Upgrade M4 Mac Mini to 1TB | Set Up an External SSD as Your Main Drive!

[@aslamsean]

Created a new video which Migrates from Old Mac to New Mac mini and then upgrade storage to 2TB. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nWHGiGWIjauKqdE

[@Tolbiny]

I’ve seen a few videos on this, but this is by far the clearest. Really useful, thanks very much.

[@aslamsean]

Glad to hear that feedback!

[@SCHULTZ-nt5jz]

I agree. I have had the same experience. This video has been very informative and step by step, easy to understand and follow through. Thank you.

[@jpdemer5]

The main downside to this setup is how tricky and time-consuming it is to recover from something as simple as an accidental disconnect. You want to stick the external SSD to the Mini so that they don't move relative to each other. Adhesive Velcro pads work well enough, as do those "Command" brand silicone picture mounting strips. The latter are ultimately removable, but Velcro is better if you plan on repeated removal and reattachment. Use as short a TB4 cable as you can get, and consider taping down the cable so it's less likely to get snagged.

[@marksinger5954]

This was a really good and informative video. I must say, it actually convinced me to NOT move forward with your approach. The reason is simple. The recovery time from something as low key as a faulty cable or accidental unplug was just way too much to deal with for the simple reason that you still never know if there are lurking issues that you haven't come across, or worse still, subsequent updates cause issues that can't be readily resolved. Excellent work on your part, either way! Also, not sure what access is like but I wouldn't keep sensitive data on that external drive as it isn't encrypted, as implemented in the video. Final point...enclosure plus really good 1TB SSD is $200 or so, total. Price to upgrade to 1TB native, on board is $200 extra which is good for most users. Not as much (your solution offers 1.5TB of data) but for the hassle and the fact that this could lead to issues, I'm convinced that it would be a bad idea to do this if buying new. If you are trying to extend the life of an underspec'd machine that had too small an internal SSD and don't want to spend just yet on a new computer, then this is certainly a viable stopgap solution until you're ready to buy again. Overall, I'd say always buy as big as you can afford up front. Buy once, cry once.

[@aslamsean]

@@marksinger5954 I am glad this helped you in you decision. Going with apple and paying upfront is the best and no hassle way. Yes it’s unfortunate that a simple unplug of the cable while system is running can mess up the whole profile.

[@mobolajiakinola3]

You can encrypt external drive. I found a solution online. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pqO3g56hosx2iqc

[@your_alter_ego]

256GB to 1TB upgrade is $400, not $200. Greedy money grab by the bean counter Timmy 😂

[@darrenferony9769]

This is one of the clearest and most thorough tutorials I’ve seen, instant sub great job!!!

[@aslamsean]

Glad to hear that!

[@VividTheater]

It’s sad that Apple is still charging so much for storage as if these ssd’s just made it to the market yesterday morning for the first time.😢

[@yohanag3408]

agreed, they could have just use the standard nvme slot… sad that apple is now going current path on upgrading hardware…

[@TheDanEdwards]

The only Mac that has a room for NVME slots is the very expensive Mac Pro, and people who buy that don't care. If you look on KZbin at the teardowns of the new Mac Mini you will see that there is no room for a full size or even half-length NVME stick. Indeed, the M4 Pro Mac Mini has internal storage that is quite oddly shaped (to fit physically.) Additionally, the NAND boards in these machines are not SSDs. They are just the NAND chips, as the device controller is part of the SoC. This is part of the security with modern Apple systems, and the security is why no one can write to the protected areas of the internal storage, without using the installer package.

[@sandert8901]

@@TheDanEdwards thereis no way they did that for security, they only did that so they can charge a lot of money for storage

[@ashokreddy2982]

It's actually a good idea which the youtuber I followed also told me...buy base variant instead of mid variant which costs 20000 rs more which only increase storage but not ram...we can buy a Monitor , keyboard , mouse, a type converter & a external SSD 1TB of SanDisk comes at 10k rupees...so totally we can have 1TB storage for 20k rupees along with other accessories

[@matele901]

The best tutorial on KZbin! Thank you

[@mtoscano343]

This is exactly what I did…it was a great way to maximize the value of the M4 Mac Mini…

[@aslamsean]

Glad to hear that!

[@ocean.u]

clearest vid about using ext ssd!! nice man! thanks very much! 🔥🔥🔥

[@aslamsean]

Glad you liked it!

[@DouglasDoodleDude]

Thank you Sean, this video made me a subscriber. These directions were clear and precise, I had no issue successfully adding my ext SSD like you instructed. The absolute BEST part is this fixed a long-standing issue I've had with OneDrive not allowing back up to my ext SSD since it's considered an "ejectable" drive. Setting up the drive using your instructions circumvented this issue and I can now back up my two OneDrive business accounts to my ext SSD. THANK YOU!

[@aslamsean]

That’s awesome, happy you got things working like they should!!!

[@franlinnane]

Sean, excellent video. Nobody else mentioned the problems associated with a system crash when you just yank the ssd out. I've been ejecting my old SSD for years with out a problem. It was always set us a backup storage system and I never had a problem with that, but over time my Mac got really really slow. So I was very interested in this approach. But the crash and solution part of the video scared me. My old iMac never moved off my desk. But I do anticipate taking the Mac Mini and/or my data files on the road with me. I then found another video who proposed setting up all your new Bigger apps on the SSD. You can setup apple app store to save to the SSD. And you can tell it to save only larger apps on the SSD and put smaller ones on the Mac Mini. It also showed how to set up Chrome, outlook etc, default to store download on the SSD. This seems to be a good middle ground for me . Not detracting from your video Sean. It was really good. If I hadn't watched it a few times I would never have known about the potential consequences of yanking out the SSD ....like I've been doing for the past 20 years. Video was very educational and helped me!

[@aslamsean]

Thanks! I appreciate your feedback and your experience using external drives with Mac. For sorting files and apps this will work fine after yanking the drive. But once you put the profile onto the external and yank it then it messes up the profile.

[@plotfi1]

I did booting from nvme on my M2 Macbook Pro and it worked great, but this is even better!

[@christianmahne]

Invaluable advice. Really helpful video. Bookmarked!

[@jayheha007]

THANKS SO MUCH FOR YOUR VID OH MY GOSH. WHY HAVENT MORE PEOPLE DONE STUFF LIKE THIS?

[@loekos]

thank you so much for running these tests! i've been considering the base model mac mini with an external ssd but i've been concerned about what happens if anything fails, so your clear explanation of the backup process really helps me understand how it can be managed. personally i might consider the 512gb version for applications and an external ssd for files so i can at least have the peace of mind, but it's good to know that the base model is still a fantastic deal that just needs a little more care. thanks for the video!

[@aslamsean]

I am glad you found this useful in your decision making. I think 512gb paired with 2 tb external ssd will be good for many years.

[@sanye4k]

that what i did got with 512 on costco online 80.00 off be here monday can't wait, aslo got 2tb external it be my first mac comp coming from a pc ya i know why take so long i don't know

[@aarontoalet]

What do you guys mean "in case something happens"? What are you guys worried about?

[@adamwoodworth5758]

Thank you...very interesting video. I would love to get the m4 mac mini...I used to be a computer technician...I don't use my computer these days. But it's a wonderful deal, except for the storage which you expertly solved.

[@aslamsean]

It’s a great choice!

[@yossi.shaish]

Amazing! I’ve seen some videos about that, this is by far the best. thanks

[@aslamsean]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@chandebrec5856]

I'm confused about how applications get moved to or downloaded to the external (with possible exception of a few applications as noted in the video). The /Applications folder is not in the home folder; it's at the top level of the storage device. I note that at 4:26 where you select everything to copy, Applications is not in the list. What am I missing?

[@anandpianolover]

What about installing audio vsts on external drive?

[@victorchoi1318]

This is gold. You made me order m4 rn

[@aslamsean]

Haha hope you enjoy your m4!

[@areiorum]

I have an SSD that gives me around 800mbs read and write speeds, is it enough to run as the main drive of my new m4 mac mini or do I need the ones above 2000 mbs?

[@lucasbeier]

Hey! Thanks for the video. I did a very similar approach: 1) Setup the Mac mini with the admin utility account 1.1) Don't log into iCloud 2) Once the setup is done, login into admin utility account 2.1) Connect the external drive 2.2) Create the new admin user (the one I will use daily, in your video the "mini" account) 2.3) On the users and accounts setting, set that user home folder to that external directory. 2.4) Copy files from the /User/ folder to the external drive 3) Restart 4) Login to my new user 5) Setup iCloud as usual Still, there is something weird. When in the user account (mini in the video), if I go to App Store and install an app, then open finder, click on the Applications on the side bar on the left, and then try to remove the app I just installed (either by moving to trash or via Cmd+Opt+Del), I'm prompted to add my password and then to confirm, but I get the following error: "The operation can’t be completed because some items had to be skipped. For each item, choose File > Get Info, make sure “Locked” is deselected, and then check the Sharing & Permissions section. When you are sure the items are unlocked and not designated as Read Only or No Access, try again." Removing the app via terminal with "sudo rm -rf /Applications/.app" works. It works via Finder when using the Admin utility account too. Other users in Reddit had the same issue. Wondering if you also do. BTW, I tried many different ways of setting up the accounts, and it didn't make any difference. I've got the error on all attempts. Wondering if you could test installing an app via App Store when logged in with mini account and then trying to remove it via the UI (ie, Finder > Applications on left sidebar).

[@MrMikebae]

Same issue for me

[@p-fx7gx]

I’ve heard that apps still install in the “native” Applications folder but you can create aliases for them in the corresponding external folder. If I remember correctly, the guy only created the external folder but did not copy its contents - so it ends up carrying aliases for everything that’s in the native folder. I haven’t tried it (don’t have my Mac Mini yet) but it makes sense

[@youzbee]

Did you ever find a solution to this? Getting this same error.

[@lucasbeier]

@@youzbee No solution so far.

[@PaulPo81]

Crazy stuff bro ❤

[@icecaper]

Many thanks Sean, my Mini is now set up…

[@INBRO-VIDEO]

For over a year I have been running my M2 basic mini from a 1 TB Crucial SSD in a USB 3.0 enclosure (total cost £60). However my method is simpler. When I got the mini I set up everything on it normally to try it out and then plugged in the Crucial and installed Sonoma and all my apps on it. I therefore had a dual-boot mini but found that even though the Crucial was only a fifth the speed of the internal, the whole lot was under 4% slower at rendering and exporting video from FCP and Resolve . . . which is negligible. The speed of the drive is of little importance. I have since bought a Thunderbolt NVMe to run the mini and although it is marginally faster the jury is still out on whether it's worth it. I believe that doing this may stop you using Apple Intelligence but that's no big deal and if you need it you can always boot into the mini's SSD which takes less than a minute.

[@aslamsean]

Thanks for sharing your experience

[@illwillbeats3566]

You run into issues of not being able to use some software as they are unable to run on an external. My issue is UAD Apollo, I cannot use it with an external.

[@glrfi4eva]

Great content, 100pc valuable and covered everything in was thinking of figuring out

[@aslamsean]

thanks! appreciate it!

[@philipmatthew5209]

you are legend

[@lolo2lolo491]

What a great video and tutorial man :D your calm voice and pedagogical method and presentation just make it a joy to listen to u, keep watching the video and learn from you :D u need to do tutorials and youtube on full time! just sub btw :D i just wanna learn from you programming and anything tech related after just watching this video :D

[@aslamsean]

Thanks a ton! I appreciate and value your feedback!

[@ViralVayo]

Love it 😊

[@aslamsean]

Thanks 😁

[@justgivemethetruth]

You can do that, but then you have an internal drive that is superfluous that you paid for and that in almost all cases of much faster. Best thing to do in my opinion - and of course I could be wrong so I am open to any opposing information is to install the OS on the very fast internal drive, and use the external drive as your home & data dir.

[@eriklarson3678]

Best video on web for this awesome job !!!

[@JudgeFredd]

Nice hints

[@tptwk]

Thank you for the tutorial. I would like to try tis on my new M4. What about my large Photos library and all my Apple music. I currently have them on external drives and a Macbook. It is not easy moving those files around thanks to Apple. Can those reside on the external main drive? Can you do a video on migrating those photos and music files?

[@GeoffArmstrong1]

Couldn't you have just used the Migration Assistant to restore both the internal and external drives from the time machine backup as a single action and skip the whole "manual file copy from time machine" step? Or does the reset option only deal with the internal/boot drive?

[@FancyPlants]

Apple intelligence and many other features are not available when you start up from an external hard drive which you note. There’s a couple of other videos floating around that explain what Apple has prevented if you start up from another type of hard drive besides the built-in one. Sucks. Thanks for this video!

[@mahfuzalam9621]

Monitor model please ?

[@aslamsean]

It’s not a monitor it’s a 55 inch hisene 4k tv model u6 It’s on a good deal at $347 amzn.to/3Zt5f0f

[@rossdonald594]

Well done Sean....... that was quite an operation!! As a matter of interest, what's the performance difference, 1. running your system from the external ssd vs original setup?........ and 2. if you left your system on the internal drive and were just accessing your project from an external ssd, such as a Logic Pro song with a large arrangement? The second option is what I'd be more likely to use.

[@aslamsean]

When using the Crucial T1 Pro, it performs smoothly overall but is noticeably slower compared to an internal SSD. However, when paired with the OWC SSD enclosure, the speeds were almost on par with the Mac’s internal SSD. That’s because it’s runnning on thunderbolt 4. As for Logic Pro, I don’t have extensive experience. But i tested by keeping everything internal and also tried using DaVinci Resolve with project files stored externally. The performance was pretty good when using the OWC SSD enclosure, delivering excellent speeds….. I’m currently working on another video where I’ll directly compare internal vs. external SSD speeds. it’s coming out soon!

[@SandraHabsFan24]

Thanks for showing what happens if the ssd drive fails ! I was (and still) am going this way but it was reassuring seeing how to get everything back running ! I really feel like this is the way to go, we pay like 200$ for 1 or 2 to of external ssd instead of 400-600$ for internal now and also for the next Mac I will buy since I will just cary on the external ssd.

[@BestxBelieve]

Just a heads up davinci resolve wont let you store renders/cache outside of the primary ssd.

[@luetti4.0]

Really ?

[@RelivingHistory1]

so what's the solution??

[@itsgmani]

Can you make a partition on the drive and use that partition for both home folder and Time Machine?

[@aslamsean]

Using same drive for both Time Machine and profile is a bad idea. If the drive fails then you loose everything.

[@itsgmani]

@ makes sense. Thank you

[@D-One]

Wait.... I dont get it, if your SSD crashes ejects, unplugs, then you have to go into panic mode and recover from a backup? A reboot is not enough?

[@aslamsean]

If the drive ejects while OS is running then will need to restore from backup to bring everything back to normal. A reboot won’t fix anything

[@D-One]

@@aslamsean I see. If the OS cant find things it will probably revert to default, maybe thats why. Thanks for the reply, this makes it a no go for me.

[@daprodukt1981]

I have purchased a M4 Mac min and plan to use a external SSD and move my home folder (fresh install). I have ordered a OWC enclosure, however they are on back order until Feb. My thought is to use a cheap M2 adapter in the meantime, but then wondered if the Mac would see the OWC enclosure (with the same SSD used earlier) as a different drive and so cause an issue? Hope this makes sense and thanks for the work done on the video

[@aslamsean]

You don’t have to stick with OWC.. there is ZIKE and ACASIS. Watch this other KZbinrs review and see if it makes sense to get a different drive kzbin.info/www/bejne/rovQiaRmgrdorqMsi=Hto7hOf_juyWZrjI

[@daprodukt1981]

@@aslamsean thanks for the reply, my question was more about if swapping between enclosures will cause a problem however?

[@aslamsean]

@@daprodukt1981 that’s a good question… I haven’t tested that so I can’t say for sure .. but in theory should work the same ..

[@ezhiil5559]

What’s the monitor

[@aslamsean]

It’s a tv Hisense u6 55 inch 4k mini led

[@evericed5516]

Isn’t HSR+ the better option over APFS?

[@stuasp6679]

Can I add an external drive and then copy user data without a fresh install? Thanks

[@lavinchi6709]

Thank so much🎉

[@jasonbruno324]

I've already set up my mini. Will resetting the mini to default and then starting again with the crucial drive fallowing your instruction do the trick?

[@aslamsean]

You can reset it or just setup a new user profile .. just sign off iCloud from existing and sign into iCloud on new one.

[@jasonbruno324]

@@aslamsean Thank you for the reply ! Do I erase the old user profile?

[@it-lehrling]

What about Veeam Backup for Mac? Maybe it’s easier to restore. I’ll test it next week.

[@aslamsean]

let me know how that goes

[@DZPianoMusic]

Sean, as a music teacher for over 30 years, can I make a recommendation? When you’re creating an instructional video such as this, PLEASE, slow down a bit, and pause for a second or two between each specific instruction, to give your viewers (ie your students) a chance to absorb what you said, to pause the video, and then do the action, and then continue … THANKS!

[@chue98]

command key = pc keyboard which ley?

[@aslamsean]

@@chue98 should be the windows key I believe

[@OSCARPION09]

What's the read and write speed of that external drive?

[@aslamsean]

Owc was 3000read and 3000 write Crucial x10 was 900 read write

[@KotaroMinami-gg9uc]

What happen in the case of power outtage? Does it have the same effect of unplugging your ssd?

[@aslamsean]

Should be fine during power outages as OS will shutdown

[@jamesre1]

What do you do with the internal systems libarary folder? Does that get copied to the SSD Drive? I run a lot of audio plugins that need the systems Applications Folder inside the Systems Library,

[@NicolasAgostini-Nico]

Thank you for the great video. Very clear instructions, easy to follow. I am curious, what happened to the crashed drive? Did it brick? Why did you use a "new identical drive" instead of reformatting the crashed one?

[@defyiant]

Can we do any of this if our mini is already set up.

[@aslamsean]

You can still do it .. will just need to sign out or iCloud and sign back in new profile

[@AndreasKreutzer-1402]

Encryption of the external SSD for the user directory is not possible, is it?

[@aslamsean]

I will investigate and make a video

[@PedroMMFranco]

I think it's not possible to encrypt external drive and use home folder on it

[@AndreasKreutzer-1402]

@@PedroMMFranco It works with a workaround. You have to log in with a local user and then switch.

[@clementtetteh7965]

What if you can’t right click on the new added user to change the directory

[@aslamsean]

Then you should check if your current profile is administrator or not. Also sometimes it takes 2-3 seconds for advanced options to show up

[@NovaBlaqOfficial]

How do i transfer my macbook pro files over to the mac min ssd after setting this up. I didn't wanna use the migration assistant cuz it seems like it might delete my new profile on the mac mini

[@aslamsean]

Watch this video kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4StYottqN1op6ssi=eBXdgBK-b3XPOPlG

[@NovaBlaqOfficial]

@@aslamsean it’s a Hulu ad

[@graphguy]

what if i already logged in with my iCloud account? i don’t have apps on it yet.

[@aslamsean]

That’s fine you can sign out and proceed

[@Charliemac646]

Can you move the profile from one ssd to another to be the primary save location at a later date? If so can you walk me through it ?

[@aslamsean]

Watch this one. This channel already did it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/r4StYottqN1op6ssi=eBXdgBK-b3XPOPlG

[@thebrickhiker]

When formatting the external drive - one of the options is to have it encrypted. Does the rest of this guide still work fine if you choose to encrypt the drive? Thanks!

[@RollrightKnights]

Is there a way of doing this if you have already logged in during setup?

[@prottentogo]

Why wouldn't TM let you restore it regulary? Are the problems connected to you manually copying the folders to the external drive?

[@panamouse6178]

After I set up my enclosure with 4 TB card…..once set up….how do I migrate my old iMac stuff to new m4 Mac mini pro?

[@aslamsean]

This KZbinr explains it. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnXYkoyOqLmarsksi=KTSMZ43QrXGo19t0

[@panamouse6178]

@ perfect…thank you

[@barryfoster5031]

Can I transfer my old progs and files from my old m1 ?

[@aslamsean]

Yes you can by setting up Time Machine on your current Mac and then do few backups and restore on new Mac using my process

[@barryfoster5031]

@@aslamsean any chance of a quick video showing how to do this? The video you have here is very clear and precise. Thankyou

[@stuarthepburn6508]

I can’t right click on the new user I create, advanced options just doesn’t appear?

[@aslamsean]

Just check to make sure the current profile you are using is administrator. And sometimes it takes 2-3 seconds for advance options to pop up

[@franlinnane]

@@aslamsean I'm stuck at that step. "advanced options" doesn't pop up. Even after waiting 5+ seconds. Do you know of a work around for this?

[@franlinnane]

I found the solution. Rather than just picking the user name and RIGHT clicking on it; you have to hoover over the name, hit CONTROL and RIGHT click on the name.

[@jbrey8427]

Is it possible with APFS, to format one external SSD and the internal drive, together as one large drive?

[@aslamsean]

No that’s not possible

[@jbrey8427]

​@@aslamsean You do a very thorough job of explaining the process of running from an external. Thank you! But I have to tell you, there are other ways to do this. About a month before the new macs came out, the SSD in my iMac Pro died. I got the idea to run from an internal SSD until I could get a new M4 Mac Mini. Turned out my Time Machine backups were corrupted so i had to get as much off my icloud backup as possible, and recovered more from the internal SSD which I could sometimes mount for a limited time. Fortunately I had long stored important things like music and all long term file storage on an external, so I was able to somehow get everything running perfectly from the external SSD. By the time I could buy the new machine, I almost didn't do it, because the old iMac Pro was running like new from the external. But I wanted the M4 Mac Mini and had been with the iMac Pro for 7 years, so it was time to move on. But that is now my backup machine, and I learned so much about rebuilding and resurrecting, via an external thunderbolt SSD. Now I have two very decent desktop machines. I doubt I will need the iMac Pro but what can I get for a seven year old iMac with a dead internal SSD? Anyway, not much. Besides, I am proud to have found a way to make it run like new. Thanks again for your very orderly methods of doing things right. Wish I had this tutorial 6 weeks ago ;-)

[@wolfgangfurrer2801]

Hi Sean. Great video, I've done it and it work fine. But I'm not able to create an e-mail account now. As admin I can create one, but with my login for external drive it is not possible. Did I something wrong?

[@aslamsean]

Did you create your new account with admin account? You can’t run it as standard user it has to be admin user.

[@wolfgangfurrer2801]

Yes I did create the new User Account with admin. I set it up step by step as showed in your Video. I did not set up Time mashine yet. When I logged in with my user Account and Open my Apple Account every thing is greyed out and a warning appears concerning the profile

[@errz]

I'm currently using the base model of the Mac mini M4. If I follow all the steps and later decide to upgrade to the Mac mini M4 Pro, how can I reuse the same external drive and keep all my files intact?

[@aslamsean]

thats a valid point. it will require same steps like backing up to time machine and restoring using migration assistant. I will try to make a follow up video on how to do that.

[@errz]

@@aslamsean thanks! I might want to return the base Mac mini and go for the pro.

[@johnpwrites]

Can iCloud be turned on to backup documents , photos , and other default folders after you set the external SD up?

[@aslamsean]

Yes if you choose the route I showed you iCloud works fine plus all the icloud files and folders get placed on the external.

[@johnpwrites]

@@aslamsean Fantastic... I got a little lost in the tech and need to watch the vid again. Great job and thanks!

[@sgroadie6367]

Thanks. If I accidentally unplug the external ssd with the Home directory, replug it in, will it work after a reboot?

[@aslamsean]

In my experience it did not work the same. Unplugging and repulsing, your data will be accessible but, you will be singed out of iCloud and email, messages FaceTime etc... so you have to be careful.

[@sgroadie6367]

@ thanks. But is that just sign in again, and all else works?

[@BrunoBernard-kn6vt]

@@aslamsean ducktape it is

[@Skye_the_toller]

On my Mac Studio, the internal SSD 2Tb is far more fast than the SSD proposed here… for excess storage… good… but the app will go faster on the internal drive (on the Mac Studio!)

[@alonsogarrote8898]

you can use a TB5 external ssd for 6000MBs w/r speeds

[@teroauranen4953]

What happens if you did log onto your Apple ID and iCloud before doing this? Does it fail in such a case, or is it just that you need to copy more data while moving the home folder?

[@aslamsean]

No it does not fail. You can just log out and log back in into new profile later

[@BorderTerrier-yk2hw]

With a new Mac mini M4, I have established all my files including the boot files on a Samsung 990Pro. Everything appears to work correctly, but when trying a software update, I receive the following: "User Interaction Required. An error occurred while installing the selected updates." Do you have guidance as to what interaction is required? I have full back up files and a bootable drive for emergencies on separate drives.

[@aslamsean]

If you boot off external you loose capabilities that’s why I didn’t go that route.

[@stefpix]

Interesting approach. But I think it would just be better to install the whole Mac OS and home folder on an external SSD. You could still have a leaner installation on the internal drive for emergencies, but you just boot on the external for your daily use. I found a Thunderbolt dual enclosure where you can put 2 NVMe SSDs and configure them as RAID 0 or independently and they use only one port. Or they sell a hub that goes under the Mac Mini where you can install an internal SSD.

[@kyleritter3074]

question, why would one want to make the the external the main drive? why not use the main as main and an external as external like traditionally?

[@aslamsean]

Good questions … this process Automatically stores user-specific data, such as profiles and project files, on the external drive. Otherwise you would need to make all movements and configurations manually..

[@kevinkendall2182]

At 4:30 you show how the “admin” account can’t see into “mini’s” original home folders, as expected. Can you test whether these privileges held for these home folders after you copied them to the external drive? If you have multiple people using your computer you would want this privacy feature to be in place on all users’ external folders.

[@Flexigem]

You dont mention what permissions shall be set for the drive. Shall the box "Ignore authorizations on this volume" for the drive be ticked on or off when going this route? Default seems to be ticked on

[@ecupowerable]

I really like the video, but one question keeps coming back to me: why not install macos directly?

[@aslamsean]

You can do that.. but will loose apple intelligence and some other minor features

[@ecupowerable]

@ Can you tell me what features are lost if you know them? Thank you in advance.

[@justgivemethetruth]

Why not as admin create the home directory on the external drive before you create the user's home directory? That way you don't have to move any files at all.

[@productiondunne]

where did you get the stand for the echo spot

[@MarcosRavena]

Did you try to just reconnect your external drive after the crash? If I accidentally disconnect mine it would my first attempt in real life.

[@aslamsean]

I did try it works in the sense that all my data is back. But I got signed out of many things including iCloud .. chrome etc… unplugging while macOS is running will mess things up for sure .. but you won’t loose data or apps if thats that’s you are wondering

[@sgroadie6367]

@@aslamseanthanks for this. So if I set up the external SSD as raid5, all will be fine if one ssd fails.

[@prottentogo]

@@aslamsean Wait, so all the effort in the second part was just to avoid re-logging in to things?

[@aslamsean]

@@prottentogo it’s more than that. Most profiles went missing. Reconnecting didn’t help either …

[@jacobkan6034]

You can move to an external ssd non-system apps too if you can't install straight on external and link it to the launcher.You can try that and check if your remove app problem resolved. Also,you can move User and System Library folders to external ssd

[@hackexpert0003]

Apple Pay (and some other security features) will not work when booting from an external drive directly, so this method do the trick and allows the apple firmware check and system integrity to always pass becasue macOS is booting natively from the internal ssd.

[@sarinsahil]

Do the new Mac M4 Pro allow Samsung T9 to be used to it's full potential with Thunderbolt 5 ports? I mean is it USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ready or still capped at 10GB/s speeds? Thank you :)

[@8at164]

what happen if we close the mac mini and disconnect the ssd and when we open it we connect it

[@aslamsean]

It’s works fine if you shutdown and disconnect and then connect and boot up

[@LukePoynter]

could be possible to run windows on a mac mini late 2018?

[@cafe6113]

idk what I did wrong but this is not working for me I'm noticing everything is still being installed into my internal, what did I do wrong??

[@aslamsean]

Did you make sure user was administrator And did you point to the external SSD in the user profile

[@ReasonablySkeptic]

Were you testing for what happens if the hard drive "fails"? Or do we need to do the WHOLE backup each time the hard drive is unplugged? What I'm asking is couldn't the computer not be turned off, the hard drive plugged back in, and then the computer turned back on?

[@swim31swim]

Great video, thank you! I am a new mac user and purchased a Mac mini 4 with 256GB SSD. I want to transfer/manage 600 GB of photos to edit. Since, I'm not a gamer, would I just need to use a 1-2T external drive formatted to APFS? Should I create an admin account? Best strategy for this job much appreciated in advance.

[@emersonVZLA]

Thanks for the video! Great tutorial. One question: what if I have already set up my mini and logged on to icloud?

[@aslamsean]

Yes you can, first i recommend sign out of current profile then sign into new profile

[@errz]

have you tried on Sequoia 15.2. the process still works?

[@edgardocruz7375]

I have brand new mac mini 256 and the OWC 1 TB external I want to connect. Can i use your steps to do the same to mine? do you have a written step by step tutorial ?

[@coachcarl535]

Sean if I’ve already set up, only about a week ago. Don’t have any extra Apps, besides the basic that cake with the computer. Is the process the same?

[@aslamsean]

Yes pretty much the same process Here is another video by another KZbinr that should help you step by step: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6mzk2ufgNeYgKMsi=Sdp9PiAcKodWzYNT

[@jjkortbein]

Will this process still work if you want to migrate data from an old iMac?

[@coachcarl535]

Can you mention Apple AI, I’ve seen a few responses that Ai was negatively impacted if you move the home drive.??

[@aslamsean]

If you install Mac OS and boot from external drive then apple intelligence won’t work. The method I show apple intelligence does work

[@kabirnanavati]

Great video! I'm planning to buy the Crucial X10 Pro, but I want to use it on both my Windows laptop and Mac Mini (majority of the time it'll stay plugged into my Mac Mini M4). Could you recommend the best file format to use for frequent file transfers between both systems?

[@aslamsean]

If you want to use it on both system. Just leave it as is. By default it will come as EXFAT format and that works with both windows and Mac. If you do NTFS then it won't work with Mac Likewise if you do APFS won't work with windows. Do note, that Crucial X10 Pro will run 900 MB Read and 900MB write speeds on the Mac as MACs do not support usb gen 3.2 2x2. Should get full advertised speeds on windows if it has usb gen 3.2 2x2

[@kabirnanavati]

@aslamsean Thank you for the detailed response! I'm planning to keep it plugged into my Mac mini and run Illustrator , Photoshop, After Effects and Lightroom files from the SSD and occasionally use it for some file transfers from my Windows laptop. Will this setup run smoothly?

[@isabellavision]

@@aslamsean Assuming that there is not a need to share files between the Mac and Windows computers on the X10 Pro, would it work better to partition the X10 Pro into an APFS and a FAT partition (and then use the Windows computer could reformat its partition to NTFS if needed), and each side would have its best native format? I would be concerned about using EXFAT format for a Mac Home folder, but maybe you've tested that sufficiently to say it works? GREAT video, thanks.

[@donniethesportsguy893]

Same process for a M2 Mac Mini? To do this I was thinking of doing a factory reset because I don’t care about data and apps they’re backed up elsewhere.

[@aslamsean]

Yes you can do it with m2 Mac mini as well

[@henrygabriel700]

Hi boss, i heard issues with apple update 15.2..will your method still work?tysm in advance for your response:)

[@mrtonicsvls3624]

2:30 has it an EFI partition?