How to Install OSX on External SSD USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt

In this Video im going to share How to Install OSX on a External SSD over USB 3.0 or Thunderbolt on the StoreJet 500
Transcend StoreJet 500 Thunderbolt SSD Prices & Availability:
US: goo.gl/U3mqsh
EU: goo.gl/4xfctq
I will use two different approaches, one will be a clean install of OSX on our external SSD and the other will be cloning the internal hard drive to the external USB or Thunderbolt Drive.
On my opinion the cloning process is much more effective as we will have our system ready in about one hour with all our apps installed.
Hope that the video is helpful
All the Best
RJ

[@pasqmarabella9154]

Hi Roberto. Thank you so much! I just bought my 21.5 4K IMAC. I picked up a WD MYPASSPORT 512 SSD. I got home, set up the computer. I called Apple Support and they walked me through it. Because of watching this video, I did this from the start and didn't need to clone the sloooooow 5400RPM. Mojave works great and it's super fast even for an 3 GHz Intel Core i5 quad core, 8 GB 2400 MHz DDR4, Radeon Pro 555 2 GB. FYI: B&H Photo had the computer for 1099, which Best Buy price matched. The SSD was $100. I am indebted to you, sir! Thank you so very much! Best Buy's price for just the computer was $1,299!

[@anadikrishnanarayana109]

Excellent guide! Helped me a lot! Now my late 2013 iMac is blazing fast! Thanks a lot brada for the video!

[@rodtompkins]

Roberto! Thank you so much for this tutorial. I have exactly the same iMac shown in your video, and I have been miserable with it for a long time. I went out right after watching it to get a Samsung T5 SSD and followed your steps for cloning and setting the T5 as the Startup Disk. Even more amazing than the speedier startup is how much faster every app launches. Apple Mail was taking 1-2 minutes to launch and be responsive. Now it loaded and all 6 accounts ready in under 5 seconds. The difference is startling! Large projects in GarageBand and iMovie open quickly with no spinning beach ball in sight. THANK YOU!

[@bertitolino]

You also have your Mac OS running on an external SSD? I want to do this for a friend, he has an iMac 2012 which has become very slow and with some curruptions...

[@KIIJJY6969]

this really saved me, i use windows so have no real idea how to do this crap and all the problems it entails, but after 5 hours this was the ONLY way I could get the mac i was working on to be able to see the HDD, before the install osx it would not recognise it was installed in the computer, thank you so much

[@Jayspale]

Big thank you. This worked SO well for our iMac.

[@beanlounge]

Like your videos dude, very informative and friendly. Thanks and keep up the good work.

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+Rodrigo Vega Hey Rodrigo!! :) Thanks for the feedback!! All the Best RJ

[@patrickvermeer2079]

Very easy to follow. Great help. Tnx for sharing RJ

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

👍👍

[@benpark3679]

That s brilliant Roberto! Thank you!!!

[@FlorisKuck]

Helped me out again! You make such a good video's keep going on!

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

😀 Thanks for the feedback!! Hehe All the best RJ 😀

[@agood100]

Thank you Roberto. Very helpful after watching a number of your videos on switching over to a SSD on my 2012 iMac. Ordered the 850 EVO from Amazon with the USB 3.0 case. (Thunderbolt will have to wait because of cost.) Can't wait to switch over thanks to you and your very informative instructions. Much appreciated!

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+VideoGuy1001 Hey and thanks for the feedback!! Im glad it was useful :) Enjoy your new speeds hehe!! All the Best RJ

[@KeithTreason]

Any issues? I reformatted the SSD drive with APFS and it's not showing up.

[@citizenbfk]

Nice and simple and clear. Thanks.

[@steevegirard]

Thanks it’s really clear I want to know, if you want to clone from original to an external Both disk have to be same size or ssd can be larger than the original?

[@11dremoss]

Great tutorial! Thank you kindly 🤘🏾

[@petec1981]

Wow. Thanks to you and this video i am now getting speeds of over 400MB/s read AND write on my iMac! The crappy 5200rpm internal HDD is so lame that I was contemplating buying a Windows PC...but I use FCPX...so was desperate for a faster hard drive. I have a 480GB SSD and a Caddy from Ebuyer in the uk, it cost me total

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+petec1981 Hey Pete Hehe!! Thats great news! Glad it was useful and that now you are enjoying nice speeds. Its crazy that in 2016 we still have premium machines with 5400rpm Enjoy it :) RJ

[@sumitavasmriti]

Hi Roberto, Thanks for you awosme review, one quick question for you! Can I use the T5 SSD to Boot the Mac Os? I am also using Late 2015 iMac which is pretty slow over 1TB SATA HDD.

[@Seva98a]

My iMac is like new! I was so hopeless with finder taking 1 minute to start, now it is instant. Thanks a lot :)

[@kameronronald1310]

Pro tip: you can watch movies on KaldroStream. Me and my gf have been using them for watching lots of of movies these days.

[@cooperjacob4548]

@Kameron Ronald yea, have been watching on KaldroStream for months myself :D

[@isaiahdante7362]

@Kameron Ronald Yea, been watching on kaldroStream for years myself :)

[@damianpreston3389]

@Kameron Ronald Definitely, I've been watching on Kaldrostream for years myself :)

[@cruzmoreira]

Thanks for the video. Quick question! Now that i have installed it in my laptop, do i have to always connect it when i'm using my computer, or can i just connect when i need speed? Another thing is the thunderbolt cable, do i use it only for speed, or it doesn't matter witch one i use? I used the clone installation.

[@YourIncomeAdvisor]

Thank you very much for the video!

[@tonnihou7755]

Thanks for your useful video, bro ;-)

[@szegedi.istvan_]

This video is helped me a lot. Thank you very much. Like it :)

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+MrSzesze15 Thanks you for the feedback!! :) RJ

[@marusmedia]

Hello Roberto, Thanks for the video! Great move! Question: For a first time, I have a question mark to my screen and I have a new keyboard (model 1314 withAA batteries), how is the procedure for paring this keyboard with this Mac Mini? I wanna boot and I don’t know how ?! Thanks for your feedback!

[@mismailhameed]

Hi, Very good and simple video. Thanks. My suggestion would be to split the video into at least two: one for the clean install, and another for the clone, to keep the tutorials short. But very good and clear. All the best!

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+M Ismail Hameed Hey Ismail, thanks for the feedback!! I did think about that and would be better for me in terms of views but i preferred to keep everything in 1 place so that people didnt need to watch 2 videos hehe!! :) Thanks again All the Best RJ

[@viva7642]

Excellent! Thank you.

[@Uniquecapture]

Thank you for this very clear tutorial. I have followed it and now I can't believe how fast my iMac is running compared to before. One question, when i try to set the extrenal SSD as my standard boot drive it does not appear in the list, is there anything I can do to address this?

[@munoz.alvaro1]

Hi Roberto, do you think is a good idea to reformat the internal disk to use for storage after copying all apps and files to the external drive? I have installed the OS on the external and It is working perfectly. Thank you for your video, it was very helpful!

[@downloadvideotemplates]

Hey Robert, do you have to reformat the Transcend StoreJet 500 before you fresh install the OSX? Or is it OSX ready?

[@ourlittlebigadventures1548]

HI :) Thanks for this video ! I try to upgrade my iMac to SSD drive but any shop in my town or apple store don't wan't to do that for me ;/ I find yours video and this will be best option for me. I just thinking if i use thunderbolt, are the speed will be same or close to the speed if i install SSD inside iMac? And if i use samsung evo 850 via USB the speed will be much slower than by thunderbolt with StoreJet500 ? what will be the best option to get the better performance ? i will be grateful for help :)

[@NowyKurs]

Would this benefit 4K editing, and can I use both drives at the same time?

[@artincorona]

Good info even 4 years later. I can't believe the Thunderbolt SSD drive you have in your description is $285 for 1 TB even 4 years later. However the USB 3 SSD'sv can be had for just over $115

[@malcytull]

Hello Roberto, my hard disc has some corruption which the first aid doesn't repair, if I cloned my hard drive to an SSD will it also clone the problems. Thank you for a good informative video.

[@plumbgray]

Great thank you

[@jeff5494]

Hi Roberto, great videos thank you! I have installed OSX on the StoreJet 500 and it seems to have worked fine. I have restarted and booted from the StoreJet drive but I still see the StoreJet 500 drive on the desktop. From your video that's not supposed to be there. Could there be anything wrong with my installation? Thank you!

[@bertitolino]

Hello Jorge. Doe the external SSD need extra power adapter when connected to thunderbolt?

[@dbo514]

Hey RJ where did you get the little stand for your Transcend SSD?

[@ralphpritchard5224]

Hi Roberto, great video, very clear explanation - quick question though, sorry if it seems obvious: I have a 2011 iMac running Yosemite and I'm looking to do exactly this with it and a storejet500. When I hit reinstall in recovery mode will it install Yosemite or will it try and reinstall El Capitan? I notice this video was made before EC was available and I don't want to install it as it's not yet fully compatible with Premiere Pro. Thanks!

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+Ralph Pritchard Hey Ralph, thanks for the feedback!! Regarding your question the best suggestion i believe that is: Go to the App store, download Yosemite from the list, create a USB bootable Yosemite installation, re boot your system (recovery mode), go to disk utility and erase everything, reboot again (boot menu) and install Yosemite. Then just clone Yosemite to the SSD and bam :) I would also suggest to creat a backup with Time Machine to a HDD so that when you finish your installation you may transfer all your stuff back!! And that is it. :) Hope it helps. RJ

[@Ptgriffin2003]

Thanks for the tutorial. But I have a weird question. What happens if we eject the disk while booting?

[@Polotm1]

Hey Jorge, first of all, great job with your channel it si truly helpful. I have a couple of questions. I've seen your comparison of SSD USB vs Thunderbolt and i have some questions 1. I'm trying to use windows 10 on parallels (not Bootcamp) for gaming mainly. What SSD would you recommend. or the specifications at leat (RPMs, size, etc.) 2. If I clone my Information from my HDD, so you recommend that all my apps are in the external SSD and the Information of those apps keep them in the HDD? i.e. iTunes installed in my SSD and the music per se in the HDD? Would i hace some problems With the location of the files once i try to put music on my HDD? Again great Job.

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+Daniel Trujillo Morales Hey Daniel, thanks for the feedback and im glad that you found it useful. Regarding your questions. 1- For parallels you dont need a Thunderbolt SSD, a USB 3.0 UASP support enclosure with any SSD will work fine as you will always be inside OSX. But gaming on Parallels, honestly Daniel that is not a good option as you will have a decrease of performance on parallels instead of using the full advantage of the hardware on bootcamp 2- My suggestion is that we clone the all system to the SSD (Everything 100%) and then just use the internal HDD for storage. If you have a 1TB internal full of data, copy to a external HDD temporarily, so that you can then delete the data from the internal leaving only the aps. Then clone to the SSD, make sure the SSD is runing fine. Format your internal HDD and copy back the data that you had on the temporary HDD with the data that you copied (music, videos etc) Hope it helps RJ

[@sriharigopal3745]

Roberto - thanks for your wonderful videos. I have a Mac Mini (2014 late) and considering either Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 external SSD. What kind of transfer speeds were you getting with Thunderbolt external SSD? I saw from your previous video that USB 3.0 External SSD gets transfer speeds of approx 200 MB/sec. Interested to see how Thunderbolt speeds compare. Thanks again

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

The Speeds are more or less the same 300-400 MB/S depending on the disk but the Thunderbolt solution like teh SToreJet 500 is faster on boot as you may have seen on my video comparison and its easier to install botcamp etc RJ 👍

[@gilesms]

Excellent video, just the information I was after. What make and model is your chair? it looks good

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+Dresden_omicron Hey Dresden, thanks for the feedback!! The chair its a unbranded chair, i had to buy it locally. I was searching online as i do with most of the things that i buy bur regarding chairs either sellers would not ship to Portugal or the shipping cost was higher than the chair it self. Im happy with it, costs about 120€, comfortable and i spend a lot of time there :) All the Best RJ

[@JoelRivera3]

Great help. Gracias

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

👍

[@lunnaris474]

Hey, quick question, after managing to do all of this, which I have, can I delete the library, system files and apps from the internal HDD? I just want to use it as storage, I’ll keep the rest in my external SSD.

[@rolandcheramie4522]

Robeto, concerning my comment and question from over a month ago about the decrease in write speed after using the Samsung external SSD since May, 2015, do you feel that not having TRIM support on USB could affect it that much? Or could it be only having about 45 GB out of 512 GB? Any thoughts?

[@Nore613]

Hi Roberto . So doing this does it mean now EVERYTHING on your iMac runs off of the external? All your apps like iMovie etc will run off the external now right ? also let’s say I download a movie how do I choose what drive it goes to (internal fusion or external ssd)? I download a lot of movies and wouldn’t want them filling up my external ssd , basically asking if there a way to choose what drive everything you download goes to

[@inspir.edmusic]

Thanks for the video. My question is, let's say you do a clean install of OSX on you're external SSD and are now using it as your boot drive. There are going to be some applications that I want to move over to my new drive from the old HD. Is it easy to move files like applications over to the new drive or do you have to re-install them on the new drive from the internet? I'm mostly curious because for example, if I want to install Ableton Live 10 on my new SSD, Will I have to use up one of my two authorizations to install the application on my new drive? Thanks to anyone who might have some info for me.

[@krmitbug]

Hi Roberto.... Just watched your video about using an external SSD as the boot drive for an imac.... I have a 2012 mid year imac that i would like to try this on.... Reviewing the "clean" install process, I noticed that when you chose "recovery"... it gave the option of choosing what appeared to be a "time machine" backup.... rather than cloning is that an option... or do you have to to do a clean install first and then a recovery of a time machine backup to create a full duplicate of the original drive....? Any concerns about El Capitan?

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hey Bob, the best way is to do a clone. A TM backup should be made before any procedure just for precaution, its never too much to have backups :) RJ 👍

[@elliottbolton7929]

Will a clean install wipe all the data on the external hard drive? I’ve taken the hard drive out of my old MacBook Pro (late 2008 model) and want to connect it to my new MacBook Pro as I’ve got loads of music on it I want to get back. Do you have any tips or tricks? Thank you

[@malikdhadhalinux]

I have a mac mini 2014 with a 500GB mechanical hard drive and 4GB ram. It just sits on my desk. Rather than replacing the hard-drive this seems to be more appealing and far more easier...! Would you recommend this process. At the moment i get less than 100mb/s read and write speed speeds from the HDD.... will it provide me with significant speed.... I'm a teacher and i need to run, applications such as MS word, excel and powerpoint simultaneously..And sometimes a little bit of Lightroom...

[@pbagirov]

Wonderful videos. Thanks a lot Roberto! I have exactly the same iMac and HDD has been a nightmare comparing to my Macbook Air 11 with SSD on board. I ordered the transcend storejet 500 Thunderbolt SSD and will try to follow your video again to clone the system on a new ssd drive. My only question is the following. What happens if someone accidentally removes the thunderbolt cable while I am working on my iMac booted from this SSD drive. Will system experience severe crash with unforeseen consequences or we can simply restart the iMac and everything will come back on? thanks a lot once again!

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+Parviz Bagirov Hi Parviz, thanks and im glad you have enjoyed it and you are following the same path as i am :) Regarding disconnecting the Drive humm!! I did not test it and i will not test it to be honest. The best advise i can give is to get a shelve for the back of the Imac or the cheaper way a rubber band that you can place your SSD securely at the back so eliminating the risk of a accidental unplug. Just guessing, it would be a immediate crash as the boot drive is gonne. And in OSX i believe that once you restart everything will be fine, but windows is more sensitive to this type of situation so that can probably cause file system corruption and the Win installation to be broken, not mentioning that we can also damage the drive it self. better safe than sorry, get a way that its impossible to remove accidentally as i have and you will be fine. All the Best. RJ

[@jayson9835]

Awesome video... any ssd hard drive recommend? is the system works stable, while boot on the external? external ssd or external flash drive booting which 1 is better? was plan to have something like this on my iMac XD

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hey Jay, to me the best is the Transcend tha i used on this video. And yes totally stable like a internal ssd 👍

[@newplbob]

Hi Roberto. I cloned my Mac to my new Samsung X5. Super fast! Everything works perfectly. A couple of questions, since I'm not especially savvy at these kinds of things. When I first formatted the X5, I created a partition: 750GB abd 250GB. I used the 750GB for cloning and still have about 75GB left on that portion of the drive. I don't really know why I created the two separate partitions. Does it make sense to remove the 250GB and just use the entire SDD as I was using my old MAC HDD? If so, can that be done without completely starting from scratch? Also, just confirming now that the X5 works as a boot disk and for apps, etc., I assume I'm safe in erasing the MAC HDD and using that 1TB as storage for photos, etc. Thanks again for your videos and I hope my questions are clear!

[@karlostjuroukei1802]

Is there any reason besides just convenience that I’d want to have an external installation as apposed to internal?

[@vtanzi]

What do you recommend if my Mac does not let me boot from the External HD?

[@eatshootdrive]

Hey Roberto, Thank you for the video and apologies for the latness to the party here... Just done this installation from carbon copy cloner. When I have restarted and booted from the new ssd. I get the icons in the top left. One which seems to have the applications in etc... and theres another one that has 'data' on the end of the name with nothing in. I know Mac does on its system, just wondering if Ive gone wrong somewhere as you said that the icons have disappeared since its now using the ssd as the boot drive... Any thoughts/ help would be appreciated. Cheers.

[@juanraamirez-qy9mx]

nice video

[@RAT12345678]

Hi Roberto, its about 8 years now since you helped me with installing OSX on my Transcend StoreJet 500 Thunderbolt Ext SSD. It still works great together with my 2012 Imac, but lately I'm thinking what will happen if my Transcend StoreJet 500 will die on me suddenly ;-) So I 'm thinking of buying a new External Thunderbolt SSD and install OSX on it as a start up disk as a replacement if the old SSD will stop working. The Transcend StoreJet 500 Thunderbolt is great, but I guess there will be better ones nowadays, and I want to buy a 1TB version this time. Can you recommend a good Ext Thunderbolt SSD in a nice case like the Transcend one to buy this time? Thanx in advance for your help ;-)

[@SamRommer]

Thank you so much, my machine runs so much faster now! One question, will I need to reconfigure my time machine to Backup the new drive or will it just carry on as normal?

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hey Sam, yes you will need to reconfigure as its configured for another drive, although its a clone it will see as a different disk 👍

[@cliffordWinder]

I’m currently using Catalina. Is there a way to set up a startup option? I like to be able to choose between Catalina and Mohave upon startup.

[@SuperFredAZ]

Nice presentation. Thanks

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

😀

[@harshsuniltrivedi8284]

What if i already have the .dmg of the os x ????i dont want to download the whole 5.xx gbs as i already hve the dmg with me

[@tyler6953]

So if i do the clean version will everything just be running through the external hard drive then once that is full it will start filling up the internal one on your actual computer?

[@MaxGoddur]

Will this procedure work with external SSD connected to Firewire 800 port on the Imac?

[@youngdopy9239]

Hey Jorge nice videos helps a lot thank you so much . I have a question so my nephew erased my MacBook Pro 2015 when I turn it on it shows a flashing file (? ) I made a bootable OS X USB but didn't work you think if I open my MacBook Pro take out the flash ssd 250g and install the OS X on my iMac then put the flash ssd back on my MacBook Pro you think it'll load ?

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hey Dopy, thanks for the feedback! I would not open it before trying to install it from the web. Check out this guide for a more comprehensive answer www.idownloadblog.com/2016/02/24/how-to-start-mac-recovery-mode/ Hope you get it working soon RJ 👍

[@rbraithwaite1995]

I have a question about using an external SSD with the new Mac Mini 2014. I would like to have quickness with the photo app. Is it necessary for me to have all my photos stored on the external SSD in order to make this program fast or is it good enough to just have the photo app installed on external SSD with the photos on the internall spinning drive? Also?,Which SSD do you recommend and is a usb dock necessary?

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hey Randy, i use the SSD for the OS and aps and for my photos / videos library mechanical hard drives and works just fine 😊

[@jewelbrendaguia]

Hi, Roberto. Thanks for the video. By following your instructions, I was able to speed up my iMac. I have a question. When I use my external SSD as the startup,​ it still appears on the desktop. In your video, it disappears after you boot from it. How do I take it off my desktop?

[@Amir-I-]

+1

[@BobPoznanovich]

I installed everything as directed on my 2013 iMac and using the inateck adapter with 1GB Samsung 850 EVO and my read and write speeds are under 100. The external SSD was created with Copy Cloner as directed and boots fine-- just horribly slow. Thoughts?

[@fd7181]

Hi Roberto Jorge ! Awesome video, although I have a question. I recently purchased a Samsung t5 SSD 500Gb and want to do the same as you did here, the thing is that the connection will be 3.0 and what you did was on a Thunderbolt, so, what can I expect from the overall speed ? Will it run great ? Thank you for answering !!!

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hi Felipe, i did a series of videos around the subject here is one that talks about the sppeds kzbin.info/www/bejne/n4CUo2RumaaLaKc but more or less the same except that thunderbolt bus wakens faster than USB so for boot thunderbolt will be always faster 👍

[@rodtompkins]

Filipe, did you go ahead with this? I bought the same SSD as you and did this process last night. The difference is incredible. I love my iMac again!

[@T.I.Ministry]

Hi please can you tell me if i can do this using the following components on my imac. Much appreciated. Transcend SSD 370S 250Gb but i would like to put it in the following casing as this is all I can find where i live. Transcend Storejet 2.5 USB 3.0 enclosure which supports UASP. Will this work. Thank you for your videos :))

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+SeekingTruth In Torah Hi, so far on all my tests i could not get windows over usb. And even when i did after 1 or 2 boots the files became corrupted and the OS gone so the only way that i could get it workin 100% was on the StoreJet 500 over thunderbolt :) RJ

[@T.I.Ministry]

+Roberto Jorge (Tech Reviews) so i cant boot osx on these like u did on another video using a samsung evo ssd and the inatex usab casing. i wanna be able to boot osx from ssd and wanted to know if the transcend 370s in a usab casing they make over usb3.0 will boot osx. thank you

[@rodtompkins]

Roberto, I'm using a Samsung T5 as a startup drive for quite a while. Every so often when I do a restart my mac boots into Recovery Mode. The Startup Disk utility sees the T5 as the only startup drive and the Disk Utility says it has no errors. Yet, the Mac will not boot fro the T5 unless I re-install MacOS on it. Then it starts working great again, for a while, until the same problem starts again. Did I do something wrong?

[@u01030]

HI RJ, thanks! I've done the cloning with Carbon, but I still can't see the SSD in Startup disk. Can you please help? I'm on Mojave 10.14.2, thanks so much!

[@Johnd3s]

Hi Robert, your videos are excellent and so helpful. Robert, I have a question regarding my set up which is a 2011 Imac (fully maxed out) I was just about to upgrade to a new internal SSD drive from Samsung (Evo 850) but have been put off with so many reported issues mainly the fan spinning constantly. Robert, I am now looking at purchasing an external Thunderbolt drive (My machine only has TB 1 not TB2) but I feel this could still be a viable option and then boot from that drive once it was completely cloned. Once cloned would all my programs work as before, ie Adobe Photoshop CC and Lightroom, would I notice a performance in overall speed? Last question, what external 1TB Thunderbolt drive would you recommend Kind Regards John.

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+John Grant Hey John, thanks for the feedback!! Regarding your situation if i were you i would not open the imac, there are a lot of factors that can make us regret, although possible not my thing :) In terms of results you may expect the same as i have on my wifes imac because it has thunderbolt 1 as well, and this video may help you to decide which way to go kzbin.info/www/bejne/n4CUo2RumaaLaKc i have all the comparison tests there Now my suggestion in terms of drive would be the StoreJet 500 Thunderbolt SSD because its a safe purchase, i have tested and still using it with great results. But could i also suggest that you probably dont need 1TB SSD. I would suggest a 256GB or 512GB SSD and then use your internal HDD to store your data. So on the SSD you have the OSX + all your aps and then on the Internal HDD you save your documents, music, photos library, movies and so on. So at the end you can have the best performance at the lowest cost possible. Hope it helps RJ

[@Johnd3s]

+John Grant Hi Robert, I am very grateful for your advice which you have kindly detailed below based on your own personal experience and that of your wife with her own Imac set up. Robert, I am really leaning towards an external option now as I must have seen at least 30 YT video's and while most say it all worked well there are a few who continue to report having issues, your suggested option of using SSD/TB drive to my 2011 Imac looks like the ideal option but I would like a lager SSD drive over 500gb as I have a 2TB HD inside of my current Imac of which 700GB is used..... is it easy to just clone ALL apps/programs that I currently have bearing in mind that I do not want to loose my LR/PS CC subscription as I do a lot of photographic work and am dependent on these programs working perfectly? Robert, what realistic speeds could I obtain using the external TB/SSD option in your opinion. My plan was to go for the samsung 850 Evo but I cannot find a suitable TB/Caddy/Case for this option do you have any links that would be more then welcome. Great channel that you have full of extremely valuable tips and information Regards John.

[@BoffDrummer666]

Is there any difference obetween this and to change an hhd to an sdd, other than don’t opening my computer?

[@baronlew]

Hope you can help: Some time ago my Imac hard drive crashed. My CD drive also crashed. I have a backup drive, but no way to get it onto a new hard drive (external). I also have the original os x install cd. Can I use another Imac, attach the external drive and somehow install the os x or restore to the external from my backup?

[@fredafeuerstein4305]

Hi Roberto, thank you very much for your videos! i have cloned my system to the ssd now, but when I compare the amounts of storage space, the ssd is using much less. The numbers differ a lot: on the ssd is 20 GB Apps - on the Hdd its 120, but there's more Storage used for photographs on the ssd than on the Hdd. How is that even possible? Do you have any Idea, what went wrong?

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+Freda Feuerstein Hi Freda, im not sure what could be wrong with the process. But my sugestion is that DONT delete anything from the original HDD until you have everything working fine. Using CC Cloner is simple but read careful the menus when choosing which type of clone you are doing and select to clone the all system. NOTE: Are you sure you are reading the values right? I mean if we go to the info on a 1TB HDD vs a 250GB SSD it will show diferent values of available free space because the drives have different capacity (Probably i did right but just making sure) Hope it helps RJ

[@karlostjuroukei1802]

If I were to get an external Thunderbolt 3 drive would I just need to change the chords to thunderbolt 2 or would I need to get a whole new drive?

[@sixto782]

Hey Roberto, I am running my iMac with Yosemite but I have Adobe CS6 most of which runs fine on Yosemite except of course for After Effects. If I installed OS Lion on an external hard drive in order to run CS6, do I need to also install my CS6 Suite on the same external drive to run it? This is all new to me so forgive me if it's a dumb question.

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hi Sixto, yes you will need to install whatever software also on the external drive to run it RJ 👍

[@Collective_Oilers]

I don't know how big a SSD I should get. Currently my iMac 2011 HD has 472GB free of 1TB... it's mainly photos and videos. Can I safely clone the entire drive onto a 500GB SSD or does the SSD need extra space? Thanks for the video - installing looks easy but I'm worried about drive space.

[@csiteru]

Hello. One Q&A. I wonna take ssd and dont know usb 3 or thunderbold. Thunderbold - expensive, but it faster. I check ssd speed - and it simular usb3. What your opinion about it?

[@marcelapinheiro2321]

Oi Roberto, estou desesperada! :x Acabei de adquirir um iMac Retina 21.5 Late 2015 pensando que estava fazendo um bom upgrade do meu MacBook Pro early 2011. E olha que eu pesquisei no geekbench e ele ta em 10° até onde eu entendi era pra ele ter uma performance legal, melhor que o meu antigo macbook, mas não é isso que estou sentindo, o iMac ta super lento, trabalho com lightroom e photoshop e tá quase impossível! E ele não permite upgrade de ram nem nada :( Pesquisando por outras soluções, achei esse vídeo seu, vc acha que fazendo esse boot em um SSD externo vai melhorar minha situação? Vc teria outra ideia para melhorar a performance dessa máquina? Obrigada

[@nathanthayan2517]

Hi Roberto, Thank you for the very informative videos - I am one of your biggest fans! Just a request - could you possibly upload a video on how I can create a backup of a partitioned disk? I have an imac and Mac book - both of which are partitioned to run OSX and Win 10. I would like to back these onto an external hard drive. Thank you!

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hi and thanks for the support. regarding that topic im not sure when i can accomplish it but its simple and my suggestion is this. 1- Get the External HDD 2- Partition the HDD in 2 Partitions (1x MacOS Journaled + 1x FAt) 3- Get CC Cloner and clone OSX to the MacOs Journaled Partition 4- Get Winclone and Clone Windows to the Fat Partition (Winclone is not free but its the best way that i know to achieve this) There are probably a few free solutions but honestly too many hours and too many problems sometime its not worth it and its just better to purchase the software and use it on all our machines Hope it helps RJ 👍

[@nathanthayan2517]

Thank you. I will try it out and keep you informed ☺

[@RAT12345678]

When I did a re-boot, I only did see my internal HD. I retried a few times…then I found this online: for systems running 10.6 or earlier, you should see only the main boot volume, unless you have multiple valid operating systems installed. At this point, you can attach external hard drives, flash drives, or optical disks that contain valid operating systems, and when recognized they should appear alongside the current boot options. I unplugged the drive, did a new re-boot, plugged in the drive again, but his doesn't work either… I know I formatted it the right way, and plugged it in the right way, cause the blue light is burning. Also my Time machine drive doesn't show up. Now what :-)

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+Marco Rat , Hey Marco on your last test you did format the drive, after that use CC Cloner and clone your system to the SSD. Your time machine is in which drive?

[@erwinyulista]

Hi, so running OSX from external ssd is it as smooth as on internal SSD? No lag, freezing, etc? Thanks

[@lesson702]

Hello Roberto, if I do all these steps and I end up with the SSD as startup drive. Can I change the internal HDD with the Sata USB connected Samsung SSD and have my macbook automatically detecting this as the only drive? So in short, after all these things I just change the HDD with the connected SSD. But I need to make sure this will work before I can proceed. Thanks in advance!

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hey Pablo, yes that is how it works and then you may use the internal for time machine etc 👍

[@Rangellalo]

Roberto, please help. I'm running Catalina on iMac and storage is almost out. I purchased two SSD external hard drives that I will be running on a HighPoint RocketStor 5212. My question is this: How can I get all three hard drives to work together? Thanks, and I do hope you respond.

[@danI43541]

Hi, if my partition is about 300gb big but only 120-150 are used, I can still take a 256gb thunderbolt SSD right? Or should I go for a bigger one so my whole partition gets cloned...

[@danI43541]

What about activating TRIM? Or is that unnecessary for newer SSDs?

[@VALIDlikeKHALID]

If I buy an external ssd and boot my Mac OS on it and have 4gb RAM in my iMac, will upgrading ram be useless? Does ssd have its own ram? Will it ignore the ram in the computer?

[@AriWeissVlogs]

is it possible to download Catalina on an external drive if I have Big Sur in my internal drive?

[@sjyank]

Ho Roberto - very useful indeed. Also have new imac with hdd. This move to SSD has increased the speed greatly. One question, I think that the fans in my imac are running a bit high since booting from external drive. I read about thermal sensor issues if you actually physically replaced the hdd, but assume this would not be the case if using external. Any ideas?

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+Steven Y Hey Steve, thanks for the feedback!! This is a great way of having better speeds when we are stuck with HDD for whatever reason :) Regarding the fans, no they should be working the same speed, when people change the internal drive if the thermal sensor is not well connected the fas will work 100% load but in our case we are using external drives and so no interferense with the fans. I would suggest installing "Mac Fans Control" app and check when the fans ramp up and what app is causing that but is not the HDD as mine is working without issues. Hope it helps. RJ

[@sjyank]

+Roberto Jorge (Tech Reviews) Thanks again - seems to have resolved itself. All is running great! Really the best video on how to do this excellent upgrade!

[@MiguelVidas]

Hola Roberto. Thank you for your videos! I will be doing film editing with a late 2011 Macbook Pro. I am considering changing my internal hard drive to an SSD. Can I instead add an external SSD using my firewire and keep the original drive for added memory and to run less intensive programs? Thank you in advance!

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+Miguel Vidas Hi Miguel, you can but firewire will not help, you will have slower speeds. My suggestion is buy a hdd caddy, remove your DVD and replace it with the caddy, replace your internal HDD with a SSD and place the HDD on the Caddy that is now where the dvd was, that way you will get faster speeds from the internal and extra storage on the HDD, and the DVD just use a external USB if you ever need to use the DVD. Hope it helps RJ

[@MiguelVidas]

Thank you!

[@donthisum]

Hi RJ. Brilliant work. You've made my life easier. Now my old Mac mini late 2012 seems like a new Mac all together with this brilliant speed. However my Samsung T1 SSD on which I've cloned the OS is not shown on Startup Disk. Every time I've to press the Option key to select the SSD to boot! Do you have a solution for this. Thanks.

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hey Sumanth, thanks for the feedback and im glad that was useful 😀😀 Regarding the Startup disk you mean on the system preferences? If it does not show there that is indeed very weird and i have not experienced before or never heard of so i don't know of any solution at this moment I would suggest looking on google to see if there are similar situations and if possible share with us your findings Hope you get it fixed soon RJ

[@krmitbug]

Are you running El Capitan?

[@goncalog25]

If I do this, the OSX will run from the SSD which makes the whole process faster, but can I keep saving data and downloads on the original HD while booted in the SSD mode?

[@overstreet1990]

Roberto I'm having a issue the drive is still showing on my desktop and wifi seems to not want to pick up hotspot from iPhone '

[@rasmusroedvig]

Hi Roberto and thanks for the great tutorial. I've just installed OSX on a storejet500 and it worked like a charm. However when boot my iMac from the "power off state", the external disk doesn't turn on. To turn on the external drive I have to unplug it and plug it in again. It works but it's obviously not optimal. I wondered if you ( or anyone else ) have experienced this problem? My computer is an 27" imac from mid 2011 and the disk is connected via thunderbolt.

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hey Rasmus, thanks for the feedback!! Regarding your issue that is new to me as im not aware of anyone else having it (At least that reported to me) I have used it on a Late 2013 Imac, MBP Early 2015 and at this moment on a Mac Mini Late 2012 and it works flawlessly, boots just fine on every situation. Probably something that im not aware on the 2011 model that im not aware is provoking this Do you have any other machine that you could test just to rule out any problem on the SSD (Which i doubt its the SSD) RJ

[@KingArthur72076]

Once you swap to an SSD, does MacOS see it an a SSD or just a HHD? Do TRIMM work on the external SSD?

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

As Ssd, thunderbolt supports trim, usb doesn’t 😉

[@matteomasciarelli3396]

Hi, if i set up an SSD as my boot drive will I be able to access the data on the HDD and use my internal drive as storage? Thanks.

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hey Matteo, yes it will 👍👍

[@antlers2630]

​@@RobertoJorgeTech How do I set that up?

[@JamesPinhorn]

I have a basic question. I am doing this this weekend. Once I set it up, can I still access my apps and music etc from my original iMac? Can I just install OS X on the external ssd and then use the HD on the iMac for everything else? What’s the best way, is cloning the full iMac necessary?

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hi james, sure you can do it both ways. either clone the internal disk to a external SSD and from than on you can erase the internal to be used for storage (erase only after checking that everything is ok) or you can do a fresh install on OSX on the external and then install whatever you need or do a TM backup to import to the external your aps etc. Cloning has the advantage of having everything as you have right now but in a faster drive, so less time spent :)

[@anthonystiger]

This may be a dumb question, but with the clean installation, once you change the start up disk to be on the new SSD, will all your applications automatically be transferred over to the new SSD, or do you need to transfer them over manually?

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hey Anthony, there are no dumb questions 👍👍 With a clean install we will not have anything installed besides the OS and the aps that come with so my sugestion is always to use a 3rd disk in this case to create a TM backup so that we can then with the fresh OS install use Time machine to recover all our aps etc from the backup that we created. PS: You can just use your old internal disk to move aps and data from Old to new disk, but the best option is a TM backup transfer 👍

[@anthonystiger]

Thanks! One more question - It has been recommended to me to reinstall any apps not included in Sierra using the original installers/disc/download links/etc. Do you find that necessary, or can they be recovered fine from your time machine back up drive?

[@beniaminmilczarczyk9020]

After cloning the disc and booting OS from it can you than completely wipe the internal SSD?

[@juancamarena7750]

question, I have tons of media stored in main hard drive. If I do the cloning process, will all the media be transferred to the external ssd?

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hi Juan, it depends if the SSD has enough space for all that media

[@JamesPinhorn]

I have hit a real snag with this install. My computer basically slows to a complete halt of spinning beachballs. If I open Startup Disk and rebless the computer and tell it where the external operating system is it goes away, but I have to do this once or twice a day. It has only happened since I upgrade to High Sierra. Thoughts?

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

Hi james, sorry to hear that but there may be some changes on high sierra that we are not aware yet. Can you go back to Sierra? Do you have a backup? If yes its the best and wait a little longer so that they can fix some things that will be reported by users

[@allanpennington]

HI, I am upgrading my 11,3 mid 2010 iMac with a new internal 500Gb SSD and a new 2Tb HDD as the internal HDD has failed. It was actually a new internal Toshiba replaced by Apple under warranty but still failed after only two years. So have bought a WD HDD and a Crucial SSD. Anyway....can I do my OSX install using an external dock and then put the SSD and HDD inside the mac. I want to start with a clean install rather than cloning back my backup which is full of crap.

[@kimfain209]

Hello Roberto, Thanks for video. When I boot it is not recognizing my external SSD (Monster Thunderbolt-1T). I've tried serval times...no work. I can access it from my desktop. I have the same iMac as in the video.

[@RobertoJorgeTech]

+Kim Fain Hey Kim, that is weird. The only Thunderbolt SSD that i have tested is the StoreJet 500 that im using at this moment working 100% since day 1 and i would assume that any thunderbolt SSD would work. But cannot be sure without testing. RJ