicked fast speeds. It's actually the same box I mentioned that I bought as a bare enclosure. Key difference is that it also supprts USB 4 only comes as a complete solution.

As for sticks, I really like Inland NVME sticks. I've got Inland Premium, Inland Performance and Inland Performance Plus sticks in use as boot drives for various machines. Many of the models I have from other brands are older, slower sticks. IF I were to buy another NVME stick - and I just did - I'd opt for an Inland Performance Plus.



An Inland Performance Plus in a nice Thunderbolt 3 or USB 4 enclosure will do the job nicely.

Robert

[BernDog]

I think I may have gone whole hog and done TB4 and nvme for him for his offload drive when I first helped him set this up a few years ago. Probably not necessary then, but I could probably have him get a more pedestrian drive for that purpose and use that drive as boot. I did all this research then, but I’ve since forgotten it since Macs in our home are kind of frozen in 2015 at the moment. I’ll have to check it all out and see what’s there when I make it over there next.

What kind of interface is acceptable for file storage/manipulation? If he’s running off internal or a tb4 external, what speed is “fast enough” for the drive where the files are located? A few years ago I think I thought it should be as fast as possible, but maybe not?

[Robert M]

Special,

You can definitely use an external SSD as the boot drive for an M series machine. One of my brothers does it with his Mac Studio. My other brother does it with an Mac Mini M2 and a Mac Mini M4. I just did it for a Mac Mini M4 Pro. Making it happen is a process but a pretty easy one.

I configured the M4 Pro Mini to boot off an NVME SSD in an OWC Envoy Pro SX. Changed the boot settings of the Mini, installed the OS on the external, booted into it, used Migration Assistant to move over everything from the boot drive of one of my other machines. Rebooted using option to let me select the external drive as the boot drive and it was good to go. Once booted, I made sure to adjust the Startup Disk setting to make the external the permanent boot drive.

The whole process took only a couple of hours to get the mini near 100% operational. Shockingly easy, too.

Robert

[BernDog]

Robert,

Is TB 3 fast enough for a boot drive?

[Black]

Budget? How big is the NVME drive? If it's a complete bootable backup, all this is as simple as selecting the NVME as a boot drive and getting a new drive of pretty much any type for backups (1 TB SSD and USB3 would be more than fine.) You might consider showing them how to unmount the internal so there's no confusion about where new files are stored or saved.